HUMBUG DEEZ: Ghost of Christmas Present (from left, performed by Jim Carrey) chides his charge Ebenezer Scrooge (also performed by Carrey) in A Christmas Carol.
GENRE: CGI holiday drama
THE PITCH: Disney gives Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale an animated makeover. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is visited by ghosts who show him glimpses of his past, present and future in efforts to save his soul before Christmas.
MONEY SHOTS: It’s hard to pull away from the visual effects each of the ghosts utilize to show Scrooge various moments in time. Ghost of Christmas Past (Carrey) uses slingshot-ish flight sequences to take Scrooge to parts of his past. Ghost of Christmas Present (Carrey, again) hurls luminescent golden beads that turn the floor and walls translucent for he and Scrooge to spy on the present. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (yup, you guessed it … Carrey) uses ebon shadows to transport and frighten Scrooge back on to a righteous path.
I know cat-based Youtube viral videos are the biggest cliche of the decade, but I thoroughly enjoy the “Simon’s Cat” animated shorts by English animator Simon Tofield. As an animator, Tofield has an appealingly simple, deadpan style, and as a pet owner, he’s clearly a close observer of feline behavior. The newest one, “Fly Guy,” went up on July 24, and though it’s not quite as funny-ha-ha as “Cat Man Do” and “Let Me In,” it’s still pretty amusing. I particularly like the way the cat swells its chest with pride when it presents its “prize.”
THE FRENCH CALL IT 'JOUISSANCE': Brett W. Thompson at the International Pillow Fight Day that took place in Freedom Park last month.
Please allow me a moment to gush about a local Atlantan whose smiling, dreadlock-framed face could’ve easily made a seventh profile in our Happy Issue cover story last month. To properly describe Brett W. Thompson, the president of ASIFA-Atlanta, I might need to invent some new terminology. Let’s go with calling him a crypto-genius: Despite his simple demeanor (”I’m OK, you’re OK, everybody’s OK!”), Thompson’s energy is contagious, and he seems to have some involvement in most everything vaguely cool, creative, bizarre, or DIY in this city.
For example, ASIFA-Atlanta’s promoting a special Food & Film Night and encore screening of Sita Sings the Blues this Thurs., May 21, from 7-8:30 p.m. The host venue, though, is none other than the Feminist Women’s Health Center in North Druid Hills (1924 Cliff Valley Way). WTF? I suppose the location makes sense, since the staff at the clinic has a good reputation for community involvement. It just goes to show you that geographic and demographic boundaries simply don’t matter for those willing to break them.
Unfortunately, seating is limited. If you’re interested in viewing Sita Sings the Blues, please RSVP by contacting Claire at 404-248-5445 or by emailing outreach@feministcenter.org.
According to its MySpace page, the Buddy System snatches the audience “by the scruff of its collective neck and throws it into a strange, colorful world where cats can fly and bunnies divide asexually like amoebas.”
Rock bands are, of course, prone to hyperbolic self-aggrandizement, but in this case, the claim comes close to the truth. For each song produced, the band also creates an original animated short, which is then fully integrated into its live performance (and in some cases manipulated in real-time). The result isn’t so much a music video as it is a kind of performance tool for creating hybrid video soundscapes of cartoon psychedelia.
The foursome played a cozy but enthusiastic show at WonderRoot this Saturday, beginning with the curiously named “Rap Music” (a song without lyrics, whose animated counterpart features cutesy animal MCs) and climaxing with a live rendition of “Return to Horse Mountain,” the demented Western-fantasy-plus-synthesizers spectacle posted above. Wait for the two-minute mark: That chick gets supremely pissed. Continue reading “The Buddy System: Rock/animation spectacle at WonderRoot” »
The Plaza Theatre and ASIFA-Atlanta host a one-night screening of Sita Sings the Blues tonight at 7:30 p.m. The animation news blog, Cartoon Brew, calls Nina Paley’s film a “startlingly original mashup of Indian mythology, contemporary heartbreak, and 1920s American jazz.” Plus — Roger Ebert (of all people) writes:
Paley works entirely in 2-D with strict rules, so that characters remain within their own plane, which overlaps with others. This sounds like a limitation. Actually, it is the source of much amusement. Comedy often depends on the device of establishing unbreakable rules and then finding ways to cheat on them and surprise you. The laughs Paley gets here with 2-D would be the envy of an animator in 3-D. She discovers dimensions where none exist.
As the title implies, much of the charm of Sita Sings the Blues is due to its music, a fact that’s brought both acclaim and frustration to its creator. Paley, whose blog is taglined “America’s Best-Loved Unknown Cartoonist,” created the film without licensing the songs under copyright. Although she’s experimenting with alternative distribution methods (to comply with current law), the project is still largely a work of love. On the film’s official website, Paley explicitly invites her fans to “please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show” as much as we’d like.
ELECTRIC SLIDE: Unlike animated features, live-action adaptations require intricate and expensive special effects, such as Jon Osterman's (Billy Crudup) transformation into Dr. Manhattan for 'Watchmen.' (Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
After more than 20 years, DC Comics’ Watchmen will make the quantum leap from comic-book page to live-action film with its release this Friday. If hype and anticipation translate to even a fraction of box office success, Watchmen will affirm the popularity of superheroes — and even R-rated antiheroes — as Hollywood’s saviors. The blockbuster could join the ranks of such record breakers as theSpider-Man trilogy and the Oscar-winning The Dark Knight.
Superhero movies make the transition from ink and paper to celluloid the hard way, however. Saving the world and defeating flamboyant evildoers is the least of it. Simply making an exciting, convincing superhero movie that doesn’t insult an audience’s intelligence practically demands a miracle. Cinematic, super-powered derring-do requires massively expensive special effects, along with the challenge of casting flesh-and-blood actors to play literally two-dimensional, archetypal roles with impossible physiques and ridiculous costumes.
For every hit like The Dark Knight, there’s at least one costly flop: take the nipple-costumed Batman & Robin or Halle Berry’s embarrassing Catwoman. Even with the successes, audiences face flaws like the obvious CGI-rendered Spider-Man and Hulk in their first movies, or unfortunate choices such as Ian McKellen’s dumb-looking Magneto helmet in theX-Men films.
Animationholds out an easier approach; it goes with comic book stories as comfortably as a cape and cowl. The best cartoon features and TV series can do anend runaround the real world’s limitations to offer an unlimited canvas that emulates iconic comic book art while putting exciting designs into motion. The right voice performances can even convey emotional heft without hanging a tights-wearing movie star from wires.
