Author: artofthecartoon

SIFF 09: $9.99

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$9.99/ dir. Tatia Rosenthal/ 2008/ Australia/ Israel

411px-Nine_ninety_nineIt’s that time of year, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) has started and I am planning on seeing all the animated features at SIFF this year. So I decided to take off early from work last Thursday and head to  small theatre at the end of Broadway, the Harvard Exit. The first animated movie I saw was $9.99.

I have wrote this before, but stop motion is a bitch and I give much credit to those animators who are working in that medium. I also appreciate a film maker who is willing to take a chance and make an animated movie that is NOT geared towards children. $9.99 is an all stop-motion animated film that is not for children. Right from the spectacular opening scene, you know that $9.99 is not filled with cuteness and fairytales, but is filled with real people with real life problems. Continue reading →

Review: Up 3D

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Up/ dir. Pete Docter/ co. dir. Bob Peterson/ 2009 

upI don’t how Pixar does it, but they keep churning out quality movies one after the other. It’s an animation studio dynasty. It’s kind of like in the 90’s when Disney could do no wrong and churned out hits like The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, & The Lion King. It’s a new golden age of feature animation, and plenty of us are just enjoying the ride. Eventually this ride is going to end. Odds are against the Pixar folks that they’ll make a clunker of a movie one day. However, Up will not be that clunker (and with my luck, the clunker will be if/when I work there =P).

Up tells the story of Carl Fredrickson, a bitter elderly man.  After being forced to give up his home and head to a retirement home, Carl decides to finally act on a lifelong dream that he and his late wife Ellie had of adventuring to Paradise Falls in South America. Carl ties thousands and thousands of balloons to his house in order to fly away and head towards South America. 

The premise doesn’t sound like much, but the execution of the storytelling, combined with the emotion and sincerity of the characters come together to make yet another Pixar masterpiece. (Hit the jump for the rest of the review) Continue reading →

Review: Battle for Terra 3D

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Battle for Terra/ dir. Aristomenis Tsirbas/ 2009

The Terrans are inhabitants of the planet Terra — a place that promotes peace and tolerance, having long ago rejected war and weapons of mass destruction. But when Terra is invaded by humans seeking a new home due to an environmental catastrophe, the planet Terra is plunged into war and chaos. 

Since this movie was NOT produced by either Dreamworks or Pixar,  Terra seemed to have that indie vibe to it, which appealed to me. I was hoping for an entertaining movie that focused more on the effects of war and the struggle to survive and resist as opposed to the usual “dialogue, action, conflict, action, cute characters, action, dialogue, then happy ending.”  But this trailer had me a little worried and disappointed:

They should have just watermarked the word “cliche” to this trailer. If there was drinking game where you took a shot every time a cliche came up, within a minute you would be gone! BTW, in the future when I get to my short-film class, if I have the dialogue “It has begun…” in it, feel free to punch me in the face. 

Despite all this, I decided to give Terra a chance and I made the trek to the movie theater. And while, yes, it was very formulaic, slow paced and a little bland, the subtle sociopolitical commentary throughout the film kept me entertained. (Hit the jump to read the rest of the review) Continue reading →

Review: Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

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Secret Identities/ Edited by Jeff Yang, Perry Shen, Keith Chow, & Jerry Ma/ 2009

secret identitiesThere is a tremendous amount of Asian American talent in the comic book industry. From writers to editors, and inkers to pencilers, more than likely you’ll find some dope Asian American artists. Even more than that, many of the die-hard fans of comic books are Asians Americans. One of my favorite comic book artists growing up was Jim Lee and I have stated many times that my favorite era was the 90’s where Jim Lee’s X-Men designs always held a special place. 

Even though there are plenty of Asian American artists in the comic book industry, and many more Asian American fanboys, there is very little representation of Asian American characters in the comic book universe. It seems a little strange that a huge portion of the brightest artists/ writers and the greatest fans in the comic book world do not have a set of superhero characters that is ingrained in the Asian American community, that they can claim as their own. 

Actually it’s not that strange. Take a gander at current movies and television and you’ll more than likely see that the Asian American community is overlooked. Our characters are limited to secondary characters, but never the main person. So it makes sense that it translates to the comic book world as well. 

