Everybody Rides the Carousel

John and Faith Hubley's 1976 animation takes up a human life in eight separate sections. Each is presented as a ride on a carousel, and every stage from infancy to old age has its own conflict. The film rests on Erik Erikson's theory of development. Oppositions such as trust and mistrust, initiative and guilt, intimacy and isolation are taken up one by one, but the narrative lets voices speak instead of instructing. The dialogue was largely taken from improvised recordings and the drawing was made over those voices, the Hubleys' known working method. Meryl Streep appears in one of her early recordings. The line is loose and the colour has the feel of watercolour. Who it's for: those who like independent American animation and psychology-based narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an absorbing story; the film is in eight separate parts with no shared plot.