Analo6ue, "I'm Not A Mover"

I am pleased (and relieved) to announce that I have finished my first ever "music film." The usual term is "music video," but since those don't get much airtime on television anymore, and I see more videos at film festivals, it just seems pointless to use that term anymore.

We present "I'm Not A Mover"
by Analo6ue (pronounced "analog")

The short combines live-action (directed by Taylor Clark) with 30's style rubber hose animation; the plot reaches a point where the two interact. I story boarded the whole film, and seeing Taylor recreate my drawings through live-action was quite a sensation.

I need to extend a hand to lead compositor Jaime Ekkens, for the wonderful job she did on the effects.

Like many others, I haven't been very well off financially. For four months, working on this short has kept me sane. Still, the video had to meet its completion at some point, which took two months longer than we had initially intended. Still I am excited about having completed it, and we hope it has a good festival life.

Analo6ue is the first musical group I have ever actually worked "with." The group is a three-piece: Brian (guitar, vocals), an old friend of mine from Ohio; Owen (lead vocals); and Evan (drums). There is no bass player. When people ask me about Analo6ue, I refer to them as an alternative-blues band. The band have a sound which doesn't get much usage in animation. But we all went for the same thing, so there wasn't much conflict.
You can check out more of Analo6ue on their MySpace page.

At the moment, we are trying to get the video exported into HD (High Definition) format. After that, its off to the festivals. I will also announce when it is viewable on the internet.

I hope to move onto another music film soon. It is a point where two of my greatest passions meet.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs...and a side of Praise

I don't know what some are thinking. For the past couple weeks, I have heard a ton of praise for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs from friends and aquaintences, most of whom work in the animation and movie industries. Now it turns into a personal tale that is classic for me: a movie that everyone loves is a huge disappointment for my tastes.

I remember reading the original book in elementary school. I remember enjoying the concept of food being produced through the weather. I can't say I was all over the drawings, and I don't blame the filmmakers for redesigning the original story.

This was a really dumb movie. At least that's how I felt. With all the hype this movie was receiving (particularly from those who don't care much for computer-animated features), this movie sounded like something new and special. It was no different from the first impression I got from the trailer. It is unoriginal and garish looking. The story by and far is nothing but predictable. Flint Lockwood, the main character, is an aspiring amateur inventor whose flaws are terribly humiliating (and the dialog does nothing to help). He finally perfects a useful machine, which can transform water into food and feed his economically tarnished hometown. Eventually, his machine brings out all the flaws in every other character. And the bad guy, the Mayor, isn't a very well-developed bad guy. All I see is someone who want to gorge and be powerful, but he's not totally believable (in fantasy terms).

The pacing is the one thing I would exemplify with this movie. The pacing is organized and doesn't move too fast. All the jokes (no matter how used up and wordy) and drama (no matter how preachy) are at least delivered on time and given enough space to take place.


Visually, the character designs are not too interesting. But with computer animation, character design is tricky to judge. I just didn't like these designs, although the design of Flint, the main character, had some appeal. I'm sorry, but I find cubic shape fingers scary looking in CG.

Terrible voice overs. As usual, these movies put a lot of attention on the celebrities doing the voice overs. Often, there's at least one voice-over per movie that manages to do his/her job. But here, there was nothing special, or impressive. The voices are bland and have few defining characteristics.

The coloring is something of an eyesore. In my psyche, I see too much orange and pink when thinking of the movie. There are no pleasurable color schemes in the movie. All the colors are bright and overdone, and they look like concert lights.
The animated food is a major flaw. All the food looked poorly colored and lumpy. There was nothing alluring about it, which I believe all food on film should look like if that is the point. All the spaghetti, steak, meatballs, donuts, chicken, and whatnot, looked like it was cooked at a theater concession stand. Who could find that appetizing?

The credits have some redemption. Again, this movie keeps up the current trend of presenting credits in an alternate form of animation (beginning with Ratatouille's hand-drawn end credits). The credits have a bit of a 60's retro feel to them, but that is undone by the dance number playing over them.

