World Animation Roundup 2

Jez Jerzy (George the Hedgehog) (2011)

George is a skateboarding hedgehog with a human girlfriend who lives in a world of skinheads, sleazeballs and corrupt politicians.  If you’re not out partying and getting wasted every night, then you’re probably a bad guy.  There is a muddled plot in here including a conspiracy theory and George gets an evil clone at some point, but this film is more about the humour and not particularly subtle social comments.

Jez Jerzy is dark and destructive in its cynicism and audiences will be sent into a world where political correctness does not exist.  Escapee inflated sex dolls and mutant hedgehogs humping power sockets are fun enough, but many will find the racial jokes way more hit and miss.  Few films have the (smelly) balls to have this kind of trashy underground edge, but Jez Jerzy lets it all hang out.  It’s well made enough with 2D flash-style animation and is brave in the grotesqueness of its ugly, ugly character designs. Deliberately unappealing, but it’s still the best film of those in this blog entry.

Availability:  The native Polish DVD has good English (and seemingly UK-centric) subtitles.

The Thief and the Cobbler (1995)

This DVD is a sorry little release, but to deny its existence at all would be even more cold-hearted.

The Thief and the Cobbler’s rocky history is well-recorded.  Production began in the 1960s before going through multiple financial hiatuses where it finally breathed its last in the 90s.  With large chunks of the incomplete film being animated, and the director having long since abandoned the project, the pieces were stitched together and a hideous monster was born.

The animation in The Thief and the Cobbler is amazing and you really have to remind yourself that it’s all hand-drawn stuff.  The amazing artistry is sadly ruined by a naff reworked script that replaces the idea of near-mute protagonists with near-constant babble.  The abrupt shift from serene animation to condescension kills any kind of enjoyment which could have been made from this DVD.  Sad faces all round, but a historically interesting curio nonetheless.

It’s worth nothing that there is a fan-made ‘Recobbled Cut’ out there online which pieces together the film’s gaps as best it can.  Worth a peek for an idea on what might have been.

Availability: As the film was unfinished, you could say it’s unavailable indefinitely.  This version is widely available.

Rejsen Til Saturn / Journey to Saturn (2008)

Per is an astronaut who capitalises on his fame by selling autographs at sci-fi conventions, even though he suffered terrible grades in his qualifications and has the contempt of all his peers.  He falls victim to his reputation when an emergency vacancy appears on a mission to gather natural resources from Saturn.  He is recruited into a crew consisting of a militarist, a perverted drunk and an Afghan asylum seeker.

Coming from the same makers of Terkel in Trouble and Ronal the Barbarian, I was expecting a mix of gross-out comedy and hard cynicism, but Journey to Saturn combines these same elements and plonks them in the middle of a truly average story.  The inevitable alien invasion is an uninspired turn of events and only act to dilute the fun.  Don’t be expecting a UK or US re-release any time soon either.  Jokes about anal probes suit most South Park-watching audiences, but comments on major figures of Danish society won’t translate as well.  Not a bad film by any means, just average.  See Ronal first.

Availability:  The Danish DVD has English subtitles, but not for the extras.  A shame as they look way more funny and risqué than the main feature.

Tintin L’affaire Tournesol (1964)

This hour-long special is a bunch of television episodes cut together… and it shows.

Following the outline of the plot from The Calculus Affair, the feature starts on the full assumption that the audience is already familiar with the cast and just runs full steam ahead.  There is little in way of pacing as the story moves from point to point without really bothering with ideas of dramatic tension or filling plot holes.  The art reflects the style of the comic quite well, but the animation itself is crude and cheap.  Most action involves heads revolving on static bodies and scrolling movement sticking strictly to directions of left or right.  A hilarious/awful example of this occurs when a car needs to turn around, and does so simply by driving off screen and re-enter with the drawing flipped over.  If classic Scooby chase sequences are your thing you might find enjoyment here, otherwise you’re much better served by The Adventures of Tintin series from the 90s.

Availability: The copy I have was from a Tintin Movie Collection set.  It’s dub only, and it’s a pretty awful one.  As Tintin exclamations go, ‘By Jove!’ is not what I expect or want to hear.

World Animation Roundup 1

Normally I only do blog entries on titles which are particularly good or worthy of note in some other way, but this little round up of animated films could perhaps be considered to be at the opposite end of this ideal.  As I went out of my way to track them down however it’d be a shame not to mention them at all.  Also, it’s fun to let rip on a film every now and then.

I’ve optimistically numbered this entry, so we shall see if there are future roundups as time goes on. :-)

Free Jimmy (2006)

Jimmy is a performing elephant in a travelling circus whose highs and lows are controlled with a steady mix of hard drugs.  His handlers are a bunch of stoners who need money to avoid getting their legs broken by the local loan shark while self-absorbed animal activists try to counter our ‘heroes’.  Oh and spoiler: Jimmy is also being used as a mule to transport heroin.

