Birdboy takes flight in Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vazquez's Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children (2015)
If you strapped me to a chair and demanded that I tell you, chronologically, the story of Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vazquez's magical animated film Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children (2015), I think I would have a pretty difficult time. Not because there is no story (there is) or that it's not compelling (it is), but that the film swept me so fiercely along by its striking visual world that I wasn't always paying attention to the film's subtitles. The film was much more a stunning series of vignettes about a blighted group of survivors of some kind of nuclear (or biological) disaster and their daily struggles on an island that looks like it's constructed on a giant pile of garbage.
A denizen of this trash-filled world, perched atop a pile of corpses
The lion's share of the film's pathos focuses on Dinky, a white mouse, who with her friends Sandra and Little Fox, attempts to leave the island for greener pastures. Dinky is also pining for the troubled, drug-addicted Birdboy, a lonely bird who watched his father perish, and is constantly hunted by the local constabulary. He, like many of the characters in this bleak world, must fight his inner demon, who in his case is a real fire-breathing razor-beaked creature. Drugs seem to keep those demons at bay (as they do for so many of us).
Birdboy's inner demon unleashes its wrath
Describing the film's plot though does not even hint at the tumultuous emotions that this film evokes. The anthropomorphized animal characters are often sweet and charming, and sometimes terrifying. Some of the more violent images may not be suitable for the five and under crowd, but this film is so visually gorgeous, and at time, hilarious, that the film balances its scares with bouts of humor. Inanimate objects are also anthropomorphized, so some of the best lines in the film revolve around these objects appealing to their owners. Dinky's alarm clock has its own narrative arc, and the rubber dingy that Dinky and her friends purchase to make their escape is quite chatty as well. You will never think about piggy banks in the same way again.
Birdboy has access to a magic world full of light
Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children maintains just the right amount of ambiguity to make it rich in allegory. The film thoughtfully alludes to Spain's history and heritage, but that knowledge isn't required to be swept away by this masterpiece. Fantasia brought in co-director Pedro Rivero to introduce and answer questions about the film, and he was one cool cat. I really appreciated his dry humor, and that wry quality was really reflected in this animated wonder. Here's a link to the film's website so that you can see more of the film's glorious imagery. Every frame is a work of art. Highly recommended.
While I stand firmly by my motto "no kids, just kittens," one has to be careful about kittens. They can grow up to be very naughty cats. British animator Robert Morgan introduces us to a creepy cat in this live-action/stop-motion hybrid. I recommend his other films, especially Monsters (2004).
Graham Annable's 2008 animated short The Hidden People is a nice variation on the "cabin in the woods" narrative. Everyone seems to believe that gnomes, garden and forest, are relatively benign. Well, watch this short, and then go take a look at your garden gnome. He IS watching you.
Jorge Jarmillo and Carlo Guillot's stunning animated short Red harkens back to some of Lotte Reiniger's shadow puppetry films.
Still from Lotte Reiniger's Hansel and Gretel
Red is now in the running for my favorite version of the Little Red Riding Hood saga. The film's dark artistry elicits a sweeping rage of emotions, from delight to despair, with fierceness in between.
I, of course, love Neil Jordan's adaptation of Angela Carter's take on a Grimm story, The Company of Wolves (1984).
Red wanders the forest in The Company of Wolves
My other two favorite takes are David Slade's contemporary take on the Red Saga, Hard Candy (2005) starring Ellen Page before she was Juno. The big bad wolf that she faces is far too real.
Promo image for Hard Candy
And finally, another proto-feminist take on Red Riding Hood, but this time, Red's a misunderstood juvie played by Reese Witherspoon before she bacame super-Mom and romantic comedy's sweetheart.
Lee Hardcastle, in a mere 60 seconds, can whittle down some of the best parts of classic horror films, and he accomplishes this feat with Clay. His animation is bloody hilarious, and yes, I start writing in a British accent whenever I watch his shorts. He's a young punk (not yet thirty) with loads of talent. Uncle Creepy at Dread Central announced that Lee will be making a film with Ben Wheatley, who directed Kill List (2011), entitled Megaevilmotherfuckers. We'll have to see if they are compelled to change that awesome title. Here are some of Lee Hardcastle's finest works, and a great interview here if you'd like to know more.
