Simpsons "Stemed Hams" Parodies

 

The internet was created with the intention of collecting the world's total knowledge into one vast, infinite library, where thinkers and scholars and artists could create freely and contemplate the universe. Instead, we just wasted out time by watching a bunch of silly parody videos.

Here are a couple wildly funny video spoofs of the "steamed hams" bit from The Simpsons. I'm sure you've seen this episode a hundred times, it's a comedy classic with Principle Skinner and "Super Nintendo" Chalmers. The first video fuses voice clips to the climactic battle in Nintendo's Super Mario World, and it works surprisingly well. The second video is a mashup of audiovisual clips that parodies Gorillaz, which is something of a semi-parody musical act. I really enjoy this one, as it reminds me of the wave of "YouTube Poop" videos that exploded across computer screens in 2008. Are we now seeing the next generation of those spoofs?

I have no idea why the kids have glued onto "Steamed Hams" as much as they have, but I'm glad they did. What do I know? I'm a rapidly aging Generation X'er who's still running a weblog like it's still 2005. Does anyone even know what a "blog" is anymore? I'm the last of the dinosaurs.

Everyone Gets the Animated Features They Deserve

"Every nation gets the government it deserves." This can also be said of animated feature films. The Emoji Movie is cynical, formulaic, dim-witted, cliched and generally terrible. It was recently awarded "Worst Movie" at this year's Razzie Awards. And yet, it still managed to earn $200 million at the box office and earn a "B" grade from audiences.

Yes, those are poor numbers compared to most animated features. Compared to, say, the Studio Ghibli movies, well...Hayao Miyazaki's last feature, The Wind Rises, earned a paltry $5 million dollars in US theaters. A two-time Academy Award winner and animation legend couldn't pull in more than The Emoji Movie made at the popcorn stand.

Just look at that screenshot. Even those stupid smiley faces are depressed about being in this dumb cartoon. They're probably a little shocked at the critical drubbing they've received as well. Let's be completely honest here. The Emoji Movie isn't really any worse than most animated features to come through the studio system in recent years. The plot, the characters, the casting, the pop culture riffs, the loud action scenes, the "pweachy mowal wesson", the formulaic happy ending -- it's all the same.

Oh, and were you aware that Masaaki Yuasa's visual masterpiece Mind Game is playing in select US theaters? It's box office return so far: $7,586.00. That's not a typo.

If you want better movies, then you're going to have to support better movies. Better options are readily available, but only if you bother to show up. If you choose instead to sit on your hands and stay home, only going out to sleepwalk into the latest formulaic animated cartoon that's identical to the last twenty animated cartoons...well, don't be surprised if "Emoji Movie 2" gets the green light. Expect to see the teaser trailer at the beginning of "Angry Birds Movie 2".

GKIDS Animation is Film Festival Oct 20-22

The Animation is Film Festival, presented by GKIDS, continues this weekend in Los Angeles, presenting a wide variety of feature animated movies from around the world. This festival was created from a desire to expand the appeal of the medium beyond its "electric babysitter" ghetto.

This movie festival features the US theatrical premier of Mary and the Witch's Flower, the debut movie from Studio Ponoc and latest feature from Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the director of The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. The Sunday event has already sold out.

Other anime films from Japan include three from Masaaki Yuasa: Mind Game, Night is Short, Walk On Girl and Lu Over the Wall. This is a very welcome sight and will hopefully lead to wider recognition of this most visually inventive of anime directors.

On the Western side, the selection of animated features runs from mainstream blockbusters (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Incredibles, The LEGO Batman Movie, to a variety of independent movies, including the highly anticipated film from Nora Twomey (co-creator of The Secret of Kells), The Breadwinner, and the user-stylish French thriller, Zombillenium, a graphic novel adaptation where zombies, vampires and witches hide in plain sight by working at a horror-themed amusement park.

This festival is an excellent idea, and should be shown in more US cities. Hopefully a successful run in Los Angeles will inspire GKIDS and their sponsors to do just that. I am already saving my money for the inevitable GKIDS Blu-Ray releases.

Angry Birds Movie Coming in Summer 2016

Smartphone video game developer Rovio is producing a $180 million Angry Birds Movie, set for release in theaters on Summer 2016.

