Author: artofthecartoon

SIFF 09: Egon & Dönci

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Egon & Dönci/ dir. Ádám Magyar/ 2008/ Hungary

3949How does one make a movie an experience? When a movie stops being about story, plot, and characters and the  focus is so much about the visuals, the sights and the sounds that we, as an audience, really don’t give a damn about the story.

That’s what Egon & Dönci attempts to do. This quirky Hungarian animated feature (apparently Hungary’s first CG animated movie) has no dialogue whatsoever, and uses gestures and sounds to communicate its characters thoughts and ideas, a technique that is not new by any means to the animation field, but still powerful when done right. Continue reading →

Voltron: The SLR Camera! (1985)

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I have a slew of reviews that should be upcoming (busy with school and work), so to break the monotony, I thought I would quickly post this:

In 1985, this came out…

voltroncam

It is a fully functional, transforming Voltron SLR –wannabe 110 film camera. Let me repeat in ALL CAPS and bold for emphasis. FULLY FUNCTIONAL AND TRANSFORMING VOLTRON SLR!

How come I didn’t know about this? And how do I get one now? I’m willing to switch from digital to 110 film (Do they even make 110 film anymore?)

Anyway. DO WANT!

From Gizmodo

SIFF 09: Mamma Mu och Kråken/ Der Mondbär: Das große Kinoabenteuer

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Mamma Mu och Kråken (Mamma Moo and Crow)/ dir. Igor Veyshtagin/ 2008/ Sweden

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Der Mondbär: Das große Kinoabenteuer (Moonbeam Bear and His Friends)/ dir. Thomas Bodenstein & Michael Maurus/ 2008/ Germany

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I saw Mamma Moo and Crow and Moonbeam Bear and His Friends at Admiral Theater for SIFF this past weekend. Both showings were filled with cute little children and their parents. I’ll be honest I felt a little weird being there. Luckily I wasn’t the only one there without kids.

Anyway, I have a new found respect for animated projects that are geared toward those in society that are 5 years old and YOUNGER. If I were being really critical, I would mention the sub-par and simplistic animation, the thin story and plot, and general cheese factor for both films. Yeah, it was cool seeing animation from other countries but these films screamed PBS kids special. Hey the filmakers know their audience and simple animation combined with simple story and basic dialogue is perfect for the target demographic.

I did have some quibbles after the fact though. Mamma Moo and Crow was a story about friendship, but to me it seemed that the Cow and Crow had something more  going on (if you know what I mean). That aint age appropriate is it?

As for Moonbeam Bear and His Friends, I enjoyed that story more, but there were rapping crows! That’s right crows that rapped!  I almost yelled “THAT’S RACIST!” in the theater. That aint age approriate is it?

The real question for these kinds of films is “Is there a good message for the kiddies?” The answer is yes. However, I would never let MY kids watch this sh#%!

The NEW Batman…

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If you weren’t paying attention, Bruce Wayne is NOT Batman at the moment. After the 3 issue Battle For the Cowl storyline, there is a new Batman in town. Meet the NEW Batman:

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Don’t recognize him? Well the new Batman is… (drumroll) Dick Grayson, who was the first Robin:

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Of course, he eventually had a falling out with Bruce Wayne and became one of my favorite superheroes, Nightwing:

2008-11-02-nightwingMy Take: I think Dick Grayson was an obvious choice, however Dick Grayson was already Batman once, shortly after the Knightfall Series (BTW, Prodigal was an underrated storyline!!!) I think it’s pretty obvious that DC Comics will eventually give the mantle of Batman back to Bruce Wayne (Bruce is currently perceived to be dead, but is actually trapped in the past). But for this to work, DC needs to have Dick hold onto the mantle of Batman for at least a year. And they need to delve into the reasons why Dick decided to take up the mantle of Batman (because Battle for the Cowl did not address that!)

There is one last thing about Dick Grayson becoming Batman, I’m going to miss the eskrima sticks…

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)