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Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Release date: June 10, 2019
Rating: ★★
Review:
One of the most interesting animation directors to come from Japan is Masaaki Yuasa. He brought us very idiosyncratic movies as ‘Mindgame’ (2004) and ‘Night Is Short, Walk on Girl’ (2017). Both features have striking visuals that make them stand out within the vast anime canon.
‘Ride Your Wave’, Yuasa’s feature film from 2019, is remarkably normal compared to these earlier features. True, the human designs are strangely elongated, there are some distorted shots, and strange perspectives, and the color designs are brighter than usual in anime, but the background art is much more standard anime fare. The story, too, has nothing of the mind-blowing qualities of the earlier features. In fact, ‘Ride Your Wave’ is a disappointingly normal love story with a supernatural element, an almost obligate story ingredient in Japanese feature animation.
‘Ride Your Wave’ tells about a surfing girl who falls in love with a fire fighting boy, but then disaster strikes… Yuasa uses standard montage techniques to tell of the lovers’ bliss, and equally standard flashback techniques and repetitions of what people had said to make his message come across. This makes the film all too explanatory and heavy-handied. In fact, there’s little to enjoy in ‘Ride Your Wave’ besides the designs and some shots, and the film doesn’t rise above the standard fare. From Yuasa we certainly expect better…
Watch the trailer of ‘Ride Your Wave’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Ride Your Wave’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Release date: July 19, 2019
Rating: ★★
Review:
In 2016 Makoto Shinkai rightfully scored a huge hit with his feature film ‘Your Name’. This film’s successor, ‘Weathering with You’ from 2019, unfortunately isn’t half as good.
Like ‘Your Name’ the film is well made, sporting intricate background art, beautiful lighting and fine animation, if not particularly outstanding. But the story, with its high level of spiritualism and its bizarre ending, leaves much to be desired, not in the least because it overstretches its own believability. This already starts with the film’s premise: that Tokyo has been shrouded in rain for months, without any chance of the sun. In this depressing environment there is Hina, a girl who is able to pray for the sun, if only briefly and only locally…
But Hina is not the main protagonist of the film and even remains pretty enigmatic throughout. This is reserved for Hodaka, an sixteen years old boy who has run from home and tries to find his luck in Tokyo, only to discover that this is quite hard without having the legal age to work or a proper identity card. Hodaka is the narrator of the story, and we largely watch the events through his eyes.
Perhaps because the story tells about teenagers the emotions run free in this film, and these are at times quite overblown. One almost rejoices when reality finally checks in with the youngsters’ fantasy life.
Much happens during the course of the film, but little of it makes sense, least of all the aftermath, in which Tokyo is flooded after all. I can’t make head or tail of Shinkai’s tale or his message, and I was for most of the time quite bored. This of course left ample time to admire the background art, but these beautiful sceneries can’t save a film that succumbs under its own pretentions.
Watch the trailer of ‘Weathering with You’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Weathering with You’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD
Director: Chris Butler
Release date: April 7, 2019
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
Laika’s ‘Missing Link’ is the second of the three animated yeti features of 2018-2019, the other two being Warner Bros.’ ‘Smallfoot’ from 2018 and Dreamworks’ ‘Abominable’ from 2019. ‘Missing Link’ easily is the best of the three. The stop motion animation is much more interesting than the rather generic computer animation of the other two studios, and the story much less predictable.
The originality already starts with the fact that not yetis but a bigfoot, christened ‘Mr. Link’ from Washington state is the central character of the film. We follow him, his ‘discoverer’ Sir Lionel Frost and Frost’s former love interest and widow of a fellow explorer, Adelina Fortnight, on an unusual quest.
The year is 1886 (we know that because we see the Statue of Liberty being under construction), the year before the European powers would divide Africa between them on the Berlin conference , while in North America the once extremely abundant passenger pigeons were being killed in huge numbers to certain extinction.
This age, in which discovery equaled oppression and slaughter, is exemplified by Sir Lionel Frost’s adversary, Lord Piggot-Dunceby, head of a club of explorers Sir Lionel Frost desperately wants to join, despite the fact all members despise him. This club represents the world of white supremacy and male chauvinism, but Sir Lionel Frost shows he’s made from different material, and the whole film sends a message of love and respect for our fellow creatures, being man or animal, man or woman, or whatever.