Ghibli Blog has received an early draft of the script, including the explosive ending. Here, below, is a worldwide exclusive from The Angry Birds Movie:

(Ext. Scene)

Mouse: Hey, Angry Birds, you look like you have something to say? Do you?

Red Angry Bird: We certainly do!

Black Angry Bird: We have to go now. Our planet needs us.

(Fade to black.)

(Text on screen: "Angry Birds died on way to their home planet.)

THE END

Daria: The Complete Animated Series - Amazon Sale

Amazon is selling Daria: The Complete Animated Series for only $12.99. Hurry, grab it now! Go, go go! This is one of the great animated cartoon shows of the late 1990s, full of acid wit and wisecracks for any occassion. At this price, it's a total steal. And don't we need some of Daria-isms right now? Everything in the world sucks, and we need some good comebacks.

Some fans have complained that nearly all the original music from the TV broadcasts, actual pop music from the MTV rosters of the day, didn't survive the transition to DVD. But I don't mind all that much, and it's a small sacrifice to having this great series at my fingertips. Now, Beavis and Butthead, that's a different story. You need the music videos for that one. But Daria's "new" incidental music is just fine. And the theme song is still there in all its grungy wonderfulness.

Seriously, grab this DVD as fast as possible. Get it before Amazon comes to their senses and jacks up the price.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is the "Least Deserving Oscar Win"

Movie critic Sam Adams isn't waiting until Oscar night to denounce the expected win for Dreamworks' animated feature, How to Train Your Dragon 2. He's tearing into the Motion Picture's toothlessness:

The problem isn't that "Dragon" is a terrible movie — it's not — but that of the nominees in its category, it's the least deserving by a substantial distance. "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya," by Isao Takahata, is a flat-out masterpiece, possibly the last to be released by Japan's famed Studio Ghibli; "Song of the Sea," by Tomm Moore, who was nominated for "The Secret of Kells" is close behind. "Big Hero 6" has a lazy superhero plot at its center, but the details around it are enchanting, especially the characterization of the squishy robot sidekick, Baymax, and "The Boxtrolls," while relatively disappointing compared to its Laika predecessors "Coraline" and "ParaNorman," still bristles with visual invention. 

That leaves "How to Train Your Dragon 2," a fine but unremarkable sequel that in all honesty I don't remember well enough to muster specific criticisms against. It was enjoyable while it lasted, but forgotten almost immediately thereafter. If you'll pardon the pun (and you probably shouldn't), it's utterly toothless. I'm baffled as to how anyone find it superior to even one of its fellow nominees (with the possible exception of "The Boxtrolls,") let alone all four. Its presumed win seems to be the latest triumph of a category that overwhelmingly favors studio product over individual expression, and which has been shameless rigged to shut out innovative techniques like the interpolated rotoscoping of Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly." Even when movies that play with the form aren't explicitly cast out, they're shunned the way "The LEGO Movie" was this year, deemed unworthy for failing to hew to the most conservative definitions of "real" animation. 

With the documentary and foreign film categories' overhaul, Best Animated Feature now has the dubious honor of being the Oscars' most compromised and questionable category. If "How to Train Your Dragon 2" wins on Sunday, it will be just the latest example.

Oscars Honor Feature Animated Filmmakers

On Thursday, the Motion Picture Academy honored its nominees for Best Animated Feature, in anticipation of this Sunday's Oscar broadcast.  The event, hosted by Disney's Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck (Frozen), allowed the filmmakers to discuss their craft, the challenges in creating animated movies, and the state of the medium. Some clips from the gathering:

At the event, the Oscar-nominated filmmakers — from Big Hero 6, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Boxtrolls, Song of the Sea and The Tale of Princess Kaguya — took the stage to discuss their honored work. Topics included: how stories got the green light (How to Train Your Dragon 2 was pitched as the second part of a necessary trilogy); how the idea for a movie was born (Song of the Sea features seals inspired by the ones director Tomm Moore saw dead on the beach); which parts of the story were discarded (The Boxtrolls originally ended with an armored rat attacking the town); and why directors brought co-directors on board (Big Hero 6's Don Hall needed Chris Williams because he had to be in too many places at once).

