"Candy Capers is a gay little dance fantasy in animation, using lollypops, wafers and other familiar childhood sweets. It is gay, that is, until the entrance of the villain— a long black sinuous licorice snake. The wafers shiver in horror as one of them is captured by the intruder. Then they organize their attack and rout the enemy. Roy Fulmer jr. has achieved smooth animation of his puppets and accompanies them with a pleasant musical score. The result is a bit of confection that is a delight to the eye and ear." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 334.
"Christmas Nuts, presented with a sound on film recording on a separate 16mm. film, produced by Paul Braun and Howard Goodman, is not only an interior color picture of exceptional beauty and impeccable technical quality but is also one of the best puppet films thus far created. With a camera technique paralleling that of the latest theatrical, animated talkie cartoons, the story of a wolf "hijacking" Santa Claus and the consequent near calamity for the two squirrels is unfolded in a completely cinematic fashion. The camera moves freely from medium shot to closeup, the mechanics of the sets are not obstrusive and the puppets move with agility and grace. The sets, which were designed and constructed with great care, are very handsome and exquisitely finished so that no imperfections are revealed in the enlarged picture of them on the screen. The sets, in combination with the colored lights used in part to illuminate them, embody the producers' theory of "created color." That is, no attempt is made to simulate nature, but rather to produce pleasing, vivid color combinations, as in the illustrations of a child's story book. A cleverly compiled dialog, song and music accompaniment has been synchronized with the picture, although recorded, at present, on a separate film." Movie Makers, Dec. 1935, 534.
"Joseph Fischer's 'Goldilocks And The Three Bears' is an unusual amateur accomplishment in which the filmer and his associates staged the age old nursery tale in miniature, building all the sets, props and the marionette figures themselves. A drawback is the lack of sound narration or continuity titles." American Cinematographer, May 1952, 224.
"Animated puppets, dogs in this case. Synchronized with a song of the same title and cleverly done." PSA Journal, Nov. 1956, 45.
"Jello Again is an entertaining film, produced entirely by animation, that stands by itself even when the special work necessary to produce it is discounted. This Kodachrome subject, filmed by Carl Anderson, is made entirely in stop motion with puppet actors, an exceedingly difficult job. The excellence of the handling of the puppets and accessory properties, together with the imaginative quality of the settings, makes the subject an outstanding one. Here and there throughout the film, there are certain indications of unevenness in exposure on the "over" side, but, because of the real achievement embodied in the film as a whole, this very slight flaw may well be overlooked. The models used in the action were most cleverly constructed and colored, and the variety of camera angles employed was especially appropriate to the subject from the point of view of presenting the material advantageously." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
"Made by Mr. And Mrs. Chambers to advertise tea and to stimulate tea-drinking across Canada, and accompanied by a narrative by Mrs. Chambers, in English for English-speaking audiences and in French for French-speaking audiences. The equipment to make the film was loaned by the Dunne and Rundle camera shop in Vancouver, where the film was made.
"The puppet story is about a Princess who mysteriously falls asleep with an unknown disease, and her father, the King, who sends far and wide to discover a cure. Finally the Princess is revived with tea and the young man who brings it to her is rewarded with her hand in marriage. The sponsor of the film was the old Empire Tea Bureau, for whom the Chambers' worked during the 1930s." (Colin Browne, Motion Picture Production in British Columbia, 1898-1940 (1979), entry #0872.)
The film is listed in Browne's filmography as "Tea Bureau Puppet Show."
"The construction and performance of marionettes are skillfully pictured in Life Hangs By A Thread, by Paul R. Elliott and Joseph Dephoure. Aided by skillful lighting, a fine sound track perfectly harmonized with the action and an intelligent script, interest is closely held from the time a marionette is a lump of putty to its moments of glory when, in the hands of an experienced operator, it seems to take on a life of its own. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Life Hangs By A Thread is its careful step by step planning, indicating the sound belief by its producers that a movie should tell as much as possible pictorially, with the commentary used only to enhance the visual appeal." Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 475-476.
"Puppets have gained favor and interest among amateur filmers and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Kallenberg have done a right smart job with a table full of animals from the forest. The story opens with a monkey in a rocking char, reading his cook book. He turns the page to the recipe for ducks. This stimulates him to seek a duck, the capture of which creates quite an uproar among the animals. In the end, Mr. Monkey becomes aware of the error of his ways. This type of work is tedious and painstaking and these filmers have demonstrated their patience and skill in the movement of the many characters in telling a homey little story." PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 33.
"An animated puppet film. It shows children dreaming and then the puppets start to dance. A very short film but delightful for all ages" PSA Journal, Nov. 1956, 22.
"A clever puppet-toon, the making of which was described in a recent Journal. Clever, full of gags, well done." PSA Journal, Nov. 1956, 45.
Total Pages: 2
Amateur Cinema