The creators of Secret Identities, Jeff Yang, Keith Chow, Jerry Ma, and Perry Shen, hoped to take the first step in changing this perception by bringing together some of the best Asian American talent to create an anthology of 26 stories revolving around Asian American Superheroes. The result is a truly inspiring collection of stories that feature the Asian American community. It is a must read for any comic book fan. (Hit the jump for the rest of the review) Continue reading →

Ill Bill feat. Immortal Technique & Max Cavalera “War Is My Destiny” Music Video

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There is a start up animation company  from Pennsylvania called “More Frames” that has produced some dope animation. Their latest is this beauty, it’s the animated music video for Brooklyn’s Ill Bill feat. Immortal Technique (one of my favorites) & Max Cavalera. The song is called “War is My Destiny.” Watch it here:

“War Is My Destiny” /Ill Bill feat. Immortal Technique & Max Cavalera/ 2009

Right from the opening with the dude dropping from the sky, this video had me on the edge of my sheet. I’m glad that “More Frames” was able to do the whole video as an animated piece. As much as I would’ve like to see Ill Bill, Immortal Technique, & Max Cavalera on screen, I think for art and story purposes, keeping it all animated was a great idea. There really isn’t much color to this piece, which works since this is all about the bleakness of war and revenge. Of course the color that does stand out is that red bloodshed (as it should be!). The character designs are nice and simplistic, which makes things easier for the animators (more muscles and lines = more work!), and the action scenes are nicely paced. Plus, I enjoyed the song too. Good work “More Frames” I will look for your name in the future (since I may be looking for a job =P)

Pathway & Juxtaposed

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In my never-ending quest for inspiration, I found these two short animated films (via animationblog.org) by students at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Both seniors and both films as thesis projects, Sandy Hong and Alex Myung (Wagner) are on their way towards bright careers. I appreciate their creativity and I love both stories that they tell. I won’t go in depth or do any analysis of their films just yet. We are all starting out, and sometimes all that needs to be done, is just watch and be inspired… Enjoy!

Pathway/ Dir. Sandy Hong/ 2009

Juxtaposed/ Dir. Alex Myung (Wagner)/ 2009 

Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons

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IMG_0034Since I am currently (and will always be) a student of animation, when I heard that the exhibition, Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons, was coming to Seattle’s MOHAI (Museum of History and Industry), I knew I had to make time to go see it. 

Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons gives a little insight into the history of Warner Bros. Cartoons. The exhibit does a good job of showing the process in which Warner Bros. Cartoons were made. There are character model sheets of your favorite Looney Tunes personalities. There are also animation cells, animation drawings, background paintings, story concepts, etc… 

The exhibit is simple and straightforward, and for me truly inspiring. If you have read some of the other posts on this blog, you know that I hold these Looney Tunes shorts in high regard. Not only do they bring back memories of childhood, they are also classic examples of top-notch animation. I would put these shorts against any of the cartoons that come on TV nowadays. 

Suffice to say I spent a good hour/ hour and a half in this exhibit alone. 30 minutes of which was just me watching old Bugs Bunny shorts. After that, I was ready to do what was necessary to keep on following this far-fetched dream of mine. Warner Bros. Cartoons has this great legacy, and I was ready to start making my own legacy. And how would I do that, I headed to the library to study and do my homework… 

(hit the jump to see pictures of this exhibition) Continue reading →

Punch-Out Documentary…

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At first I thought this was a clever spoof, but I think this is officially Nintendo. If it’s official then it’s brilliant. If not, it’s still pretty funny! Oh and I am super stoked for the new Punch-Out thats coming out for the Wii.

Piston Hondo! LOL! Hey he’s just doing his jab…

EDIT: Just checked out the official punchout.com site, the dude’s name is ACTUALLY Piston Hondo!

Review: Les Triplettes de Belleville

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Les Triplettes de Belleville/ dir. Sylvain Chomet/ 2003/ France

Triplets_of_Belleville-PosterLes Triplettes de Belleville (English: Triplets of Belleville) is the story of Madame Souza and her son, Champion, who is an aspiring cyclist. During the Tour De France, Champion and 2 other cylclists are kidnapped by the French Mafia and brought to Belleville. Madame Souza heads to Belleville, where she meets the Triplets of Belleville,  a trio of aged starlet singers, who helps Madame Souza rescue her son.

Okay, so from that synopsis this movie sounds pretty bland, but believe me, this movie had me transfixed to the screen. If you thought Wall-E was bold for having the first 40 minutes with no dialogue, Les Triplettes de Beville has NO dialogue! The whole story is told through pantomine, facial expressions, body language  and music and it is a masterpiece to behold. Continue reading →