He was also invited to join the filmmakers participating in The ABCs of Death (2012), a film about which I am beyond excited. 26 Filmmakers contribute to this anthology! Here's Hardcastle's submission T is for Toilet.
The Maker--Christopher Kezelos (courtesy of themakerfilm.com
I am a huge fan of creepy stop motion animation, from the benign Tim Burton to the not so benign Quay Brothers. I'm especially fond of films that make art out of the detritus of the world--the broken junk and grimy leftovers unloved by a materialistic culture addicted to novelty. Since I teach young filmmakers and film scholars, I try to emphasize that the director's intentions for a film are only a layer of information toward interpreting a film's meaning. Even if the director suggests that the film is about "A strange creature [who] races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life," one can read Kezelos's film in an entirely different way. A much darker way.
The film has a Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935) air about it. With all the brightly colored vials and secret grimoire, the mad scientist seems fast at work (and under serious time constraints) constructing his dream girl. I'm not super-thrilled with the heteronormative nature of the creation, as our Bunny Pygmalion creates a "pink" bejeweled companion/doppelganger. Still, if you watch Kezelos's earlier stop-motion work Zero (2010), you'll see some of these earlier ideological issues already in place.
The threadbare nature of our "hero" with the musical clefs on his head contributes not only to the film's worn aesthetic, but to a tactile experience much like The Quay Brother's Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1987). I've posted what I could find from YouTube below:
Could the film be a meta-commentary on the process and experience of being an animator and making animated films? Certainly the film could be about "beauty"--misshapen teeth and all--and the beholder's gaze. Small scale filmmakers (like many large-scale ones) frequently create personal films that star a version of themselves. And the process of artistic creation can be simultaneously fruitful and fruitless. Artists of all stripes are often driven to create, as if by necessity. One puts their heart and soul into a work, but the process is never-ending and endlessly repeats itself. Stop-motion animation is so elaborately detailed, so painstaking, that it is the ultimate DIY project for an artisanal filmmaker. Perhaps that frantic race against time can seem defeating, like a treadmill one can never get off. I bet Kezelos is hard at work on his next project, even as he just won the audience prize at The Wrap's Short Film Festival mere days ago.
The music that our Maker plays to imbue his creation with life force seems to come directly from the soul, and the piece played is truly magical. Yet I found the film remarkably downbeat and a little bleak--just the way I like it! To experience the film as it should be experienced, I recommend that you download the film in high-definition from themakerfilm.com. It's available for the price of a couple songs on Itunes, and well worth every penny. You can watch a less gorgeous version here:
I've just returned from an exciting and emotional trip "across the pond" to see family and friends in Germany, and Jet Lag is kicking my butt. I don't know what's happened to me, but it took me almost the entire trip to feel better than a zombie...I have the most acute envy for first class travelers who seem to always be reveling in what I imagine are the utmost luxuries.
Seems that we got out of Europe in the nick of time, since Olympic madness officially hits tomorrow in the UK, and really, everywhere else. Rumor has it that during the opening ceremonies, J.K. Rowling's "Lord Voldemort" is going to be battling "Mary Poppins." This type of stunt could never be accomplished by the truly incompetent Olympic Deliverance Team that populate BBC America's fantastic satirical comedy Twenty Twelve, which premiered a while ago in the UK, but has only been showing here in the U.S. this summer, supposedly in preparation for some real Olympic coverage.
If you're a Downton Abbey fan (and I'm most assuredly not), you'll notice that the well dressed chap standing next to the weird looking giant clock is none other than Lord Grantham himself, Hugh Bonneville. He's the leader of this group of misfits, and just watching him ride his fold-up bike to his office every morning is hilarious--especially because he cannot fold his bike, and crushes his hand EVERY TIME. Bonneville won a BAFTA for Twenty Twelve before Lord Grantham was even a twinkle in the eye of U.S. pop culture, and he deserves it. Here's hoping that the Olympics are "brilliant," despite the deliverance committee's ability to make everything go all "pear-shaped."
