In 1975 Veronika Soul’s montage of animated photographs superimposed on actuality film footage told the story of Tax: The Outcome of Income. The thesis is that one way to gauge historical time is by the numerous means goverments have used to co-opt citizens’ revenue. Her glimpse at Canada’s modernized tax system shows just how original a sponsored film can be when the filmmaker is inspired. From this brief survey, it is evident that animation had become one of the pillars of the institution, and in 1974 directors Rupert Glover and Michel Patenaude made The Light Fantastick to show how and why that was so. In this documentry, well known animators described various technique they employed over the decades to creat their world-class production. The documentary, which include clips of some of the best animations, won three international awards.

One of the most popular and celebrated films of 1976 was the animated tale by Caroline Leaf, The Street, based on the short story by Mordecai Richler. While dealing with the timeless theme of aging, infirmity, and death as seen through the innocent eyes of children, the animation also exudes the warmth and sometimes self-deprecating humour of first-generation Jewish urbanties. Leaf’s animation technique of continually changing washes of water-color and ink on glass plate created an almost cryptic rhythm of object-blending-into-object, beyond the earthbound rules of fixed observation. The Street won an Oscar nomination and accumulated ninteen awards.

In 1977, there were other productions that earned prestigious Oscar nominations. One was , Bead Game, by Ishu Patel, uses thousands of beads to create scores of animated objects that change constantly into colorful and wondrous creations, devouring each other with no seeming purposes. Perhaps a five-minute version of Darwinism. Bead Game’s open-endedness makes it universally facinating and appealing.

Dutch-born animator Co Hoedeman, motivated by his children building a sand castle at beach, conceived the Oscar winner The Sand Castle, a fable with a more specific storyline. Using the medium of sand and sand-covered foam-rubber puppets, he brought to life a cavorting Sandman, who becomes the visionary and creator of other functional sand creatures. To the sound of happy music and guffaws, they construct a grandiose castle under his inspiration and, like all civilizations, watch time and wind erode, then destroy, their enterprise. It is easy for both the child and adult viewer to assign meaning to this 13-minute fable, where nothing remains but spirit and memory. The Sand Castle won a total of twenty-two awards worldwide, the greatest number in filmboard history.

In 1978, the Oscar winner for best animated short was Special Delivery, a wacky, off-the-wall piece by Eunice Macaulay and John Weldon. The zany story of Ralph and Alice was modelled on typical soap-opera fare. It begins with Ralph’s failure to shovel snow from his walk and ends with an accidentally dead mailman, an unfaithful wife who abandons home and town, and Ralph resigned ( like many Canadians) to accept whatever fate has in store, since Life is much bigger than all mortal forces. In short , existence is better accepted than fought. If this 7-minute paper animation is a parable about the meek, weak, and torpid, Canadians loved it for combining the cultural icons they adored, especially that of cultivated innocence. Its tongue-in-cheek existential drift aside, few would have imagined that the Public Service Alliance might find pragmatic use for it in a seminar for shop stewards on how to collect evidence.

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