Milius as Animator?
I recently watched the documentary Milius by Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson. It's a movie about the rise and fall (and possible rise?) of outsider artist John Milius. It has some snappy visual effects and contains interesting historical info if you, like me, enjoy his films. What I did not know, prior to watching the documentary, was that Milius was apparently an animator: his 1966 student film "Marcello I'm So Bored" was a rough cartoon parody of Italian neo-realism.
Although Conan the Barbarian has some puppetry and uses animation as a visual effect during the sequence where Conan returns to life after being crucified, none of the rest of the films in Milius's filmography are cartoons. I'm curious: why not? Did he prefer working with actors? Was animation too tedious or not "Hollywood" enough for him?
I see similarities between Milius and Ralph Bakshi. Both are outsiders, both were drawn to fantasy, and both had constant problems getting a budget to match their visions. Conan the Barbarian (one of my favorite films) could have easily worked as an adult animation similar to Fire and Ice or Wizards. Maybe somewhere out there in a parallel universe there's a timeline where Milius became an underground animator instead of a rogue screenwriter. He would have been a great one.
Ironically, John Milius's bombastic personality has turned him into something of a cartoon himself in the minds of the public. But how good is his student film? Is it actually worth watching? I have no idea. Despite my best attempts to find it on Google, "Marcello I'm So Bored" appears to be completely inaccessible online. If anyone out there knows how to watch it, I'd appreciate it if you could drop me a line.