Gumbasia (1953)
Directed by: Producers: Animated by: Music by:“Don-Que-Dee” by Mel Powell
Release date:02/09/1953
Running time:3 min
Color process:Technicolour
Synopsis
Gumbasia is Art Clokey’s first clay stop-motion animation made as a student at the University of Southern California. The short animated film features clays forming surrealist shapes with pulses setting to jazz music “Don-Que-Dee” by Mel Powell in a homage to Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940), which also features animation in response to musical rhythm (O’Carroll).
Impressed by Gumbasia, 20th Century Fox producer Sam Engel funded Clokey’s 15-minute short “Gumby Goes to the Moon,” the predecessor of television series The Howdy Doody Show (1956-1969) and Gumby Adventures (1988), starring the green humanoid clay figure Gumby, Clokey’s most iconic character (Ibid.).
References:
O’Carroll, Eoin. “For Art Clokey’s birthday, five great stop-motion shorts.” The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Oct. 2011, www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2011/1012/For-Art-Clokey-s-birthday-five-great-stop-motion-shorts/Gumbasia-1955.