Thursday, 18 November 2010
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Monday, 15 November 2010
Monday, 8 November 2010
Sorry if I get a little ANIMATED about this subject...
Normally, within this quiet little hamlet of a blog, I try to talk about England and my interactions therein. But as the weather has been nothing but poopy lately, and the goings-ons have been more-or-less disappointing (Guy Fawkes day was rained out so I missed the fireworks show,) I'm just going to suspend all talk of this silly little island for a post and, instead indulge in my current fascination: animation.
It is unreasonable to ask someone to sit down for hours at a time and continuously work on learning the Chinese language. It is doubly unreasonable to ask me to do it. Not that my time is more valuable, but my hand cramps easily and it takes me a while to digest even the small ammount of 5 Chinese characters. For somereason I have to procede in blocks of time. This is not an unheard of study tactic. But what to do with those blocks in between...
The answer has appeared over the Youtubes and various other media-spreading intertube places. Animation shorts provide a nice 6 minute or so break for my head to take a small break from the rigor of assembling random lines into Chinese words. (Don't get me wrong. I love assembling those little lines into words. It's why I give UoN more money than the education deserves.) These animation shorts run from the heartwarming, to the ribald, to the downright jarring and terrifying. I've been sleeping with the lights on since a (VERY SHORT) trist into stop-motion clay shorts depicting H.P. Lovecraft tales.
But after reviewing quite a large sample of various independent and professional animated features over the past week or so, I found myself trolling (the fishing activity, not the giant squids of anger activity) the internet for Top 10 lists of favorite animated films. Each web-browsing click brought about a disappointing, yet not altogether unexpected, serialized tribute to Disney. Sometimes these lists payed homage to Hayao Miyazaki, but only usually to one of his films in a sea of Disney. (Occasionally, by which I mean rarely, I hit pay dirt. In two instances I was directed to never-before-viewed-by-me movies. And what a pleasure those were.) For the most part these lists were tributes to Pixar. More often than naught, Toy Story sat at the top of the list, donning a CGI-sculpted crown.
And while I love Toy Story, this over-arching fellating of the Pixar golden calf really chaffed my craw. I could say that many of these Top 10 lists were insulting in their sheer adherence to American animated film, but I would be telling a half truth. I'm not insulted. I'm sad. And not just about Americans unfamiliarity with animation from other nations, but the fact that geniuses of animation such as Bruce Timm or Don Bluth are mostly unknown except by other animators and weirdoes like me. It's in the spirit of cultivating the cultural palatte of friends and family back home that I have constructed a list of, what I consider to be, 10 must-see animated films that aren't necessarily Disney (some are.)
10. The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant came out when I was about 12 years old. As far as recognition for its animation goes, it's stayed rather low on the public radar. Just now it's beginning to be unearthed and recognized as the animating feat that it is. To be fair, I had to watch it myself for the first time in years, just to make sure that I remembered the scope and magnitude of the animation correctly. It's actually a lot better than I remembered. I doubt it would have ended up on this list unless I had re-watched it and noticed one of my favorite parts about the film: the Iron Giant himself. The ammount of detail that went into his mechanisms and his sypathy-generating, emotive expressions and gestures planted this movie on my list. Beyond that, the subject matter is intriguing (to me anyway) and it's a good flick for all ages.
9. The Sword In The Stone
The Sword in the Stone is probably my favorite Disney movie of all time, and I think much of its magic is acquired the stylings of Don Bluth who breathed life into this film that I think would have been amiss otherwise. In my estimation Don Bluth was responsible (as director of animation) for a sizeable portion of Disney's animated run. What's more, the clip above depicts Disney at it's best. The attitude, the evironment, the music and the character imparted upon everyday, pedestrian objects leap right off the screen. It's this kind of infectious energy and good feeling that endeared Disney to everyone so that the company could later go on to produce utter crap like Cars and nobody would complain.
