Get A Job (Animated Film)
Get A Job is a 1985 animated short subject film written, directed and animated by Canadian animator Brad Caslor and released by the National Film Board of Canada. It deals with the process of finding employment, from writing a resume to being interviewed by a potential employer, and the best ways to prepare for and present oneself in these situations. The film is notable for its extensive use of both The Silhouettes' hit song of the same name and heavy amounts of MusicAL pastiche, which consists of references to popular music and its performers spanning the first half of the twentieth century, from The Andrews Sisters and Carmen Miranda to Elvis Presley. Caslor co-wrote the lyrics to the film's songs along with Jay Brazeau and Derek Mazur, while Brazeau handled the melodies independently.
Plot
Bob Dog is down on his luck. He lives alone in a seedy apartment and has no job. One day he falls asleep in front of his TV. But just as he drifts off, a blaring, obnoxious commercial for "Get A Job: 25 Big-Working Hits!", the latest release from J-Tel records (a parody of the Canadian record company K-Tel and, by extension, its extremely unsubtle style of advertising) takes hold of his dream. Bob is soon being aggressively manhandled and sung to by the performers featured on the compilation. Surreal mise-en-scene dominates these sequences, including a gigantic telephone with a singing receiver and towering hammers with singing heads. After each song, Bob is dropped violently back into quasi-reality, where he must go AbOUT the process explained to him in the song. Variously, Bob writes a resume or does a job interview. However, he makes a series of common mistakes at each of his InterViews. First he is excessively cowed and frightened by his own anxiousness and the intimidating atmosphere of a hallway full of people who want the same job that he does. Next, he goes to the opposite extreme and becomes over-confident and demanding to the point of violent aggression. This is demonstrated by Bob's phantasmagorical transformation into a gigantic, ultra-muscular monster of himself who growls orders at the boss while shaking and tossing him about his office. But when Bob shrinks back to his normal size and appearance moments later, the boss furiously throws him out. Finally, Bob makes the biggest mistake of all: he oversells himself in a desperate, insincere fashion. Specifically, he attempts to present himself as a parade-style one-man band, complete with drums, whistles and an outrageous physical appearance. He is summarily dismissed from the interview by way of an automated trap door. Having ruined what the last musical interlude had informed him was his last chance, he hits rock bottom: Waking up inside a garbage can and being abused by a horde of street thugs, who mockingly sing the title song at him when they discover he is unemployed. The scene dissolves into a nightmarish burlesque until Bob awakes, realizing he has been dreaming. A moment later his phone rings. The caller informs him that he has been accepted for a job. An excited Bob graciously thanks his new boss - his Dad.
Style
In addition to reviving numerous older styles of music including swing, boogie-woogie and doo-wop, Get A Job was crafted in a style of animation that was uncommon at the time - that of The Golden Age of American animation, particularly those of Walt Disney Studios, Bob Clampett and Tex Avery. There are several direct or indirect references to the works of these individuals throughout the cartoon. For example, many figures seen in the background resemble member's of Disney's ensemble cartoon cast. The caricature of Carmen Miranda which appears in an early song resembles Tex Avery's treatment of Miranda in shorts such as Magical Maestro. Also, one of the thugs who appears near the end of the cartoon has a gigantic red nose whose shape exactly matches that of an unnamed character in Clampett's A Gruesome Twosome, who was intended as a parody of Jimmy Durante.
Production
Additional animation was done by Cordell Barker, another NFB animator whose most famous film is 1988's "The Cat Came Back".