The Zoetrope of Life Spotify Playlist

 

  We have a new playlist that symbolizes the zoetrope Sherbet looks through in the Storyteller's Attic. Zoetrope translates from the Greek - "Wheel of Life". In 1955, Walt Disney demonstrated how this ancient toy worked on his Disneyland episode, "The Story of the Animated Drawing", where Walt taught the audience how imagination becomes a craft beyond motion. In other words, this, in Walt's perspective, was the birth of moving pictures and animation. 

Walt showing the audience how the zoetrope is more than a toy.

  To legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's perspective, the zoetrope was a symbol of change. Of rebellion. Even for creative freedom. While Coppola was in Europe, brainstorming for his new production company without studio supervision, he visited a Danish filmmaker and collector named Mogens Skot-Hansen. There, Hansen gifted Coppola an antique zoetrope as a token. Inspired and enchanted by the zoetrope's meaning and connecting to his frustrations with corporate Hollywood structures of the times, Coppola decided to name his new company American Zoetrope, symbolizing a way to create "life movement" through indie cinema.  

Francis Ford Coppola directing on set of "The Rain People" in 1968

  For this playlist, this is not only dedicated to Sherbet of the three enchanted kittens, but also to Walt and Coppola themselves for their big help emphasizing the importance of the zoetrope in animation, moviemaking, even storytelling! 

   We've got not only The Beatles and Paul McCartney & Wings, but also Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds, Coldplay, Martina McBride, John Denver, The Monkees, and even Simple Minds with their hit song from the movie, "Breakfast Club", "Don't You (Forget About Me)". 

  More awesome musical playlists to come. Stay tuned for more. And now, observe the magic and wonder through Sherbet's magic zoetrope...