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).

Sherlock Hound / Art of Holmes

 I have a soft spot for Sherlock Hound (名探偵ホームズ (Detective Holmes)).  It’s a lovely little series of exciting Victorian adventures, appealing canine character designs and beautiful background art… for 6 of its 26-episode run anyway.

Sherlock Hound was the last television series that Hayao Miyazaki worked on in the early 1980s.  He directed 6 good quality episodes before production was halted by Sherlock Holmes’ owners at Doyle estate, and by the time the issues were resolved Miyazaki had since moved on to making movies full time.  A gap of 20 episodes needed to be filled, and  so stepped up Kyosuke Mikuriya.  He was a promising director who’d previously been in charge of the well regarded Ulysses 31 but was sadly later fated to make crap like Legend of the Four/Dragon Kings.  The result was a varying bunch of episodes that by all measures do not hold up to the spark of the original run.

The Miyazaki episodes however were pretty well regarded at the time, with compiled versions being double billings with Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa on the big screen.  Any and all printed material I’ve seen on the series has related specifically to Miyazaki’s work, and the artbook is no exception.  Sorry, but the rest of the series is largely ignored.

Despite being made before the studio even existed, Art of Holmes is published in same line as the regular Ghibli artbooks in Japan.  Hints at its troubled history are implied as all pre-production artwork depicts Sherlock as a floppy-eared hound, and not the tall cropped-eared character seen in the final work.   The rest of the cast evolve much more naturally inside the book (aside from Mrs. Hudson who spends a brief period as a human), but there is very little content on the final design of Sherlock.   This may come as a disappointment to those specifically wanting production artwork on Sherlock’s final design.

As a side note a similar instance occurs in the collected storyboards of Sherlock Hound.  The episode ‘A Small Client’ is sketched entirely with an unfamiliar long-eared protagonist, whereas the other 5 episodes have the familiar design.  Perhaps indicates the moment at which the alteration was made in the production?

Aside from that note this is a lovely artbook.  The book is divided into chapters labelled as Image Boards, Character Design, Backgrounds, Story and Animation Technique.  Pretty much everything is covered to some extent.  About half of the book’s content is dedicated to delicate watercolour sketches, with the rest used for either background studies or images from the final product.  There isn’t all that much text going on, so you get a lot of artwork within its sub-150 pages.  These days the book can prove a little difficult to find, so if the opportunity ever presents itself it’s very much recommended to fans of either the Hound or anyone into Miyazaki’s pre-Ghibli work.

Top Ten Upcoming in 2014...

 

Excel Saga 27 – It’s taken almost ten years, but the final volume of Excel Saga arrives in January.  More people are familiar with the hijinks of the parody-laden anime, but the original manga is a very different creature.  With a stronger satirical bite, its increasingly cynical cast pour jaded bile over the ongoing story.  It had quite a rocky release schedule so I dread to think of how many times it came near to being cancelled.  I’m very happy and grateful to Viz Media for sticking with this one to the end.

Evangelion 3.33 – Out in March to own is the next instalment of the Neon Genesis Evanglion reboot.  General reactions I’ve heard so far have been mixed, whereas the last one got a lot more praise.  It wouldn’t be Evangelion if it wasn’t controversial, any anyone who’s come this far with the franchise isn’t about the quit now.

Furari – For my money anything by Jiro Taniguchi is worth a look, so I’ll be looking in on this one by default.  Also look out for a new edition of The Walking Man as it’s been unavailable for quite a while now.

Space Dandy – Everyone loves Cowboy Bebop, and quite a lot like Kids on the Slope as well.  Any new anime from director Shinichiro Watanabe is worth checking out.  It’s also apparently taken American money to help fund its production, so hopefully this will be a bit special with a nice juicy budget to back it up.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – The first film’s popularity grew steadily over time by word of mouth, and now How to Train Your Dragon is sustaining its demanding public us with toys and a TV series.  People are expecting big things from its sequel.  A third film is already confirmed in any case, and it can’t be as bad as more Shrek.  Also of interest is that Dreamworks will be releasing 3 animated films in 2014 against Disney’s Big Hero 6 and Pixar delaying The Good Dinosaur until 2015.  Quantity over quality is of course a concern, but otherwise this could be a big year for the company.