Speaking of Olympic madness, though, even the city's vermin are getting into the act. Check out Leo Bridle and Amael Isnard's short animated film, Olympic Vermin.
I love how these adorable cardboard vermin re-purpose London's trash in their own version of passing the torch. Yet, they're all paper thin creatures, so one fears that they may self-immolate through their incendiary devices. Oh NOOOO!
Speaking of imminent danger, I also wanted to post this light-hearted little animated film that's an ode to Red Shirts and their all too soon demise. If you're thinking "What the heck is a Red Shirt?"--well, you're not alone. The term comes from the fans of the original Star Trek television series. If you recall, cast members wearing red shirts were always marked for early destruction. Seems fitting that so shortly after our own Pop Olympics, known as San Diego's Comic.con, M.J.Hibbett and the Validators would see fit to create this lovely video. We should all pray for Darren, since he's not long for this world.
Perhaps once my brain solidifies from it's Jet Lag fondue state, I'll get down to more serious criticism, but for now, enjoy!
Danish Electronica group When Saints Go Machine released this video for their single "Mannequin" about a month ago, from their album Konkylie. The video has been compared to work by the Quay Brothers and Fred Stuhr and Adam Jones's Tool videos, more in feel than in actual aesthetics, since those other works are primarily stop motion animation, while Mia Fremming's film emphasizes 2D drawn environments. She hails from design firm intense studios, which creates some pretty intense work.
All these uncanny works effectively share a layering of labyrinthine spaces that fade off into an unclear vanishing point. One room opens onto another room, and strange humanoid figures curl and uncurl out of fetal positions, seemingly manipulated by an unseen force. Space is distorted and twisted, often through the use of miniaturized sets or found object debris. Mannequin's world is is like a never-ending post apocalyptic rabbit hole, occasionally broken up by a piece of barbed wire traversing the frame. The griminess of the setting is palpable, its sharp edges visceral and tactile.
A little dash of steampunk is thrown in for good measure, and there is some homage to the anime Ghost in the Shell series, especially in the film's representations of the female body in relation to technology. Nikolaj Vonsild's plaintive voice will haunt you long after the film's images fade.
Here's a sampling of work by the Quay Brothers, from their most well known film, The Street of Crocodiles (1986). The Brothers try to create an atmosphere that elicits synaesthesia, where sensory perceptions are crossed so that one might taste colors. Not only are they capable of animating dust, but their use of Polish composer Leszek Jankowski allows one to touch sounds.
I actually think Mannequin has the most in common with their film The Comb (From the Museums of Sleep) (1990). Really, YouTube cannot do these videos justice. I would get their complete short works.
.
I'm not super fond of TOOL musically, but I think that some of their animated work is really impressive. The video for "Prison Sex," created by Stuhr and Jones, is both unsettling and kind of gorgeous. The song's lyrics explore child abuse, and one can see those feelings of vulnerability and rage conveyed in the video's powerful imagery.
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."--Albert Einstein
This quotation provides a good sense of what is in store when a brilliant (and mad) scientist experiments with human cloning. Murder is Yang Tzu Ting's graduation project from the National Taiwan University of Arts, and stylistically is akin to a graphic novel-in-motion, with bold outlines and starkly contrasted images. Some of the images also recall Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (2008).
Thematically, the film deals with some of the same ideas posited in Ridley Scott's Prometheus**--human creation, playing God, what houses the soul--but unpacks these ideas in a more sophisticated manner. The film also has shades of Fight Club (David Fincher,1999) and The Prestige (Christopher Nolan, 2006), while still being utterly unique and captivating all on its own.