The common thread throughout the talks was this: Animation is unbelievably tiring and time-consuming, but the nominated filmmakers need to create it. Many grew up loving comic books, and then took to animation upon the realization that it meant making their comics move.
"It never felt like there was ever a choice to work in animation," Big Hero 6 co-director Don Hall told USA TODAY. "It's almost a compulsion."

But boy, are those stories hard to tell. Tony Stacchi, co-director of stop-motion film The Boxtrolls, told USA TODAY that he felt like quitting his movie plenty of times because the work was so draining.

"Any life that the puppets display, any feeling of any existence, was sucked out of the animators. We had back pain and bloody fingers" on set, he said. Working in animation "is an insane way to make a movie."

(Photo: Academy Governor Bill Kroyer with animated feature film nominees. Isao Takahata is seated at center. Credit: Aaron Poole/A.M.P.A.S.)

Photos - Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea, the 2014 animated film created by Ireland's Cartoon Sarloon and directed by Tomm Moore, is a gorgeous and visually sumptuous movie that demonstrates the unique power of hand-drawn, 2D animation. It speaks to the viability of the medium in the Age of Computers. And it's the work of one of the true rising stars in animation today.

I'm a great fan of Moore's previous film, 2009's The Secret of Kells, which brilliantly combined Irish folklore, medieval manuscripts, cartoon surrealism and religious iconography. It's a thing of beauty to watch, and its reverence for the almost mystical power of books...in the world before print transformed human civilization and the human mind, manuscript is everything. This is a good time to brush up on our Marshall McLuhan texts.

Song of the Sea is nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and is the second film distributed by GKids Films this year (the other, as we all know, is Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya). I am cheering loudly for Princess Kaguya to win, but if Moore's sophomore movie takes home the Oscar, I will be quite happy. It would demonstrate that the Motion Picture Academy voters had actually bothered to put in some effort on a genre that, frankly, they dismiss as second-rate. It takes no effort to hand trophies to Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks. Handing one to GKids Films? That would be much better, for Hollywood and the world of animation.

The Academy Awards will be broadcast this Sunday.

Tomm Moore Talks Song of the Sea and 2D Animation

Tomm Moore, the writer/director of this year's Oscar-nominated animated feature, Song of the Sea, sat down with MovieFail to discuss his career, the challenges of following up his 2009 animated film, The Secret of Kells, and the need to distinguish himself apart from animation powerhouses in the USA and Japan. Most importantly, he is a staunch defender of hand-drawn, 2D animation, and seeks to keep the tradition alive in the modern computer age:

Is there something hand-drawn 2D art brings to the table that you prefer computer animation?

 

I think hand-drawn has a lot still to do. I think it’s a medium that hasn’t really been fully used because for a long time, people working in hand-drawn were so influenced by Disney [that] they just copied Disney. And Disney’s look was limited by the technology of the time where they had to paint cells and layer the backgrounds and shoot them with a camera. You can only put so many cells underneath, you can only paint the characters flat. Now we’ve got this wealth of opportunity because we can use the computer to really make a hybrid style where we hand draw, hand animate, use all the language of painting and art history. And at the same time we can do loads more techniques…

 

You can make films with much smaller teams, much more specialized rather than having this huge factory of two hundred people painting cells. We can focus on the organic side of it and then move to the computer to help us with stuff like coloring the characters and things like that.

 

So I think that hand-drawn animation has an opportunity to reinvent itself and do whatever computer animation doesn’t really do well. And that’s basically did when photography came in. I think hand-drawn animation has huge potential that way. But just for me personally, I enjoy drawing. It’s the language that we’ve developed here in the studio – a certain visual language, a certain way of thinking. When we develop stories and films, especially the ones I’m going to direct, I think of something that’s going to take advantage of hand-drawn animation. Not to say that we wouldn’t try computer animation if it was the right story.

 

I was hanging out with the guys who did Big Hero 6 the other night, and you know – that’s a movie that makes sense in CG. (Laughs.) Superheroes and sci-fi tech. It doesn’t need to be hand-drawn watercolor painted; it doesn’t make sense. Different stories for different mediums.

 

You think these forms can coexist?

 

Yeah. I hope – artistically, yes. What does the audience respond to, that’s another question. Will they respond to hand-drawn animation? I really hope they will. It’s tough. A few years ago, John Lasseter was talking about bringing back hand-drawn animation. He said that people were blaming hand-drawn animation for the movies not being good and said that was like saying the cameras were the problem rather than the people, or the story, or the actors. I thought that was a really good analogy.

