O parádivé Sally aka "Clock Man" (found Czech animated short film; 1976): Difference between revisions

From The Lost Media Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 16: Line 16:
==Background==
==Background==
In Czechoslovakia in 1976, the animation company KRÁTKÝ FILMS produced "O Páradivé Sally". Based upon the Jan Vladislav story of the same name. The animation was photographed by Jasoň Šilhan and directed by female director Dagmar Doubkova<ref>[https://www.csfd.cz/film/357216-o-paradive-sally/filmoteka/ O parádivé Sally (1976) | Ve filmotéce | ČSFD.cz] Retrieved 8 Jan '18</ref>. The film was exported around the world, yet nobody of the creators knew exactly where their films would end up, due to Czechoslovakia being a Communist nation at the time.  
In Czechoslovakia in 1976, the animation company KRÁTKÝ FILMS produced "O Páradivé Sally". Based upon the Jan Vladislav story of the same name. The animation was photographed by Jasoň Šilhan and directed by female director Dagmar Doubkova<ref>[https://www.csfd.cz/film/357216-o-paradive-sally/filmoteka/ O parádivé Sally (1976) | Ve filmotéce | ČSFD.cz] Retrieved 8 Jan '18</ref>. The film was exported around the world, yet nobody of the creators knew exactly where their films would end up, due to Czechoslovakia being a Communist nation at the time.  
In Czechoslovakia, the film recieved an honorable mention at the Gottwaldov Film Festival in 1977.<ref>[http://www.kratkyfilm.eu/ceny/ Awards (ocenění) @ kratkyfilm.eu] Retrieved 8 Jan '18</ref>


It was then picked up by "The Learning Corporation of America" who dubbed it into English and retitled it "Sally", for educational use. The dubbed film was then possibly picked up by Coe Films, which then, in turn, was probably shown on the Nickelodeon show "Pinwheel" after being distributed by Coe.  
It was then picked up by "The Learning Corporation of America" who dubbed it into English and retitled it "Sally", for educational use. The dubbed film was then possibly picked up by Coe Films, which then, in turn, was probably shown on the Nickelodeon show "Pinwheel" after being distributed by Coe.  


It probably aired several times over the years, scaring many young children who still remembered the short almost thirty years later, but could not remember the name.
It probably aired several times over the years, scaring many young children who still remembered the short almost thirty years later, but could not remember the name.
Interestingly enough, the animation also became an honorable mention<ref>[http://www.kratkyfilm.eu/ceny/ Awards (ocenění) @ kratkyfilm.eu] Retrieved 8 Jan '18</ref> in the city of Zlín (formerly Gottwaldov<ref>Maguire L. The Cold War and Entertainment Television. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2016. p. 199</ref>) in 1977.


==The Search==
==The Search==

Revision as of 00:43, 9 January 2018

The Real Clockman.png

Screenshot of the real "Clockman" from the official short.

Status: Found: Czech Version
Lost: English Version

Date found: 10 Dec. 2017

Found by: The Clockman Search Team


During Nickelodeon's Pinwheel in the early-to-mid 1980s (or possibly as early as 1977, its debut) there was an alleged short stop-motion animation that had apparently first aired on this show and possibly continued airing as late as 1990.

"Clock Man" (also sometimes spelt Clockman) - as it would now be commonly referred/nicknamed - was brought to mass online attention in 2012 by bungie.net user "Commander Santa" on its Off-Topic forum aka "The Flood".[1]

In late 2017, the short would eventually resurface, and be revealed as a Czech cartoon from 1976 called O Parádivé Sally, by AAA Studio.

Background

In Czechoslovakia in 1976, the animation company KRÁTKÝ FILMS produced "O Páradivé Sally". Based upon the Jan Vladislav story of the same name. The animation was photographed by Jasoň Šilhan and directed by female director Dagmar Doubkova[2]. The film was exported around the world, yet nobody of the creators knew exactly where their films would end up, due to Czechoslovakia being a Communist nation at the time.

In Czechoslovakia, the film recieved an honorable mention at the Gottwaldov Film Festival in 1977.[3]

It was then picked up by "The Learning Corporation of America" who dubbed it into English and retitled it "Sally", for educational use. The dubbed film was then possibly picked up by Coe Films, which then, in turn, was probably shown on the Nickelodeon show "Pinwheel" after being distributed by Coe.

It probably aired several times over the years, scaring many young children who still remembered the short almost thirty years later, but could not remember the name.

