Oscalress Animated Films Part 8

Oscalress Animated Films Part 8: The Peanuts Movie (2015)

Today, I will not only be talking about The Peanuts Movie. I will also talk about one of the most celebrated, talented, and influential cartoonists of the 20th Century: Charles Monroe Schulz.

Charles Schulz (or Sparky, named after a comic book character called Spark Plug) got his start on cartooning in 1947 with a comic strip called Li'l Folks. It was a bit of an early ancestor to the Peanuts comics.

In 1950, the very first Peanuts comic strip made its debut.

The characters looked very different than how we know them today. And believe it or not, characters like Schroeder, Lucy and Linus van Pelt, and Sally Brown made their debuts as babies!

However, they would all eventually be aged to Charlie Brown's age.

Another notable difference to point out is that Snoopy was a regular dog. He wouldn't become anthropomorphic until the late 1960s.

Peanuts soon became popular worldwide. In 1965, Sparky teamed up with animators Bill Melendez and Lee Mendleson and created the first Peanuts TV special: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
 

In the next couple of decades, Sparky would work with Melendez and Mendleson on more TV specials, like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973), Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975), and She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown (1980). There were also four theatrical movies: A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980).
 

Then, on February 11th, 2000, after creating nearly 18,000 Peanuts comic strips, Charles Schulz passed away at the age of 77. However, Melendez would be involved with two more Peanuts specials before his death in 2008: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003) and He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006). They may not be perfect, but the latter was better than other animated TV shows at the time.

Fast-forward to 2015: Television is now populated with more mature cartoons like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, and Gravity Falls, just to name a few. Many 21st century kids probably won't have an interest in characters like Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy or Linus van Pelt, or Peppermint Patty. However, in November of that year, it would all change: Blue Sky Studios, who perfectly brought beloved hand-drawn characters to 3D with Horton Hears a Who, was assigned to make a feature-length 3D Peanuts movie, simply called 'The Peanuts Movie'. Unlike other animated movies that year, instead of being about a half-blood vampire child who idols a Muppet spoof, banana-loving Twinkies, multicolored emotions in an 11-year-old girl's brain, or a sheep venturing into the big city, The Peanuts Movie was about human children with oblong-shaped heads. It introduced the Peanuts gang to a new generation of kids.

The Peanuts Movie became Blue Sky's best-reviewed movie to date, and grossed more money and earned better reviews than Pixar's other film that year, The Good Dinosaur.

Sparky's influence can be seen in several contemporary cartoons. In the Nicktoon Doug, the titular character has a dog named Porkchop, who acts a bit like Snoopy.

Arnold Shortman and Helga Pataki in Hey Arnold are similar to Charlie Brown and Lucy van Pelt respectively, though Arnold isn't a jinx like Chuck (a nickname Charlie Brown would be given).

There are several references and homages to Peanuts in The Loud House, even going as far as sneaking this particular gag in one episode.
 

And Jonny 2x4 in Ed, Edd n Eddy, is similar to Linus van Pelt, though he's no where near as sophisticated as Linus.

I would like to conclude this week's Oscarless Animated Films by saying thank you to Blue Sky Studios, for staying extremely true to Sparky's work. Please let your next feature, Ferdinand, rank among The Peanuts Movie.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when I talk about one of Hayao Mizayaki's most kid-friendly movies since My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo!

Movie Review: Cars 2

Movie Review: Cars 2                                                                                                   5-17-17

 

In the sequel to the successful Pixar movie Cars, Lightning McQueen competes in the Grand World Prix in three different countries. Meanwhile, Mater gets confused for a spy and must help secret agents Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) to stop evil cars from blowing up McQueen, lead by Miles Axelrod.

I am aware that this movie has quite a bit of hate, but a friend of mine from Utah convinced me on something: Cars 2 is the closest kids will get to seeing a spy movie. If you look at other live-action spy movies, you'll see that they're not appropriate for children. However, Cars 2 is definitely kid-friendly, and there's a good chance they could get engrossed.

Kids will also appreciate the message about being yourself; Mater is able to foil the villains without the intelligence or bravery of a real spy.

Also, while many of them are hit-and-miss, there are some good jokes from Mater. My personal favorite scene is when Mater confuses wasabi with pistachio ice cream and rinses in an indoor waterfall.

