Candyjam (1988)

Candyjam (1988) is a short film dedicated to the hypnotic allure of candy, directed and produced by Joanna Priestley and Joan Gratz and comprised of several bite-sized skits from ten different animators - in addition to Priestley and Gratz, there are contributions from David Anderson (director of the Sweet Disaster short Dreamless Sleep), Elizabeth Buttler, Tom Gasek, Karen Aqua, Paul Driessen, Christine Panushka, Craig Bartlett and Marv Newland.  These are all non-dialogue, save for the Priestley skit, which uses monologue and self-caricature in a style obviously reminiscent of her earlier short Voices (1985).  Each animation uses stop-motion techniques, in which candy features as a key material.  Anderson fashions human faces out of caramel wrappers and chocolate beans (which, in a typical note of Anderson surrealism, vomit up a beach of candy pebbles, providing the perfect environment for a metal clockwork lobster to scuttle across, devouring candy as it goes), Panushka has a trio of jelly rats and a swarm of jelly worms wriggle across screen before summoning a fruit drop rainfall, Driessen follows two hand-drawn characters interacting with a gummy fish they have managed to hook, and so on.  The entire film is accompanied by a jazzy soundtrack, courtesy of Dave Storrs, which emphasises the "jam" portion of the title.

The fetishisation of sugar addiction is a recurring theme, with multiple skits examining the seductive pleasures of all things sweet and calorie-laden - notably the Aqua piece, in which a Ken-style plastic doll engages in a spot of bondage with some frisky liquorice allsorts, at the expense of his well-toned figure.  Mostly, the skits are concerned simply with exploring candy as a visual medium, creating a giddy, non-stop whirl of shapes and colours as confectionery of every ilk is paraded onscreen in a dazzling collage of Sesame Street-esque playfulness.  The result is a film dedicated exclusively to recreating the visual stimulation and pure Pavlovian excitement one gets from having a candy bar wrapper dangled in front of them - the guilty pleasures and childlike joy that accompanies exposure to sugary snacks.

There are shades of Gratz's Acamdemy Award-winning claymation short Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992), in which imagery of various cultural icons (including the Mona Lisa, George Washington, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Mouse) are seen morphing into one another, ingesting and interacting with pieces of candy as they go.  Of particularly demented delight is the Bartlett skit, where candy bars are depicted as ravenously bestial beings, devouring one another in a continuous food chain - a Butterfinger eats a Snickers bar and then excretes a trail of M&Ms.  This is followed by a shot of a singular M&M being stomped on, Monty Python style, by a giant human foot, only for an entire swarm of M&Ms to set upon the foot like army ants and strip it right down the bone.

Candyjam displays a fascination with junk food culture that is by turns witty, weird and exhilarating, making the case that, whatever those empty calories might lack in nutritional value, their potential as visual art is truly out of this world.