Monday, February 19, 2007

Show and Tell

Think Samurai Jack is creative? Thought Disney animation was advanced during the 9 old men? How about a little something from the 60's...from Japan...that just might rival everything you thought you knew about animation...



Now, I love Samurai Jack...and I study the 9 old men's work day and night...but I think I wet myself a little when I watched it. And the poster on YouTube was also gracious enough to showcase the whole film as well.

8 comments:

Piotr said...

no way! thats fantastic!! i wonder what happened to this studio...

:: smo :: said...

wow that's really awesome! thanks!!!

Unknown said...

that was freakn awesome!!! I loved the scene where the momma raccoon tried to bath her kid - and that Pegasus!!! so cute!

P Cleland said...

That was very impressive. I was quite happy to see that, I must say. I always love getting the chance to see something that looks new to me.

I felt the creatures and a lot of the backgrounds and effects were the main stars as I was watching the trailers. I do like the slick modern looking characters but the boy (who seemed to be the main character) seemed to have only three different emotions. (worried, angry, and determined/stubborn)

Granted, you can't squeeze the characters every emotion into a few minutes of a trailer. I'm well aware that a good animator can get a good performance out of a single line or a red circle, so I really shouldn't pass judgment so swiftly, but it's a concern and I decided to voice it.

The trailers were easily better than the kinds of trailers animated features usually get today (ie - there has to be either a belch or a fart somewhere in this trailer or NO ONE in there right mind will go see this movie.) So, a -seemingly- limited amount of emotion in the characters faces compared to todays features.

Unknown said...

i like your points, cleland. it seems like a very japanese thing...having a limited palette of visual emotion...i mean watch a lot of other films from there (akira and miyazaki...tho i think they stretch it a bit more).

and i actually enjoy trailers to films that don't overwhelm you with footage too...it's as if westerners try to make a short film out of the trailer itself. bad trailers like that just have no faith in simple advertisement and it's effect on viewers. watching a simple trailer for the little prince sure makes me want to see it!!!

Chris Battle said...

Chris Mitchell brought this film in one day for all of us on PPG to watch; It's what inspired Genndy to go super-graphic for Samurai Jack.

Piotr- It was made by Toei Animation, and they're still hugely famous.

Uncle Phil said...

The video was removed from youtube :(
What's the name of this film?

..great stuff on your blog btw.

Unknown said...

dang the video is gone. I wanna SEE!