The Program

You know, I gave Sir Paul's creative endeavors a right ribbing in my review of Give My Regards To Broad Street, his 1984 pet project that emerged as both a critical and financial flop. The soundtrack did pretty well, but then again the music was pretty much the only memorable element from the movie. So call me unreasonably apprehensive if you want, but the fact that the next DVD on my review queue happened to be Paul McCartney - The Music and Animation Collection filled me a little bit of trepidation. I was hoping that I didn't have to rip apart yet another McCartney project... especially since I've been a fan of Paul's since even before I was a raging, swooning, hyperventilating Beatles fan.

The collection is a series of three animated shorts in which McCartney, animation director Geoff Dunbar, and a host of many other creative talents collaborated over the last several years (Paul's late wife Linda also contributed to one short before her death.) But Paul's contributions to the shorts aren't merely cursory; he didn't "sign off" on them, lending the cartoons his name and pasting a barely-deserved Executive Producer label on himself. Paul was an active contributor. He composed the music, wrote the lyrics, contributed his voice to many of the characters, and oversaw the entire production. Like the aforementioned Give My Regards To Broad Street, his Music and Animation Collection is also a pet project in which McCartney takes an active, center-stage role.

And unlike Give My Regards To Broad Street, The Music and Animation Collection is, for the most part, simply wonderful. The three shorts in the collection vary in quality, from very good to fantastic, but each of them is charming, enjoyable, witty, and good-natured. The entire program runs a scant 42 minutes, shockingly short if you ask me but yet maintaining its quality throughout.

The collection consists of three shorts:

Tropic Island Hum - (1997) Ostensibly a thinly-veiled treatise on animal-rights activism (it was dedicated to "Animal Welfare Organizations Throughout The World") and "Can't we all just get along"-styled musings, this is a simple and good-natured little tale about Wirral the Squirrel. Fleeing from hunters in the forest, he finds himself in Froggo the Frog's hot-air balloon. They whisk themselves off to a tropical island, in which they meet dozens of other hunted animals, and sing and dance in celebration of their newfound freedom. I thought Tropic Island Hum was a bit lightweight but fun, a sweet little tale that featured a toe-tapping title tune by McCartney.

Tuesday - (2000) Simply put, this is the collection's showstopper. Based on the book by David Wiesner Tuesday is a lush and beautifully animated tale about a group of frogs in a swamp who, one Tuesday night, find themselves levitating on their lily pads as if they were miniature flying carpets. The frogs float throughout the local town as the other animals stare in amazement, creating mischief and havoc wherever they go. This short is simply magical, a breathtaking piece of work that hearkens back to the best of Disney's Silly Symphonies. In fact, Tuesday could easily have been a segment of either of the Fantasia movies. It's that good.

Rupert and the Frog Song - (1984) More realized than Tropic Island Hum but not quite reaching the greatness that is Tuesday, Rupert and the Frog Song is another sweet, good-natured tale featuring a bear named Rupert as he spends his day in play. Failing to find a playmate, he ends up following a group of frogs into their underground kingdom, and witnesses as the frogs put on a centenary celebration. Meanwhile, an evil barn owl follows in his wake, determined to make a meal out of tasty frogs. I enjoyed Rupert and the Frog Song quite a bit. It displayed a wealth of imagination from start to finish, especially anything and everything that occurs in the Froglands.

The DVD