 

But at the same time, there really hasn’t been a successful blockbuster in 2D animation in a long time. I wonder if it’s the case that hand-drawn animation is going to end up being a specialized artistic process and never really be a mainstream form again. I’m ambivalent about whether that’s good or bad. (Laughs.)

 

It kind of leaves us that are still practicing it very free, without a huge expectation on us to make super blockbusters. Maybe that’s better – I’m not sure. Maybe we’re going to be relegated to the kind of area that stop-motion, or maybe sand animation are. (Laughs.) And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

 

But honestly I think 5-10 minutes maximum into a movie, you really shouldn’t be thinking about how it was made. You should be engaged in the story and the characters and the world.

Simpsons Fan Theory: Homer is in a 20-Year Coma

I'm normally not a fan of "fan theories," but this one is too good to pass up. Reddit user "Hardtopickaname" has a novel theory: that Homer Simpson never awoke from a coma he suffered over 20 years ago, and the entire series run from that point has been a series of dreams taking place within Homer's mind. Sounds crazy? Submitted for your approval, here is his grand thesis:

October 1992: Homer The Heretic airs and ends with Homer talking to God.

Homer: God, I gotta ask you something. What's the meaning of life?
God: Homer, I can't tell you that.
Homer: C'mon!
God: You'll find out when you die.
Homer: I can't wait that long!
God: You can't wait six months?
Homer: No, tell me now!
God: Well, okay. The meaning of life is…

April 1993 (six months later): So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show airs and involves Bart’s April Fools prank inadvertently putting Homer into the hospital, where he is then crushed by a vending machine and put in a coma. Now the episode ends with Homer waking up (and giving us a hilarious POV shot of him choking Bart), but it seems to be too convenient and sudden.

I propose that Homer didn’t actually wake up from his coma. He is still in a vegetative state and every single Simpsons episode afterwards is in Homer’s imagination.

This is why the characters don’t age. Homer remembers Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as 10, 8, and 1 year old, so they will always appear that way in his dreams. He is subconsciously aware of time passing, so his mind will often “update” his memories so that the year they occurred matches up with the age he thinks he is (e.g. That 90’s Show contradicting other flashback episodes).

While the characters’ ages don’t change, the events happening to the Simpsons definitely did. The plots of episodes following the April Fools show are far zanier than beforehand. Let’s compare, shall we?

Plot Examples Before April 1993:
Bart cheats on an IQ test
Homer tries to give up drinking
Marge considers cheating on Homer
Lisa has a crush on her teacher
Yes, there were some wacky plots, but overall fairly mundane stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Plot Examples After April 1993:
Homer goes into outer space
Principal Skinner is revealed as an imposter
Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster
Homer works for a super-villain who takes over the eastern US
Bart and Homer buy a racehorse and discover the secret land of jockeys
Celebrity after celebrity after celebrity

This is clearly Homer’s imagination running wild. With no real world restrictions, Homer’s mind is able to dream up scenarios of him and his family in fantasies involving him winning a Grammy, his father fighting his boss for buried WW2 treasure, his wife getting breast implants, his infant daughter saving him from drowning, etc.

The massive amounts of celebrity appearances are easily explained as well. People in comas can sometime hear what people in the same room are saying. While Homer wouldn’t physically react, his mind processes that information and includes it in his dreams.

Maybe the nurse leaves the radio on and Homer hears a Lady Gaga song. Suddenly:

 His family visits and talk with each other about the new Mel Gibson movie they’re going to be seeing after leaving the hospital. Next thing you know:

And so on.

There’s one last thing I want to leave you with. Going back to Homer’s conversation with God, "What is the meaning of life?" Or at least Homer’s life? Well life can have different meaning for different people and a purpose or reason for one’s existence can be as unique as their fingerprints. For Homer, his grand purpose is obvious – he is here to entertain. His dreams, his imaginative adventures, have provided millions of fans with amusement and will continue to do so for decades.

Overnight Thread: Matrix III

I think I like the idea of having "late night" movies on Ghibli Blog. It gives you something to do in the later hours, and hopefully keeps you entertained until the morning blog posts arrive. I am trying to establish something like a regular working schedule, so hopefully this helps.

