Claydream Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Claydream Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 20, 2024

Claydream is two documentaries at once. The first, a love letter to Claymation and its charismatic, fun-loving, innovative, creative powerhouse of an animator, Will Vinton, whose heart and spirit were twice the size of any other's. The second, a David vs. Goliath story of art vs. commerce where -- plot twist -- Goliath topples David, steals the rights to his intellectual property, and spits on the legacy of a true craftsman, artist and pioneer. Oh, and David falls ill with terminal cancer soon after. It's a roller coaster of emotions and nostalgia to say the least, and it owes its existence to the life and career of the man who gave every '80s kid in America The California Raisins, Domino's The Noid, and good sweet Lord, the most unsettling, demented, nightmarish version of Satan that's ever graced the small screen. He... It still pops up in my dreams now and again.

The aforementioned David vs. Goliath legal fight comes shortly after the 2001 dual-cancellation of The PJs on Fox and Gary and Mike on the CW, which were apparently the final two nails in the Will Vinton Studios coffin. Struggling financially, Vinton would have a run-in to end all run-ins with an old pseudo-associate: investor Phil Knight, then-owner of Nike, who in the 1990s had become the majority shareholder of Will Vinton Studios. His legal battle did not go well and he was summarily dismissed from the company he built; a company that would later be rebranded Laika. (Heard of them?) Claydream tracks the battle from the first shot to the final blow, and does so with sharp, succinct storytelling that weaves it into the narrative of Vinton's career. It proves itself more than a simple rise-then-fall doc, revealing the man behind the camera, director Marq Evans, to be a talent in his own field. It also draws us deeper into the man that is Vinton; making him more than an animator, but "the little guy" we all want to be, that we all want to root for, and that we all want to win in the end... before we're reminded that's not how things tend to go for little guys, nice guys, pure artists, and the like. Was Vinton always the nicest and purest of guys? No. But he tried, and you get the idea that he gave it his all.

That's where the love letter I mentioned at the outset comes into play. The two-documentary approach can come across a tad disjointed, sure. Scattershot even. But it's Claydream's blend of the love letter's sweet and the legal battle's sour that, when combined with the film's comprehensive trek through Vinton's career -- one that highlights his commercial, television and film work, not to mention his style and flair for the over-the-top and outrageous -- makes the larger-than-life icon, well, more human. A normal, everyday hard-working dreamer who did his best, did it the only way he knew how, and did the most he could with what he had while he had it. There's a tangible sadness when he recalls the feelings of being passed by, of being rendered irrelevant by CG animation and the "new", preferred artists of the 21st century. There's real joy when he dreams, describes and invents, and even bigger grins when he reflects on the people he worked with, the projects they tackled, the obstacles they overcame, and the paths they paved for future animators. And there's even a sense of satisfaction and completion when he looks back on his life in the throes of his own mortality.

Claydream and Evans are there for all of it. Vinton even records some of his interviews from a chemo chair, and he's... content? The Claymation guru never seems interested in pushing the filmmakers, or us, away to have more time for himself. He has a story to tell -- his life -- and he has more to share, especially as he stares down the end of a needle trying to save his life. When all is said and done, it becomes clear that a person's legacy isn't found in a company, corporation or studio. It's found in a dream that springs to life for all to see, nurtured by talent, effort and those patented blood, sweat and tears. It doesn't matter if the result is perfect, or if it thrives, or if it somehow finds a way to be preserved through the years. The truth is Vinton and his animation will remain immortal, alive, for as long as his work continues to reach and entertain audiences who appreciate all that he accomplished.

