Time to get "Away From it All"

... as narrated by Nigel Farquhar-Bennett in 1979.
And, if you can sit it out, you shall understand all. (I've been looking for this for a loooong time.) This travelogue ran as a film short before Monty Python's "Life of Brian" in some cinemas and has not been seen since. (And it's not on the DVD, much to fans' frustrations.)

Australia continued the tradition of film shorts for much longer that the USA. I think the last genuine film shorts I can recall seeing with main features in cinemas were "Rocking Horse Winner", which accompanied all of our viewings of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", and the black and white short film "Frankenweenie", which accompanied Disney's "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend" - much to the surprise of "Frankenweenie" director, Tim Burton, who only discovered that it had finally been given a release when my Sydney-based "Batman" fan club, "Battalion", was able to attend a Tim Burton press conference in 1989.

Back shortly

I was reminiscing yesterday with some online folk about the days when cinemas included a full program of cartoon, advertisements, a film short and the main feature. i understand they were phased out in the USA in the early 60s?

We definitely had a short with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" Down Under. I can't recall which one, though, though film shorts were still going strong. (Actually, it may have been a documentary about kayaking, if I recall correctly.) We had a 33 min. film short, "The Rocking Horse Winner" (1983), with "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". If I saw that bloody rocking-horse again, I was gonna scream!

I also remember we stunned director Tim Burton, in a Sydney press conference for "Batman" (1989) when lowly members of a newly-formed Batman fan club had probing questions about his supposedly unreleased b/w "Frankenweenie" short (1984) - which had received a cinema release in Australia. It ran before screenings of Disney's "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend" (1985). (It was news to Tim, and we assume he went stomping back to Disney to investigate his royalties!)

So, yeah. We had shorts Down Under until at least 1985, then a break of only a few years... until that first new "Roger Rabbit" short, "Tummy Trouble", released theatrically worldwide with "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" (1989).

Pixar has also made the concept of film shorts remain in the public consciousness. Not to mention Tropfest and other short film festivals.