The Search

Original Descriptions

According to Commander Santa, the short involved a young boy laying in his bed, who gets snatched up by "the Clock Man", a discolored, unkempt entity that emerges from the wall clock above the child's bed at the stroke of midnight. The boy, after being taken on an eerie adventure, is subsequently returned to his room before sunrise.

Still renditions by Commander Santa.

An uncannily similar description of a scary Pinwheel short can be found within a 2002-2004 animationnation.com forum thread, (as recounted in a 2004 comment by user Michael W. Howe), involving a young girl making a deal with a wizard, after losing her red shoes; the deal being that the wizard would replace the shoes, so long as the child told her mother about the extraordinary event. Incidentally, the girl decides not to tell her mother, to which the wizard responds by emerging out of her wall clock, snatching her up and demanding an explanation. She eventually agrees to make it up to the wizard by sewing stars to be placed in the night sky, before being returned to her mother, to whom she then recounts the entire experience.[4]

While the two descriptions provided differ in many ways, they may very well be referring to the same piece of animation, given that things of such an obscure nature are often misremembered, especially if witnessed during childhood.

Artist's impression of "The Clock Man". Art by Gaucelm/Reynard.

Leads

This is a list of leads and theorized origins that were followed up on heavily over the span of the search.

Coe Films

In 2016, Dycaite contacted Michael Karp, a writer on Pinwheel, who gave him the contact information to Tippi Fortune, the Executive Producer for the show in the early 80s. When Tippi responded, she said that most of the films featured on Pinwheel were acquired from "Coe Films". After some research, It was discovered the founder and head of Coe Films, Bernice Coe, had passed away in 2001. Looking for Coe Film catalogs and contacting old employees became the biggest lead in the search, as it was one of the two seemingly surefire way to locate Clock Man.

Pinwheel Footage

The other, seemingly surefire way to find it was through recordings of Pinwheel episodes. Multiple users tried to track down home video recordings of the show from various sources, like home video recordings and bootleg DVD collections. After many users sitting through hours of these recordings, Clock Man was never found on any of them. Although this approach is still being used in the search for the currently-lost English dub.

Denmark/The Red Shoes

The given description of the short bore a strong resemblance to Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes. To summarize the story, a poor orphaned girl is adopted and cared for by a rich woman; she soon becomes spoiled. One day, her caretaker decides to buy her a pair of new red shoes, and soon the girl becomes obsessed with them. The girl wears the shoes to church, but is scolded by an old woman (perhaps a nun), and is told to only wear black shoes to church. Despite this, the girl decides to wear the shoes to church again, and this time, a red-bearded soldier talks to the shoes, saying "Oh, what beautiful shoes for dancing, never come off when you dance." After this, the girl's shoes begin to dance, and she can't stop the dancing and suffers misfortune. The girl later gets her feet amputated, but the shoes still dance anyway. The girl asks for forgiveness before she is finally exalted into heaven.

There are many strong themes that are shared in common with the accounts, namely the theme of not being spoiled, but also the theme of a bearded man, a mother, and red shoes. There are major differences; in Clock Man, the punishment is simply sewing stars, whereas in Red Shoes, the punishment is misery or even death. It's possible these were altered, as it was a children's short.

The Red Shoes has been parodied/homaged since the 1940s. It's possible the short originated in Denmark and was dubbed into other languages, including English, before being picked up by Nickelodeon.

Ireland

There was a report that "the Clock Man" in the short had an Irish accent and was supposed to be a leprechaun, and did an "Irish Riverdance". While there are no exact matches that describe the short in Irish folklore, there are some running themes, such as a cobbler, or shoemaker. The short also seems to loosely follow the tale of a changeling. Changelings were believed to be fairy children who were put in place of a real child; the child was kidnapped by the fairies for a variety of reasons, such as acting as a servant, out of pure love, or even malice or extortion.

It was thought possible the short was animated in the Republic of Ireland or the United Kingdom, and could possibly be a hybrid of Irish folklore and the story of the Red Shoes.

Now that the short has been found, the "Irish Riverdance" report of the short no longer seems reliable.

Le Bonhomme Sept-Heurs

At the time, many shorts from Pinwheel came from Canada. The known "Clock Man" plot appeared to be very similar if not matching to the Quebec Folklore of "Bonhomme Sept-Heurs"[5]. According to the folklore, this person is a man who hides in a kid's room and steals them if they fail to go to sleep before their bedtime[6] and/or after 7:00. The man who described the short saying he thought the Wizards name was "Benjamin" could have initially misheard when the man actually said his name was "Bonhomme".[7]. Pinwheel used "National Film Board of Canada" movies[8] and "Clock Man" may have been one of them.

