Animation Reviews

While studying animation I decided it would be a good idea to review some animated films that I have seen this year. Without realising, it turns out I’ve watched a lot of very interesting and dramatically different animations.

The Illusionist

The Illusionist was a bleak and brilliant look at a world leaving a group of people behind, similar to the portrayal in the Coen brother’s ‘No Country for Old Men’. The people in this case aren’t the elderly, but performers. The performers are now trying to live and work in a world of television and rock and roll. It is all hand drawn, frame by frame. The style is stunning, providing a visual character of everyone on the screen.

Wall-E

As much as I admire Pixar and their works, I do see a lot of their films as being predominantly for a younger audience. Then I saw this film. It wasn’t so much a kids film as a good sci-fi film, depicting a future very relevant to current affairs, such as environmental issues as well as general health and fitness issues apparent in the western world. As expected from Pixar it was CG, though it was also their first case of introducing live action footage as well. The aesthetics are pleasant, though I felt the humans were a little to ‘cartoonish’.

Akira

I will first admit that I am not a fan of Japanese animation (I’ve yet to see a studio Ghibli film), however this film was recommended from a trustworthy source, and I can see why. It has some of the most impressive animated sequences I have seen. It is all hand drawn, and doesn’t suffer from the usual anime issue of 3 frames a second sequences, or 2 frames played over a 20 second monologue. Akira is set in post World War 3 Japan, as it follows a bike gang’s involvement with a government funded ESP research centre.

Mary & Max

Mary & Max is a stop motion feature length film telling the story of two pen pals. It’s a dark, quirky look into the troubled lives of these people. The aesthetics are generally pleasant, it’s hard not to like the organic look of most stop motion films. I would say that maybe more design should have gone into the settings, as the same ones are seen again and again, with not much to say about the character.

Waking Life

This film is the most bizarre of the lot. The story is of a boy dreaming, and meeting characters within his subconscious discussing life, death, dreams, evolution, language and plenty of other topics. It uses a technique called rotoscoping, as seen in the film also directed by Richard Linklater, ‘A Scanner Darkly’, though I feel Waking Life uses this technique a lot more effectively. The reason it is so bizarre is because it is completely reliant on live action footage, and is simply animating over the top of that footage. One could say that this makes it more of a post production effect than an animation technique, but I feel that the style is so interesting and flexible that it isn’t enough to just apply it to the film, it has to be designed. More time was spent doing the animation of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly than was spent filming them.