'The Adventures of Mark Twain' Is A Terrifying Clay Dreamscape

Though animated, The Adventures of Mark Twain focuses on heavy themes like isolation, failure, disappointment, and loss in its clay dreamscape.The Adventures of Mark TwainThe film was not made for children. Mark Twain is famous for his lively novels about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but he wrote many other works. Executive producer Hugh Kennedy Tirrell worked with director Will Vinton to select more macabre works for the movie. Will Vinton shared in an interview with Animation World Network.shared in an interviewwith Animation World Network:

I found all these books. I went through them. I was used to stuff like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but I had not read enough to know much about Mark Twain himself or the darker parts of his writing.Tom SawyerandHuck FinnI hadn't seen or read enough of those books to know much about Mark Twain himself or his darker writing.

The works in the film include the novel published after his death, The Mysterious Stranger, plus the stories "The Diary of Adam and Eve" and "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." These stories present heavy topics shown in terrifying ways with clay.The Mysterious Stranger, as well as the stories "The Diary of Adam and Eve" and "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." They all deal with heavy topics brought to life in terrifying ways with clay.

Twainworked on different versionsofThe Mysterious Stranger between 1898 and his death in 1910. A first edition came out in 1916. They all focus on a supernatural character called Satan or No. 44. This figure uses its powers to show human life's emptiness.

These nihilistic themes appear inThe Adventures of Mark Twain when Huck, Tom, and Becky face the Mysterious Stranger. They enter its world, where they sculpt small humans from clay. After the figures are set in their kingdom, the Mysterious Stranger animates them with its powers. "I find you humans quite interesting," it tells the kids, "even though you are a worthless, greedy bunch."

As the small humans work, share food, and interact, the Mysterious Stranger gets more annoyed with their actions. Things escalate when it watches them fight over an ox made by Becky. The Mysterious Stranger tells the kids to back off; it plans to wipe out the miniature kingdom with an earthquake and storms. The Mysterious Stranger sends lightning bolts down on the beings it helped create. As the small world collapses, the Mysterious Stranger tells its guests, "People are of no value."

Inthe same interviewwith Animation World Network, Vinton spoke about the Mysterious Stranger:

First, it was a bizarre character. I have not seen a character like that in almost anything else—someone with this power but no feeling and just states facts about humanity's future.

The animation becomes extreme and intense as small humans watch their universe end in a cataclysm. The film focuses on each person's suffering. Their screams and cries rise as the ground breaks. Some poor figures get sucked into the dirt; others mourn lost loved ones, including children.

The Adventures of Mark TwainThis scene highlights human suffering; it is one of the film's most harrowing parts. After the destruction stops, the Mysterious Stranger bids his guests farewell, saying, "Life itself is only a vision, a dream." This is depressing.

Vinton and Tirrell chose two people to voice the Mysterious Stranger to make it creepier. Vinton told...toldAnimation World Network:

I voiced the Stranger with a female performer. We aimed for an androgynous sound, so she and I did it together, avoiding hiding it.

The figure's androgynous nature matches its changing faces. The Mysterious Stranger wears a jester mask at the start, but its face shifts into demons, skeletons, and even Twain's likeness.

This intense, scary movie somehow earned a G rating. Vinton and his crew were shocked and considered fighting it. Ashe explained to Animation World Network:to Animation World Network:

We hoped for a PG rating initially. We did not want it seen as a kids' movie since it was not. So we got a G rating and almost appealed, but that would cost us!

Vinton thinks the G rating hurt the film's chance to reach more viewers. Parents confused and disturbed their kids watching it; adults avoided it. WhenThe Adventures of Mark Twainreleased in 1985, adult audiences showed little interest in animated features. The movie needed all controversial publicity it could get to draw viewers then. Unfortunately, the movie got very little attention.

Twain's story, "The Diary of Adam and Eve," appeared in his later collectionLetters from the Earth. Twain's daughter and estate heir, Clara Clemens Samossoud, found the collection's sardonic, gloomy nature troubling, so she refused topublish it until 1962. Pain, defeat, and doom run through the collection's themes.

InThe Adventures of Mark Twain"The Diary of Adam and Eve" plays a major part. Twain refers to the story many times to teach the children lessons. The Old Testament describes Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden. Eve eats an apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil after a serpent tempts her. The film shows that after Eve bites, they are exiled from paradise. Everything withers around them.

Twain returns to Adam and Eve after they are kicked from the Garden of Eden. They must work, have kids, and grow everything needed to survive their new home. Time passes, and they fall in love.

Forty years after God condemned them, they sit under a tree, old but happy. Each writes in their journal about not being able to live without the other. After Eve dies, Adam writes, "Wherever she was, there was Eden." He shuts his notebook and stays under the tree, waiting for the end.

Huck, Tom, and Becky enter a huge, twisted room late in the film. This scene, "Mark Twain's Notebook," shows the writer thinking about his career and work amid paper towers. Thinking they found a chance to take over the doomed airship, they chain their creator while he naps in his chair.

They get back to the top deck, but Twain is steering the ship. Baffled by their situation, Twain looks at them and says, "You look as disappointed as a Presbyterian in Hell." He explains that the place they just saw was Twain's writer's block. This writing philosophy scene was not meant for young people; it adds to the strange feelings in the film.

The sad chorus under the film's surface finally rises when Twain plays a creepy organ. Tiny, suffering figures manipulate it. Nightmare becomes real as anguished, miserable shapes come from the organ's corners, helping it finish its grim song.

Using clay boosts the movie's weird feeling. Technically, this scene is amazing. Vinton insisted only clay be used; this demanded many workers.Vinton told Animation World Network:Animation World Network:

Seventeen staff worked full-time. Then freelancers arrived and left. Plus, you count musical talent and writing talent; those numbers go beyond seventeen.

The organ scene leads to an adaptation of Twain's "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." This story uses science fiction to show the captain's trip. Twain writes that aliens from every universe travel to Heaven. They must find the gate matching their home planet.

Vinton and Tirrell used this as the basis for the first gate Captain Stormfield visits.The Adventures of Mark Twain is a terrifying clay dreamscape, showing several heavens, one of which features a disco alien party with beer.Three-headed aliens crawl around like slugs. After entry, Stormfield finds a disco party. Other aliens drink, smoke, and kiss.

The movie shows Twain's dark side. He wears a black suit in scary scenes, merging with his good side in the white suit. Together, the Twains fly into space to meet their comet, leaving Huck, Tom, and Becky in the airship.

This ending references Twain's writing about Halley's Comet, even if it seems strange to those unfamiliar with his work.Twain described this in 1909.:

I arrived with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It returns next year (1910), and I plan to go out with it. Failing to go out with Halley’s Comet would be my greatest disappointment. God said, "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."

The two freaks did go out together. Twain died on April 21, 1910, less than a month after Earth passed through.The film draws inspiration from Twain's desire to go out with Halley's Comet..