Princess and the Frog

Like many others, I was quite excited to have Disney go back to a 2-D film. It's what they were founded upon. It's what Disney himself helped revolutionize. They never should've strayed away--especially with how gorgeous those last few films looked. The Princess and the Frog is no exception. The film is a sight to behold and more than worth the price of admission.

That being said, there is a lot more to like about the film than just its looks. Possibly with the help of John Lasseter, the film plays out with fewer problems than some of Disney's last few entries--Emperor's New Groove and Lilo and Stitch excluded. This one is in full magical swing with a wild cast of characters and colors galore. And the story is rather tight, too. From the first few moments with any given character, we know exactly what they want--something lacking from all too many films these days. What's better is that we actually care about them. Though a few of them walk the line of becoming annoyingly silly, the story always reins them back in and keeps them likeable--another problem with many films of today: unlikeable characters.

Another thing I noticed--and maybe I'm wrong--it seemed to have throwbacks to Disney Classics, directly referencing shots from other films or simply using similar art styles and set ups. More than once, I thought about The Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, and Jungle Book. Some of these might not have been intentional, but especially the reference to Sleeping Beauty was an exact replica of the final dance sequence in that beloved classic.

Really, I was pleasantly surprised. The only downside to the whole thing is that it might be a bit creepy for the young 'uns--despite the "G" rating. And with that, the fact that Disney takes something like making deals with demons a lighthearted affair. Maybe not as blatant or frightening as Anastasia (which was not Disney), but it's really hard to take "My friends on the other side" any different.

Fans of Disney won't be too disappointed with this one, nor will animation buffs in general. It is a fine flick, fun, gorgeous, and wonderful to see Disney back in its "true" colors.

I Don't Think I Could Do This

You have to wonder about things--especially films--that are given away for free. You'd think that either the film is terrible, or the filmmaker is crazy, or both. Nina Paley is doing just that. While I rented her flick, Sita Sings the Blues, through Netflix, you can watch the entire thing for free online. And if you don't want to stream it, Paley gives you permission to download the film.

I don't honestly think I could ever do such a thing--put my welfare in the hands of my fans--but I think it's awesome that Paley has taken this leap of faith and let her audience send whatever support they can. And support it they will, as SStB is a great watch. While the animation isn't groundbreaking or very dynamic, Paley recognizes this and works with what she has, using shadow puppets (a throwback to The Adventures of Prince Achmed, I'm sure), cut-out style animation, and what look to be traditional Indian paintings. And these are animated in such a way that we can overlook the lack of movement for sake of content. Paley proves that you don't need something to look as gorgeous as Kung Fu Panda to make for an interesting animated film. Really, it's only about 80 minutes, and it is more than worth your time.

In the weekend time, I hope to enjoy both District 9 and Ponyo. I'm sure I'll be talking about them next week. Until then...

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I had a chance to watch this amazing film the other day.

As some, or many of you, may know, I'm not one for anime. Usually, when someone suggests a series or film that I should watch, I--nine times out of ten--tune them out and forget all about said anime. Although I'm an animation lover, I find most anime rather trite, and I often loathe the voice work--both the original and the dubbed. However, there are exceptions. Of course, Hayao Miyazaki's films are excellent. I enjoyed Trigun, and Tekkon Kinkreet was one of the better films I watched last year. Because of my selectiveness in watching these things, I was more than a bit wary about The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. But seeing as my wife was out of town and I didn't have much going on, I popped this one in. And was very impressed.

The film has a pretty simple idea at its core: a girl has the power to jump back through time. From some of the other anime's I've seen, I feared this might take a ridiculous turn, going over the top, becoming silly or too bizarre for no real reason. But, TGWLTT keeps things close to heart, following Makoto through her last few weeks of school before she has to figure out what she wants to do with her life. When you get right down to it, this is really just a coming-of-age/love story that just happens to have fantastical elements to it. And as many of you know, these are my favorite kinds of stories.

The whole time-travel aspect is handled both with maturity and makes sense. Often there are too many holes left in a time-travel story, but this one keeps things tight, slightly complex, and very intriguing.

Animation-wise, the film looks wonderful--especially as (at least until Princess and the Frog) American films have all converted to computer animation.

And the voice acting isn't too shabby either. I watched it with the original Japanese dubbing, so I can't attest to the English, but there weren't any overtly squeaky or otherwise annoying voices.

Basically, whether or not you're in to anime, you should check this film out. It's amusing, emotionally engaging, and a nice take on a coming of age tale.

