The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985 film)

Not to be confused with The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944 film).

The Adventures of Mark Twain
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Will Vinton
Produced by	Will Vinton
Written by	Susan Shadburne^[1]
Based on	The works of Mark Twain
Starring	James Whitmore
Narrated by	Grey Krug
Music by	Billy Scream
Edited by	Kelley Baker Michael Gall Ed Geis Skeets McGrew Will Vinton
Production company	Will Vinton Productions Harbour Town Films
Distributed by	Clubhouse Pictures
Release dates	March 1, 1985 (1985-03-01)^[2]
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	1.5 million^[3]

The Adventures of Mark Twain, released in the UK as Comet Quest, is a 1985 American stop motion animated fantasy film directed by Will Vinton. It received a theatrical release, limited to seven major cities, in May 1985. It was released on DVD in January 2006.^[4]

The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain's works, built around a plot that features Twain's attempts to keep his "appointment" with Halley's Comet. Twain and three children, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher, travel on an airship between various adventures.

Plot

After having a bout of one-upmanship, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher sneak aboard an airship piloted by Mark Twain in an attempt to become famous aeronauts. Upon discovery, they find that Mark Twain intends to pilot the airship to meet Halley's Comet. Worried that this goal will end in their deaths, the trio learn to fly the ship while conspiring to sabotage the voyage.

After discovering the truth behind Twain's journey, the trio recognize their folly, and the group navigates storms and treacherous skies with the help of a mysterious dark figure who turns out to be Mark Twain's dark side. The two Twains merge and fly off to meet the comet, leaving the airship in the hands of the youngsters.

Cast

James Whitmore as Mark Twain
Michele Mariana as Becky Thatcher
Gary Krug as Huck Finn
Chris Ritchie as Tom Sawyer
John Morrison as Adam
Carol Edelman as Eve
Dallas McKennon as Jim Smiley and Newspaper Boy
Herb Smith as The Stranger
Marley Stone as Aunt Polly
Michele Mariana & Wilbur Vincent as The Mysterious Stranger
Wally Newman as Captain Stormfield
Tim Conner as Three-Headed Alien
Todd Tolces as Saint Peter
Billy Scream as The Indexivator
Will Vinton as Dan'l Webster
Billy Victor as God
Compton Downs as Injun Joe
Gary Thompson as Baby Cain

Production

The concept was inspired by a famous quote by the author:

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"^[5]

Twain died on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet reached perihelion in 1910.^[6]

Included are sketches taken from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Mysterious Stranger, "The Diaries of Adam and Eve (Letters from the Earth)", "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" and a rendering of Twain's first story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". References are made to his other works, including "The Damned Human Race". This animated film was shot in Portland, Oregon.

When he was asked about the rumours of this film being made by a 17-person crew,^[3] Vinton stated:

Well it’s all true, though that’s probably exaggerating a bit. Seventeen or so represents the full-time staff and then freelance people came and went, plus you have musical talent and writing talent and things that go beyond that number. We shot the film in a converted house that had a barbershop in front of it, so we called it the Barbershop Studio. The bedrooms and things were editing rooms and offices. The high-ceiling basement was conveniently connected to a four thousand square foot studio that we built in the back, and that basement was where the animators and sculptors worked on the characters. So, yes, we spent a lot of time in the basement!^[3]

Critical reception

The film has a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 3.9/5.,^[7] 3/5 stars on Common Sense Media^[8] and currently as a rating of 7.6/10 on IMDb.^[9]

References

↑ "Movie Review - - SCREEN: 'ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN - NYTimes.com". Retrieved August 16, 2016.
↑ "The Films of 1985: The Adventures of Mark Twain - CHUD.com". Retrieved April 30, 2016.
1 2 3 "Feat of Clay: The Forgotten 'Adventures of Mark Twain' - Animation World Network". Retrieved August 16, 2016.
↑ "DVD Review – 'The Adventures Of Mark Twain' - Collider". Retrieved April 30, 2016.
↑ Albert Bigelow Paine. "Mark Twain, a Biography, Chapter 282 "Personal Memoranda"". Retrieved August 23, 2012.
↑ Albert Bigelow Paine. "Mark Twain, a Biography, Chapter 293 "The Return to the Invisible"". Retrieved August 23, 2012.
↑ "The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) - Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved August 16, 2016.
↑ "The Adventures of Mark Twain Movie Review - Common Sense Media". Retrieved August 16, 2016.
↑ "The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) - IMDb". Retrieved August 16, 2016.

External links

Mark Twain

Bibliography

Novels	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss

Short stories	"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" "Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Invalid's Story" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" "1601" "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "The Private Life of Adam and Eve" "Advice to Little Girls"

Short story collections	Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches The Washoe Giant in San Francisco

Plays	Is He Dead? Colonel Sellers Colonel Sellers as a Scientist

Essays	"The Awful German Language" "Advice to Youth" "English As She Is Taught" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "To My Missionary Critics" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "Queen Victoria's Jubilee" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth

Non-fiction	Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain's Notebook King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire The Bible According to Mark Twain Christian Science

Speeches	"Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" Votes for Women

Places, events, and legacy	Conception Birthplace Historic Site State Park Boyhood Home and Museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut Stormfield Publisher, Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Tonight! Mark Twain: The Musical In popular culture

Family	Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Orion Clemens (brother)

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