Monster: Perfect Edition – Naoki Urasawa’s 18-volume thriller has been notoriously out of print for a while now, commanding extreme prices in the second-hand market to desperate readers.  This new edition will throw in 2 volumes per book and allow everyone another chance to own this great series.

Attack on Titan – This year was a big year for Attack on Titan, and next year promises to be even bigger as the spinoffs start to hit.  Side story manga, light novels and the already successful anime will all be hitting retail in 2014.  It will be interesting to see just how far it can go without risking outstaying its welcome.

Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 2 – Anyone who’s been following this blog for any length of time will know how eager I am to finally see this.  It’s currently airing in the UK on a channel that sadly isn’t free to air, but is due out on DVD and Blu-ray in February.  We’ve waited 30 years to see what happens next in Esteban, Zia and Tao’s adventure.  Not long now!

Dragonball – Before Super Saiyans, Planet Namek and the ‘Z’ at the end of the title, Dragonball was a sturdy comedy series about an odd little boy with a tail who practised martial arts.  In a somewhat backwards release schedule after both Z and GT, the UK will finally get the original series on DVD.  It should be a real treat, and keep an eye on the US for the Dr. Slump Movie Collection while you’re at it.

Ghibli Omnibus – With a little luck (or just waiting for distributors to pull their thumb out), 2014 should be a very good year for Ghibli followers.  Hayao Miyazaki’s latest, and reportedly last, film The Wind Rises is all but ready for western markets.  The dub has been recorded and will hit the US in February screens, so hopefully a summer release for the UK is a possibility.  Less has been said about The Tale of Princess Kaguya, but it’s surely just a matter of time.  Isao Takahata’s output is quite varied, so should be worth the wait.  The just-announced When Marnie Was There will probably have to wait for another year, but that we’re due a batch of new Ghibli films is always an exciting prospect.

Top Fifteen of Manga: 2013

Obviously I am restricted only to things that I’ve personally read, which on that grand scale of things isn’t all that much, so please take my top 15 as one opinion of many (for example this year was a quiet one for shojo at my end), and of course feel free to recommend your own. :-)  The traditional top ten has been upgraded to 15 as there were a lot of interesting titles this year.  I also wanted to keep the variety up.  As a personal set rule I’m only considering titles which have been physically published in English this year – no ebook shenanigans here.

Yotsuba&! 12 – We only get one volume of this series a year, but it’s always worth the wait.  The everyday tales of a five-years-old as she experiences new things in each chapter is told with a gentle ease.  It’s a happy little manga with appealing, and undeniably quirky, characters and outstanding background artwork.

Crayon Shinchan 4 – Underdog publisher One Peace has somehow managed to release more Shinchan than anyone else.  It does recycle the defunct CMX’s translations, so it remains to be seen if more of the naughty 5-year-old’s adventures will arrive or not.  Compare this one to Yotsuba if you’re feeling brave.  While you’re distracted by one optimistic portrayal of a growing child, the other has snuck off to gleefully strain out a turd into your bath.

Unico – It’s hard to imagine this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned Osamu Tezuka’s work on this blog, particularly as I’m quite a big fan.  Even if one of his titles isn’t particularly successful, Tezuka’s comics are continually inventive have a lot for your brain to work with.  Unico stands out of this year’s crop for not only being printed in full colour, but of its life starting out as a kickstarter project.  DMP since went on to fund even more titles, and eventually acquired the God of Manga’s entire output.  It remains to be seen what else will be translated and the format/s in which they will reach us.

The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame – Strictly an adult title this one, and anyone familiar with the term ‘bara’ will automatically know what to expect from this book.  This volume’s existence makes it unique in English-speaking territories, which alone makes it worthy of note.  To be honest I’d only really recommend it to already interested parties, but those wanting more extreme titles in their manga collection, or just to widen its general variety, they will definitely find something new here.

