Happy National Mason Jar Day!

Are we still doing mason jar everything?

This is Scout on his favorite birdwatching perch, courtesy of our pal Cori!

Happy Mason Jar Day!

Go ahead and celebrate this, I assume, by consuming everything you eat or drink today out of a mason jar. It’s quaint!

It’s also the birthday of both Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, which is pretty neat. You’d think they’d make some kind of holiday out of that, but no! What I do have for you, however, is the 1935 Soviet stop-motion animated cartoon The New Gulliver, a communist take on the Swift classic directed by Alexandr Ptushko, considered “The Russian Disney.”

In 2001, The New York Times wrote:

In “The New Gulliver,” Ptushko used about 1,500 puppets for the film's stop-motion animation, according to Anatoly Volkov, who is writing a history of Russian animation. The bourgeoisie were made of jointed metal skeletons covered in fabric; their faces were wooden masks. To change expressions, a new mask would be placed on the figure; main characters had up to 20 masks apiece. The workers were made of plasticine.

“Ptushko wanted them to seem rougher,” Mr. Volkov said by phone from Moscow. “What's particularly impressive was Ptushko's organic mixing of real actors and puppets. Charlie Chaplin liked the film for its technical innovation.”

Neat!

We also have the only film footage ever taken of Mark Twain, filmed by Thomas Edison. There’s no sound so he’s just kind of walking around his home and eating lunch with his daughters, but it’s still pretty cool that it exists at all!

Perhaps now you are wondering, but what about my stop-motion animation Mark Twain? I’ve got you! Here’s a clip of the 1985 stop-motion claymation feature The Adventures of Mark Twain, in which Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher join Twain on an airship, where he tells them a bunch of stories as he waits for his “appointment” with Halley’s Comet. (You know, because both his birth and death coincided with years when Halley’s Comet was in the sky).

This clip features a version of his story The Mysterious Stranger.

Oh! The guy who did this, Will Vinton, is the same guy who did The California Raisins.

It actually sounds pretty awesome, and I wouldn’t blame you if you kind of want to watch the whole thing now. I, actually, kind of want to watch the whole thing now. So here it is!

Have you been struck with a sudden urge to shower us with money and jewels? If so, we are on Substack now so you can just go ahead and click subscribe! Click click click!!

 Or if you’d just like to donate just once …

You can also join our Patreon, or buy our merch. Or we’re now partnered with Martie, where you can buy snacks!

You can even send us paper checks to:

Wonkette
PO Box 38273
Detroit MI 48238

Talk amongst yourselves!