MUBI does it once again. Going through the archives, the site found a gem of an animated short to include on its streaming service underneath their Hungarian Animation banner. And what makes this find very significant to me is that only a couple of months ago, I submitted the short to the site after it remained in obscurity for over 40 years. Otto Foky’s “Scenes With Beans” is a testament to the beauty of stop motion animation and its overall superiority to the CGI works of recent years. 

The story is original and fascinating. A metallic hen traveling outer space comes across a mysterious planet inhabited by beans. Among the scenes the hen analyzes are pedestrian beans heading to work, spectator beans at a stadium, jailbird beans breaking out of the hoosegow and a poor bean requiring medical help in the street. While marveling at these otherwise mundane events, some of the beans discover the eavesdropping through their own telescope and in a means of narrative resolution, fire a missile to chase the hen away.

“Scenes With Beans” shows why Otto Foky should be listed among the greats of stop motion animation like Ray Harryhausen or Willis O’Brien. The short is an unsung piece of cinematic mastery, where hundreds of beans emulate human qualities. Foky painstakingly had to move these little props one frame at a time. Also worth mentioning is the usage of objects functioning in different scenarios, like razors cutting fabric to emulate a tractor tilling soil on a farm. a sardine can as a vehicle and a spoon acting like a stroller/pram. This technique was probably an influence on the director PES, whose films like “Fresh Guacamole” and “Submarine Sandwich” use similar kinds of object substitution. Computers would have dulled the realism of the situation by stifling the lifelike movements of the individual prop beans. Foky creates his own universe that straddles the realms of fantasy and reality that the two sometimes run into one another. Sure, these are beans, but as animated by Foky, they are more human than you think.

The 1970s was the era of independent clay and stop motion animation making its mark on the awards circuit. “Scenes With Beans” played at both the Cannes and Krakow Film Festivals, winning the top Short Film prize from the latter. Foky submitted the film to AMPAS for potential Oscar consideration, but was unfortunately overlooked. The website Cartoon Research did a series on animated shorts submissions and “Scenes With Beans” was listed as having little information to go on. That was in December of 2017. Fast forward to this past June and randomly submitting this short because it was stop motion animation that played at the Cannes Film Festival that deserved a place on MUBI. It was on YouTube, but had very few views. Since Monday (9/20), “Scenes With Beans” has won rave reviews by MUBI subscribers and currently holds a 8.7/10 average based on over 1500 ratings (and counting). Otto Foky died in 2012, but he’s now receiving a newer and much wider audience for his animated magnum opus.

In fact, when you’re digging & filling the mound, you actually need to pause every few inches of layering to give it a good soaking with water.  Don’t fill it up until it’s floating, because that’s a little counter-productive.  Just give the mound a couple minutes’ attention with the hose so that everything is visbly wet, then resume adding in the next layer.

When you do the layer of dirt on top, only a modest amount of moisture is needed.  Basically, give just enough to allow it to hold its shape and position, and then a localized watering for whatever seeds you plant.  (You don’t want to overwater or use high pressure water at this stage, because you don’t want to erode all your effort at mounding up the earth.)

🎶"Toss a coin to your Hisser

Oh, valley of plenty

Oh, valley of plenty, oh