Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

The Adventures of Mark Twain Blu-ray Movie Review

A unique and wonderful dose of imagination...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 28, 2012

Ah, nostalgia. Both binding and blinding, we're slaves to its call. If I were to watch a little known Claymation cult classic like Will Vinton's The Adventures of Mark Twain today, somehow for the first time, would it still fill me with wonder? Would its magic still sweep over me? Would it still leave my imagination buzzing? Would the scenes that gave me nightmares as a child still creep me out? Did the years I spend watching the film as a child somehow taint my ability to look at it with fresh eyes and a clear conscience? And when it comes to nostalgia, does any of it even matter? Or is nostalgia its own reward? The last time I sat down with The Adventures of Mark Twain was years ago, when it was re-released on DVD. Six long years have passed since then, but Vinton's fantastically dark, trippy foray into feature film animation -- crafted entirely from Plasticine modeling clay, and one of the last of its kind -- still filled me with wonder, still swept over me, still left my imagination buzzing and, yes, still creeped me out. It has some wrinkles and shows some age, I'll admit. But it holds up beautifully, stands as one of the most influential milestones in stop-motion animation, and still has plenty to offer newcomers of all ages. Nostalgia may be binding, but there's a reason, and it's nearly forgotten, oft-overlook gems like this one.

The Adventures of Mark Twain starts out innocently enough as quintessentially quotable American author Samuel Clemens (voiced by James Whitmore) -- a world-weary adventurer living out the end of his days aboard an interdimensional airship -- sets out to meet his destiny, collide with Halley's Comet, and take his own life. Okay, so it doesn't start out so innocently, but chances are you won't initially notice how fatalistic the film can be. (The colorful cheeriness of the first visually stunning act is... deceiving.) The tone of Twain's twilight adventure becomes more clear, though, when a trio of characters from his stories -- Tom Sawyer (Chris Ritchie), Becky Thatcher (Michele Mariana) and Huck Finn (Gary Krug) -- stow away aboard his airship and find themselves in a precarious situation: talking down their creator before he smashes into a comet and kills them right along with himself. As they hurtle toward an uncertain end, Tom and his friends use the airship's time portal to examine the events that inspired Twain's stories and philosophy, have a run-in with mysterious stranger who claims to be an angel (in a segment that was cut from the television broadcast on numerous occasions), witness the creation and destruction of a helpless civilization, and struggle as Twain, who grows more cynical by the minute, goes fifteen intellectual rounds with his literal dark side. ("Family film" may not be an entirely appropriate label in this case. I'd consider letting my son watch it, but some of you may not be so eager to share it with your children.)

Like the best and bleakest animated films of the '80s, The Adventures of Mark Twain distracts the kiddies with genesis of the planet tomfoolery, space-faring playfulness and jumping frogs (of Calaveras County) while appealing to their parents' subconscious fears and more cerebral sensibilities. Viewers, young and old, will experience the same shiver when the Mysterious Stranger twists words and minds with his silver tongue, but for entirely different reasons. Children will be disturbed by the unsettling visage of the formless creature. Adults will see what's really at play: a glimpse into the very heart and soul of nihilism, a careful dissection on an ancient, ever evolving war of ideas, and a vision of sentient evil that will give entire families something to share, namely nightmares. When Vinton and writer Susan Shadburne push, they demand their audience pull. Where Vinton and Shadburne challenge, they demand we respond. Little about The Adventures of Mark Twain is easy, or easy to accept at face value, and even less puts a stamp on the various questions raised or the concepts explored. Some men and women of Faith will find the film dangerously sacrilegious and gnostic in nature; some atheists and agnostics will find the film dangerously dogmatic and submissive in nature. Some believers will bristle at the film's incendiary portrait of Adam and Eve; some non-believers will bristle at the reverence and message pulsing beneath the surface. Like Twain's stories and satire, Vinton's animated feature is rife with duality, to say nothing of the clever observations of the duality that inhabits all things. In a sense, Vinton channels Twain -- using direct quotes and seamlessly integrating Twain's beloved tall tales and well-known everyman philosophies -- and allows the story to become a product of the man who started it all; the man who put pen to paper and created the very characters who are suddenly racing to assuage their creator's melancholy and despair.

