About four years ago I took a break from The Itche Kadoozy Show to work on a new project called Stick Figure Vignettes. Besides giving me a chance to move back to animation after a few years of puppetry, what I was really excited about was the more personal nature of these cartoons.
See, for years stick figures have lived in my sketchbooks, filling the pages with bizarre, wordless scenes that I myself couldn’t completely explain. What I loved about them was their ability to express so much with their little stick bodies and dot eyes. When I started to think about what I wanted out of a new series, those stick figures came back to me. What I wanted was a piece that presented an actual quote from real Jewish sources, but at the same time allowed that idea to be explored in a complex and limitless manner. A tall order, right? The answer—make a cartoon I didn’t completely understand.
Each Stick Figure Vignette is based on a specific quote, and conveys in some way some thought or personal insight or unique way of looking at that idea. But there are always elements in each one that I can’t completely explain. And the result has been some wonderful discussions in the comments. People tell me my cartoons mean something different from what I thought, and they could be right. The only one who knows for sure is the little stick person in the cartoon, and he’s not telling.
After 11 episodes, it got too hard for me to write them, and I got involved in another project. Over the years people have asked me when I’m doing more, and I didn’t have an answer. Luckily for them, my editor had an answer. He asked me to start making them again. So I enlisted the help of a good friend and talented writer, DovBer Naiditch, and together we are making strange new cartoons for you to watch, think about and discuss. The first one is called The Warehouse, and I like it a lot. Go watch it and make some noise in the comments.
And for all of you who have been part of the Stick Figure discussions in the past, thank you for giving me things to think about, and keep it up.
Dovid Taub,
director of strange cartoons and puppet shows
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