We're Back!

One thing the title of this post means is that I'm back from Colorado. It was a good, albeit fast, trip. My wife and I ate at many of our favorite restaurants exclusive to the area, saw UP for the third time, and took a zillion pictures of butterflies at the Butterfly Pavilion. But now, as with last week, I'm back in the real world and expected to do things--and I have plenty of things to do.

The other thing alludes to my recent re-watching of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. I'm a sucker for animation and even more so to ones that I watched as a child. Sometimes these flicks hold up, other times they don't. And now I understand why it took them so long to put this film out on DVD. What a lump of dino-crap.

The animation itself was actually quite good and beautiful for its time, but the story was simply awful. Granted, I think we, as general viewers, have been spoiled by the recent quality upgrade of animated films. Between Pixar, Blue Sky, and DreamWorks--not to mention Laika's addition with Coraline--animated films have gone above and beyond what they used to be. Granted, we still get our share of crap--Delgo or Battle for Terra, anyone?--but I feel like the addtion of more quality studios have raised the overall bar of animation. And really, I'd probably forgive We're Back a bit more if it hadn't been so utterly bizarre. About midway through the film, it takes quite a tonal shift and just turns plain weird. It's no wonder my mother hadn't liked this one when I was a kid. I wouldn't be surprised if the problems for this one arose from the fact that it has four different directors, but still. Tonal consistency makes for a coherent movie. Watch this one if you must, or if you have sentimental rememberances, but I would stay far away if you haven't seen it before.

Sam and Max: Freelance Police

I just rediscovered a long-lost cartoon from my childhood, Sam and Max: Freelance Police. As a teenier Christopher, I had played through the ridiculously awesome LucasArts game, and had seen a few of the comics. When the cartoon came out, I'd wanted to watch it for all I was worth, but as the show was on Saturday mornings--when my family went to church--my mother never let me.

Now, years later and after the wonderful invention of DVD--and my finally remembering to look that show up, having read Steve Purcell's short comic on Tell Tale Games (be sure to hover over the pics to read the comic)--I started watching the lost show. All things considered, it's quite a nice program. The dialogue is by far the best part of the thing, with Sam spouting off some of the best bits of gibberish--not my comic--a guy could hope for. Plus the fast-paced dialogue gave the writers a chance to slip in some very off-color jokes, considering it is a children's show.

Fans of other such ill-fated programs as Ren and Stimpy (the Nickalodean stuff), Invader Zim, and The Tick will find copious amounts of laughter her. Plus, considering how old it is, the animation isn't half bad--not the eyesore of some of today's toons. Watch, and be merry.

An Early Animation

So this is an early animation that I made a few years back for an undergrad animation class. I'm hoping that once I purchase me a copy of Toon Boom's new Studio 4.5, I'll be able to make better quality nonsense--I've already got my first animation all plotted out.

One of these days I might add a soundtrack, but don't count on it. If anything, I've still got all my original artwork, so maybe I'll scan it all and put it together with Toon Boom, then it will be brighter and better and with sound.

In the meantime though, there is a new We've Got Brains, which heralds the return of tablet art and continues the random storyline I've got going.

More Gibberish tomorrow, and possibly bonus Gibberish on Friday and Monday, since it looks like I will be in Colorado this weekend. Until next time.

Old School Animation

With how easy it is in today's world to fake animation, via programs like Adobe After Effects and Aniboom's tools and ToonBoom, it's rare to find any of today's animation NOT have some type of computer effect: be it computer generated graphics, or the simple movement of a character across the screen by setting starting and stopping points. For me, it's more than a little refreshing to take a look at some of the animated films of yesteryear, to truly experience the purity of animation. And when I say yesteryear, I mean yesteryear.

Last night, I had the privilege to watch Lotte Reiniger's 1936 film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which is the first feature-length animated film. As you can see from the still, this flick was insanely detailed. And what's crazier is the fact that all of this was cut out. Every slit that isn't black was hand cut, then moved around a la South Park style. This film truly is a sight to behold, and well worth any film or animation buff's time, especially since it is a mere 67 minutes.

More than likely, I will pull together a full review for the film at FilmMedium, and if I ever get back into the History writings--I was trying to write a history for animation--you can bet an essay will be devoted to Lotte Reiniger and her films.

Last but not least, if you're bored, or want to know about how good Get Smart and The Love Guru are, we've got reviews, and a new comic is up.