{"id":1655,"date":"2013-04-16T12:13:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T16:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2016-11-26T11:01:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T16:01:37","slug":"the-crunch-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/?p=1655","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Crunch Bird&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1660\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tr10023.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Crunch-Bird.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1660\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1660\" alt=\"The Crunch Bird:  Title card.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tr10023.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Crunch-Bird.jpg?resize=480%2C361\" width=\"480\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tr10023.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Crunch-Bird.jpg?w=480 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tr10023.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Crunch-Bird.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>The Crunch Bird: Title card.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>When &#8220;The Godfather&#8221; was first shown in downtown Seattle in 1972, a strange little cartoon appeared with it. \u00a0That cartoon was a two minute retelling of a crude old joke: \u00a0&#8220;The Crunch Bird.&#8221; \u00a0To the surprise of many people who worry themselves over such things, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject of 1971. \u00a0Here it is:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GT1uKsrLKQs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ted Petok, who died in 2010 at the age of 93, was a small-time Detroit cartoonist, who submitted his short subject to the Academy with little hope of winning, almost as a joke. \u00a0His son Bill said, &#8220;Nobody was more amazed when he won than my dad.&#8221; \u00a0At that year&#8217;s Oscar ceremonies, the award for Best Animated Short Subject was presented by Cloris Leachman and Richard\u00a0Roundtree. \u00a0When Petok accepted the award, he said, &#8220;Oh boy, &#8216;Crunch Bird,&#8217; my Oscar!&#8221; \u00a0It was the only memorable speech of the night, including Charlie Chaplin&#8217;s. \u00a0The twelve-minute standing ovation Chaplin received &#8212; the longest in Oscar history &#8212; was memorable, but who remembers what the hell he said? \u00a0I don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>There were two other animated short subject nominees that year, both of them from Canada. \u00a0&#8220;Evolution&#8221; (just under ten minutes long) and &#8220;The Selfish Giant&#8221; (twenty-six and a half minutes long). \u00a0Here&#8217;s &#8220;Evolution,&#8221; which is no great shakes, but is certainly more interesting and ambitious than &#8220;The Crunch Bird.&#8221; \u00a0And more fun, too.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T1_vnsdgxII?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Selfish Giant&#8221; is more ambitious still, but no fun at all. \u00a0Its sentimentality is so revolting, I could not bring myself to insert a link to it. \u00a0If you want to see it, you&#8217;ll find it on YouTube &#8212; be prepared to feel your teeth rotting from the sticky sweetness. \u00a0(I could endure no more than five minutes of it.) \u00a0It&#8217;s based on the Oscar Wilde children&#8217;s tale. \u00a0Wilde is best known these days as an early martyr to gay rights. \u00a0He&#8217;s also remembered for his buoyant flippancy and epigrammatic wit. \u00a0What most people forget is that he wrote poetry and stories of the most nauseating sentimentality and sententiousness.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">When I first saw &#8220;The Crunch Bird,&#8221; its very mild naughtiness was sufficiently startling that I&#8217;ve never forgotten it .\u00a0.\u00a0. yet, as you can see, it&#8217;s very thin material. \u00a0The animation is atrocious and the voice characterizations poor. \u00a0Still, I have a soft spot in my heart (and perhaps in my head) for it. \u00a0In 1972, it seemed to me wonderfully adult and debonair. \u00a0Of course, it&#8217;s neither of these things, but what of that? \u00a0I&#8217;m more interested in the idea that I thought its slapdash crumminess was an indication of sophistication &#8212; and apparently, enough Academy voters felt the same way. \u00a0For that reason, it offers an interesting little insight into the era. \u00a0Moreover, that it was the co-feature with my favorite picture of all time also gives it reflected glory and always reminds me of the thrill of seeing &#8220;The Godfather&#8221; for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When &#8220;The Godfather&#8221; was first shown in downtown Seattle in 1972, a strange little cartoon appeared with it. \u00a0That cartoon was a two minute retelling of a crude old joke: \u00a0&#8220;The Crunch Bird.&#8221; \u00a0To the surprise of many people who worry themselves over such things, it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40pmy-qH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7994,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/7994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tr10023.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}