Flickering Images

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17 Dec 95

THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB, Conceived, written, edited and directed by Dave Borthwick/bolexbrothers (Manga 800 635 587-3; 57:27), 1993, 1995.

“People spend too much time trying to understand movies and not enough time feeling them.” -- bolexbrothers director Dave Borthwick.

Animated with 3-d models and actors (using the painstaking pixilation method), TOM THUMB returns the genre of nursery fable to the dark corner of the human condition ... where it belongs (just as Tim Burton's THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and his early student film VINCENT, did). In this retelling, Tom's impoverished parents live in the dark, seedy portion of a strange town straight out of an Hieronymous Bosch nightmare. Mechanical insects twitter and flit everywhere, impossible creatures twitch as if dreaming, and food squirms and wriggles on one's plate. Into this world of rational insanity is born a mutated child, Tom, the filmic heir apparent to David Lynch's little ERASERHEAD baby, a physical and emotional innocent in a world of confusing grotesque. Shortly after his birth, he's stolen away to a macabre laboratory where other unfortunate creatures are held. From there ... Tom's adventures begin.

Borthwick's film is a disturbing commentary on the place of man in our environment, cleverly placed in stark relief by the template-tale of Tom Thumb. Perspective is everything in this film, as Tom receives aid from Jack, a “giant killer” waging a private war against those unlike his own “little people.” The film is riddled with subtle puns and cryptic comments: bowling pins shiver and anticipate an impending strike, Santa Claus appears on a crucifix in the background of one set, and a man eats squiggling food while watching a closed-circuit camera aimed at his back. The theme by John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin) and additional, incidental music by Startled Insects is appropriately quirky. That such a technically ambitious film was made is commendable,... that TOM THUMB is a potent, imaginative statement about our culture and race is remarkable. THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB is available on video in the USA from Manga Entertainment.

-- D.B. Spalding

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is available on VHS and DVD, from Amazon.com.

(C) Copyright 1995 D.B. Spalding. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of Manga Entertainment. Further information is available on Manga's US Web site (see below).

D.B. Spalding is a writer, musician, computer consultant and online sysop; he writes frequently about music, film, computing and the mass- and multimedia. Many of his articles can be found on the World Wide Web at www.korova.com.

Manga Entertainment, 727 N. Hudson Street, Chicago, IL 60610 fax: 312-751-2483 Web: http://www.manga.com/manga

Contact information for record labels whose material we've reviewed. (Updated periodically.)

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© Copyright 1997 D.B. Spalding/Korova Multimedia. All rights reserved.

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