Animation and Design

Posts Tagged ‘animated’

Bring a final animated short to dismiss the month of May. A short film that is very different from what we put in the early hours of the day (for that was done with computer animation while this is made possible by the very old and weird technique of “stop-motion”), and I do not know very well if it fits better the adjective dark or beautiful and fascinating, because this new work of the Brazilian study Animatorio kids how wonderful mixture with very disturbing (and stimulating) easily. This is the second in a series that have been titled ‘Praepostere’, in seeking to establish a visual and thematic line, and in studying the cycles of evolution in nature. This is much longer than the first and more interesting.

‘Neomorphus’ presents a very careful staging, and a fertile imagination when inventing creatures with very different objects, which die back each time to transform to survive. As promising starting point is exploited to the limit, overflowing with imagery, and finds its echoes in the Russian school of “stop-motion” and with many nods to horror films known to all, creating some truly disturbing images, almost nightmarish, demonstrating the talent of this team of creators. Enjoy it; it is a very thorough job.

I confess to the reader that until recently had not had a chance to see all of the eighth animated feature film of the house at this point, is the most important genre since Walter Elias Disney founded the Walt Disney Company. At least in Western cinema. And I had not seen in its entirety by one of those strange quirks that, together with coincidences, impossible to watch a movie until long after its release. And what I saw I did not like anything spectacular, especially compared with ‘The Incredibles’ (‘ The Incredibles’ Brad Bird, 2004) or ‘Finding Nemo’ (‘Finding Nemo, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, 2003). It turns out that ‘Ratatouille’ (id, Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, 2007) belongs to such “movies river”, which may leave some indifferent if sequences are loose, however brilliant they may be, and is only perceived ingenuity in their overwhelming if viewed from beginning to end, without interruption, and you just drag so comfortable with a torrent of imagination with which it is impossible not to have a great time.

I say this because I have a habit of reviewing movies big loose strings, to encourage or inspire me, and some stories this is impossible. They are so calculated in its entirety, which must clockwork, the only way to access a strange complicity with them is making them to look whole, which is what I have done almost four times in a row with ‘Ratatouille’ before I started this writing. And so I have seen how far Pixar, and his fabulous team of writers, they know to grab the viewer’s attention with diabolical precision, and do not let go until the very end, armed with an arsenal of amazingly well-laid traps for even the most veteran moviegoer, or bloody Analyst (I myself …) fall exhausted, forget everything, and are delivered seamlessly and passionately to consummate storytelling wonderful of these individuals, who know very well what they are doing , which gang of conspirators. So much so that ‘Ratatouille’ has become, at FNAL, my favorite Pixar movie next to that enjoyed ‘Toy Story 3′ (id, Lee Unkrich) that raised so much praise last year.

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How a film that begins with two penguins singing pop songs, surrounded by more penguins forming a ring-shaped heart, and that together form another heart with their bodies, can be so excited, the fact is it’s a real mystery to me. Moreover when a production that exploits the use of small cap adorable angelic little voices animals with which it is impossible not to gorge them at the top of diabetes. And even more when, like so many other animated films, or as many melodramas about adolescence, it goes to an outsider in this story, in not knowing how to sing like most, and therefore to do just as well what everyone else is regarded as a pariah, but to have a frenzied acceleration of the foot end earning the respect of their own. In that sense, nothing new under the sun. So how is that ‘Happy Feet’ (id, George Miller, 2006) is a film so unforgettable, so special and decidedly awesome?

Perhaps because unlike some recent Disney productions, or other animated titles that are unable to transcend the subject matter to capture life on the screen (much to the case of animated films), ‘Happy Feet’ is full in every plane of life was very hard to describe but easy to enjoy and remember. Perhaps because the viewer does not take potential (children) like a bunch of memos to which they can be convinced with any adventure drawings, on the contrary, this is a highly accurate script and psychological narrative. Or, I dunno, maybe because it’s mere staging is filled with a musicality that not only has to do with the songs or music (for some pride) John Powell, especially with the visual rhythm, incredibly dynamic and a symphonic sense of image and planning. Or maybe it has to do with how much since I’ve always liked penguins (the truth) because it is about amazing animals, far more than they seem, and here are a beautiful tribute.

The truth is that little one is set with care; this film has much to do with the first three of its director. Recently, writing about the wonderful Mad Max 2 the Road Warrior ‘(‘ Mad Max 2 ‘, 1981), and told me that George Miller was a talented filmmaker. Here again address the issue of a vast and ruthless, and an absolute star who loses everything and whose mission in life seems in the eyes of everyone else, a real nonsense. Of course this time, given the technical requirements of such a complex production at all levels, George Miller is not alone in the director’s chair, sharing, as co-directors, screenwriters with the project also Warren Coleman and Judy Morris (the fourth screenwriter John Collee, is not listed in the credits of director), but there is much sense of the greatness of Mad Max in this film, in which the vast deserts of sand in an apocalyptic world are replaced by icy plains of Antarctica, an adventure that is absolutely epic from start to finish.

in ‘Happy Feet’ penguin society and its fictional culture, which of course is a parable of social hierarchies of these animals, and especially the emperor penguin, reaching the rank of mythology. Thus, the representation of their reproductive cycle, in the harsh winter Arctic, singing with the whole community, is a perfect image of the communion of these animals by nature, almost a spiritual way. Likewise, the reunion with mothers who have gone to sea to feed during that time, has biblical echoes. It is only the beginning. The elders of the clan are a kind of wise elders, but also conservative Carcass unable to accept the difference and not always with the mouth. In this society, the guru is a Rockhopper penguin who is called Doctor Love, and humans are to them an alien species (observing our behavior toward the natural environment that we can …) and they are abudcen all fish have to let them starve. In short, a universe in which other species represents major threats to the group, but the need for survival, and where the greatest enemy is man’s ignorance.

There are images in this movie that they cut to a breath, much as you want to avoid: the fragmentation of the glacier, which reveals a crane inside, which falls to the ice water and sinks into the depths, the walk of six friends in search of a cure for the “mystical necklace” Dr. Love (a plastic ring with the drowning) through a terrible blizzard that hold them back, the discovery of abandoned fishing port like a parallel universe try, the penguins are fun for a couple of playful whales, which pass it before attempting to devour pump, the emergence of huge fish like a cyclopean monster that snatches away the livelihood, the jump back to try to communicate with Mumble aliens in a drop of hundreds of meters and a run hundreds of miles, the sense of great oppression and isolation in the confinement of the Penguins … all enlivened by a chorus of voices truly inspired, among which are Elijah Wood Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugo Weaving, Nicole Kidman and many others.

Capturing the movement of the best tap dancer in the world, Savion Glover, to realize the movement of penguin, Mumble, and other dancers to give life to other animals of the group, using four years and a huge group of animators (and servers …) to make it happen in nine months time rendering, its great popular success and Oscar, as well as impressive technical bill, show that there is life beyond Pixar, and also witness the love of film to treasure to do something like ‘Happy Feet’. Truly great film whose ecological message, more than ever necessary, is not moralizing or biased. It is what is: if we continue like this, everything will end very soon. As rain in May hope the second part, coming before too long in 3D, and hopefully bring us a couple of hours of great animated films and adventure as the first.