‘Missing Link’ does not score high on believability. First, we must accept that Sir Lionel Frost is more interested in discovering than in really studying his findings, despite his few tendencies to do so. Second, we must accept that the giant ape-like Mr. Link can wander through the world unnoticed, simply because he has put on some clothes. Third, we must accept the great lengths to which Lord Piggot-Dunceby goes to thwart Sir Lionel Frost’s plans, not only hiring an assassin, but even completely discarding a huge discovery which could have made him famous if he would steal it from Frost. Fourth, there’s an exciting vertigo scene, which unfortunately throws all plausibility out of the window. In this single scene our heroes should have died multiple times. The film makers don’t even show us how our heroes survive their predicament.
But what the film lacks in believability it makes up in characters and story telling. Both Sir Lionel Frost and Mr. Link are interesting characters, with Mr. Link being instantly likeable, while Adelina Fortnight defies the normal love interest cliches, being much more of an independent woman, steering her own course. There isn’t even a breakup scene in sight, that obligatory staple scene of American animation films of the 2010s.
The characters are much helped by great voice acting. Hugh Jackman (Sir Lionel Frost), Zoe Saldana (Adelina Fortnight), Stephen Fry (Lord Piggot-Dunceby), Timothy Olyphant (the assassin Willard Stenk) and Emma Thompson (whose character I won’t reveal here) all do an excellent voice job, but it’s Zach Galifianakis who stands out as Mr. Link, making him both polite, shy, naïve, enthusiastic, gentle, sweet and open at the same time, without forgetting to make him funny, too.
Being a Laika film, the stop-motion animation is, of course, of the highest quality. Especially the character animation should be mentioned as outstanding, but also impressive are the action scenes, highlight being a long chase scene on a rocking boat.
Understandably for a film showing such wide vistas as the Ocean and the forests of Washington State there’s a large dose of computer animation and computer-generated background art involved, which unfortunately make the film’s looks a little more generic than desired. But the film surprises most in its sunny color palette. ‘Missing Link’ is so much more colorful than all former Laika films, perhaps because it has discarded all horror elements, otherwise so omnipresent in their filmography. Thus, the film has very pleasant looks, and is a joy to watch from start to end (yes, even the end titles are lovely). I certainly hope the studio will retain this direction of more colorful tales and sceneries.
Watch the trailer of ‘Missing Link’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Missing Link’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD
Director: Miguel Jiron
Release date: February 26, 2019
Stars: Spider-Ham
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Spider-Ham – Caught in a Ham’ is an attempt to show how a ‘Spider-Ham’ animated cartoon would look like.
The result is a clear homage to the classic Warner Bros. Cartoons, although there’s also a Tex Avery style corridor with doors gag, while the background art harks back to the 1990s work of Genndy Tarkovsky and Craig McCracken, and the evil scientists to the work of John Kricfalusi for ‘Ren & Stimpy’. This shows that the 1990s renaissance has become as much as a reference point for contemporary film makers as the original cartoons of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were.
‘Spider-Ham – Caught in a Ham’ is not particularly funny, and the character is way too talkative, but there’s a series of nice ‘Duck Amuck‘-like meta-gags before the short turns out to be a prequel to the ‘Spider-man into the Spider-verse’ main movie, which the short accompanies on the DVD.
Watch ‘Spider-Ham – Caught in a Ham’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Spider-Ham – Caught in a Ham’ is available on the Blu-Ray and DVD of ‘Spider-Man – Into the Spider-Verse’
Director: Floor Adams
Release date: February 23, 2019
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
Christopher is a man on the autism spectrum, He loves his model Stuka dive bomber airplanes, but he has difficulties with social relationships. When is older brother invites him along to a party, a whole new adventure for him starts.
Christopher’s autism is shown by a homunculus inside his head who has to look up and memorize everything and thus easily gets an information overload, for example when too much is happening at the same time during the party. Christopher clearly is as sympathetic as he is social awkward, but I cannot help but admire the patience of his love interest Gwen, who has to suffer a lot through Christopher’s erratic behavior.
‘Mind My Mind’ is a nice insight in the mind of a person on the autism spectrum, but succeeds not entirely or convincingly in making the audience believe he can function easily in society.
The designs are pleasant, although I found the homunculus too sketchy a character. The animation meanwhile, is fair, and focuses on the characters’ emotions and relationships. Despite being a Dutch-Belgian co-production, the voices are in English, and thus the film can be enjoyed by a large audience.
Watch the trailer of ‘Mind My Mind’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Mind My Mind’ is available on DVD
Director: Chuck Jones
Release date: December 28, 1963
Stars: Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘To Beep or not to Beep’ is a late, but fine entry in the Road Runner series, exemplifying Chuck Jones’ late, rather deft style.
