Munro (film)

Munro
Directed by	Gene Deitch
Story by	Jules Feiffer
Produced by	William L. Snyder Zdenka Najmanova
Starring	Howard Morris Seth Deitch Marie Deitch Jules Feiffer
Narrated by	Howard Morris
Edited by	Zdenka Navratilova
Music by	Štěpán Koníček
Production companies	Film Representations Rembrandt Films
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (United States)
Release dates	September 1960 (1960-09) (Czechoslovakia) October 5, 1961 (1961-10-05) (U.S.)
Running time	8 minutes 20 seconds
Countries	Czechoslovakia United States

Munro is a 1960 Czechoslovak-American animated short film directed by Gene Deitch, written by Jules Feiffer, and produced by William L. Snyder. Munro won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1961.^[1][2] It was the first short composed outside of the United States to be so honored.^[3] The Academy Film Archive preserved Munro in 2004.^[4]

Plot

The title character is a rebellious little boy who is accidentally drafted into the United States Army. No matter which adult he tells, "I'm only four", they all fail to notice his age. Eventually, the harshness of army life makes Munro cry, which causes the general to realize that he really is a little boy. He is discharged and becomes a hero...and whenever he misbehaves, Munro is reminded of his stint in the army.

Production

Screenwriter Feiffer, who adapted his own story from his book Passionella and Other Stories, and provided the storyboards, said the tale was a reaction to his time serving in the U.S. Army:

I came up with the story of Munro because I understood that if you're really in a rage and really want to attack someone in cartoon form, the least effective way is to jump up and down and scream and yell and to be polemical—something a lot of cartoonists have never learned. The best way is to go in the other direction and feign innocence, and bring the reader along in a quiet way. And so Munro tells this savage story but tells it entertainingly and sweetly and builds it up and gets the reader stressed, and as you read it, and particularly when you see the film, you feel your stomach knot up because of the obvious abuse and ignorance of authority. And people connected to their own situations with authority in or out of the Army when no one listens, no one believes you. They know, you don't, and they may even start to convince you, as they do Munro, that they're right and you're wrong.^[5]

Munro's voice is provided by Gene Deitch's young son Seth Deitch (later a writer and artist in his own right), while Deitch's wife Marie Deitch does the female voices.

References

1. "1960 (33rd)". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 2014-06-09. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
2. "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1960 -". cartoonresearch.com.
3. Munro: Animating an Oscar Winner (Secretly) Behind the Iron Curtain|Animation Obsessive
4. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
5. Transcript of March 24, 2010, Feiffer interview at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, published as "Backing into Jules Feiffer: An Exclusive Q&A", p. 2, FilmFestivalTraveler.com, April 18, 2010

External links

• Munro at Internet Archive
• Munro at IMDb
• Munro at Rotten Tomatoes
• Entire short on Rembrant Films' official YouTube channel