Animation &Commentary 02 Apr 2006 08:00 am
Link later
Richard Linklater will be back this year with another animated film. Animators, at least the ones I spoke to, seemed to take offense at his last effort, Waking Life. (Somehow, I was told this was not an animated film – rotoscope. I was surprised when it wasn’t nominated for the Oscar over Jimmy Neutron!!! How embarassing.) I thought it quite an interesting effort. This, to me, is no less animation than Peter Jackson’s King Kong or 2/3 of the other cgi efforts being released with cartoony characters and motion captured animation. What was different for the animated Waking Life, was that it was somewhat intelligent and spoke on an adult level. We have to believe, given Linklater’s work, A Scanner Darkly will be more in that direction.
There are some interesting articles about this film, the problems and the history of its making.
Wired Magazine has the most up-to-date and extensive of these and makes for the best read.
The Austin Chronicle had a good article in January.
There are a couple of mixed pre-reviews on Ain’t It Cool News.
Personally, seeing an animated Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder is all I’ll need to get me to plunk down $12 when it opens on July 7th.
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- There’s an A P story in the NY Post detailing the Simpons trailer running with Ice Age 2 which announces the Simpsons feature for July 27, 2007.
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- The Drawing Center at 35 Wooster St. in NYC has an exhibition called Analog Animations running through April 15. It includes a number of animated pieces done by 18 emerging artists who animate their drawings largely with “old-fashioned,†hand-drawn animation techniques rather than digital media.
Analog Animation artists include: Heather Boaz, Brett Budde, Deborah Davidovits, Almut Determeyer, John Dooley, Magdalena Fernandez, Mark Fox, Eunjung Hwang, Shin il Kim, Anna Kiraly, Kakyoung Lee, Jennifer Macdonald, Liza McConnell, Oscar Munoz, Serge Onnen, Hans Op de Beeck, Linda Pella, and David Virgien
Gallery hours:
Tuesday–Friday, 10:00 A.M.–6:00 P.M.
Saturday 11:00 A.M.–6:00 P.M.
Tel: 212-219-2166
on 02 Apr 2006 at 7:12 pm 1.Jenny said …
Thanks for the links, Mike. I would agree that the Linklater films most certainly are animation, by definition–just not any kind of use of it I am intertested in(probably spoke too soon–maybe it’s just Linklater). A lot of people I respect greatly thought well of “Waking Life”–to me, it was well-nigh unbearable, and I felt the use of the roto was a dodge to make an otherwise self-indulgent, static, gabby film seem like something more. But anything that different is bound to affect artists in wildly different ways. : )
On a totally unrelated note via the “Wired” link: jeezus, can everyone someday agree to permamnently retire the lame-o use of “Toontown” and “toons” in articles on animation? Holy cliche, Batman. “Trouble in Toontown”–god, there’s a new one, not. I’d like to beat that reporter with 100 pounds of unsold Roger Rabbit merchandise!
on 06 Apr 2006 at 10:46 pm 2.Daniel Thomas said …
I have to admit that I’m a bit surprised that animators look down upon Waking Life. It reminds me of the experience of seeing the film at Minneapolis’ Lagoon Theatre on a pre-release screening. The theatre was initially packed, but as the movie went on, people steadily walked out of the theatre. One here, a couple there, it was something of a steady trickle. I kept counting until I hit 20 and then stopped, reflected on this, and realized that this was, truly, a great movie.
I realize that it’s not the movie for everyone, but I think everyone should at least sit down and watch the whole damn thing, without one’s personal opinions about life, death, and God to become so easily offended. Good glayvin, we’re such children. To my mind, this is a vision of the 21st Century’s great Spiritual Awakening; people of all stripes and sensibilities having passionate discussions about what it means to be alive. That’s not something you’ll find in stuffy, snobbish Minneapolis, and, oddly enough, the only other movie to draw that kind of a hostile response at the Lagoon was Triplets of Bellville. That audience (opening night) responded with that most dreaded of Minnesota weapons, passive-aggressive silence. Dead silence.
For all the childish snobbery against Linklater’s independent movie using computers to paint over video footage, I really can’t think of anyone else who’s even bothered to try to create a serious animation film in this country. In America, “animation” means “babysitter,” and “adult animation” really means “S&M for teenage boys.” American animation, for whatever reasons I really need to explore, is stuck in some sort of time-warp. It’s as if the art world became so enamored by Monet’s water lillies that they refused to even consider anything else.
And here I am, passionately arguing for our home-grown answer to Whisper of the Heart and Omohide Poro Poro. Fat bloody chance.
on 08 Apr 2006 at 12:18 pm 3.Michael said …
Monet’s Water Lillies! I only wish! You’re absolutely dead-on right about everything you say.
George Bush promises to catch and punish the one who leaked the identity of the CIA agent. It turns out he’s the leaker and jeopardized a lot of CIA agents. This is what the world’s beome.
Short attention span theater gives us hyperactive animation with low intelligence stories. When something bright comes along, it’s easy to blame it the lack of interest on animation techniques when there’s no real difference between Waking Life and the gollum.
We have to be patient and the cycle will go back to something more intelligent. It has to.