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Director: Sarah Smith
Release date: November 11, 2011
Rating: ★★½
Review:
After making ‘Flushed Away’ (2006) in cooperation with Dreamworks, the British animation studio Aardman made another computer animated film, this time in cooperation with Sony, as part of a three year contract with the American production company. Upon its release ‘Arthur Christmas’ was a box office success, but since then it has rather went into oblivion, and I can see why, because the film unfortunately is a flawed one.
In the world of ‘Arthur Christmas’ Father Christmas is not an eternal figure, but a dynasty, with Santa Clauses succeeding each other in time. The film tells about Arthur, whose father is the current Santa Claus, but whose mission are much controlled by his son, Arthur’s elder brother Steve, with military precision. In contrast, Arthur is clumsy, cowardly, afraid of heights and thus totally useless to the Santa Claus clan. Or is he? When, despite all military precision, one present is not delivered, Arthur comes into action.
I’ve once read an article in which someone from Aardman complained that ‘Arthur Christmas’ was not even nominated for an Academy Award, blaming it on the fact that their film was overlooked because it was a holiday film. But the truth is, ‘Arthur Christmas’ is just not that good.
The film’s characters aren’t that sympathetic. The current Santa is as incapable, as he is irresponsible. His son Steve is more ambitious than he is caring, and Arthur may have his heart in the right place, he stumbles through most of the film, which is rather tiring to watch. The finale, in which all elder Santa Clauses realize Arthur’s worth, feels forced and obligatory, and one hardly believes Arthur’s clumsy days are now over.
But the film’s biggest problem is its lack of originality. The film lacks the quirky charm of the British studio’s stop motion work (there are some nice touches here and there, like a wobbly toy on Grandsanta’s sleigh, but these are rare). And despite the British voice cast and mostly European setting, the film feels very, very American. Plot-wise the film ticks all familiar boxes, without straining from tried paths.
Moreover, the designs are erratic and inconsistent: the humans are all cartoony, but the reindeer have realistic designs, and the film features some pretty ugly lions. In fact, the film is utterly unrecognizable as an Aardman product, the only feature film in their catalogue being so generic and bland in its looks.
Luckily, ‘Arthur Christmas’ would be Aardman’s last computer animated movie. With their next project the studio returned to more familiar and much more satisfying waters with ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!’ (2012).
Watch the trailer for ‘Arthur Christmas’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Arthur Christmas’ is available on Blu-Ray and DVD
Director: Bill Kroyer
Release Date: April 10, 1992
Rating: ★★
Review:
Until the rise of computer animation in the late 1990s, with powerful players entering the field (first Pixar, then Dreamworks, followed by BlueSky, Sony Animation and Illumination) the Walt Disney studio was the virtual monopolist of the animated feature.
In the 1980s their only challenge had come from former Disney-animator Don Bluth, who made three successful animated features during that decade, before going downhill with ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven’ (1989) and ‘Rock-a-Doodle’ (1991).
All the more surprising to find the young animation studio Kroyer Films (only founded in 1986) to make a brave attempt to beat Disney at its own game with ‘FernGully: The Last Rain Forest’. The film is extraordinarily Disney-like, starring a heroin, with a rather bland male love interest, Disney-like designs and animation, and a plethora of songs, changing the film into one of the obligate musicals, which animated features up to 1996 were expected to be.
What makes the film unique is its Australian setting and its ecological message, which quite fits the time, but which falls into the trap of over-romanticizing nature severely: why did the animators consider it necessary to add elves and an evil spirit? Why couldn’t the forest animals themselves be the heroes, and the humans the only villains? Why showing surprising healing powers at the end of the movie, while its scientifically known that it takes several centuries for primary forest to recover, if ever? If one compares this film to Ghibli’s ‘Pom Poko‘ (1994), one must conclude that Ghibli succeeds in bringing the subtle environmental message across, where Ferngully essentially fails.