I don't have too much to say anymore, because I don't want to dive too much into it. My first impression of the movie is very unpleasant. And all the praise this movie received makes me feel like Hell has frozen over.

For all I know, Hell really has Frozen over, and this is the beginning of the apocalypse.

Or maybe, I just need to accept my own opinion and move on.

Inglourious Basterds

I saw Inglourious Basterds a couple of weeks ago. I waited a while to write about it for two reasons: one because I have no deadline on writing reviews; two because I was hearing some bizarre complaints concerning Brad Pitt's character, and I wanted to collect a few of them.

I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino. He gives the impression he wants to make movies both he and the audience can enjoy. He is one of the few directors I can believe gets self-gratification out of his own movies, and yet balances his own needs with the audience's. I have nothing but the greatest respect for Tarantino's talents as an auteur.

Everyone seems concerned that Pitt's character, Lt. Aldo Raine (aka "Aldo the Apache") is only in the movie for about 30-40 minutes. It is true Brad Pitt was displayed as the central character of the movie, but he's also the most noteworthy actor in it as well, which gives the movie commercial credibility. Personally, I think that just seems like another of Tarantino's tricks to surprise the audience. That's not to say Pitt doesn't do a good job; he does a great job and his presence seems to add a fantasy element to the movie. I can't deny, however, he gets out-acted by certain cast members.

The movie is presented, as Tarantino intended, as a Spaghetti-western taking place during World War II, with primary emphasis on Nazi-occupied France. The movie is divided into five chapters (in the same way Pulp Fiction was divided into three stories), except this time, there is less juggling with the story's timeframe. There are three camps that are the primary focus of the movie, and they all converge in the final chapter.

The Inglourious Basterds: A team of civilian Jewish Soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine. Their sole mission is to murder as many Nazis as possible, which is justified by a few members' flashbacks to their own mal-treatment at Nazi hands.

The Nazis are portrayed as a despicable breed. There are points, however, where they are portrayed as being paranoid about the state of the modern world, and see Jews and minorities as interferences in the modern world's progression. This ideology both justifies why the Nazis are what they are, and at the same time, makes them even more antagonistic.

The third camp is the smallest. Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a young, (secretly) Jewish-French girl who survived the brutal massacre of her family and is on the run under an alias running a movie theater. Understandably bitter about the world around her, she sees a golden opportunity to not only gain victory for the Jews, but bring brutal justice to the wrongs that were done to her.

The screenplay is unique. The characters are handled in a way that makes them sympathetic and understandable at the same time.

The primary antagonist of the picture is Standartenführer Hans Landa (aka "The Jew Hunter"), brilliantly portrayed by Austrian actor Christophe Waltz. The character is a layered sadist of a detective, whose vast attention to detail give him reason to feel like he is invisible. Landa's appearance bookends the movie. Right from the start, Waltz plays Landa like he is floating on air. This is certainly one of the most compelling characters Tarantino has ever created.

Mélanie Laurent's performance as Shosanna is very tender for the most part, but she turns heads with a demonic turn. And ironically, this demon actually possesses some sympathy.

As with his previous two movies, nostalgia obsessed Tarantino opens the movie pretty old fashioned like. He uses an old Universal logo (used in the 1970's and 80's). At my first viewing, there was a little kid. I couldn't see him but he sounded like he could have been from 6-9 years old. As soon as the old logo came upon the screen, the boy loudly went "Wow!" The rest of the audience (myself included) found that amusing.
* Please do not ask me what a kid this young was doing at this movie.*

The climactic scene in the French movie theater is a sight to behold on screen. I found myself wanting to laugh at several parts of it. The scene turns the whole movie on its head, and exposes the major idea behind it: that this movie is taking place during WWII in an alternate universe! One has to appreciate the sound design of that scene. The sound editors had a lot of volume to balance, and did so in a way that made the scene explode (pun intended).
The whole fifth chapter (about 30+ minutes long) is the highlight of the movie, and ties everything up in a pretty exciting, violent, darkly humorous, and satisfying way.

