Editing The Dot and the Line

{{short description|1965 film by Chuck Jones}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = The Dot and the Line<br /><small>A Romance in Lower Mathematics</small>
| image          = the dot and the line.jpg
| caption        = 
| director       = [[Chuck Jones]]<br />[[Maurice Noble]] (co-director)
| producer       = Chuck Jones<br />Les Goldman<ref>[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1966 1966|Oscars.org]</ref>
| story          = [[Norton Juster]] (screenplay)
| based_on       = {{based on|''The Dot and the Line''|Norton Juster}}
| narrator       = [[Robert Morley]]
| starring       = 
| music          = Eugene Poddany
| animator       = Don Towsley (supervising)<br />[[Ken Harris]]<br />[[Ben Washam]]<br />[[Richard Thompson (animator)|Dick Thompson]]<br />[[Tom Ray]]<br />[[Phil Roman|Philip Roman]]
| layout_artist  = 
| background_artist = Philip DeGuard<br />Don Morgan
| studio         = [[MGM Animation/Visual Arts]]
| distributor    = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| released       = {{Film date|1965|12|31}}
| color_process  = [[Metrocolor]]
| runtime        = 10 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
}}

'''''The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics''''' is a 1965 animated short film directed by [[Chuck Jones]] and co-directed by [[Maurice Noble]], based on the 1963 book of the same name written and illustrated by [[Norton Juster]], who also provided the film's script. The film was narrated by [[Robert Morley]] and produced by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. It won the 1965 [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film]]<ref name="bcdb">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/2958-Dot_And_The_Line.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130117191927/http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/2958-Dot_And_The_Line.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 17, 2013|title=The Dot And The Line|publisher=[[Big Cartoon DataBase]]|date=2012-12-16}}</ref> and was entered into the [[Short Film Palme d'Or]] competition at the [[1966 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2820/year/1966.html |title=Festival de Cannes: The Dot and the Line |access-date=2009-03-08|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref>

== Story ==
The story details a straight blue [[line (mathematics)|line]] who is hopelessly in love with a red [[Point (geometry)|dot]]. The dot, finding the line to be stiff, dull, and conventional, turns her affections toward a wild and unkempt squiggle. Taking advantage of the line's stiffness, the squiggle rubs it in that he is a lot more fun for the dot.

The depressed line's friends try to get him to settle down with a female line, but he refuses. He tries to dream of greatness until he finally understands what the squiggle means and decides to be more unconventional. Willing to do whatever it takes to win the dot's affection, the line manages to bend himself and form [[angle]] after angle until he is nothing more than a mess of sides, bends, and angles. After he straightens himself out, he settles down and focuses more responsibly on this new ability, creating shapes so complex that he has to label his sides and angles in order to keep his place.

When competing again, the squiggle claims that the line still has nothing to show to the dot. The line proves his rival wrong and is able to show the dot what she is really worth to him. When she sees this, the dot is overwhelmed by the line's responsibility and unconventionality. She then faces the now nervous squiggle, whom she gives a chance to make his case to win her love.

The squiggle makes an effort to reclaim the dot's heart by trying to copy what the line did, but to no avail. No matter how hard he tries to re-shape himself, the squiggle still remains the same tangled, chaotic mess of lines and curves. He tries to tell the dot a joke, but she has realized the flatness of it, and he's forced to retreat. She realizes how much her relationship with the squiggle had been a mistake. What she thought was freedom and joy was nothing more than sloth, chaos, and anarchy.

Fed up, the dot tells the squiggle how she really feels about him, denouncing him as meaningless, undisciplined, insignificant, and out of luck. She leaves with the line, having accepted that he has much more to offer, and the punning moral is presented: "To the [[vector (mathematics and physics)|vector]] belong the spoils."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/thedotandtheline Internet Archive]</ref>

== Authorship ==
Though listed as being directed by Chuck Jones, the true acting director was Maurice Noble, according to his own recollection—Noble being the long-term background artist and eventually credited as co-director on numerous projects with Jones. Chuck Jones was one of the originators for the adaptation and did the first treatment for the short. However, the results did not please the producers, who then asked Maurice Noble to take over, heavily vexing Jones. Noble recalls the handover happening somewhat dramatically as "Chuck, with a big scowl on his face, came in and threw all the pieces on my big brown bookcase; he stacked the whole picture like this: plunk, plunk, plunk...and stalked out of the room."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Polson|first=Tod|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Y83AAAAQBAJ&q=maurice+noble+barrier+dot+line&pg=PA34|title=The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design|date=2013-08-13|publisher=Chronicle Books|isbn=978-1-4521-2738-5|language=en}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
''The Dot and the Line'' served as the inspiration for a collection of jewelry by designer [[Jane Gordon (jewelry designer)|Jane A. Gordon]].<ref name="jewelry">{{Cite news|url=https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.504632349600266.1073741827.167570233306481&type=3|title=The Dot And The Line at Jane A. Gordon's Facebook page|date=2013-04-03}}</ref> The short film also inspired ''[[The Dot and Line]]'', a blog that publishes essays about cartoons and interviews with voice actors and creators including [[Genndy Tartakovsky]], [[Andrea Romano (voice director)|Andrea Romano]], [[Brandon Vietti]], [[Fred Seibert]], and [[Natalie Palamides]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dotandline.net/|title=The Dot and Line|website=The Dot and Line|access-date=2016-10-05}}</ref>

== Availability ==
The cartoon was released as a special feature on ''[[The Glass Bottom Boat]]'' DVD in 2005.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Bottom-Boat-Martin-Melcher/dp/B0007QS2ZC Amazon.com: The Glass Bottom Boat (WS) (DVD)]</ref> The cartoon is also featured on the 2008 release of [[Warner Home Video]]'' [[Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection|Academy Awards Animation Collection]]'' and the 2011 release of the ''[[Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1]]'' Blu-ray box-set on the third disc as a special feature.  In 2005, [[Robert Xavier Rodriguez]] made a musical setting of the book for narrator and chamber ensemble with projected images, and in 2011 he made a version for full orchestra.

== Notes ==
* This was one of only two non-[[Tom and Jerry]] animated short subjects to be released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after 1958. The other one is ''[[The Bear That Wasn't (film)|The Bear That Wasn't]]'', the final animated short released by MGM.
* "The Dot and the Line" won the final award for an animated short for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and it was Chuck Jones' only award as a producer.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jMl-LC93LY Short Film Winners: 1966 Oscars]</ref>
* This was one of two Juster books to be adapted for the big screen by Chuck Jones, although Juster had no involvement with the other, ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth (film)|The Phantom Tollbooth]]''.
*Unlike other MGM cartoons from 1963 to 1967, the lion in this film's opening logo is [[Leo the Lion (MGM)|Leo]] instead of [[Leo the Lion (MGM)|Tanner]].

== See also ==
* [[List of American films of 1965]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|0059122|The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics}}
* {{TCMDb title|310939|The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics}}

{{Flatland}}
{{Chuck Jones}}
{{AcademyAwardBestAnimatedShortFilm 1961–1980}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dot And The Line, The}}
[[Category:1965 films]]
[[Category:1960s American animated films]]
[[Category:Animated films based on children's books]]
[[Category:Best Animated Short Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:Films about mathematics]]
[[Category:Short films directed by Chuck Jones]]
[[Category:Films directed by Maurice Noble]]
[[Category:Films scored by Eugene Poddany]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films]]
[[Category:MGM Animation/Visual Arts short films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language short films]]
[[Category:1965 animated short films]]
[[Category:Films produced by Chuck Jones]]