From Dab of Clay, an Art Form Grew

While clay-animation artistes may scoff, none of them denies that Gumby has had an effect on popular culture.

“At the time I thought it was kind of a dumb thing,” says Gene Coe, the director of graphics and animation at the USC School of Cinema-Television. “I didn’t think it was a particularly interesting character. A lot of other people obviously did.”

And while people want to make a connection between Gumby and modern clay animation, Will Vinton, who created the California Raisins ads spots, said he never even saw the television show.

“Gumby is a standard,” says James Arnett, an animation expert and a clay animation teacher. “We refer to Gumbyvision , which is something that we strive to get away from. Gumby was a show done on an extremely low budget by someone who was bright enough to sell the idea.

“For children it worked out just fine but for adults it’s kind of hard to sit through. Instead of having a creature who actually walked, his feet just kind of slid across.”

And the industry’s leaders are a little tired of the little green guy.

“People talk about Gumby when I say I do Claymation,” says a slightly irritated Mark Gustafson, a director for the Will Vinton studios, using the Vinton studios’ term for its version of clay animation.

“Gumby popularized clay animation,” Gustafson says. “It was maybe the first use of clay animation that had a very wide audience. Claymation is just a much more sophisticated version of what was going on in Gumby.”

So did Gumby did have an effect on Gustafson?

“I remember Gumby,” the director says. “It kind of frightened me. There was something about the way he moved.”

Arnett reluctantly admits that the main reason people are familiar with clay animation is, alas, Gumby.

“Anywhere on the planet you say Gumby , people know exactly what you’re talking about,” Arnett says. “If you just say Claymation, people’s eyes glaze over, but if you say Gumby , everybody knows what it is.”

“For such a small production, it’s amazing that it accomplished what it did. It does deserve the credit of somebody on a shoestring budget turning it into a phenomenon.”