John Whitney's 1972 computer animated film, Matrix III, is a personal favorite and earned a place on my Animation Poll Top 20 list. Meditative, zen-like, visually minimalist but extremely effective for its day. Keep in mind that the computer graphics in this short film were years before real-time rendering was possible, which means creating a single image, then taking a photograph, then moving the dots to the next position, then taking another photo. It's a very time-consuming process, but the results are dazzling. These graphics may appear "simple," but they were pioneering and state-of-the-art.

I'd love to see the Whitney Brothers' experimental films on DVD or Blu-Ray. The only home video release was a limited-edition Pioneer LaserDisc, which is now extremely rare and goes for very high prices. Not "classic video game price gouging" expensive, but pricey enough.

Enjoy the late movie, kids. In the morning, I'll have a new Hayao Miyazaki comic to share, and maybe show off my 1991 Fantasia LaserDisc box set. Or, I'll just throw up my hands and post Cat Bus pictures from Reddit.

In Defense of Lucasfilm's Strange Magic

Animation scholar (and notorious CGI curmedgeon) Michael Barrier comes to the defense of the much-maligned Lucasfilm-producted animated feature, Strange Magic:

Strange Magic is strange, all right, and the first hour or so is awful in the usual CGI manner. There's a thick crust of elaborated surfaces, way too much smarty-pants dialogue, a frantically restless camera, rapid cutting that repeatedly tests the weary eyeball's ability to keep up, and, especially, characters—elves and fairies and such—who, when they're not the usual plasticine dolls, resemble all too closely, but not really closely enough, their predecessors in roughly comparable films like Pixar's A Bug's Life, whose grasshopper villain anticipates the Bog King in the new film. (You can dismiss any thoughts of A Midsummer Night's Dream, supposedly the basis for the story, which is credited, if that's the word, to Lucas). What makes Strange Magic really strange is that it's a jukebox musical, with a soundtrack assembled from pop songs spanning several decades. Most of the music undermines any charm to be found in the fairy-tale visuals, and there's not enough wit evident in the choice of the songs, which conceivably could have been used to create a sort of alternative atmosphere: fey but with tongue in cheek.

To my surprise, though, I left the theater feeling quite cheerful, and with warm feelings for Strange Magic and its makers. Like the other people working on CGI features, they were imprisoned in a creative straitjacket, condemned to make a cartoon of the sort the market supposedly requires, but they found an escape route in the conflict between the two principal characters, the Bog King and the fairy princess Marianne. Even though they're antagonists at first, the Bog King is never presented as a coal-black villain, and so there's an opening first for comedy, and then, eventually, for a full-blown romance. There is, remarkably, nothing arbitrary or abrupt about how the relationship evolves. There is instead a gradual change in their feelings for each other—not a steady progression, but the sort of back and forth that occurs as two people come to care for each other even when they have no reason to expect such an outcome. In other words, Strange Magic felt to me surprisngly real at its core.

Mr. Peabody is One Outrageous Dude, He's Totally in My Face!

I don't think anybody bothered to tell the Dreamworks execs that the "Poochie" episode of The Simpsons was supposed to be SATIRE.  It's not a bloody instruction manual, ya schnorers!

I'm a huge fan of Rocky & Bullwinkle, but all these bad CGI movie adaptations just leave me feeling depressed.  No wonder I have regular panic attacks about the thought of mortality.  Movies like this are used by atheists as evidence in debates.  Oy, my head hurts.

I wish I had some holy water.  Back, back!  The power of Christ compels you!  The power of Christ compels you!

Poster: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I was practically raised by Charles Shultz and his Peanuts characters, and the holiday specials hold a special place in my heart.  It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is my favorite, capturing all the variety and depth of the comic strip, coming alive on the small screen.  Here, Toronto-based graphics artist Michael De Pippo created these limited-series posters for the Haloween classic.  The originals are now long out-of-print, which is too bad.  I'd gladly pay to own one of these for my collection, and I'm sure you would, as well.

A really fantastic design!  Very minimal, yet iconic, stylish.  The image of Sally staring down poor Linus is priceless.

Arnold Schwartzenegger Returns as The Governator in 2012

Yes, this is real.  It's not yet another April Fools Day joke from me or anyone else.

