3 quick points and/or questions:
1. I have the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, which on occasion I pull down and relish. Today I got it out for Max. My god I forgot how blisfully violent they are; we watched “Scaredy Cat,” and there’s a fine little scene where Sylvester, terrified of some angry mice, wants to stay upstairs with Porky, but Porky kicks him out. So Sylvester goes to a drawer and grabs a gun, which he holds up to his head, threatening suicide. Now that is comedy my friends. Max loved it. (Porky then opens the gun and drops the bullets all over the floor.)
2. We also got him “Bambi.” I’m leery of most Disney stuff, but this one sticks in my head from childhood. I recall a drive-in, pajamas, it starting to rain toward the end of the film. (So, as fire erupts in the forest, it’s pouring outside my window…) God the animation is amazing. And every time the stag made his regal entrance, up above the action, it recalled very precisely shots from Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke.”
3. Has anyone seen “Steamboy”? I was convinced by a friend here to seeing Miyazaki, and he was right; this friend also bought me “Akira,” which I admire but I don’t love. So… should I bother with “Steamboy?”
1. I take it Kris was out of the house today?
2. Bambi is not anywhere near a favorite Disney film of mine. Snow White is so much better. I always felt ripped off by Bambi. I think even as a child I knew I was being manipulated rather than entertained. Of course, I was strapped to a chair with my eyes pried open while watching it, and it was intercut with scenes of concentration camps, Ruth Gordon love scenes, nuclear war, Shelly WInters, etc.
3. Steamboy has been pretty widely panned by the press. I dont think it’s worth seeing. It’s my opinion that Japanese anime is at a real nadir right now. Almost all the recent stuff that’s made it into US theaters here for the past 3 or 4 years has been weak (Miyazaki’s Spirited Away being the huge exception). I’m not sure why this is, but the US ciritcs seem to widely agree (and I with them on what I’ve seen) that the films are poorly edited, the stories incoherent, with weak characters whose motives and personalitites fluctuate for no reason.
For that matter, that’s almost exactly why it seems critics don’t like Ring 2, which makes me wonder if the Japanese are just watching too much TV (or too much animated tentacle porn), and their attention spans are shot to hell.
For a genuinely strange litle film (30 min or so) of Japanese animation, I strongly suggest Cat Soup. there are two lines in this film: “Fried tofu please,” and “here’s some fried tofu.” Frankly, I think the film could have done without these two lines. I first saw it 4 years ago and I think immediately told Reynolds about it. It’s on DVD here now, and might be on Netflix. It is surreal, violent and wonderful.
Plus, the American release is a dubbed version.
so, has anyone seen the new miyazaki? i’ve heard reports that it is somewhat disneyfied.
It didn’t show for very long at the big Disney theather here in Hollywood.
I was excited b/c once a day they showed the Japanese voiced one (with subtitles), but it got pushed out fast for Herbie Goes Bananas, Part Trois with Lindsay Lohan and her digitally de-enhanced breasties.
I also heard it’s good, but not Spirited Away good. I might just wait for the dvd.
Cate (my five year old) and I just returned from seeing Howl’s Moving Castle and it’s a stunning achievement. More accessible, I think, than Spirited Away, narratively sophisticated, beautifully animated, an intriguing anti-war statement. Cate and I both really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see it again (but I will wait for the DVD for the original vocal tracks).
just finished watching steamboy–it is terrible, just terrible. some really cool visualizations of industrial revolution england powered entirely by steam, but not much else.
by the way, i notice a preference for the original japanese audio tracks even for animated films? why is this? aren’t both the japanese and english tracks equally dubbed? it isn’t as though the animated characters actually speak.
Arnab – seriously, if possible, try to rent Cat Soup. I think you’d dig it.
it has been added to the netflix queue.
okay, mark and other anime aficionados, help me out here: which are the top 10-15 anime films you think everyone should watch? all i’ve seen is a bunch of miyazakis and a few randomly selected titles (but don’t exclude the miyazakis from your list). of course, these should be filtered for netflix availability.
watched howl’s moving castle tonight and really liked it. though i have to say i’ve probably liked all the other miyazakis i’ve seen a lot more. i don’t really have a whole lot to say about it other than it is beautiful and mysterious even with the english vocal track.
There’s a nice piece on cartoons in today’s A&L section of the NYTimes.