1986 VHS • The Cosmic Eye 60 FPS

About

The Cosmic Eye is a 1986 independent animated science fiction film produced and directed by Faith Hubley, with an original score by Benny Carter, Elizabeth Swados, Conrad Cummings, William Russo, and Dizzy Gillespie. The film features the voices of Dizzy Gillespie as Father Time and one of the three space musicians, Maureen Stapleton as Mother Earth, Jack Warden as Rocko, and Linda Atkinson and Sam Hubley as the other two musicians. It was released on VHS by Walt Disney Home Video in 1985, reissued by Buena Vista Home Video in 1990, and again by Lightyear Video in 1993. The theatrical premiere was June 6, 1986 in New York City.

The film's frame narrative follows three homeward-bound alien musicians on their spacecraft The Cosmic Eye who stop to observe Earth, watching a series of animated vignettes about the planet's geological and human history before broadcasting two messages to humanity: hello and peace. The vignettes draw together older Hubley Studio short films, fragments from abandoned projects, and newly produced material, covering Earth's formation, the emergence of life, the rise of human civilization, environmental destruction, and war. The animation style borrows from modern fine art traditions including Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, and Wassily Kandinsky. The transcript opens with extended You noise tokens for the first five minutes before the score begins with the song The Evening Breeze, indicating a very quiet or music-only opening.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

The Vista Group®

Language

English

Subtitles

English (automatic)

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed