Everybody Rides the Carousel (1975)

 

Directed by John Hubley

Written by John and Faith Hubley

This short (72 minute) animated feature takes viewers through the “8 Stages of Life” using the metaphor of an animated carousel ride.
The 8 Stages concept comes from the work of Erik Erikson.

There are no surprises in this presentation and not a lot of feeling. The animation from 1975 might have already felt old fashioned, with more a 1950s feel about it. It’s as if the visual explosion, psychedelia, of the 1960s never happened.

There are no surprises or interesting life conflicts giving a new perspective. It is a routine middle class life.
The feeling this leaves is of a very dull and predetermined carousel ride that there is no point in getting on in the first place.
The movie fails in drawing us in or inspiring us with the joy and wonderment of life that is there somewhere in the cracks of the routine presented.

There is too much audio chatter animated, a lot of it with an improvised feel to it, where just silent animated images might have been better.
This is particularly evident during the childhood segments, the “Second Stage”. Here the Hubleys revert to a technique pioneered in their 1959 film Moonbird. In Moonbird they had recorded candid audio of their two sons at play and animated that. This film does something similar in the “Second Stage”.
(Perhaps it is unfair to be able to see these two films together rather than 15 years apart. This is a burden on filmmakers in general during the digital streaming age. For instance TCM can take a day to show all of Chaplin’s films. A filmmaker could get away with recycling a gag filmed 10 years ago when the public had no possibility of accessing all the films at one time. Now we can see the self-reference an hour later in a different film.)

The Seventh Stage has a definite prejudice in the breeding life choice.
Have children or a life of “Stagnation”. Childless creative people might find this offensive. 

The overall effect of Everybody Rides the Carousel was just kind of dreary. “Stop the world. I want to get off!”