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Forgotten Film: Twice Upon a Time

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Over on my blog, I’ve posted the first part of a two-parter on TWICE UPON A TIME, an animated feature oddity that was released in 1983. Directed by John Korty, the film boasts the unusual technique called Lumage, an animation technique that utilized translucent cutout fabric. The sets and backgrounds are gorgeous. The art direction is brilliant. The film was a flop. This first post features an interview with writer and animation historian Taylor Jessen, who writes for AWN and has written two articles about the film. I wanted to get in touch with Taylor, to see if any new developments has come up since writing his articles. I also post some screengrabs that, while probably not the best quality, offer you a chance to see just how beautiful and intriguing the art direction was on this film. Frustratingly, TWICE has never been released on DVD (it was released on Laserdisc way back when, but good luck finding a player), and so far there’s no plan to release it. Hence my and Taylor’s efforts on this forgotten, yet groundbreaking film.

The second part will feature an interview with art director Harley Jessup. He now works for Pixar, getting his start in the animation industry working on this film. Look for the post soon, along with some more images.

UPDATE: The second part is now up. Click here for Part 2.

  • devpd

    Cartoon Network used to show this movie a lot during its early years. I remember being very fascinated by the unusual animation style. I also remember that the main character was voiced by Lorenzo Music, the voice of Garfield.

  • devpd

    Cartoon Network used to show this movie a lot during its early years. I remember being very fascinated by the unusual animation style. I also remember that the main character was voiced by Lorenzo Music, the voice of Garfield.

  • paig

    I love this film! I only saw it once when I was in college but thought it was amazing. It didn’t seem to make sense when no one had heard of it.

    They did an article on it in Animation Blast, but otherwise there’s pretty much no info on it on the web, so thanks for the post.

    It had really big names working on it too like George Lucas, Henry Selick (director of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), David Fincher (director of FIGHT CLUB and SE7EN) and Harley Jessup (production designer of MONSTERS INC).
    I think a petition should be started to encourage the distributors to at least allow us download a copy. $20 for an mpeg is still a hell of a lot better that $150 for a VHS copy!

  • paig

    I love this film! I only saw it once when I was in college but thought it was amazing. It didn’t seem to make sense when no one had heard of it.

    They did an article on it in Animation Blast, but otherwise there’s pretty much no info on it on the web, so thanks for the post.

    It had really big names working on it too like George Lucas, Henry Selick (director of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), David Fincher (director of FIGHT CLUB and SE7EN) and Harley Jessup (production designer of MONSTERS INC).
    I think a petition should be started to encourage the distributors to at least allow us download a copy. $20 for an mpeg is still a hell of a lot better that $150 for a VHS copy!

  • http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/ Ward

    paig — Read the interview with Taylor Jessen on my post and you’ll see what he thinks of online petitions. I asked him about that sort of thing. (Taylor’s the writer of the Animation Blast article.)

  • http://wardomatic.blogspot.com Ward

    paig — Read the interview with Taylor Jessen on my post and you’ll see what he thinks of online petitions. I asked him about that sort of thing. (Taylor’s the writer of the Animation Blast article.)

  • Peefy

    It’s a great movie. While the clean version is out on VHS and Laserdisc, there’s also a bootleg version out there of the PG HBO one. It’s well worth seeing!

  • Peefy

    It’s a great movie. While the clean version is out on VHS and Laserdisc, there’s also a bootleg version out there of the PG HBO one. It’s well worth seeing!

  • ememtium

    “Welcome to the Garbagery… please follow the happy feet!”

    I remember seeing this film on satellite TV in the UK back in the late 80′s / early 90′s and loving it! I’ve been searching for a DVD copy for years but to no avail. It’s a shame Warner are so reluctant to give it even a limited release, as from what I can remember it’s still a lot better than most of the 2 and 3D straight-to-DVD animation out there today. So what if it looks and sounds a bit dated, the big Studios seem to be plundering their 80′s archives for re-make ideas as it is, they might as well release something original from that era instead!

  • ememtium

    “Welcome to the Garbagery… please follow the happy feet!”

    I remember seeing this film on satellite TV in the UK back in the late 80′s / early 90′s and loving it! I’ve been searching for a DVD copy for years but to no avail. It’s a shame Warner are so reluctant to give it even a limited release, as from what I can remember it’s still a lot better than most of the 2 and 3D straight-to-DVD animation out there today. So what if it looks and sounds a bit dated, the big Studios seem to be plundering their 80′s archives for re-make ideas as it is, they might as well release something original from that era instead!

  • jn_mca

    I found this tape in a thrift store, the imagery was so beautiful on the cover and peaked my interest.
    It is a wonder piece of animation.

  • jn_mca

    I found this tape in a thrift store, the imagery was so beautiful on the cover and peaked my interest.
    It is a wonder piece of animation.

  • http://jedalexander.blogspot.com/ Jed Alexander

    Anyone know where you might be able to find an AVI bittorrent of the movie?

  • http://jedalexander.blogspot.com Jed Alexander

    Anyone know where you might be able to find an AVI bittorrent of the movie?

  • Arseontoast

    This is a superb gem I luckily saw on TV a few years ago. It used to be on youtube in it’s entirety, I have it saved as .flv on my comp.

  • Arseontoast

    This is a superb gem I luckily saw on TV a few years ago. It used to be on youtube in it’s entirety, I have it saved as .flv on my comp.