Comparison between the 7 O' Clock Man and "The Clock Man". Originally posted by RSTVideo on the LMW Discord server.

With this version, many things begin to make sense. Both 7 O' Clock Man and "The Clock Man" have a very similar appearance. Both of them had the beard and wore a trench-coat. Furthermore, folkloric description of what the 7 O' Clock Man does seem to be similar to the plot of the "Clock Man" short.

What was problematic is that the nothing in the archive on 7 O' Clock Man matched up with the Santa's description, of its style. Nevertheless, according to Dycaite, "Commander Santa says 7 O' Clock Man seems to fit the bill".

Later, a short made in 1984 or 1985 was located on WorldCat called "L'Hiver, ou Le Bonhomme Sept Heurs" or "Winter, or The Seven O'Clock Man". The actual short was located by LMW user TOMYSSHADOW, but unfortunately, it did not match any description of "Clock Man".[9]

Was "Clock Man" really part of Pinwheel?

Although it is generally accepted by the LMW community that "Clock Man" was part of the Pinwheel production, memories from decades ago often fall victim to false details. Considering that so far all of the found Pinwheel content neither contains "Clock Man" nor references it in any way, some people suspect that "Clock Man" is indeed not a part of the Pinwheel production. Arguably people who are looking for the English sub may have a hard time considering this version.

Please note that this is not to state that "Clock Man" was not part of the Pinwheel, but to point out to a possibility of "Clock Man" not being a part of Pinwheel, but rather being a part of a different show.

Discovery

On December 10, 2017, LMW forums user NitrateNerd discovered a YouTube link to the infamous film after searching for the short on WorldCat (a worldwide library catalog), uploaded by the current owners, AAA studios. Eleven days after its discovery, Commander Santa confirmed it was the short he'd seen many years ago.

Availability

The short was first uploaded to the internet in 2014. Then it was later uploaded again with a different watermark. On September 22, 2017, AAA Studios uploaded their "improved" color version on YouTube.

The short is titled O Parádivé Sally ("The Stylish Sally" or literally: "About Dressy Sally") and can be seen here:

O Parádivé Sally (commonly known as the "Clock Man" short)

English Version

The English dub was titled Sally, or according to the BFI, "Stylish Sally".[10] The dub was narrated by Pearl Peterson. The Learning Corp. of America distributed this version starting in 1978.[11]This version of the short is currently lost.

It is possible, but not yet completely confirmed, that Sally aired as part of Pinwheel starting in 1978. The Learning Corp. of America, through a series of acquisitions, was folded into New World Entertainment. New World later sold parts of its library off to various companies, including TriStar Television (for its TV shows); Trans Atlantic Entertainment (now part of Lakeshore Pictures) and Paramount/Viacom (for TV syndication of its older movies), but most of New World is now owned by 20th Century Fox.[12][13] Sally could be a part of the Fox library.

References

  1. Commander Santa's 2012 "Clock Man" forum post on bungie.net. Retrieved 15 Jan '14.
  2. O parádivé Sally (1976) | Ve filmotéce | ČSFD.cz Retrieved 8 Jan '18
  3. Awards (ocenění) @ kratkyfilm.eu Retrieved 8 Jan '18
  4. The aforementioned 2002-2004 animationnation.com forum thread. Retrieved 15 Jan '14.
  5. Bonhomme Sept Heures @ French Wikipedia Retrieved 8 Nov '17.
  6. O Orangethorpe's comment made in April 2017 on YouTube Retrieved 8 Nov '17.
  7. One of Anonymous #19's comments under this article Retrieved 8 Nov '17.
  8. Mullen GM. The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: Revolution Or Evolution? Texas: University of Texas Press; 2003. p. 120.
  9. YouTube upload of "L'Hiver ou Le Bonhomme Sept Heurs. Retrieved 04 Dec '17
  10. O PARÁDIVÉ SALLY (1976) @ BFI Retrieved 2 Jan '18
  11. Mid-Hudson Library System's results on "Sally" Retrieved 2 Jan '18
  12. History of New World Entertainment @ CLG Wiki Retrieved 2 Jan '18
  13. History of New World Pictures @ CLG Wiki Retrieved 2 Jan '18