The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)

Directed by: Will Vinton

Starring: James Whitmore, Michele Mariana, Gary Krug

I have a love/hate relationship with Will Vinton. On the one hand, I love claymation, and he’s not only prolific with the genre, but pretty damn talented with it. I’d say part of the reason I like the style so much is because I grew up with the California Raisins. On the other hand, his stuff is always SO FUCKING CREEPY.

Mark Twain has decided to build a zeppelin that will take him to Halley’s Comet (based on the real story of how Twain was born when it passed and died when it passed again), and Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher stow away on board. In the airship, they find a magic elevator which takes them into several of Twain’s lesser-known stories, almost all of which are about how religion is ridiculous. Huh.

They certainly chose an interesting selection of Twain’s work for this film, but the most outstanding part is easily the Mysterious Stranger sequence, which is basically about Satan creating and destroying people because he doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. It’s a very creepy sequence, but it’s so well done… Will Vinton!!