Koji Morimoto is one of my favourite directors and animators. You may not recognise his name but if you have a remote knowledge of Japanese animation I’m sure you would recognise his work (Akira ring any bells?). While he is perhaps most famous for animating on large anime films and series I am personally most fond of his work as a director - he directed “Magnetic Rose” by far the best film on the “Memories” anime shorts DVD, and directed “Beyond” on the original “Animatrix” DVD (again my personal favourite of the collection). As a director his films have a distinct style, inhabiting dreamy scifi worlds not far removed from our own (and, of course, the animation is always phenomenal). Anyway, I heard there was an artbook of his lurking around so after much hunting I managed to get myself a copy, and it didn’t disappoint.
My last post was about 2D and 3D animation, well here is a short film that combines the two to an enchanting degree. It’s a couple of years old now but still looks absolutely fantastic.
I watch a lot of short films on youtube and this one really blew me away. The story isn’t particularly fantastic but visually it is just beautiful with some charming character animation to boot. 3D elements have been frequently implemented in to 2D animation (see “The Iron Giant”, “Futurama” or even “Spirited Away”) but this takes it to a new level, embracing the combination rather than trying to hide it.
As you may or may not have gathered from the posts of this blog so far one of my greatest passions is animation and animated film. There has been some really great stuff out already this year (”Kung Fu Panda” and “Wall:E” specifically) but every time I go to the cinema I am dismayed by the complete lack of 2D animation coming to our screens. It would certainly be wrong to say 2D animation is dead but I definitely find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the sparse upcoming projects from this fading school of animation. Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this tailer for a short film called “In the Fall of Gravity”.
This is being made by a guy called Ron Cole, who is basically reinventing stopmotion animation by implimenting cable control to his stop motion puppets. This gives the puppets a really unique look, with facial animation that is more expressive and realistic than anything seen in stopmotion before! Really impressive and inspiring stuff.
Just to prove I’m not dead I thought I’d post an absolutely insane trailer for a crazy upcoming b-movie called “Tokyo Gore Police”. As you may have guessed it contains A LOT of gore, with quantities of fake blood to rival Peter Jackson’s record breaking “Braindead” and some pretty inventive gore effects (that sadly don’t cover up the film’s obviously low budget). This film looks to embody the b-movie spirit in it’s trashiest, campest form. There’s a little bit more information about the film on the link provided.
Okay “Stardust” FINALLY came out in the UK this week - a film I have been extremely anxious to see due to my love of the source material on which it is based. I’ve always been a big fan of Gaiman’s work, and his original novel “Stardust” was no exception - I just fell in love it, an epic fairytale that quickly became one of my favourite books. And so when I found out a film adaptation was on the way that actually had Gaiman’s blessing (with Gaiman even involved with production) I was very intruiged. Could it possibly do one of my favourite books justice?
Okay, if you haven’t seen this you are in for a treat. “Adventure Time” was a short kids’ animation created for Nickelodeon’s “Random! Cartoons” - a stand alone animated episode that has since outshined its series competition (just check out the number of views on youtube!). It concerns the adventures of boy wonder Pen and his magical dog friend Jake and without further ado, please check it out:
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate is the unlikely product behind a brilliant new advert launched during the Big Brother 2008 UK final. Like most good adverts it is simple and poetic, featuring an emotional gorilla drumming along to the Phil Collins song “In The Air Tonight”. It is written and directed by Juan Cabral, the creative mind behind the award winning Sony Bravia advert.
Don’t read too much in to it, in Cadbury’s words “There’s no clever science behind it - it’s just an effort to make you smile” and make us smile, it does. A higher res version can be found on the campaign’s official site.
Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze up the ante with “Adaptation” a bonkers self-referential splurge on writers’ block and orchids (as a metaphor for passion).
Kaufman includes himself as a character in this script, and his portrayal is everything a screenwriter should be: self-deprecating, overweight and hopelessly timid. His character is wonderfully offset by a fictitious identical twin brother, an equal parts loveable and infuriating character who typifies the awful amateur screenwriter, with banal, idiotic and overused ideas, who to top it all off is excepted in to the industry by blind luck. Both characters are brought to life by Nicolas Cage who, while I generaly dislike, shows his ability as a half-decent actor during some of the more tender scenes between the two characters.
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” - Ingmar Bergman.
“I have always admired him, and I wish I could be a equally good filmmaker as he is, but it will never happen. His love for the cinema almost gives me a guilty conscience.” - Steven Spielberg