This cartoon has that magical MST3K "so bad it's good" quality, so I wouldn't discount it.  Former Governor Arnold with his own Iron Man suit and Tron Light-Cycle?  Let's see how many other movie cliches appear in this trailer...Ooh, there's The Matrix...Green Lantern's ring...I'm pretty sure that's the Bat-Cave...I never realized California had so much trouble with giant robots.  I always figured the Republicans were zombies or vampires, but robots?

Also, at the end of every episode, Arnold the Governator looks to the audience and says, "I have to go now.  My home planet needs me."  Cheesy one-liners are an absolute MUST for The Governator.  "Brought to you by da letter L!"

If I were involved in the production of this cartoon show, I'd go for laughs.  Make it as absurd as possible (it's kinda already there!) and pack it with cheap references to all those 1980s toy commercials, err, ahem....cartoons.  GI Joe and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles must make regular appearances.  Help, I'm a computer!  You gotta stop all the downloading!  Cowabunga, dude!  Skip it, I'm having fun with this one.

"It Didn't Have Enough Toys"

Bad news for animation fans here in the States: Cartoon Network has canceled Genndy Tartakovsky’s Sym-Bionic Titan, not for low ratings, but because of merchandising:

“Genddy’s moved on to Sony Pictures Animation. Titan got competitive ratings with other action shows, but what shut it down was it didn’t have enough toys connected to it. If you don’t have the, the studios don’t want to renew for another season.”

This echoes a point I had made over a week ago, just around the time the Japan earthquake hit.  People are under the assumption that Hollywood is in the movie business.  It's not.  The corporate conglomerates who own the Hollywood studios aren't in the movie business, they're in the toy business.  And this is never more true than when you're dealing with animation.

Remember that Pixar's stock price took a hit because of UP, not because it was a box office disappointment or a failure with the critics, but because 8-14 year old boys weren't about to swarm the toy stores of America in search of Carl Frederickson dolls.

George Lucas is always the guy who gets blamed for Why Today's Movies All Stink, because Star Wars muscled out the complex, personal movies of the 1970s and ushered in a wave of popcorn escapism.  That's not really the case.  What really changed the business of making movies, the new paradigm shift, wasn't Star Wars itself, but the mountain of Star Wars toys and merchandise.  That's where Lucas made his billions.  And once Hollywood was gobbled up by conglomerates, the game was over.

This is why you get the same fake, formulaic junk out of movies and television today.  This is why you see the same five movies being made over and over.  This is why animation in this country, for the most part, stinks.  Pixar, as always, has been the exception to the rule, but have you noticed that even they have now succumed to the game?  Three sequels in rapid order?  Cars merchandising pulls in $2 billion a year for Disney.

How much money from merchandising does Studio Ghibli make in America.  Zero.  You can't put an Ohmu stampede on a Happy Meal box.

Photos: The Triplets of Bellville on Blu-Ray

Yes, Sylvain Chomet's brilliant 2003 movie Triplets of Bellville is now available on Blu-Ray in France. The reviews have been glowing and the picture quality - judging from the screenshots - is fantastic. I don't know if or when this BD will be released in the US, UK or Australia, but I'd like to think somebody will pick it up for release this year.

I've only seen this movie once, at the Lagoon Theatre in Minneapolis during its theatrical run in 2003, and I loved it. I laughed my head off and had a great time. Unfortunately, while the theatre was packed, it was full of Uptown movie snobs who absolutely refused to show any emotion or reaction to anything happening on the screen. I even had some guy shout me down for - heaven forbid! - laughing at the funny scenes. What a snobbish bunch of losers. If you can't react to the movie, then why bother watching? I'm not expecting MST3K wisecracks, but we're not at a funeral, folks.

Actually, if you feel like making MST3K wisecracks, go right ahead. It was the only way I could make my way through bad movies like Clash of the Titans or Pelham 123 or the Star Wars prequels. Movies are about having fun. You're going to die one day (aack!!), so smile and have some fun while you're still here.

Triplets of Bellville is a rich and wonderfully inventive movie. Best of all, it's confidently, defiantly French. Chomet has no interest in following any country's animation style - not the Brits, not the Americans, not the Japanese. I'm not at all surprised that he tackled Jacques Tati in The Illusionist; in my mind, both filmmakers are very closely related. If Tati were alive today, I think he'd be making movies like this.

