This is some great claymation. Great detail caught in the facial expressions, lots of characters and settings. This film is truly a captivating visual experience. Mark Twain is driving an airship to Haley's Comet into his demise, and his characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have stowawayed themselves on the ship. Some of Mark Twain's other stories are told in the process in claymation, and creation, death, and the afterlife are all explored. This film is not just for kids as it has a very adult sense of humor and some very deep themes. I really enjoyed it more than I expected too, definitely a classic in clay-animation.

Will Vinton is probably best known for his Claymation California Raisins, but he also made this incredibly strange movie with a seventeen person crew, which is an astounding achievement.

Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher - yes, all creations of Mark Twain - have snuck on board an airship that will take the real Mark Twain to meet Hailey's Comet. Twain believes that because he was born the last time the comet came to Earth, he is fated to die when it comes back.

This has some basis in truth, as Twain said, "I came in with Halley's Comet* in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910),and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."" Twain died a day after the comet flew by, living up to his words.

There's also a devil side to Twain, the Mysterious Stranger, and this movie has often shown up in memes because of just how strange it is*.* It also has scenes from plenty of Twain's works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Mysterious Stranger, "The Diaries of Adam and Eve (Letters from the Earth)," "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" and "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

Not all children's films are for children, as evidenced by this movie. While anyone in the family can enjoy this, those debating their mortality will get much from this wonderful creation, all made by human hands.

*The film - originally shot in live action black and white for reference, then animated in Claymation, was finished in 1984, but was not distributed until 1986 to commemorate another appearance by Hailey's Comet.

**That segment was often deleted when this aired on TV, as it was so dark that it disturbed children.

This is a movie that I watched a lot as a kid, having taped it off (I presume) HBO. It's one of those movies that stays with you. I haven't seen it since I was in grade school, but, watching it now, I'm not sure if I forgot even a second of it. It was the first feature film made entirely with clay. Mark Twain plans to fly his airship to meet up with Halley's Comet. Three of his most famous characters, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher, stow away on the ship. When discovered, Twain makes them his crew. On the ship, they are told some of Twain's stories, and here plenty of his famous witticisms (almost all of Twain's dialogue is made up of his nuggets of wisdom). The movie starts off pretty slow, and some of the comedy early on is only moderately amusing. However, as it moves on, the film becomes darker, discovering the cynicism and sadness that exists in the works of Mark Twain. The most memorable sequence has the children meeting Satan, inspired by the posthumously published work The Mysterious Stranger. My other favorite segment is from The Diaries of Captain Stormfield, where a man arrives at an alien version of Heaven. Thanks go to the Onion's A.V. Club for pointing out that this was released on DVD a while back. I never would have caught that myself.