Posts by David Annandale

Synopsis

Here are three cartoons that Paul McCartney backed and scored. They are all lovinglycrafted, even if they don’t always work at the narrative level. “Tropic Island Hum” and “Rupertand the Frog Song” are the weakest (though again, they look stunning). They are little more thanvisually lush excuses to set up underwhelming musical numbers (which tend to reinforce theimpression that McCarney is a creatively spent force in this department). The former apes thelook of classic musical shor...s of the 40s, but has little of the loosey-goosey energy of its models.The latter, which revives a character from a popular British children’s comic strip, doesn’t goanywhere much with this revival. The middle film, “Tuesday,” on the other hand, is a delight.One night, a multitude of frogs levitates on lily pads, and the gently surreal image is played out toits fullest. That this piece is taken from a children’s book, and so the narrative arc was not left toMcCartney and his team, may account for its being so much better than its companions.McCartney also does a number of the voices here, to rather uneven effect.