MOVIE REVIEW : A BIG, WARM, WONDERFUL WORLD IN ‘COSMIC EYE’

There’s something almost seraphically childlike and delightful about Faith Hubley’s feature-length cartoon, “The Cosmic Eye” (today and Wednesday at the Nuart).

Composed partially from previous Hubley efforts--including three sections from works made with her late husband, John Hubley--it’s an affectionate tour of optimism’s far shores. It vibrates with radiant hues and lightly fantastical beings. Sheets and waves of color float by on bright white or gently washed backgrounds, connected together with spidery black lines. It’s a Paul Klee-Joan Miro world come charmingly to life, breathing happily to Benny Carter’s funky score.

From outer space--guided by three whimsical, gently philosophical cosmo-nuts--we see our world’s follies. We hear its discord and strange harmonies. We see its creation, its division into drifting army-boxes and the eventual, surprising triumph of peace, rationality and kindness.

Hubley’s optimism enfolds you in a downy dream-blanket of affection and good will. There are no hard edges here--everything is curved, molded, glowing.

The moltenly warm, hip burr of jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie dominates the voices. Rumbling like a gravelly sonata, he grounds the film’s lyricism in something earthier, cooling the pacifist meditation with a bebop grin.

Most ambitious cartoons tend to work out of Disney or Eastern European influences. Interestingly, Hubley tends to take more from painting. Besides the recurring imagery of Klee, Miro and Picasso, we see bits from Kandinsky, Ben Shahn, Goya and others.

We also see a tremendous variety of Asian, African and Native American art forms. Fittingly, for a cartoon whose central theme is world understanding, “The Cosmic Eye” taps into the cultural treasures of most of the planet. It spins over them with a bemused rapidity. “The Cosmic Eye” (Times-rated: family)--an ingenious work that displays its virtuosity lightly--is as joyous and heartening a movie as you’ll find all year. This eye winks, flutters, stares unabashedly and sees to the heart.