| A Chairy Tale | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Claude Jutra Norman McLaren Animation: Evelyn Lambart |
| Starring | Claude Jutra |
| Music by | Ravi Shankar Chatur Lal Maurice Blackburn |
| Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada (NFB) |
| Release date(s) | 1957 |
| Running time | 12 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
A Chairy Tale is a 1957 animated short film co-directed by Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra, and starring Jutra and a most uncooperative chair.
Using pixilation, the film humorously portrays Jutra's attempts to sit on the chair - and it on him - set to the music of Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal.
The film begins with a seemingly normal chair onscreen. Jutra enters, carrying a book, and attempts to sit in the chair so he can read his book. The chair unexpectedly moves out from under him. The man's persistent attempts to sit in the chair become increasingly frenetic and increasingly violent ... but only to himself, not to the chair. Finally, it dawns on the man that perhaps the chair will let him sit on it for a while if he will first allow the chair to sit on him for a few seconds. This gambit succeeds, and all ends happily.[1]
As with McLaren's equally acclaimed short Neighbours, the message of the film is that cooperation is a better means to resolve disputes than force.
A Chairy Tale is a National Film Board of Canada production and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Live Action) in 1957. The film received a special BAFTA Award in 1958.[2]
"Chairy" is a made-up word, punning on "chary", a British adjective seldom encountered in American English. "Chary" has no precise definition, but approximately means "cautious, nervous, apprehensive". The McClelland & Stewart Canadian Dictionary defines "chary" as "prudent".
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