MADCAP: an animated improvisation
by Philip Kelly Denslow
16mm, 2 min. (1991)

Click HERE to watch it on YouTube

The Judges have spoken:

Winner: BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM, Fourth L.A. Animation Celebration '91

Winner: BEST ANIMATED FILM, Ann Arbor Film Festival '92

Winner: SECOND PRIZE IN DIRECTION, ASIFA East Awards '93

And the critics have had their say:

"...in the tradition of "Bambi Meets Godzilla," shows what can be done with extremely limited graphic resources." Andy Klein, Los Angeles Reader

"...an update on the classic "Dot and Circle" commentary on pretentious art, with a decidedly contemporary edge." Richard Harrington, Washington Post

"...a series of pulsing, abstract, drawn on film images punctuated by an increasingly absurd litany of legal disclaimers." Bob Strauss, Dallas News

"...at first seems like an aesthetic exercise, but turns quickly into an amusing, quick satire on arts funding." Henry Sheehan, Hollywood Reporter

"...a triumph, by necessity, of ingenuity over expense underscores the dryly hilarious critique of artistic support in the US." Jen Bilik, Michigan Daily

"Phil Denslow's Madcap (USA, 1991), which leads off the program, is a two-minute onslaught of messy abstract doodles drawn directly onto film, accompanied by music and periodically interrupted by various titles sarcastically alluding to some of the legal questions art is currently subjected to, particularly in relation to government grants or national distribution. Last month as a juror at the Ann Arbor film festival I voted against giving Madcap a prize (although it won one anyway) because both the animation and the titles seemed obvious and facile. This month, working as a reviewer and not as a juror, I think Madcap has value nonetheless as a news story about what's happening to the arts in this country." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

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Now you can actually own a copy of this film:

Take me to Amazon.com where I can order it as part of the Animation Celebration Video Collection - V. 4 (1993) video.