Today At The Clinton Street Theater

Rarities, oddities and psychedelia from cartoon history’s most imaginative period.

Bop along with Frankenstein’s monster on the make in Betty Boop’s Penthouse!  Tour an early sound studio and learn the miracle of making an optical soundtrack in Finding His Voice!  Tickle the ivories and tear down the walls in Goopy Geer!  Listen to Cab Calloway belt out a tale of woe set to feverishly psychedelic haunted house imagery in Minnie the Moocher!  Sing along with hobos and hecklers in You Don't Know What You're Doin'!   And MUCH more!  

The Pre-Code period was the most startlingly imaginative moment in the history of cartoon animation.  The fluidity of line, movement and song juxtaposed with weird off-the-wall gags and wild non-linear action to create a mad mash-up tapestry of surrealist dream logic that stands unequalled in its artistry and intensity.  Creators like Max and Dave Fleischer, Harman and Ising, Otto Messmer and others sparked a unique flame that would influence many other creative cycles in the twentieth century including 60s-70s Underground Comix, Pop Art, cult cinema and punk culture.            

Presented on 16mm film.  There will be two sets of cartoons with a brief intermission.