Made in Norway in 2006 (although there was apparently some British input in here as well), Free Jimmy has its moments, but we’re not really given enough reason to care about most of the cast.  They’re an unpleasant lot, and frankly not enough of them get what they deserve.  If you have the mindset that being on drugs is by default hilarious you’ll probably do fine, but seeing an elephant go suffering withdrawal symptoms didn’t strike me as a laugh out loud moment.  It’s a curio certainly, but there’s sadly not much else to report on this one.  Disappointing.

Availability: English dubbed edition is widely available on DVD.

The Wild (2006)

The story:  Animals live happily in zoo. Poppa lion has argument with son.  Son gets dragged off to parts unknown before they can reconcile.  Poppa and posse of animal friends go off on a journey to rescue son and be heart-warming or something.  Hilarity ensues.

Let it be known that I am a big fan and follower of Disney animated features.  There are many genuine classics in the Disney vault and even their less entertaining output has creatively interesting points of interest.  The Wild’s point of interest however is just how crap it is.  I can’t kid on this point.  I mean, it’s awful.  The character designs are unremarkable and are presented in subpar CGI (as a comparison Monsters Inc. came out 5 years earlier and still looks fine).  The plot is a non-event excuse to bludgeon its audience with ‘LOOK KIDZ THIS IS A JOKE!’ kind of humour.  Ultimately the whole film is a boring, broken, painful mess and if I hadn’t checked the back of the box would’ve sworn it was about 5 hours long.  Disney needs to bury this one as much as humanly possible.

I’d upload some images from it, but my DVD has gone missing. I wouldn’t be surprised if a family member had smuggled it out into a dustbin at some point when I wasn’t looking.

Availability: Easy to find, but don’t.

Delhi Safari (2012)

I watched this the day after The Wild, and comparisons were hard to not make.  It’s another tale that starts by describing the feline relationship of a father and son.  Unfortunately daddy gets shot by land developers and the son escapes with his mother to embark on with a dire mission to plead with the humans to not destroy their home.  Doesn’t this already sound more interesting than The Wild?

Delhi Safari is an Indian animation from 2012, an unfair advantage perhaps to compare a film made in 2006 perhaps, but this is not the point.  This film too suffers from unremarkable CGI and uneven character designs, but the film’s premise and subsequent character interaction make this film feel way more justified in its existence.  The inevitable moralising about conservation and typical cheesy humour are a small price to pay for an otherwise painless hour and a half.  It’s no masterpiece but different enough to be worth a watch, with occasional Bollywood music thrown in as a bonus.

Availability:  There is an English dubbed version out in America which has the unenviable task of translating the Hindi songs.  The inexpensive Indian DVD has good subtitles and is the better option.

Treasure Planet (1982)

You know the one.  No, not the Disney version, but the totally famous Bulgarian one from the 1980s of course!

It’s… different.  And by ‘different’ I mean an abomination.

Apparently based on Treasure Island, this sci-fi themed cartoon uses some of the same names and has some pirates, but otherwise this is an insane dead-end of a feature.  I’ll give it a chance before I tear into it, so first the good points: The treasure the pirates are fighting over turns out to be the concept of Earth as an entirety.  Its history, people, nature, culture, environment, the whole shebang.  It’s a cool idea and in keeping with the futuristic setting, and when you see the treasure finally opened it’s certainly something to remember (though not necessarily for the right reasons).  And here my praise ends.

Let it be known that this is the bizarrest, awfulest and most fundamentally inept head-trip of a film I think I’ve ever seen.  To be sure the character designs are unappealing and the story is bad, but that’s just the start.  It deliberately tries to pad out its meagre 60 minutes running time with scenes of appalling at non-humour and frequent recycling of animation cycles but the animation OH THE ANIMATION.  In the land that anatomy forgot characters either convulse across the screen or stand around like propped up roadkill.  Whoever was involved in the animation were really on the bad drugs, and how they managed to squeeze a Mickey Mouse cameo in here without being sued into oblivion I have no idea.  I could end on a more positive note remarking on how some of background art is quite cool, but the musical interlude where people start singing Verdi prevents me.

The director went on to work on the likes of Johnny Bravo and Dexter’s Lab, but for this example of his work only watch under threat of violence.

Availability: The Bulgarian DVD has the local version on a remastered video track, while the English dub floats in sub-VHS murk.  I have no idea why they are separated in the this fashion, or why it was even allowed to resurface on DVD.

Az Ember Tragédiája (2011)

The Tragedy of Man is a Hungarian animated film based on the play of the same name.  It starts out at with God creating existence, and follows Lucifer’s lead as he guides to Adam and Eve’s through the entirety of humanity’s existence.  If anything, you couldn’t criticise the film for its lack of ambition.

