“It wouldn’t be the first time a labor of love arrived stillborn.” That was the closing line to a 1980s Film Comment article about animator Richard Williams’ ongoing quest to complete his long-gestating animated feature The Thief and the Cobbler.

The author of that article was close; what ultimately (and briefly) made it into the theaters as Arabian Knight wasn’t just stillborn; it was an abortion.

A fellow named Kevin Schreck has made a spot-on doc documenting Williams’ personal heart of darkness, aptly titled Persistence of Vision. It’s been popping up here and there (evidently he’s been working on it a few years himself) and I was fortunate enough to catch it at a recent Manhattan screening.

It’s Friday, October 12 and the Javits Center is beginning to burst at the seams. Banes abound, Lokis lurk and there are Doctors by the dozens. David Tennants and Matt Smiths predominate, although a Peter Davison Doctor shows up at Peter Davison’s session. Speaking of which, You Can’t Make this Stuff Up Department: Davison’s daughter Georgia is married to Tennant; they met when she played the title role in the Dr. Who episode… “The Doctor’s Daughter.” (Yeah, I can’t believe it either but it’s true.)

The Javits Convention Center was bustling but navigable Thursday; Friday's edition was massively attended. (Calling the packed crowd milling about the main concourse ‘a sea of people’ wouldn’t begin to do it justice; a better comparison would be to Times Square on New Year’s Eve.) Come the weekend I suspect everyone who bought a ticket to the completely sold-out event will be here today.

 

 

“It’s John Carpenter meets John Hughes.” 

 That’s how Chris Butler describes Paranorman, the spooky, shot in 3D stop-motion film co-directed by himself and Sam Fell (Flushed Away). And that’s just for starters; there’s no shortage of pop culture markers in the film, everything from The Goonies to Ghostbusters and even the random Scooby-Doo episode. “It’s a grab bag of anything from the 1980s.”