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shoots call for precisely scaled sets that Toninelo often hand-crafts alone in his Denver studio, with careful attention to the tiniest details, sometimes repainting and remolding the features of the 12” action figures to get that ‘just- right’ expression. In fact, Toninelo, might be best described as a creative director who happens to be a doll enthusiast, or perhaps it’s the other way around. Either way, Toninelo emerges somewhere between a Hobby Lobby savant, Balky Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers, and David Lachapelle — one part geek genius, one part endearing goof, one part photographic master. Taking his fixation with the miniature Marine one step further, Toninelo founded www.PondPatrol.com, an online GI Joe photo-narrative as well as the GI Joe Fest,
a film festival pairing the miniature American icon with the painstaking art of stop-motion animation. The films submitted to the festival transcend genres, spanning from narrative to documentary, with only two strictly enforced guidelines: Each film must last 20 minutes or less, and each film must feature at least one GI Joe as an actor. These small stars of the screen and their films probably won’t draw the same throngs of crowds and millions of dollars in box office revenue that Paramount’s 2009 live action GI JOE flick will, but then, neither do they require contract renegotiations when a last minute script change suddenly calls for a two-man nude bathing scene. Besides, who needs money when you’ve got ‘man to man-doll’ love, right? illiteratemagazine.com
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