Even if you don't feel like wandering down every path in Vinton's surreal labyrinth, the film still offers more than enough to enjoy. Twain's then-groundbreaking Claymation is worth the price of admission alone, and puts some recent stop-motion productions to shame, if only by sheer technical audacity. Everything that appears on screen has been crafted from Plasticine, including water, plantlife, backdrops, ships and comets. Shape isn't sacrosanct either. Faces melt and reform, rivers flow, life rises from the ground, beasts shift and transform, and reality is sometimes subject to the author and his whims. It couldn't be better suited to Vinton and Shadburne's storytelling, truth be told, and it's easy to see how the end result went on to influence everything from Tim Burton's stop-motion classics to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. (Those familiar with The Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass will notice several striking similarities between The Adventures of Mark Twain and the ka-tet's battle to the death with a suicidal train. O Discordia!) No, Vinton's Twain isn't a perfect film. The vocal performances are stiff and stilted at times (particularly when it comes to Tom and his young companions), the more episodic sequences are just that (episodic), some of Twain's famous quotes are presented out of context for the sake of the story, and Billy Scream's synth-tastic '80s score, though fittingly bizarre, isn't as timeless or effective as a fully orchestral score might have been. That said, Vinton hits his target far more often than he shoots wide, and his Adventures continue to stir the same imaginative waters that were stirred when making the film in the first place. My only real lament? Eureka's excellent Blu-ray release isn't available in the States, meaning you need to either call Europe home or gain entry to the imports scene to get your hands on this edition.

The Adventures of Mark Twain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Adventures of Mark Twain has been granted a satisfying overhaul, and the results are quite spectacular at times. While white specks and minor print nicks pepper the film, most every other aspect of Twain's high definition 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation is a sight to behold. Colors are soft and pleasant, primaries are lovely, black levels are deep, and contrast is consistent. Detail is even more impressive. A fine veneer of grain lends filmic legitimacy to the image, definition and clarity rarely falter (save the few instances in which softness is present in the original stop-motion photography), and the malleability and texture of the clay is apparent in nearly every frame. I've seen Twain a number of times over the years and it's never looked like this. Comparisons to its DVD counterpart reveal just how much of an upgrade the film has received. Note the fingerprints in the clay, the nuances in the puppets, the personal touches in each background, and the careful attention to detail that bolsters every hat, raft, crowd, balloon, river and flight of fancy. Moreover, significant artifacting, banding, aliasing and other such nonsense are kept to a bare minimum. Eliminating the speckling, print damage and negligible ringing that appear are about the only things that could have been improved.

The Adventures of Mark Twain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Twain's DTS-HD Master Audio and LPCM stereo tracks are excellent, two-channel soundscape or no. Voices are warm, clean and perfectly clear, prioritization is dead on, and every last sound effect and Bill Scream music cue sounds about as good as it possibly could. Even elements that would otherwise be infused with low-end heft boast a sense of weight and notable oomph (especially when it comes to Twain's airship), making this one of the more absorbing sonic experiences available on a classic claymation release. Yes, a flashier 5.1 remix -- with LFE support and immersive rear speaker activity -- would have certainly been a nice addition (or option at the very least), but the power, faithfulness and unexpected fullness of the stereo mixes just might take you by surprise. I was swept up in the magic of it all.

The Adventures of Mark Twain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Audio Commentary
• Crew Interviews (HD, 54 minutes)
• The Story of Claymation (HD, 17 minutes)
• Behind the Scenes Featurette (HD, 7 minutes)
• The Music of Mark Twain (HD, 20 minutes)
• Stills Gallery
• Trailer (HD, 2 minutes)

The Adventures of Mark Twain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Adventures of Mark Twain is an obscure Claymation classic that rarely gets the attention it deserves. I was lucky enough to discover the film at the ripe old age of eight and not a year has gone by that I haven't revisited it at least once, if only to marvel at the animation and production (Twain still stands as one of the very few 100% clay-crafted feature films in existence). Eureka Entertainment's European Blu-ray release gives the film its just due with a gorgeous, fantastically filmic video transfer, two sweeping stereo tracks, and a generous bounty of extras including a director's commentary and nearly an hour of interviews). An extensive, newly produced production documentary would have pushed this disc over the top, but I'm not about to complain. Now if only The Adventures of Mark Twain could find its way to this side of the pond with an equally extraordinary release.