Film

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 →

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#%!

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 →

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 →

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 →

Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao vs. Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton

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Of course I was watching this highly anticipated boxing match between the Filipino People’s Champ, Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao and the proud Briton with a legion of UK fans, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton. Manny is the pound-for-pound #1 pugilist in the world, while Ricky Hatton was the lineal Junior Welterweight Champ and was supposedly one of the toughest fighters out there. Notice the past tense and the  “supposedly” when describing Ricky Hatton, because that dude got destroyed by the Pride of the Filipino People, Manny Pacquaio to the tune of a 2nd round KO! Watch the fight here:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Manny Pacquiao vs Ricky Hatton on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod


I thought it would only be appropriate to use this as a film study to look at 2 basic principles of animation: Squash & Stretch, and Anticipation. Hit the jump to watch the breakdown… Continue reading →