I better stop now before spoiling anything else. All in all, this is a great movie, on par with Pulp Fiction. I loved it. That's all I can say.

Ponyo: the ocean feels very warm

Hayao Miyazaki is one of my favorite filmmakers, one of my favorite artists, and a champion of originality. Although his movies are considered Japanese anime, viewers have a better chance of learning of Miyazaki through Disney than through more traditional anime.

Miyazaki has stressed many times his fascination with a child's point of view. Previously, he explored this idea in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. Ponyo marks another journey into adolescence and childhood through the child's point of view. Everything seems very large, and not too complex. The world and the its ocean are big and mysterious to the two main characters, Ponyo and Sōsuke.

The story follows a humanoid fish (referred to as a "goldfish," but looking like a little human girl) named "Brünnhilde" by her father, but later named Ponyo. The goldfish swims away from her father, a caretaker of the sea, to view the world above, and soon possesses a desire to be human. She is found by a five year-old boy named Sōsuke, and they each take a quick liking to each other. Afterward, they are separated, explaining their friendship to their parents, and then brought back together again, only to truly prove their relationship in a test of love. In the midst of all this, Ponyo's parents (wizard and goddess) struggle to maintain balance in the sea as they realize their daughter's true (yet unnatural) passion to evolve from a mystical sea creature to human being in the world above.

Ponyo has a slightly different look for a Miyazaki film. The backgrounds are executed with a much softer tone, almost with pastels and water colors, as opposed to delicate realism. In keeping with the theme of water, everything visual is round and bulbous. There's hardly a straight line to be seen in the movie. The animation of the characters also seems to be a little looser than in Miyazaki's previous movies. The characters' outlines appear to be moving more than usual, giving their bodies more physical expression.


Some of the best parts of the movie, in my opinion, are those featuring ocean waves and the shapes coming from the sea. Rather than a realistic looking ocean and storm (already a complicated task), Miyazaki and his crew took what sounds like an easier and more experimental approach. This time, the exaggeration of the waves, looking like morphing bulbous blobs, is easier to understand. The waves are also a lot of fun to watch. This is the first time in a while where I was having fun watching the animation, rather than just admiring the technicality of it. The waves are dark and looming, but there's something funny and amiable about them.


A big part of the story deals with parental relationships. Sōsuke at first glance has an average relationship with his mother, but is later shown to care very deeply about her. He also shows concern for her, especially when his father (a ship captain) has a habit of working overtime. Ponyo's parents, by comparison, are more unique, as they have mystical elements. Ponyo's father, Fujimoto, is very layered: he is shown to be a stern wizard who despises humans (despite being one himself at one point) and is devoted to the well-being of the sea. Despite these traits, he truly loves and cares for his daughter and other children, and in the end, accepts Ponyo's decision. Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare, is a looming sea goddess, with great beauty and gentle insight. The scenes with Gran Mamare are among my favorite scenes in the movie.

I can't say enough to praise the film score. Joe Hisaishi's music has been a crucial part of Miyzaki's movies since their first collaboration on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, close to 25 years ago. I found myself getting the chills at the sound of the primary theme of the score, which mostly played during scenes under the ocean and scenes involving Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare. The music in these scenes is loud and operatic with an emphasizing choir, enough to make a full-grown adult feel small. There are also parts of the score that are reminiscent of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries," (Miyazaki has stated that part of the story and setting is inspired by Wagner's Die Walküre).

I am glad this got a theatrical release here in the U.S., thanks to Disney. I have to admit I had great concern over the English dub. What made me nervous right away was the casting of Frankie Jonas (youngest brother of the Jonas Brother) and Noah Cyrus (Miley's younger sister) and Sōsuke and Ponyo respectively. The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus are big Disney stars, and here they casted their siblings, which strikes me as Hollywood nepotism. Surprisingly, these two kids do a great job: their voices are emotive and clear, and right to the heart of the young characters. Tina Fey (of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock) portrays Sōsuke's mother, Lisa, and also managed to bring heart and warmth to the character. The rest of the actors (Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Lily Tomlin, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, Matt Damon) are all pretty good, even though a couple of them have only minimal dialog. I also have to admit, I feel a little uncertain about Liam Neeson's performance (and I say this as a Neeson admirer).