With all this said, Cars 2 is still a flawed movie that kids will enjoy, but adults and teens might sleep through it. Perhaps during the making of the Cars films, Pixar was focused more on 'feeding the Beast' than taking care of 'the ugly baby'. This is a metaphor Ed Catmull uses when Pixar is making their films. Here's a link to Catmull talking about that metaphor below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LafDex0L7FM

What Catmull means is that ideas for good movies start life as 'ugly babies'. They are nothing like the parents, and require nurturing to form and grow. 'The hungry beast' represents deadlines for the movie, and is required to keep the program afloat. To ignore the beast for the sake of only pursuing interesting, creative ideas means putting your program’s stability and momentum at stake. So which do you feed first: the baby, or the beast?

It's rather confusing, but somehow, I understand the metaphor. It appears in Chapter 7 of Catmull's book, Creativity Inc. I personally hope that for Cars 3, the folks at Pixar will raise 'the ugly baby' more and feed less to 'the beast'.

Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

PS. I am aware that I'm being a bit hypocritical here, but I have learned that Cars and Cars 2 are more for kids than adults. However, in a year without any new movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and many of the other animated movies this year looking disposable, maybe Pixar will have a chance to win both kids and adults with Cars 3.

Oscarless Animated Films Part 7

Oscarless Animated Films Part 7: April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

 

Adapted from Jacques Tardi's graphic novel, April and the Extraordinary World takes place in an alternate timeline in which the Industrial Revolution never happened, and humans relied on fossil fuels and chemistry instead of electricity. In 1931, scientist Paul Franklin is on a verge of discovering a formula that can make humans immortal. However, he was ambushed by Pizoni and separated from his daughter April. Ten years later, April blossomed into an intelligent and confident young woman, and now must embark on a quest with her talking cat Darwin and a street urchin named Julius to reunite with her parents and give them the formula.

Back in my review of this gem back in May 2016...

http://asateriale.blogspot.com/2016/05/movie-review-april-and-extraordinary.html

I stated that 'April' was hand-drawn. However, after further investigation, I discovered this movie IS NOT hand-drawn. Instead, the film was animated using Toon Boom, a software kind of similar to Disney's CAPS. However, the film is still a treat for animation buffs.

Directors Christian Desmares and Frank Ekinci admitted that working with Tardi was great, but not easy. It's the first time his art style was adapted into animation. The singularity of his style made his success and was a landmark in the French comic book field.

On this film, Desmares supervised all the character and set designs after Tardi laid the graphic groundwork, while Ekinci supervised the storyboards.

"There was  whole graphic language to assimilate and reproduce as faithfully as possible using animation procedures," Said Desmares. "That meant I had to adapt the drawing of a character in the space so they could rotate 360 degrees without becoming corrupted. That way, we could respect Tardi's work and apply it to all the characters."

"Once we had defined the animation graphics," Desmares continued. "We could draw and animate all the characters in the space. We had to find the right way to handle the hair, the clothes, and how some characters aged throughout the story. Then we gave the drawings to Tardi for approval. The biggest challenge was not only in illustration, but also in motion."

The film also used inspiration from Miyazaki movies. There's a scene that totally reminds me of Howl's Moving Castle!

 

Darwin also reminds me a bit of Jiji, Kiki's pet cat in Kiki's Delivery Service.

Aside from the fluid and convincing animation, there are other things to appreciate about April and the Extraordinary World. The protagonist April and deuteragonist Julius are quite developed and likable.

While April and the Extraordinary World didn't get the Oscar nomination it deserved (I personally would have picked it over My Life as a Zucchini), the film won the award for Best Feature Film at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when I talk about one of the greatest, talented, and most influential cartoonists ever, Charles Schulz. That's right! Next week, I'll be talking about 2015's The Peanuts Movie!

Oscarless Animated Films Part 6

Oscarless Animated Films Part 6: Azur and Asmar: The Prince's Quest (2006)

 

Azur and Asmar is an Arabian tale about two brothers: a light-skinned boy with blue eyes named Azur and a dark-skinned boy with brown eyes named Asmar. Azur would normally get Asmar in trouble as a kid; so much that Azur's father banishes Asmar and his mother. Azur, however, travels to Asmar's country to see his adoptive mother and win the magic Djinn fairy, whom they were told about in stories when Azur and Asmar were kids.

Of the many CGI movies released worldwide in 2006, one of the most innovative and original of them was this rare gem, Azur and Asmar. Yep, I believe it's better than Cars. While other CG films at the time had either animals, toys, or machines as the main characters, Azur and Asmar had humans as the main characters.

Another notable difference is that the characters have very limited angles. In previous CGI films like Cars, Madagascar, and The Incredibles, the characters were viewed in just about every angle imaginable. In Azur and Asmar, however, the characters are viewed as if they were in a 2D side-scrolling video game. You never see the characters from a bird's eye view.

