Anniversary (1989) User Reviews

Geared More For the NFB Folks Than The Public

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 13 July 2007]

This is one of the first of the Canadian computer-animated films in the late 1980s. It isn't, as Leonard Maltin points out, "just something showing off a new medium but an interesting film that breathes life into inanimate objects.." However, I didn't think it was that interesting, and it was definitely too long.

As stated on the title page, this little piece was created to commemorate the National Film Board of Canada's 50th anniversary. At time time, something like looked pretty revolutionary, I'm sure but since Toy Story and the like came out, looking at this "cartoon"" now is no big deal. Computer-wise, it looks primitive which shows you how everything is relative, especially in the always-changing world of computer technology.

This had some clever moments but not enough to be entertaining. This film was made as a tribute to the NFB and the workers there would understand the inside jokes and appreciate this far more than us layman and outsiders. This movie was part of the DVD "Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of Canada. To be frank, this would be one of the few selections Maltin made that I wouldn't watch again on this disc.....maybe the only one.

It must have been great to watch for members of the National Film Board

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 17 July 2008]

In 1989, the Canadian National Film Board was celebrating its fiftieth year. This organization has long sponsored film makers in making animated shorts and many of their products are among the finest cartoons you could ever see. This time, however, the medium is one that you usually don't associate with this organization or the people it sponsors--computer generated animation. The CGI was used to make a short film dedicated to this anniversary and as such is of great interest to the organization and perhaps Canadians but of much more limited interest to everyone else. Plus, if you compare the quality of this to the few other examples of the same time period (in particular, Pixar), the quality of ANNIVERSARY is not quite up to snuff. For example, the quality of the animation and humor of the story is not comparable to the Oscar-winning TIN TOY (1988) or KNICK KNACK (One of my favorites--1989). Nice but not especially memorable.