Ponyo is one of the warmest movies I have seen in a theater in quite a while (not since the Wallace and Gromit movie four years ago). The movie ends with a sense that anything can happen, but happiness and balance are now full circle. Miyazaki hasn't lost his touch, all of his movies are timeless, and Ponyo is no different. I will be remembering Ponyo for a long time.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs...not there yet

Being a part of the New York animation scene, I am biased to be pleased that there is a place like Blue Sky Studios nearby (previously located in White Plains, NY; now relocated to Greenwich, CT). But being pleased with a studio that makes animated feature films doesn't count for how I feel about their output. So far, I find each of Blue Sky's movies to be mindfully flawed in some way (or ways). Ice Age: The Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third installment of Blue Sky's Ice Age movies, is just as flawed, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the movie.


The story of Ice Age 3 is probably my favorite so far in the Ice Age films. The "herd" is still together, and true to form, they can't live with each other or without each other. Wooly mammoth partners Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting their first child, yet Ellie seems to be suffering the least of her extended family. After discovering three lone eggs in an underground cavern, Sid, the unhealthy yet optimistic sloth (John Leguizamo) decides to care for them. When they hatch into baby tyrannosaurus, their mother attacks above ground looking for them, and takes them (and unintentionally) Sid back into the cavern. The rest of herd rush into the cabin to find him, and happen upon an underground jungle populated by (thought to be) extinct creatures.



The story is pretty decent. The herd is portrayed from the start to be something of an extended family (something I enjoy seeing in stories). I love the action element to the story, but there are great moments of comedy interspersed throughout. My favorite scene has to be when the herd is trying to cross through a toxic cave, and when they breath in, the toxic gas causes them to go uncharacteristically happy and hysterical. The stories of the previous Ice Age films were okay, although I like the first one the least (the human characters were boring and unnecessary), and the second was only a mild improvement.


The best part of the movie is the overall look. Recently, I became a fan of illustrator and character-designer Peter De Sève, probably best known for his New Yorker magazine illustrations. The designs of the characters are wonderfully balanced between needing to be 3-dimensional, looking unique and distinctive, and wordlessly expressive. In fact, Mr. De Sève recently started up a blog, which includes some of his pre-production drawings for the movie. His designs of Manny, Diego, and Sid are very distinctive of one another, and all have traits that define their personalities (like Diego being very sharp looking with a few rounded edges, Manny all hidden away by tusks and fur, and Sid with tiny eyes and a carelessly round belly).



The designs of the rest of the "herd" are cute as well: Ellie is a lot softer looking than Manny, and I love the manic appearances of twin possums Crash and Eddie. The new character, Buck is my favorite new design, for the biased reason that I love weasel characters.


The wooly mammoth characters, Manny and Ellie, are impressively animated. Not only are they shown to be large and rotund, but their tusks and wool cover most of their faces. This leaves their eyes as the primary source of facial expression, which the animators do a fantastic job of accomplishing.


The biggest flaw of Ice Age 3 is the dialogue. I find most of the dialogue (if not all) to be predictable, which drives me crazy. I like being surprised by what a character says (especially in humorous situations). This is a flaw evident in all the Ice Age movies. I constantly find myself cringing at some of the dialogue, and I just want to pause the movie so I can correct the dialogue to myself. I was especially displeased with the character of Buck having an Australian accent, thus making the dialogue one big cliché after another. Maybe it would have helped if the accent didn't have so many references to Australian dialect (i.e. "You'll never find your mate,...MATE").


None of the voice acting helps the dialogue out. I personally don't like the celebrity casting Blue Sky places in its movies, although I can appreciate what it does for the reputation of the movies themselves. Ray Romano's portrayal of Manny in the first movie seemed a little too close to his comedy persona, but in Ice Age 2 and 3, his performance is much smoother and not as forced. John Leguizamo, of course, always impresses by keeping himself masked with a happy lisp when playing Sid the Sloth. The rest of the cast (Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck) isn't too impressive, and don't give the characters as much depth as their appearances offer.


