Although his name is a hardly a household word, Norman McLaren ranks among the most significant figures in the history of world animation. Other artists created films; McLaren created ways of making films. He drew scratched and painted images directly onto blank film stock for "camera-less animation." He combined slow-motion photography and multiple exposures to reveal the patterns created by dancers' movements in Pas de Deux. He moved actors and full-sized props in Neighbors, his Oscar-winning parable of human aggression: Two friends turn into homicidal maniacs when they vie for possession of a single flower. He demonstrated the underlying structure of musical forms visually in Canon, and created artificial sound to accompany many of his films. In 1941, Canadian Film Commissioner John Grierson invited McLaren to head up the newly founded animation unit of the National Film Board of Canada. McLaren spent the rest of his life at the NFB, pushing the boundaries of animation and providing a place where talented artists from Canada and other countries could explore personal visions of what an animated film could be.
The Master's Edition offers not only all of McLaren's extant films, but experiments, tests, and outtakes. Each film has been carefully restored to correspond as closely as possible to the artist's vision: The prints have had dust and dirt removed, but flaws that resulted from the limited technology McLaren employed have been preserved. New documentaries by Donald McWilliams and other Canadian experts provide introductions to McLaren's work and often arcane techniques. This handsomely packaged seven-disc set, which includes a booklet in English and French, is certain to be the definitive edition of the films Picasso once described as "something new in the art of drawing." (Unrated, suitable for ages 8 and older: tobacco use, stylized violence in a few of the films) --Charles Solomon
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