8. Tekkonkinkreet
This was recommended to me by a friend of mine who teaches Animation at Hangzhou University. It's her favorite animated film and I can see why. The city becomes an emotional thing, often reflecting whatever mood the scene calls for. It does this without making the city seem a disjointed or completely unbelieveable place. What's more, the fluidity of the characters and their body movement is well articulated on the screen and it gives the movie a pace that matches the story. The forrays that the film takes into the surreal only add to the depth of this film. I must warn that it is violent, and certainly not for kids, even though it's about kids. But it's also a tale that comes from the heart, which is more than can be said about a lot of the CG stuff we get inundated with these days. It's not there to give an obligatory moral. It's free from that. Instead it uses its talents to delineate from the typical animated fable and instead dive into questions of humanity and brotherhood.
7. Tokyo Godfathers
This was one of the two movies I found while searching lists of animated films. It sure wasn't on any normal list, like TIME magazine's top 25 animated films. I had to dive into the depths of a DC comics forum of all things to find this one. This isn't a superhero movie. Well, at least not in the way that Sueprman is a superhero comic book. This is a tale of unsung heroes, and interesting ones at that. The main characters are all homeless, and they've all got their stories and character quirks. Their development as characters (a general must for me) is performed artfully and with great care. I'd like to say that this movie has animation better than the 3 previous movies, but that would be a lie. It's animation is not just good, it's great. It's expressive and sometimes breath-taking. That being said, this is a very human story, that concerns itself with realism. To be fair, it animates this realism stupendously, but it's nothing ground-breaking. It's sitting at number 7 simply because on top of some really nice animation it's a good, heart-warming Christmas story with some of the best characters I've ever seen or endeared myself to in an animated film.
6. Fantasia
Delightful for little kids and baked college students alike, Fantasia was a must for this list. It was something that had not been done before and we've not seen it's kind since (omitting the 2000 re-release.) It's magic, it's classical music, it's colorful, it's got that classic Disney energy and best yet, it's got that damn mouse. The rodentia cum icon of all things celluloid. You've all probably seen Fantasia, so I won't go on about it, but to say that it has the best soundtrack and subsequent choreography and dance numbers out of all the movies on here. Except for maybe number 2 on the list. But we'll get to that soon enough.
5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Finally, I get to Hayao Miyazaki. Dubbed the "Walt Disney of Japan," by some jackass, Miyazaki is, without equal, my favorite animator. Ever. Disney was good at proliferating dated 50's era social standards. (Ever watch the Little Mermaid? Women, in order to be wanted by your dream boat prince, you gotta shut the hell up and never talk. Disney says so. If not, just use your voice for damseling yourself while in distress. ) Miyazaki is cerebrally and visually lightyears beyond Disney in my opinion. He knows how people move and emote. Saying that his environments are imaginative is like saying that quarks are small. What's more, Miyazaki knows how to paint a hell of a tale. These tales aren't just restrictive to the epic. (I picked Nausicaä because it's some of his most epic fare.) Miyazaki also gets down with simple episodes in life, giving vitality to simple everyday events and intriguing you with something as mundane as playing a violin. He's that good. He's great for kids and adults alike, and he's always branching out into new realms.
4. The Triplets of Bellville
This was the second film I recently discovered, and is a true testament to the skilled animation team behind this piece. I think that any animator worth their salt should be able to tell an intriguing story without a single word uttered. (As the Pixar people demonstrate with the film clips that appear before every one of their theatrical releases.) The thing's in French, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it. I think there may be five sentences uttered in the entire film, and even then it doesn't take a Big Bang Theory character to figure out what's going on. The soundtrack is... supercatchy and ultimately essential to the success of the movie. (It's a plot device, en fait.) What's more, Sylvain Chomet, the frog...er...man responsible for this breathtaking film is crafting another called The Illusionist that looks every bit as luscious as this one. And if the trailer for the Triplets of Bellville didn't catch your eyes and ears then I'm sorry. I must have posted the wrong video.
3. The Secret of Nimh
What a cheesy trailer... but hey, it was the 1980's. Who can blame 'em. This is another Don Bluth great and probably my favorite of all his work. This is post-Disney for him and features some brilliant use of perspective, as it's all done from the perspective of rodents and other things that live in fields. Or hunt in them. It's a wee bit scary, but hey, that was the 80's for you. We weren't worried about kids feeling secure all the time, and the stray "shit" "hell" or "damn" wasn't just standard fare for a kid's movie, it was obligatory. But that's not what this movie is about. This movie is about taking a farmer's cropfield and turning it into a magical warren of danger and excitement. And that's danger and excitement with the Don Bluth touch, folks. So you know it looks good. As an added bonus, Dom Delouise is the comic relief. Yayyyyyy!