Originally made as segments over a period of years and pieced together as a two-and-a-half hour epic, this film is a serious undertaking on both the animator and audience’s part.  It is densely scripted and visually engaging throughout, with different animation styles and techniques being used for each scene.  Sights include prehistory, Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, The French Revolution and the distant future.  Each time period acts as its own side story, but the quality is uneven between them.  It is also a deeply serious film about humanity’s many failings, and adopts a very unhurried pace.  That it makes its main point in the first half hour only to continually repeat it for another 2 hours feels a little overkill at times.  You need to be feeling emotionally strong before taking this one on. 

The Tragedy of man is a good film if you have the patience for it, and reactions will vary widely from person to person.  It is an exercise in misery with the smallest of lights at the end of the tunnel.  It is intelligent, engaging and demands all of your attention.  It is pretentious, preachy and self-indulgent.  Some viewers could hail it as the most important animated film of the last 10 years.  Other could write it off as a load of tripe.

Personally I found it to be a worthwhile experience.  The visuals were the strongest point for me, continuously shifting and more often successful in their executions than not.  The philosophical areas were way more laboured.  We get it: Humanity sucks!  This film likes to hear itself speak so you basically have to embrace that if you’re going to make it to the end.

An interesting film.  Feel free to check it out.  Just don’t blame me if you lose all hope in humanity or are bored stiff.

Availability: Currently unavailable in English speaking territories, the Hungarian DVD has high-quality English subtitles (the translator has a much better vocabulary than me at least).

Top Ten of 2013: Animation

I’m watching anime a lot less that I used to, but I’m still maintaining a steady intake of other animated works, prompting this this list.  You’ll have to forgive my generally mainstream tastes and I found few non-English speaking titles to consider, but that’s just how it is.  As before choices are limited to titles on physical UK retail which means that titles such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 will have to sit this one out.

Frankenweenie – A story about a boy and his reanimated dog set to a 1950s-esque suburbia backdrop.  Tim Burton remakes his live action short film from 1984 to great effect in this stop motion effort.  Classic horror movie references abounds, and the odd proper scare or two.  Everything is as it should be with this one.

Paranorman – It plays in the same neighbourhood as Frankenweenie, but is very different.  It removes the classic horror vibe in favour of a more modern tone with disinterested leads, and a smarter, cynical outlook.  Definitely recommended to the many Coraline fans out there.

Lady Death – Okay, I’m joking…

Monsters University – I’ll admit I cast a massively sceptical eye over Pixar’s current trend to churn out sequels to all its popular franchises, and to a certain extent I still do (there’s no way a studio with that level of talent aren’t coming up with new ideas by the second).  Monsters University stumbles through its first half and yet results in a genuine emotional depth that is satisfying to see.  It’s very much playing in its safe zone, but does enough to be both enjoyable and relevant.

Archer Season 3 – Superspy Archer shoots and shags his way through a third season of action.  Somewhat side-lined by the Family Guys and South Parks of this world, Archer dumps the constant pop culture references in favour of just letting the characters battle it out from their brutal freeflowing scripts.  As often hilarious as it is deeply inappropriate.

Despicable Me 2 – You don’t watch Despicable Me 2 for its story.  It’s there, and does what it needs to do to keep the jokes coming which, in a way, makes it perfect.  Grab a drink and a banana and dive on in for some unpretentious fun.

Ernest & Celestine – I’ve talked about this film before but once is never enough for something this good.  Released on DVD with absolute zero fanfare and noticed by essentially no one, Ernest & Celestine is a gentle soul with a simple tale of friendship to tell with its charming artwork and quality animation.  Safe for all audiences (unless you’re queasy when it comes to loose teeth), and it’s basically a joy throughout.

The Little Mermaid – The film described as igniting the Disney Rennaisance, and it’s not difficult to see why.  Sat between Oliver & Company and Rescuers Down Under in the Disney’s feature film chronology, Little Mermaid still looks distinctly modern compared to its contemporaries.  It triggered over a decade of quality Disney films before CGI enveloped 2D animation in the west almost entirely.

Adventure Time Season 1 – I’ve been seeing cosplayers of this show at comic events for ages now, and finally the relevant parties have wised up an have given us some Adventure Time love.  Judging by the amount of merchandise already out there, Finn and Jake’s visit to the UK will be a long one.

The Rabbi’s Cat – Kind of bending the rules as this hasn’t actually had a UK release yet, I doubt I’ll have another opportunity to talk about this one (the US Blu-ray will work here however so import away).  The Rabbi’s Cat is a mischievous film, poking fun at certain human conventions while critiquing the inflexible and intolerant.  You wouldn’t think a film about a talking cat would be as intelligent as this, and younger viewers may find it a little dry, but mature audiences will be fully engaged while being stunned by the amazing artwork.

Other noteworthy titles:

King of Pigs

Kirikou and the Men and Women

Legend of Korra: Book One