The Adventures of Mark Twain

Mark Twain has built an airship and is about to set out. His destination is Halley's Comet; he wants to catch the comet that passed in the year he was born and end the journey there. Three children stow away: Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher. On the way Twain shows them his own stories, and each comes alive as a separate section. Some are funny, some are not. After a while the children work out where the man is going and try to turn the ship around. Will Vinton directs. James Whitmore voices Twain. It is an American production made entirely in clay animation. Vinton developed the technique himself and used the name claymation; the film is cited as the first feature made this way. The sections inside the narrative are taken from Twain's texts; among them the diaries of Adam and Eve and the jumping frog story. Its most discussed part is the adaptation of The Mysterious Stranger; the scene with a masked figure is far outside the measure of a children's film and has been found disturbing for years. The matter it treats is death and Twain's own end; the film does not hide it. Its limit is structure; the links between sections are weak and the register shifts sharply from one to the next. Who it is for: viewers who like clay animation and unusual children's films. Who it is not for: some sections frighten small children and the narrative is scattered.