2. Ferngully the Last.... GOTCHA. It's friggin' Akira
And I lied. There are no song and dance numbers in this mo-fo. Just some hardcore mind-frickery and some of the best animation to ever touch a movie projection screen. I can remember hijacking the Cartlab in Monroe at UMW to do a private showing for this film, and it blew me away, even though I'd seen it numerous times before. Akira is a movie that should be shown in cinemas every 10 years or so, so that
A. People can be reminded of what one can do with a crack team of animators
B. So that every generation can get their mind stired with the cerebral egg-beater that is this movie.
Akira's not for kids by any means. It's violent as hell and I think there's a boob at some point. But it's a movie designed to posit questions about humanity and God-like omnipotence and our place in the natural order of things. And it looks damn good while doing it. I mean Tony Robbins good. Dad, please dig this out of the DVD closet and watch it sometime when you're bored. I'm curious as to what you think. Mom, you won't like it. You should probably knit or read or something while he watches it.
1. Spirited Away
I know I just raved on about Miyazaki 4 movies up, but hey, I'm a fan. This time I'll actually talk about the movie. It's brilliant, imaginative and above all, a masterful yarn. It takes place in the spirit world, and the spirits that inhabit it are beautifully rendered, and push our preconceptions about what a spirit is and isn't. The bath house in which much of the movie occurs pulses with a life of its own. Even when the movie ventures outside of the labyrinthine bath house, it reveals a nuanced and fun-to-watch expansion of the spirit world. In terms of credentials, it was the first non-American film (and only non-English language film so far) to win an Oscar for Best Animated Movie. And in the political sphincterfest of a movie midden that is the Academy, that's saying something. It's a great family film and it's got so much heart they use it as an organ donor when nobody's watching it. It's so good I stayed up till 1:30 in the morning writing about it. There you have it. Ten animated movies that aren't CGI that you should see. Unless you're a kid. Then it's like 6 or 7 animated movies you should see. Gah it's late. I'll stop writing now.
Th-th-th-that's all folks.
-Jonathan "No More Clay Kthulus Please" Trenary
It is unreasonable to ask someone to sit down for hours at a time and continuously work on learning the Chinese language. It is doubly unreasonable to ask me to do it. Not that my time is more valuable, but my hand cramps easily and it takes me a while to digest even the small ammount of 5 Chinese characters. For somereason I have to procede in blocks of time. This is not an unheard of study tactic. But what to do with those blocks in between...
The answer has appeared over the Youtubes and various other media-spreading intertube places. Animation shorts provide a nice 6 minute or so break for my head to take a small break from the rigor of assembling random lines into Chinese words. (Don't get me wrong. I love assembling those little lines into words. It's why I give UoN more money than the education deserves.) These animation shorts run from the heartwarming, to the ribald, to the downright jarring and terrifying. I've been sleeping with the lights on since a (VERY SHORT) trist into stop-motion clay shorts depicting H.P. Lovecraft tales.
But after reviewing quite a large sample of various independent and professional animated features over the past week or so, I found myself trolling (the fishing activity, not the giant squids of anger activity) the internet for Top 10 lists of favorite animated films. Each web-browsing click brought about a disappointing, yet not altogether unexpected, serialized tribute to Disney. Sometimes these lists payed homage to Hayao Miyazaki, but only usually to one of his films in a sea of Disney. (Occasionally, by which I mean rarely, I hit pay dirt. In two instances I was directed to never-before-viewed-by-me movies. And what a pleasure those were.) For the most part these lists were tributes to Pixar. More often than naught, Toy Story sat at the top of the list, donning a CGI-sculpted crown.
And while I love Toy Story, this over-arching fellating of the Pixar golden calf really chaffed my craw. I could say that many of these Top 10 lists were insulting in their sheer adherence to American animated film, but I would be telling a half truth. I'm not insulted. I'm sad. And not just about Americans unfamiliarity with animation from other nations, but the fact that geniuses of animation such as Bruce Timm or Don Bluth are mostly unknown except by other animators and weirdoes like me. It's in the spirit of cultivating the cultural palatte of friends and family back home that I have constructed a list of, what I consider to be, 10 must-see animated films that aren't necessarily Disney (some are.)