Claydream Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As is the case with most Claydream-style documentaries, Oscilloscope's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer isn't going to win any awards but certainly gets the job done without much to gripe about. Varied source elements are the biggest distraction and (relative) disappointment here, with much of the archive TV animation and commercial footage, news clips, vintage interviews, court deposition videos, and other materials presented in lowly standard definition; murkiness, blocking, banding, stair-stepping, aliasing et al. It's not the filmmakers' fault, of course, and certainly not the distributor or Blu-ray encoders' doing. It's just the price of admission. Thankfully, the newly produced interviews and Vinton home visits -- as well as quite a bit of the animated short or feature film clips that have previously been remastered and made available in HD -- look pretty good. Archive photographs, sketches and drawings, and other scans are crisp and clean too, while other visualizations pop and dazzle. Only some poorly saturated skintones, slightly inconsistent contrast, and occasionally middling fine detail levels in a handful of interviews drew a grumpy "hrm" from me. There again, though, Claydream is a low budget production, so a lack of color timing prowess isn't exactly shocking. Minor issues or no, it's all presented as it was originally captured, whether in the '70s, '80s or in the couple of years prior to 2021. Long story short, I doubt anyone is going to skip this one solely based on such video irregularities, particularly when those irregularities are so common to these types of talking-head productions.

Claydream Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same goes for Claydream's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. For the most part, it's a front-heavy experience, with only music, the occasional sound effect, or clips from animated productions that featured a surround mix that engage the rear speakers. It's hardly a complaint -- it's again par for the documentary course -- and it checks off all the necessities. Crisp, clean voices? Solid LFE support? A bright, bouyant soundscape? Yep, yep and yep. No big issues here.

Claydream Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with director Marq Evans and producers Tamir Ardon and Kevin Moyer. It's a nice listen. I only wish Vinton, who passed away in 2018, had lived long enough to be one of the participants or to provide his own commentary. Wouldn't that have been something?

• Will Vinton's Animated Short Filmmography from the 20th Century (HD, 150 minutes) - Wow, what a treat: eleven of Vinton's animated shorts, among them "Closed Mondays" (1974), "Gone for the Better Deal" (1974), "Mountain Music" (s1976), "Martin the Cobbler" (1977), "Claymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animation" (1978), "Rip Van Winkle" (s1978), "The Little Prince" (1979), "Legacy: A Very Short History of Natural Resources" (1979), "Dinosaur" (1980), "A Christmas Gift" (s1980), "The Creation" (1981), and "The Great Cognito" (1982). We're not talking high dollar restorations, but most of them are presented in lovely, grainy 1.33:1 1080p. Only three -- "Mountain Music", "Rip Van Winkle" and "A Christmas Gift" -- are fairly ugly SD upscaled to 1080p.

• Gone For the Better Deal (HD, 84 minutes) - This Vinton-directed feature-length documentary details the California counter-culture movement, and toured college campuses and film festivals from 1974-75. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013, it's presented here in upscaled 1.66:1 1080p in its entirety. Note: the documentary is included in both the Main Menu and Animated Shorts sub menu.

• Randy and Lodge Animatic (HD, 8 minutes) - Claydream director Marq Evans had an idea: cutting away from the documentary every so often for short vignettes with two clay-mated characters, Randy and Lodge, which would represent Vinton's left and right brain thinking. Clever. Unfortunately cut for budgetary reasons before it made it too far, it only exists here as an animatic. Still a welcome inclusion!

• Uncut Voicemail (HD, 3 minutes) - An "odd, uncut voicemail from Michael Jackson to Will Vinton".

• Photo Gallery (HD) - Forty-two images.

• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2 minutes)

• Welcome to My Daydream Promo Reel (HD, 4 minutes)

Claydream Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Claydream is an excellent documentary; engaging, illuminating and infectious, yes, but also quite difficult at times, pushing in on Vinton's late-life trials and tribulations. The man was remains an amazing artist and animator, so it's tough to watch him struggle so profoundly, whether with a sprawling legal fight or terminal health issues, and even tougher to avoid extreme compassion in the face of such injustice and deep sadness at the loss of such a creative spirit and gifted innovator. And the Claydream Blu-ray? Brimming with value, including a filmmakers commentary, eleven original animated shorts, a feature-length documentary Vinton made as a young man, and more. The AV quality is solid too, making this an easy one to recommend.