Animation, also of a new order in the recent series of short works. Mostly on black space, the figures in blue perform a very compact and jewel-like opera in surreal form, again to Satie’s piano music. Ideally, the film should be projected on a 30" wide white card sitting on a music stand, center stage of a large auditorium or music hall, with sound from the projector piped into the big speaker system. The film is most effective this way, but can be shown normal-size also
Fragile Machine is an underground cg film about science, religion, and man's role in a new nature of which he has partial authorship. Through a unique combination of animation and music which some have likened to an 'electronic operetta' it tells the story of the first girl to be built in a factory instead of born from a womb.
It's breakfast time, and Pa finds the honeypot empty. Literally risking life and limb, he has Junyer help him raid a nearby beehive. In the end, he finds he should have listened to Ma in the first place, rather than telling her to "Shaddap!"
Pa Bear's attempts to hibernate are constantly frustrated by Junyer's snoring, Ma repeatedly opening the window, a persistent drip from the ceiling and finally, the voices of spring.
Babbit hypnotizies Catsello, despite his efforts to resist, into believing he's Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Jimmy Durante, then a chicken, and finally a dog, who he sics on the cat. The cat hypnotizes him back. Finally, Catstello hypnotizes both of them into cowboy and horse, leaving him alone to enjoy the deli they live in.
Woody Woodpecker is sleeping. He awakens, under a blanket of snow, to find that both Winter and a hungry wolf are knocking at his door. The wolf has intentions of eating Woody...but Woody has the same thoughts regarding the wolf.
Sylvester is determined to get a woodpecker that just moved in, high in a tree. He climbs, but the bird greases the tree; he starts to cut it down, but a mean dog stops him (this becomes a running gag). Several other attempts follow; at one point, he puts his paw into the bird's home, and the bird puts a tomato there; Sylvester squishes it, and the bird dresses as an angel to torment him, but Sylvester sees through the disguise. Finally, Sylvester tries to blow up the tree; the dog again intervenes. Sylvester gets the dynamite off the tree and puts out the fuses, but the bird has lit them again, and now Sylvester really becomes an angel.
When war is announced, all the forest animals, birds and bugs go into manufacturing of armaments, helmets and the like, with an annoying jingle about the country's instruction to step up production musically repeated.
Popeye sits down to make a cartoon. He shows the results to Olive and his nephews: it's a damsel-in-distress scenario, starring him and Olive, with live music and sound effects by Popeye.
A homeowner is enjoying his lovely lawn and garden when it's invaded by a couple of gophers with Brooklyn accents. The homeowner attacks, but the gophers outsmart him at every turn: They duck his hoe and shotgun. He gasses them with helium, and they float away -- causing a crow to throw away his bottle. The inflated gophers hit a tree and fall to earth. The gardener fishes for the gophers under his hat; they substitute a tomato, and he cries, thinking he's squished a gopher. Next, he tries the garden hose; the gophers stop the flow until there's a huge blast of water, which they direct back at the homeowner. He hits the ground and starts burrowing himself, surfacing in his fountain.
Preceded by thunderous crashing from the jungle, a little black bird with a syncopated hop emerges from the brush to mystify big-game hunter Inki as he attempts to track down his prey: a ferocious daddy lion.