The short is noteworthy for a string of gags that all use a large catapult, which of course, fails the coyote repeatedly. Apart from the catapult gags, the giant spring gag is a nice one. Note the extreme deformation of the coyote’s body when it gets caught in a telephone wire: the coyote’s eyes and feet stretch for several meters at that point.
The animation and background art are gorgeous throughout, and even Bill Lava’s music is apt.
Watch an excerpt from ‘To Beep or not to Beep’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘To Beep or not to Beep’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Three’
Directors: Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart
Release date: 1965
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Mosaic’ starts with Norman McLaren himself entering an empty stage with a ball, while whistling. When he places the ball in empty air, it soon turns into a dot, which quickly splits into four dots, then nine, then sixteen and so on, until very complex patterns of dots fill the screen. The result is somewhat like a moving Piet Mondriaan painting, with the dots forming endless patterns, which change color over time.
It’s thanks to McLaren’s and Evelyn Lambart’s geniuses that this highly abstract film remains entertaining throughout, and seems to follow some inner logic. Indeed, McLaren himself said that ‘Mosaic’, like ‘Lines Vertical‘ and ‘Lines Horizontal‘ followed the structure of Hindu classical music, which also start with an easy pattern (a raga), which becomes increasingly complex and fast moving.
Watch ‘Mosaic’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Mosaic’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Norman McLaren – The Master’s Edition’
Directors: Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart
Release date: 1962
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Lines Horizontal’ is essentially ‘Lines Vertical‘ from 1960, but turned 90 degrees, re-colored and with a new, rather folky soundtrack by Peter Seeger. Even though the patterns are essentially the same, the result feels like a new film, especially because the horizontal lines cause some different effects to the eye, like creating non-existent triangles.
‘Lines Vertical’ and ‘Lines Horizontal’ both are extreme films in that they only use parallel lines, but Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart are able to turn this extreme concepts into intriguing films, thanks to their timing and overall structure, which follows an inner logic.
Watch ‘Lines Horizontal’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Lines Horizontal’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Norman McLaren – The Master’s Edition’
Director: Norman McLaren
Release date: 1961
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘New York Lightboard’ is a direct-on-film animation film that was never meant for the cinema. Instead, it was a commercial film commissioned by the Canadian Governmental Tourism Office to be projected in an endless loop on a big screen on Times Square in New York City.
The film is both in black and white and silent, but McLaren makes the commercial a very playful one, with letters bouncing and playing with each other, and metamorphosis running wild (we watch. e.g. the letters Canada change into a fish, which turns into a bird, which becomes a smiling sun, etc.).
Most of the film is pretty abstract, but there’s also some fine animation of swimming fish, a galloping horse, a man in a canoe and of Hamlet and Laertes fighting. Apart from the words Canada and ‘Dial PL 7-4917’ (for more information), the most recurring elements are animated fireworks.
The whole film seems a little too playful and too experimental for a general audience, but it certainly must have drawn attention. There’s also a short equally silent documentary called ‘New York Lightboard Record’ in which we watch the film on a screen on Times Square, and some of the responses of the audience watching it.
Watch ‘New York Lightboard’ & ‘New York Lightboard Record’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘New York Lightboard’ and ‘New York Lightboard Record’ are available on the DVD-box ‘Norman McLaren – The Master’s Edition’
Director: Alex Lovy
Release date: February 3, 1968
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
The Warner Bros. Studio was in its fifth incarnation and almost at the end of its life (the studio closed down in 1969) when ‘Norman Normal’ was released. The film is one of the most original of the entire Warner Bros. output, and remarkable for being a collaboration with musician Paul Stookey, the Paul of famed folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.
‘Norman Normal’ knows a pleasant cartoon modern design and there’s no funny animal in sight. Instead, the short is rather puzzling and hardly knows a narrative, but seems to say something about emotional blackmail in society, and how trying to fit in in society can conflict with one’s own moral standards.
Introduced by a colorful beat band, we follow Norman who struggles with an abject order by his boss, while he seems at loss at a party. Especially the party sequence is strikingly modern, addressing the pushy coercion into drinking alcohol, while Norman himself questions a joke on being funny at the expense of a minority group. I didn’t expect such modern stances in a 1960s cartoon, at all.
Unfortunately, the short is too directionless and ends too abruptly to become a classic, but it’s certainly an interesting product of the 1960s, an era of more experimental approach to storytelling, both in live action and animation.
