Gumbasia

Gumbasia is a 3-minute short film released on September 2, 1953, the first clay animation produced by Art Clokey. He used the same technique to create the classic characters Gumby and Davey and Goliath.[1]

Gumbasia
Gumbasia, the first stop-motion clay animation film by Art Clokey
Directed byArt Clokey
Written byArt Clokey
Produced byArt Clokey
CinematographyClokey Productions
Edited byArt Clokey
Music by"Don-Que-Dee" by Mel Powell
Distributed byClokey Inc.
Release date
September 2, 1953 (September 2, 1953)
Running time
3 minutes
CountryUnited States

Production

Clokey created Gumbasia while a student at the University of Southern California under the direction of Slavko Vorkapić. In his father's garage, he worked the clay on a ping-pong table.[2] The film is a surreal short of pulsating shapes and lumps of clay set to jazz music in a homage of Walt Disney's Fantasia.[3]

Gumbasia was created in a style Vorkapić taught, called Kinesthetic Film Principles and described as "massaging of the eye cells". Based on camera movements and stop-motion editing, this provides much of the look and feel of Gumby films.[4]

When Clokey showed Gumbasia to film producer Sam Engel in 1955, Engel funded a 15-minute short film that became the first Gumby episode, "Gumby Goes to the Moon". Based on that episode, a TV series titled Fun in Gumbasia was scheduled for release in mid-2017.[5]

References
  1. Beck, Jerry (January 8, 2010). "Art Clokey 1921-2010". Cartoon Brew.
  2. "Gumbasia". KQED.
  3. "For Art Clokey's birthday, five great stop-motion shorts". October 12, 2011 – via Christian Science Monitor.
  4. "Art Clokey, article at KQED". Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
  5. "Gumbasia (available in two video formats)". Archived from the original on December 30, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2008.
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