This film also takes place in the Middle East, while previous CGI films took place in either a different time period, alternate universe, or North America. The only exceptions at the time I can think of are Finding Nemo (Australia) and Valiant (England, France, and Germany). In fact, there are even scenes in which the characters speak from English (or French, depending on which country you live in) to Arabic.

This film also features one of the youngest princesses in an animated film to date: Chamsous Sabah.

When Azur and Asmar was released in the US in 2008, The Weinstein Company dubbed it into English, though there are scenes in which the characters speak Arabic. This was right after Doogal, the horrific dub of the 2005 CGI film The Magic Roundabout. The English dub of Azur and Asmar is basically an apology letter saying 'We're so sorry for ruining a European classic. Here's a good dub of a lesser known film to make up for it.'

While the film may have awkward-looking CG animation, Azur and Asmar makes up for it with a deep, engaging story. It actually reminds me of this quote I saw in the book 'The Art of Frozen', in which they said "A strong story will carry weak animation, but the most polished animation can't save a weak story." I personally strongly recommend this movie to all animation buffs.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when I talk about another French contemporary classic, April and the Extraordinary World!

Oscarless Animated Films Part 5

Oscarless Animated Films Part 5: Your Name. (2016)
 

Mitsuha is the daughter of the mayor of a small mountain town. She's a straightforward high school girl who lives with her sister and her grandmother and has no qualms about letting it be known that she's uninterested in Shinto rituals or helping her father's electoral campaign. Instead, she dreams of leaving the boring town and trying her luck in Tokyo. Taki is a high school boy in Tokyo who works part-time in an Italian restaurant and aspires to become an architect or an artist. Every night he has a strange dream where he becomes...a high school girl in a small mountain town.

As you might already tell, Your Name is a body-swap anime film, a bit like Freaky Friday. Instead of a teenage girl and an adult woman switching bodies, however, it's a teenage boy and girl who switch bodies.

What makes Your Name special is that it has a deep and emotional story, likable characters, and animation that rivals Studio Ghibli.

I first heard of this movie from a review from my friend Rachel, and she loved it! In fact, she even ranked it as her #1 movie (animated or not) of 2016!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA0BzAeaHtY

I also looked it up on iMDb, and it had an impressive rating of 8.7/10. It is currently the highest-rated animated feature on iMDb, better reviewed than The Lion King, Spirited Away, and just about every Pixar film.

While Your Name didn't get the Oscar nomination it deserved, I hear by bestow this movie 5 golden stars.

For those living in the US, I strongly recommend seeing Your Name in theaters while you still can. It'll either be in Japanese with English subtitles or have an English dub.

However, I have a warning for those who plan to see it in theaters: Your Name has some sexual references and an upsetting climax.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Film. Tune in next week when I talk about Michael Ocelot's forgotten gem Azur and Asmar: The Prince's Quest!

Movie Review: Queen of Katwe

Movie Review: Queen of Katwe                                                                                                 4-25-17

Back in 2016, while people were praising live-action films like La La Land and Moonlight, as well as hazing films like Suicide Squad and Batman vs. Superman, there is one forgotten and underrated gem that was ignored: Disney's Queen of Katwe.

Based on a real-life event between 2007 and 2011, Queen of Katwe is about a young Ugandan woman named Phiona (Madina Nalwanga), who discovers she has an amazing talent for playing chess. After months of training and practicing, Phiona enters and wins a local chess compatition. However, it doesn't come without a price; Her father gets injured, and Phiona's family is forced out of their own home, meaning they have to live on the streets. However, Phiona enters and wins more competitions, and eventually makes it into the World Chess Olympiads. Phiona managed to win the tournament, but soon, she deals with stress, identity issues, and fiercer competitions.

Now what do I think of the film? Well, despite having no big Hollywood names, the acting in Queen of Katwe is quite good.
There is also deep and emotional storytelling and an enjoyable score from Alex Heffes.

It's a shame that this movie bombed, because I think this movie should've got the Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Nevertheless, Qween of Katwe is a film you'll want to watch with your family again and again.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

By the way, I have good news and bad news concerning Disney Animation: The good news is Wreck-it Ralph 2 finally has a title, but an ugly one at that. Wreck-it Ralph 2's name is officially Ralph Wrecks The Internet. The bad news is that both Wreck-it Ralph 2 and Gigantic got their release dates pushed back: Wreck-it Ralph 2 will now premiere November 2018, while Gigantic will premiere November 2020.
There's also going to be a Frozen 2, which will premiere November 27th, 2019, exactly six years after the original.