The film’s title song also appeared on Peter, Paul and Mary’s 1966 release ‘The Peter, Paul and Mary Album’. According to Wikipedia more ‘Norman Normal’ cartoons were envisaged, but this would remain the only one.
Watch a video clip based on ‘Norman Normal’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Norman Normal’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six’
Director: Robert McKimson
Release date: February 29, 1964
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Bartholomew versus the Wheel’ is an oddball cartoon in both the Warner Bros. Canon and in Robert McKimson’s oeuvre. Narrated by a little boy the film tells about a dog, Bartholomew, who hates wheels, and bites them all. But things change when he tries to bite an airplane wheel.
‘Bartholomew versus the Wheel’ is a sweet little narrative directed at children and knows very charming cartoon modern designs that are unlike any other Warner Bros cartoon. Bartholomew himself has a very handsome rounded design, and the humans are often of a monochrome cartoon modern design. Also striking is the background art, which emulates children pencil drawings. This film thus is another pleasant surprise out of the studio’s last days.
Watch ‘Bartholomew versus the Wheel’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Bartholomew versus the Wheel’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six’
Director: Chuck Jones
Release date: April 27, 1963
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Now Hear This’ is a cartoon on sound. The film is one of the most original cartoons by a major studio of the 1960s, for its ultra-modern designs and idiosyncratic narrative. The film knows a stream-of-consciousness-like way of storytelling, exploiting an inner logic, but with only a dreamlike coherence.
In the film Chuck Jones and his crew only use monochrome backgrounds, with shapes, lines and typography emphasizing both the action and the emotional response. Only the three main characters (a devil, a deaf Briton and a small character dressed in pink) are drawn and animated traditionally, with the Briton being the audience’s connection to what happens on the screen.
Being a film on sound, sound effect man Tregg Brown goes berzerk in creating and combining the craziest sounds, from the decades-old ‘rubber band’ sound snippet to bizarre new sound effects accompanying lines, shapes and words. The result is as mesmerizing as it is rewarding in its originality. It’s striking that the studio could produce such an avant-garde film in its final days, which were mostly populated with much less inspired products.
Watch excerpts from ‘Now Hear This’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Now Hear This’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six’
Directors: Chuck Jones & Abe Levitow
Release date: December 29, 1962
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Martian Through Georgia’ is narrated by Ed Prentiss and tells about a Martian (typically designed as a little green man, if a rather frog-like one).
This Martian is so bored by his own society, his psychiatrist advices him to travel. So the Martian sets out for Earth, where things are very different, indeed. Nevertheless, the Martian finds little happiness on our planet, and in the end goes back home, with renewed love for his home planet (or at least one of its female inhabitants).
‘Martian Through Georgia’ knows a very lame and disappointing ending and is far from funny, but the film’s character designs and animation are of a high quality. Yet, the film’s main attraction are its avant-garde layouts by Maurice Noble and background art by Philip DeGuard. Noble goes completely wild, so the artwork becomes a marvel from start to end. So even if the story fails to inspire, the film’s looks remain entertaining throughout.
Watch excerpts from ‘Martian Through Georgia’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Martian Through Georgia’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six’
Director: Robert McKimson
Release date: February 27, 1960
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Wild Wild World’ is an obvious parody on the documentary series ‘Wide Wide World’, which run on NBC from 1955 to 1958. Of all cavemen cartoons ‘Wild Wild World’ is the one most directly anticipating The Flintstones, who would make their debut only seven months after the release of this cartoon.
The film is introduced and narrated by one Cave Darroway (a caricature of the original televison series’ host Dave Garroway), but the main cartoon is supposedly found footage (in “cromagnonscope”) from 75,000,000 B.C., which would explain the dinosaurs but not the cavemen. The trope of cavemen and dinosaurs existing together is almost as old as cinema itself, but ‘Wild Wild World’ goes at lengths to show the society of 75 million years ago as being just like ours, with sky scrapers, barbers, elevators and such.
The film exploits a pleasant cartoon modern design and knows a running gag of three hunters trying to catch a dinosaur, to no avail. These cavemen are drawn all too tiny compared to the dinosaurs, exaggerating the prehistoric animals’ sizes way too much.
‘Wild Wild World’ is more of a curiosity than a classic Warner Bros. cartoon, but shows that the studio could be inspired even in its nadir.