The Scrat and Scratte subplot is at times very sweet, very funny, and a little creepy. As in the previous movies, Scrat, a "saber-toothed squirrel," is still obsessed with gathering acorns, except this time he meets his match in a female counterpart, Scratte. Throughout this story, Scratte managed to outsmart Scrat in getting a particular acorn, most of which end in pain for Scrat (the weirdest part being a scene that evokes the chest-waxing scene in The 40 Year-Old Virgin). Eventually the two fall in love, only for Scrat to be torn by between his love for her and his absurd acorn obsession.


Eventually her nit-picky attitude opens the door for him to pursue his acorn, which leads the two prehistoric squirrels back to their previous conflict. Long story short, he ends up losing both his precious acorn, and (quite possibly) his one true soul mate. Aside from the aforementioned chest-waxing, I quite enjoyed this little subplot. Not everyone wants to admit it, but the reason Scrat's little adventures are so enjoyable is the lack of dialogue, and total reliance on physical comedy, something harking back to the early days (or prehistoric in this case) of cinema.


What more can I say (if I haven't said enough). This is my favorite of the Ice Age films, but its not the best movie ever. I still mind the dialogue flaw very much. However, its still nice to see computer animation that's not overdone, and still has a simplified, yet stylized look. Still, my thoughts on Blue Sky movies remains unchanged.

The Secret of Kells

Here is a film with which I had no expectations whatsoever. I don't know the filmmaker (Tomm Moore), the studio (Gébéka Films), or the story. But in the end, all I can say is The Secret of Kells is a fantastic movie. Great animation, great story, great acting, and it is short yet complete.


I thought the film would seem a little strange to someone with no prior knowledge of Celtic mythology. But that proved not to be the case.


The film takes place in Ireland in the 9th century and follows twelve year-old Brendan. An adventurous boy by nature, Brendan is in the care and shadow of his strict uncle Abbot, whose sole concern is the safety of the Kells Village from the oncoming Viking attacks (in Irish terminology, the Vikings are referred to as "Norsemen"). One day, the village receives an elderly visitor, Brother Aidan, who introduces Brendan to the valuable and fantastical Book of Kells. As the film continues, Aidan inspires Brendan to develop his imagination and complete the book, all the while narrowly avoiding the severe disapproval of his uncle.


The art direction, from a first glance, is reminiscent of the shows currently on Cartoon Network. This, surprisingly, helps to move the story along. The combination of simplicity with fantasy setting keeps the story from getting caught up in technological detail. But that's not to say the art direction is terrible. Quite the opposite: it has one of the best art directions I have seen in any animated feature of the last decade.



The color scheme of the movie is very distinctive. The film's primary colors are, unsurprisingly, green (an Irish tradition) and white (which gives the sense of the world surrounding the Irish). The most drastic change in the color scheme comes at two points: when Brendan is learning and working on the Book of Kells, the palette is made up of various warm colors, giving a feeling of comfort while Brendan becomes engaged in his new found interest; the other points are the scenes involving the Vikings (aka the Norsemen) where the dominating color is red, signaling danger and anger.


The music is an impressive component of the film. Some of the score is provided by French composer Bruno Coulais, who provided a haunting ambient score woven with Celtic melodies. The score goes beautifully with the fantasy-related sequences. Elsewhere, music is provided by Kíla, a Celtic folk group, whose sound adds a feeling of authenticity to the scenes within the Kells village. The psychological aspects of Coulais's score with Kíla's Ireland meets the World sound makes for one impressive soundtrack.


It is exciting to see a country's unknown animation talent getting unleashed. I have never known of any Irish animation, not even indie (I've probably missed something, feel free to correct me). But The Secret of Kells has given me hope for hand-drawn animation. I don't know what's next for Ireland. Technically, the film is one third Irish, one third Belgian, and one third French. Still, for me, the film is all Irish. The Irish have always had a film scene, and this may be just a new addition to their country's film culture. Or it could be the start of something interesting....