Despite its Australian setting, the film is very American (using voice artists like Robin Williams, Tone Lōc, and Cheech and Chong, and film music by Alan Silvestri for example), and as said, very Disney-like. Unfortunately, the film hardly lives up to its high ambition: the animation never reaches Disney’s height – there’s in fact quite some superfluous movement, revealing the use of rotoscope. Moreover, the designs remain generic to downright ugly. For example, the film’s heroin, Crysta, is not half as appealing as Disney’s Ariel (The Little Mermaid, 1989) or Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast (1991). Worse, Crysta and and her love interest Zak are surprisingly devoid of character, and the comedy duo Cheech and Chong is wasted on side characters of no interest.
The music is by Alan Silvestri, of ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘ fame, but his romantic themes get on the nerves. Besides, there are way too many songs, most of which stop the action, instead of pushing it forward. The best song, sung by rapper Tone Lōc, is also the most superfluous. The character who sings it, a goanna (or monitor lizard, as it is known outside Australia) enters the film to sing this song, only to disappear again.
On the positive side: the opening sequence, done in aboriginal style, is beautiful; Robin Williams does his best as the comic relief Batty Koda, a laboratory bat; the animation on the amorphous villain Hexxus is quite impressive, making him a remarkably scary character; and the healing sequence is simply beautiful, with its bold Fantasia-like colors and abstract designs.
‘FernGully’ did moderately well at the box office, but remains Kroyer Films’ only feature. Later in the nineties, distributor 20th Century Fox teamed up with Don Bluth to make two more animated features, the successful, and again very Disney-like ‘Anastasia’ (1997), and the flopped science-fiction feature ‘Titan A.E.’ (2000). It was only after 20th Century Fox purchased the animation studio ‘Blue Sky’ (1997) and released ‘Ice Age’ (2002) that the company became a major player in the animation feature field.
In hindsight, ‘FernGully’ is most interesting for being a forerunner of ‘Avatar’ (2009), which features a surprisingly similar tale. Like most of the Don Bluth films, the movie mostly manages to demonstrate how Disney’s ideas on animated features had become the gospel on how to make one. And even though some of these dogmas were to be seriously challenged from 1996 on (the idea that all animated features have to be musicals, for example), most of these unwritten rules remain to this day, making most American animated features, and many of their European imitations, awfully generic.
Watch the trailer for ‘FernGully: The Last Rain Forest’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘FernGully: The Last Rain Forest’ is available on DVD
Director: Friz Freleng
Release date: October 13, 1956
Stars: Sylvester, Elmer Fudd
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Yankee Dood It’ was the last of three propaganda cartoons Friz Freleng directed for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, following the earlier ‘By Word of Mouse‘ (1954) and ‘Heir-Conditioned‘ (1955).
This cartoon is an original take on the famous fable of the shoemaker and the elves. Elve company W is missing, and elven king (Elmer Fudd but smaller and wih pointed ears) is wondering where they are. They turn out to be still helping the old shoemaker.
In order to get the elves back, a little elf and the king tell the old shoemaker how companies work, thus telling the short’s propagandistic message. Unfortunately, the shoemaker’s exclamations of ‘Dear Jehosapath’ turn the elves into mice, much to delight of the cat Sylvester (who appears in all three of these shorts).
‘Yankee Dood It’ is a nice, if rather slow propaganda short that only sees advantages of the capitalistic system: lower prices and higher wages. Possible drawbacks like poverty, monopolization, unemployment and pollution are, of course, wisely left out.
Watch ‘Yankee Dood It’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Director: Walter Lantz or Bill Nolan
Release Date: October 1, 1934
Rating: ★
Review:
‘Jolly Little Elves’ is the first of six Cartune Classics, Walter Lantz’s answer to Disney’s Silly Symphonies. These six cartoons were made in two color technicolor, using red and blue, and all are possible even more cloying than contemporary Silly Symphonies themselves.
‘Jolly Little Elves’, for example, is a practically humorless fairy-tale in song about a poor shoemaker and his wife who help a little elf and get all their shoes repaired by hundreds of elves in return.
The cartoon is corny, overlong and features an irritating song about dunking donuts in coffee. Also featured are two severely caricatured Jewish elves. It’s a wonder that was one of the three Academy Award nominations for 1934. Luckily it lost to Disney’s by all means superior cartoon ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’.
Sixteen years later, Tex Avery, who was an animator at Lantz at the time, would remake and make fun of ‘Jolly Little Elves’ in ‘The Peachy Cobbler’ (1950).
Watch ‘Jolly Little Elves’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 