Watch excerpts from ‘Wild Wild World’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Wild Wild World’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Six’
Director: Norman McLaren
Production date: March 17, 1966
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘The Seasons’ is an unfinished film in which Norman McLaren tried to emulate the Canadian landscape in several moving paintings.
The ever changing pastel paintings never cease to amaze, with their metamorphosis of clouds, seascapes and landscapes, but McLaren deemed the film too abstract to entertain and never finished it. Thus, we are left with loose images without a soundtrack, and indeed, in this state, the result is still a little too boring to sit out, despite its short length of only four minutes. And yet, the images themselves are so beautiful it’s a pity this short never reached a final state.
‘The Seasons’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Norman McLaren – The Master’s Edition’
Director: Norman McLaren
Production date: ca. 1961
Rating: ★
Review:
This unfinished film from ca. 1961 must be the most extreme Norman McLaren ever made. In fact this is one of the most extreme films in the entire history of cinema. The film consists of a black and a white image only that are altered in different rhythms to cause a flickering effect. The electronic soundtrack matches the flickering.
It’s a testimony of McLaren’s genius that even such an extreme film contains some rhythm and variation, and even a sense of a build-up, but the idea remains too extreme to be entertaining, and the continuous stroboscope effect quickly wears done the viewer.
‘The Flicker Film’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Norman McLaren – The Master’s Edition’
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Release date: December 1963
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
‘Renaissance’ must be counted among Walerian Borowczyk’s best and most powerful works. Instead of the silliness of ‘Les Astronautes‘ and ‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman‘, ‘Renaissance’ is a powerful stop-motion film on destruction.
The short starts bleak enough with the scene of a completely destroyed chamber. But then the objects in the room start to reassemble themselves…
Borowczyk’s command of stop-motion and reverse film making is astonishing, and although the tricks used are as old as cinema itself, these are used to an impressive effect, greatly enhanced by the soundtrack with all its crystal clear sounds. The whole surreal atmosphere looks forward to Jan Švankmajer’s stop-motion works, as does the morbid atmosphere.
Watch ‘Renaissance’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Renaissance’ is available on the Blu-Ray/DVD set ‘Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation’
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Release date: June 1963
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
With ‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman’ Borowczyk continues the silly surrealism of ‘Les Astronautes‘ from 1959. Although we are promised 13 volumes, we only watch three words from the Encyclopédie: A is for automobiles, B for Balloons and C for Chemin de fer (Railways).
The film uses 19th century engravings to a great effect, especially the car race in ‘Automobiles’ is as inventive as it is entertaining. Borowczyk makes clever use of his source material, and the animation is greatly helped by the stark sound effects. These aspects make ‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman’ a fun film, if not more than that.
Watch ‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman en 13 Volumes’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman en 13 Volumes’ is available on the Blu-Ray/DVD set ‘Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation’
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Release date: 1962
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘Concert’ stars Monsieur and Madame Kabal from the later feature film ‘Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal’ from 1967. This couple, a short man who constantly drinks and a grotesque tall woman with a hooked nose, are known for their domestic violence, and ‘Concert’ is no exception. When Madame Kabal catches Monsieur Kabal snoring through her piano recital her revenge is severe.
Unfortunately, Borowczyk’s cut-out animation is crude and emblematic, and even the violence is rather abstract. Even worse, a lot of time is wasted on less interesting scenes. Moreover, Monsieur and Madame Kabal are neither interesting or appealing characters and Borowcyk does nothing to establish their relationship. Thus, it doesn’t interest the viewer at all what happens to them on the screen, a problem that also haunts Borowczyk’s feature animation film.
Luckily, the next year Borowczyk would prove he could do much better with ‘Encyclopédie de Grand-Maman en 13 Volumes ‘ and especially the dark stop-motion short ‘Renaissance‘.
Watch ‘Concert’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Concert’ is available on the Blu-Ray/DVD set ‘Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation’
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Release date: 1959
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Les Astronautes’ was the first film the Polish film maker Walerian Borowczyk made in France. In this short a mustached inventor with a pipe builds his own spaceship.
This film is as surreal as it is silly and it consist of several hardly related gags. For example, the first thing the man does with his spaceship is spying on a woman dressing. Throughout, Borowczyk combines pixilation and cut-out animation of hand-colored photographs to a great effect. The surreal atmosphere is enhanced by Andrzej Markowski’s electronic score and sounds.
‘Les Astronautes’ may be of little substance, it’s an entertaining film, nonetheless.
Watch ‘Les Astronautes’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Les Astronautes’ is available on the Blu-Ray/DVD set ‘Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 