10. The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant came out when I was about 12 years old. As far as recognition for its animation goes, it's stayed rather low on the public radar. Just now it's beginning to be unearthed and recognized as the animating feat that it is. To be fair, I had to watch it myself for the first time in years, just to make sure that I remembered the scope and magnitude of the animation correctly. It's actually a lot better than I remembered. I doubt it would have ended up on this list unless I had re-watched it and noticed one of my favorite parts about the film: the Iron Giant himself. The ammount of detail that went into his mechanisms and his sypathy-generating, emotive expressions and gestures planted this movie on my list. Beyond that, the subject matter is intriguing (to me anyway) and it's a good flick for all ages.
9. The Sword In The Stone
The Sword in the Stone is probably my favorite Disney movie of all time, and I think much of its magic is acquired the stylings of Don Bluth who breathed life into this film that I think would have been amiss otherwise. In my estimation Don Bluth was responsible (as director of animation) for a sizeable portion of Disney's animated run. What's more, the clip above depicts Disney at it's best. The attitude, the evironment, the music and the character imparted upon everyday, pedestrian objects leap right off the screen. It's this kind of infectious energy and good feeling that endeared Disney to everyone so that the company could later go on to produce utter crap like Cars and nobody would complain.
8. Tekkonkinkreet
This was recommended to me by a friend of mine who teaches Animation at Hangzhou University. It's her favorite animated film and I can see why. The city becomes an emotional thing, often reflecting whatever mood the scene calls for. It does this without making the city seem a disjointed or completely unbelieveable place. What's more, the fluidity of the characters and their body movement is well articulated on the screen and it gives the movie a pace that matches the story. The forrays that the film takes into the surreal only add to the depth of this film. I must warn that it is violent, and certainly not for kids, even though it's about kids. But it's also a tale that comes from the heart, which is more than can be said about a lot of the CG stuff we get inundated with these days. It's not there to give an obligatory moral. It's free from that. Instead it uses its talents to delineate from the typical animated fable and instead dive into questions of humanity and brotherhood.
7. Tokyo Godfathers
This was one of the two movies I found while searching lists of animated films. It sure wasn't on any normal list, like TIME magazine's top 25 animated films. I had to dive into the depths of a DC comics forum of all things to find this one. This isn't a superhero movie. Well, at least not in the way that Sueprman is a superhero comic book. This is a tale of unsung heroes, and interesting ones at that. The main characters are all homeless, and they've all got their stories and character quirks. Their development as characters (a general must for me) is performed artfully and with great care. I'd like to say that this movie has animation better than the 3 previous movies, but that would be a lie. It's animation is not just good, it's great. It's expressive and sometimes breath-taking. That being said, this is a very human story, that concerns itself with realism. To be fair, it animates this realism stupendously, but it's nothing ground-breaking. It's sitting at number 7 simply because on top of some really nice animation it's a good, heart-warming Christmas story with some of the best characters I've ever seen or endeared myself to in an animated film.
6. Fantasia
Delightful for little kids and baked college students alike, Fantasia was a must for this list. It was something that had not been done before and we've not seen it's kind since (omitting the 2000 re-release.) It's magic, it's classical music, it's colorful, it's got that classic Disney energy and best yet, it's got that damn mouse. The rodentia cum icon of all things celluloid. You've all probably seen Fantasia, so I won't go on about it, but to say that it has the best soundtrack and subsequent choreography and dance numbers out of all the movies on here. Except for maybe number 2 on the list. But we'll get to that soon enough.
