Tapum! - La Storia delle Armi;
Or Tapum! The History of the Weapons was one of the earliest animation
films of Bruno Bozzetto (born 3 March 1938 in Milan). This film hilariously
highlighted and summarized the history of weapons; or in other words, the
history of human mankind. Bozzetto illustrated intelligently and comically the
violence of the man since the Homo-sapiens-idaltu – the first extinct rational
human - used the club in hunting and killing to until the America’s atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans in the WWII. Bozzetto
considered human consciousness is the first weapon in history, but also the
most powerful one.
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| Bruno Bozzetto |
Bruno Bozzetto produced his first film in 1958 when he was 20 years old. He almost did everything alone; the
script-writing, designing the animation the direction, drawing and coloring the
background. The music of the film was composed by Mario Coppola. Bozzetto used
Kodachrome in his first film to show the colors. Kodachrome used a subtractive
color method to be successfully mass-marketed. Kodachrome was something
revolutionary by the standards of that era, and it happened that there is a
national park named after this brand; Kodachrome Basin State Park in 1949 after
National Geographic magazine published a photographic-report about this park.
Now the Kodachrome is part of history.
Talking about the history, this
theme (History) was one of the main categories of Bruno Bozzetto who always
came around the behavior of the human-beings from different perspectives,
analyzing the core of this complicated creature. Bozzetto produced in 1990 one
of his most famous films Cavallette or Grasshoppers; a political
or and satirical animation of the history of humanity since the Stone-age until
the modern age. The idea of the film is can summarize in the phrase that came
from The King James Version of the Bible: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
Cavallette or Grasshoppers
is narrating the aggression of humans silently, the film jumps randomly in the
timeline of a history full of massacres and wars, but also syncopates comically
the darkness of this history: people from all races and civilizations living,
fighting and dying needlessly when they are totally blinded of a life that is more peaceful and joyful to others; Grasshoppers who live happily between the grass, eating, jumping, and humping. Bozzetto used the grass symbolically in
his film to show the evolution of human beings since the dawn of history; which is the evolution of violence. In another, a hand that the grass - and nature generally - is metaphorically and
realistically is the logical replacement of human nonsense and shallowness.
This short film is like an invitation to think alternatively out the closed
circle of wars and to enjoy life. Bozzetto and his film enjoyed a worldwide
success after it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short for
the Oscar’s of 1991.
Before releasing Tapum! - La
Storia delle Armi, Bozzeto produced shorts animated experimental films
since 1954 like I LADRI CHE MASCALZONI, Indian Fantasy, IL
CERCHIO SI STRINGE. In 1955 produced PICCOLO MONDO AMICO, then A
FILO D’ ERBA, I GATTI QUESTI FURBACCHIONI, TICO TICO, DAMA,
in 1957.
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| Tapum - La Storia delle Armi |
Besides the political satirical
animation films, Bozzetto produced many famous comical short serious like Signor
Rossi who had been seen in several short films, about ten minutes each. The
show had a lifespan of 15 years between 1960 and 1974 with 6 episodes, 3 movies, and 11 skits. Rossi is a ubiquitous name in Italy, and naming this
cartoon character as (Mr. Rossi) comes as a suggestion that he is a reflection
of the ordinary Italians. Bozzetto is also famously known with for Europe vs.
Italy, a short film that he was laughing about the stereotypical about Italy,
and the socio-cultural attributes of the Italians who are unlike many other
countries we can laugh at themselves, which it makes life a little happier to
them. Sociocultural characteristics.
The diversity of styles and
emotions of Bruno Bozzetto appeared in his masterpiece Allegro Non Troppo
(1976) Which features six pieces of classical music, the film is considered as a parody of Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). In this film appeared the
magnificent abilities of Bozzetto and the deepness of his philosophical
cinematography where he used psychedelic atmosphere in most of the animation. Bozzetto firstly showed the story
of the old and ugly Satyr – a male nature spirit representing sex, alcohol, and
nature – who has blinded with the obsession of his brutish lust, or desires
Generally. The passion led Satyr to suffer because of the deprivation and the rejection and his failure to recapture his youth. The obsessional lust of the
Satyr locked him in sightlessness, he was disabled to see the bigger
image: meditating the beautiful universe
is the biggest desire that someone can get if he/she looked to the surrounding
space.
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| Satyr |
The poster of Allegro Non
Troppo came from the third story where primordial sugar water at the bottom
of a Coca-Cola bottle left behind by space, travelers attain life.
Intentionally or intentionally, this could be a comical projection of Raëlists explanation of the birth of life. The Raëlists
believe that humans had been created by aliens and all gods and prophets are
extraterrestrials came from outer-space to create humans in their image.
Bozzetto illustrated in this story the progress of life where everything
started from the residue of Cola-Cola that transformed slowly into the
gelatinous creature. Everything moves through fanciful representations of the
weird stages of evolution and history until skyscrapers destroy all that has
come before. Allegro Non Troppo
sentimental value is uniquely high film, and the way the animation came in
from the actual movie was very fluid, and it fit the musical themes for each,
where Bozzetto wittingly mixed contradictories like humor, tragedy, comedy,
love, violence, nudity, religious stories. And the logical ramification of this
experience is a consistent extraordinary film.
The films of Bruno Bozzetto
earned him 130 acknowledgments among which the remarkable Winsor McCay Award, 5
Silver Ribbon Awards, an Honorary degree, 15 Awards to the Career, an Oscar Nomination
(to the short “Grasshoppers”) and a Berlin Golden Bear Award (to "Mr.
Tao"). Listing and analyzing the filmography of Bozzetto needs a book,
not an article. In 2013 The Walt Disney Family Museum paid tribute to Bozzetto
and celebrated his great diversity in style and themes, and his continuity, and
his creativity. Accumulation of hundreds of films in more than 60 years can
crown Bozzetto and naming him as “The Maestro of animation.”
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