**I just saw Scott's Alien "prequel" yesterday, and while I enjoyed the film for the first 90 minutes, especially the eye candy, one could hear my eyes rolling in the last half hour. For those of us who hated the series finale of Lost, I couldn't help blaming Damon Lindenhof for the numerous plot holes, cheap spirituality, and inconsistencies with the Alien mythology (from Scott's own previous film)! Still, the imagery was pretty gorgeous and Giger-esque, and Michael Fassbender played the malevolent android beautifully (while eerily channeling Peter O'Toole). The film was not scary, and Noomi Rapace is no "Ripley," although I honestly do not think she's at fault. I blame you-know-who.
There's a real art to making a gorgeous, pulse-pumping, thrill-inducing movie trailer. In fact, trailers have changed quite a bit in the last decade, as Michael Berthal points out in "The Movie Trailer Revolution" on Salon.com. In fact, the trailer that really has had me jones-ing for the big screen theatrical experience over the last couple of months has undeniably been the one for Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012), which opens this Friday in the U.S., but has been released globally to decidedly mixed reviews. Whatever. Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender!?
I'd see that bunch in ANYTHING, and this film might be a prequel to
Ridley Scott's genius film Alien (1979)! I'm hoping to see it Monday, when the rest of the world is at work (although I cannot see in 3D, so that's a bit of a bummer).
Seems I'm not the only one who thinks that the Prometheus trailer is super-awesome. Thank you Travis Betz!
It's getting to be that time of year again in the Northeast, where folks try to get in shape in order to run around in their swimming attire. One way to circumvent bathing suit fit issues? Skinny-dipping! I envy every person out there who has the kind of beach/pool access to indulge in this most delightful of pastimes to their heart's content. Others have to sneak around, which can sometimes add a necessary frisson of forbidden pleasures.
Here Czech animator Alexandra Hetmerova fulfills our wishes for a sweet little bit of escapism, with a delightful surprise at the film's end. Synchronized swimming never looked so lovely or so fun. Check out Swimming Pool (2010) below!
On a bit more serious note, Israeli animator Daniella Koffler's meditation on religious fundamentalism and the freedom that knowledge can bring, Stairs with No End (2011), is both a stunning and unsettling film. The young narrator's beloved Uncle tells her that "Not to ask questions is to live life asleep," and champions her intellectual curiosity, even though her questioning alienates her from her family. The light does shine a path onto the stairs of knowledge, which thankfully have no end. As Koffler thoughtfully explains:
"The film was inspired by Ayaan
Hirsi Ali's book “Infidel” and Richard Dawkins's book “The God Delusion”. I wanted to tell the story of many women I
know, who chose to stand alone, think for themselves and paid a price for
asking unwanted questions."
Check out this gorgeous animated film, The Boundaries of Life and Death by director and animator Saskia Kretzschmann.
This film is infinitely better than any John Cusack film could ever be. Animators have been translating Poe's words and vision for some time. I recommend UPA's The Tell Tale Heart, narrated by James Mason, from 1953. The film uses limited animation to tell its story, which differs from the Disney studio's work by using fewer animated cels, emphasizing sound, and employing a moving camera over the animated cels.
I also recommend The Masque of the Red Death created by the Zagreb studio in the former Yugoslavia in 1969. Again, this film uses limited animation to tell its harrowing account of the plague run amok.
All three films have a haunted, painterly quality, even though Kretzschmann's film utilizes contemporary computer technologies. She knows her antecedents, and I wouldn't be surprised if Kretzschmann drew influences from Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) as well. Reiniger worked tirelessly for three years on this brilliant animated film, hand-cutting the backgrounds and the shadow puppets, and then animating them frame by frame with the very first multi-plane camera. She had some assistance from Berthold Bartosch and Walter Ruttman as well.
This stunning image of a lone magician girl, created through stop-motion
animation, is from the new video by The Shins, entitled "The Rifle's
Spiral," directed by Jamie Caliri. This director
has done the credit sequence for the Lemony Snicket film (very cool),
and some other short form animated commercials and music videos, which
you can watch on his site.
His work is reminiscent of The Quay Brothers films crossed with Czech
animator Jiri Trnka, with a dash of steampunk thrown in for good
measure. He would be great at bringing Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus to the screen. Beautiful and unsettling work. Check out the video here.
