Lines: Horizontal (1962)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A Masterpiece!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Lines: Horizontal (1962) ** 1/2 (out of 4)When it comes to the experimental films of Norman McLaren you're either going to get them or not. There's probably not an in between because if you like your animation the Disney style you'll probably be turned off by what McLaren offers. This short clocks in just under six minutes and we've basically got a square background that is constantly changing colors and then we have black lines moving up and down. Yep, that's pretty much all that happens for the entire running time so you can see why some people would probably turn this off after a few minutes. The film has a rather soothing music score but I must admit that for the most part I didn't find this overly entertaining. The score certainly helps draw you into the picture but there's just not enough creativity going on to keep you fully entertained.

"Lines: Horizontal" is exactly what the title says: 6 minutes of horizontal lines from start to finish. The shape changes, as does the frequency and the colors of the lines and background as well. And while we watch this, we hear a soothing soundtrack. Norman McLaren was already an Academy Award winner when he made this movie here, so yeah what else is there to say. It is lines. You need to decide for yourself if you like it, if you maybe find it even relaxing or completely boring. For me, it was more of the latter. It is not a complete failure, but I also would not recommend this film to anybody. It is already one of the later works by Mr. McLaren, even if he wasn't even 50 years old and lived for another 25 years afterward. Thumbs down from me.

Lines: Horizontal is a movie made by etching lines directly onto film, like its sister Lines: Vertical. The entire movie consists of horizontal lines dancing in various mathematical patterns to beautiful music, and is a relaxing (and sometimes exciting) experience. As you can probably guess, Lines: Vertical is much the same except with vertical lines and different music.Lines: Horizontal, in my opinion, has better music than Lines: Vertical. These two movies were later combined into Mosaic, by the same director. While interesting, Mosaic lacks the charms and beautiful musical accompaniment of the two Lines', making Lines: Horizontal my favorite out of the bunch.