Rocky & Bullwinkle - Free at IMDb

Yay!  Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons at IMDb!  And they're free, too!  Thanks to whoever uploaded these to Hulu.  Now if we can get these cartoons back on free broadcast tv, we'd really be making progress.  Free cartoons are a basic human right, dagnabbit!

Sylvain Chomet's New Film - The Illusionist

Sylvain Chomet is set to complete his follow-up film since 2003's Triplets of Bellville.  Scotland Herald has the details, as well as the first images from the film.  Bellville was a favorite movie of mine and I was lucky enough to watch it at the Lagoon Theatre in Minneapolis.  Unfortunately, I was stuck in a crowd of humorless hipster snobs who were offended at my laughter.  Whatever.  Chomet's movies are a celebration of life.  You can't help but laugh.

The Herald proclaims that The Illusionist could become a classic of Scottish cinema:

The Illusionist tells the story of an old-fashioned entertainer in Scotland who struggles to find his place in the world as the public deserts his act in favour of rock ’n’ roll. Marginalised, his life changes when he meets a young fan.

The film, animated in old-style 2D, was made primarily in Edinburgh at ­Chomet’s Django Films studios above a pub on George Street, with further work done by ink.digital in Dundee and in Paris.

The film’s production team spent £8 million directly in Scotland. ­Scottish Screen, the national film agency, has confirmed that this makes The ­Illusionist the biggest-ever spend on a film here. The Illusionist’s overall budget was “significantly north of £10 million”, according to the film’s producer, Bob Last.

The film industry expected The Illusionist to be unveiled at several festivals last year. It was rumoured to appear at Cannes, then Venice, and it almost made it to Toronto. Last week, however, it was confirmed that the film would finally show in Berlin, which runs from February 11-20.

Mr Last said: “When you technically push the boundaries of any given medium, there are unexpected obstacles that have resulted in delays to the movie. We’re very pleased we’ve completed it without compromising our production.”

An animation movie set in Scotland?  I guess this means I'll have to arrive at the cinema in the MacInnes team colors.  But I'm not wearing ths kilt.

TV Review: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

(Update: This video has since been removed from Youtube.  Sorry.)

I see that A Charlie Brown Christmas is playing on the teevee this week, so I had to show it here on the blog.  It's much easier this way.  You won't have to feel frustrated with network-imposed cuts and too many commercials.  And watching online has a certain anti-establishment feel, which Charles Shultz' holiday classic shares.

I always say this is my favorite American animation of all, and I mean that sincerely.  I love the art style.  I love the way the Peanuts characters are brought to life on the screen.  I love those jazzy off-color backgrounds for the closeups.  Most of all, I love the story, so simple and sincere.  It's a story about childhood and the need to preserve their innocence from the cynicism of the adult world.  It's joyous for the sake of being joyous.  Moments come and go for no greater purpose than to depict daily life.  I'm thinking especially of the terrific opening on the lake.

In this regard, A Charlie Brown Christmas is the American Totoro.  For all the praise given to Hayao Miyazaki, I can't name a single animation produced in this country that strives to capture Totoro's lifelike pastoral feel.  Sparky Shultz and Bill Melendez were the only ones to ever pull it off.

And I am still amazed that this cartoon was even allowed on the air.  A prime-time cartoon show that decries and openly mocks commercialism?  Don't they know last week was Black Friday, the most important day of the year?  I got a lot invested in this ride!  Shut up!  Look at my furrowed brows of worry...this has to be real.

Ahem.  Don't know how I thought up Bill Hicks just there.  Maybe A Charlie Brown Christmas, as the saying goes, comes from a more innocent time.  Maybe the television medium was still new enough for more experimental content.  Maybe mass media has too much money attached to it in the 21st Century.  I wonder, as I munch on my Dolly Madisons, could Charlie Brown be made today, the same as it was in 1964?  What challenges would today's animators face?  Could the internet make a difference as an alternative outlet, away from the conglomerates who own the networks?  I'm really curious to know that, and I'd like to hear what the animation community as to say.

In any case, enjoy Charlie Brown.  This is one of the hallowed holiday traditions, like egg nog and Nat King Cole records and snow days.  Enjoy.