Bakuman 18-20 – The end of the manga-making series.  Comics about making comics aren’t all that unusual, but for the action-centric land of Shonen Jump it did a lot to make a couple of guys sitting at their desks seem really involved and exciting.  Additional fun can be had under the consideration that Bakuman’s creators toy with parodying themselves, decrying their own creative inefficiencies and dictating the manner of its own editorial progression by bringing it up throughout the main story.  Lots of fun, just please don’t take it as a work of non-fiction.

Attack on Titan 4-9 – This was already turning a lot of heads last year, but once the anime launched this year Attack on Titan’s popularity exploded.  It’s sat consistently at the top of sales charts both in the west and in Japan, so it’s just as well it’s not a bad read at all with overwrought drama to accompany its brutal violence.  Volume 9 pushed the series beyond the scope of the anime, so now is a good time to jump on in.

Gundam: The Origin 1-4 – I’ve tried and failed more than once, but I’m just not that big of a Gundam fan.  Despite that this manga is still a good pick as it chronicles the original series well and is showcased in slick hardbacks.  The paper quality is good and coloured artwork is peppered throughout.  Some of the best production values you’ll see in a manga.  Ever.

Genshiken Season Two 2-3 – The second generation of the Genshiken club is well underway as the male otaku graduate and make way for the fujoshi.  Maybe it’s all one big comment on the changing landscape of fandom, so it will be interesting to see what kinds of people join the club in future.  For now though Genshiken is a friendly manga of well-written dialogue that pulls you into what is perhaps the most down-to-earth representation of otaku life in comic form.

The Last of the Mohicans – Outside of Osamu Tezuka, it’s quite rare that we get to see a manga from before the 1970s.  This offering from 1953 is an interesting look at a manga that absorbed American influences before reworking it for Japanese audiences.  Though obviously for children at the time, I can’t help but think the English version is only really aimed at adult audiences, which is a bit of a shame and possibly missing a trick.  A curiosity piece to be sure and hopefully will get more people interested in older works.

Helter Skelter – Liliko does everything she can to stay relevant in the cutthroat world of modelling.  Helter Skelter is an uncompromising rock ‘n’ roll ride where superficial beauty is countered with aggressive insecurity.  We don’t get as many josei titles over here as I’d like, and books like this are the reason I want more.

Doroheodoro 9-11 - We’re really getting into personal favourite territory now… it’s an opinion blog though, so it’s allowed!  Dorohedoro continues on its path – a path to which no one seems to know the destination.  This bothers some readers, but honestly I love it.  Dorohedoro depicts a very strange and dark world, but is grounded by an oddball cast who bicker their way through mushroom spells and casual occurrences of violent death.  The colour pages ended way back in volume 3, but otherwise full respect to Viz Media for sticking with this one.

Slam Dunk 26-31 – The final volumes of a genuine manga classic.  Not only did you learn to care about the characters, but also basketball.  The western manga market traditionally regards sports titles as a doomed prospect, but this one bucked the trend.  I’m going to miss it.

I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow 5 – The chronicling the life of a middle-aged man in a dead end job while trying to make it as a manga artist.  It inevitably goes to some pretty dark places and to be honest it really had the potential to make me die inside depending on how the ending played out.  Luckily the finale was sane, realistic and not the end of the world, with a message that even if you aren’t 100% successful in life you can still made a positive impact on the people around you.  This book was one of my favourite single volumes of manga from this year.

Natsume’s Book of Friends 13-14 – Natsume is a boy with the ability to see yokai and other spirits, so he isolates himself so as not to endanger his loved ones.  Accompanied by the grouchy Nyanko-sensei, the two form a pact and defend the powerful Book of Friends.  This is an inhibited manga of fragile emotions which has no real aims other than to overcome loneliness.  Consistently wonderful.

Real 12 – I’m a big fan of Slam Dunk, but I consider Takehiko Inoue’s current manga on wheelchair basketball to be the superior work.  Its atypical subject matter is handled honestly and not without a certain amount of wit.  Each character holds their own as they each confront their own personal development, able-bodied or otherwise.  Volume 12 is just another chunk of the ongoing story really, but as a whole piece of work it is to me a near-unrivalled work of brilliance.