5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Finally, I get to Hayao Miyazaki. Dubbed the "Walt Disney of Japan," by some jackass, Miyazaki is, without equal, my favorite animator. Ever. Disney was good at proliferating dated 50's era social standards. (Ever watch the Little Mermaid? Women, in order to be wanted by your dream boat prince, you gotta shut the hell up and never talk. Disney says so. If not, just use your voice for damseling yourself while in distress. ) Miyazaki is cerebrally and visually lightyears beyond Disney in my opinion. He knows how people move and emote. Saying that his environments are imaginative is like saying that quarks are small. What's more, Miyazaki knows how to paint a hell of a tale. These tales aren't just restrictive to the epic. (I picked Nausicaä because it's some of his most epic fare.) Miyazaki also gets down with simple episodes in life, giving vitality to simple everyday events and intriguing you with something as mundane as playing a violin. He's that good. He's great for kids and adults alike, and he's always branching out into new realms.
4. The Triplets of Bellville
This was the second film I recently discovered, and is a true testament to the skilled animation team behind this piece. I think that any animator worth their salt should be able to tell an intriguing story without a single word uttered. (As the Pixar people demonstrate with the film clips that appear before every one of their theatrical releases.) The thing's in French, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it. I think there may be five sentences uttered in the entire film, and even then it doesn't take a Big Bang Theory character to figure out what's going on. The soundtrack is... supercatchy and ultimately essential to the success of the movie. (It's a plot device, en fait.) What's more, Sylvain Chomet, the frog...er...man responsible for this breathtaking film is crafting another called The Illusionist that looks every bit as luscious as this one. And if the trailer for the Triplets of Bellville didn't catch your eyes and ears then I'm sorry. I must have posted the wrong video.
3. The Secret of Nimh
What a cheesy trailer... but hey, it was the 1980's. Who can blame 'em. This is another Don Bluth great and probably my favorite of all his work. This is post-Disney for him and features some brilliant use of perspective, as it's all done from the perspective of rodents and other things that live in fields. Or hunt in them. It's a wee bit scary, but hey, that was the 80's for you. We weren't worried about kids feeling secure all the time, and the stray "shit" "hell" or "damn" wasn't just standard fare for a kid's movie, it was obligatory. But that's not what this movie is about. This movie is about taking a farmer's cropfield and turning it into a magical warren of danger and excitement. And that's danger and excitement with the Don Bluth touch, folks. So you know it looks good. As an added bonus, Dom Delouise is the comic relief. Yayyyyyy!
2. Ferngully the Last.... GOTCHA. It's friggin' Akira
And I lied. There are no song and dance numbers in this mo-fo. Just some hardcore mind-frickery and some of the best animation to ever touch a movie projection screen. I can remember hijacking the Cartlab in Monroe at UMW to do a private showing for this film, and it blew me away, even though I'd seen it numerous times before. Akira is a movie that should be shown in cinemas every 10 years or so, so that
A. People can be reminded of what one can do with a crack team of animators
B. So that every generation can get their mind stired with the cerebral egg-beater that is this movie.
Akira's not for kids by any means. It's violent as hell and I think there's a boob at some point. But it's a movie designed to posit questions about humanity and God-like omnipotence and our place in the natural order of things. And it looks damn good while doing it. I mean Tony Robbins good. Dad, please dig this out of the DVD closet and watch it sometime when you're bored. I'm curious as to what you think. Mom, you won't like it. You should probably knit or read or something while he watches it.
1. Spirited Away
I know I just raved on about Miyazaki 4 movies up, but hey, I'm a fan. This time I'll actually talk about the movie. It's brilliant, imaginative and above all, a masterful yarn. It takes place in the spirit world, and the spirits that inhabit it are beautifully rendered, and push our preconceptions about what a spirit is and isn't. The bath house in which much of the movie occurs pulses with a life of its own. Even when the movie ventures outside of the labyrinthine bath house, it reveals a nuanced and fun-to-watch expansion of the spirit world. In terms of credentials, it was the first non-American film (and only non-English language film so far) to win an Oscar for Best Animated Movie. And in the political sphincterfest of a movie midden that is the Academy, that's saying something. It's a great family film and it's got so much heart they use it as an organ donor when nobody's watching it. It's so good I stayed up till 1:30 in the morning writing about it. There you have it. Ten animated movies that aren't CGI that you should see. Unless you're a kid. Then it's like 6 or 7 animated movies you should see. Gah it's late. I'll stop writing now.
Th-th-th-that's all folks.
-Jonathan "No More Clay Kthulus Please" Trenary
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
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