Gumby Dharma

2006 documentary

Rating: 14/20

Plot: The life and work of Gumby-creator Art Clokey.

What I learned from Gumby Dharma:

1. Why Gumby is green. Aside avoiding race stuff, green is "a product of life" and life, as we all know, equals love. Yeah, Art Clokey had hippie tendencies.

2. The origin of his name. It's not terribly interesting.

3. How Clokey's purpose for working with claymation had to do with the imagery being just below a level that creates nausea and seasickness, a level of excitement.

4. Why Gumby has a bump on his head. It's based on Clokey's father's cowlick and, as you'd probably expect, was to avoid the problem of Gumby being a phallic symbol.

5. What the voice of Gumby (the only voice for Gumby as far as I know) looks like. Yep, he's a large bearded individual, a guy who looks like he either just stomped out of the woods or rolled down a mountain.

6. That Prickles and Goo were named after something Clokey heard from Alan Watts about how there are two types of people in the world--prickly and gooey.

7. How Flying Burrito Brother and fellow Hoosier Sneaky Pete Kleinow got exactly one hundred dollars for the Gumby theme song.

8. That Art Clokey invented a bitchin' toy called Moody Rudy and enjoyed harassing women from his automobile with it.

9. That Art Clokey left his wife and family for sixties counterculture, experimenting with hallucinogenics, being a Buddhist, and getting his picture taken with Frank Zappa.

10. That Clokey produced a beautiful 70s short called "Mandala" that looks like something pretty special.

11. That Gumby was taken to India to be blessed by a holy man.

I can't say I really liked the cutesy Gumby and Pokey narration/interviews, and there's a ridiculous Gumby/Art Clokey dance number at the end of the documentary. Other than that, this is good stuff. Well, there's the troubling period for Clokey in the 60s when he apparently loses his mind. That was sad. Henry Selick and Harryhausen make appearances. I really liked hearing Clokey (and his son) talking about how Gumby and his friends represent different parts of their creator's personality. "They're all me," Clokey said.

R.I.P. Art. Thanks for the Gumby. And somebody buy me a Moody Rudy!