Imagi Studios has updated some new content to the Gatchaman section of their official site. To access the new content, go to the official site and select “Our Films”, then “Gatchaman”. What you’ll will find is a dozen of screen shot images with some previously seen on Felix Ip’s blog site a month ago. The other cool item is the first actual footage of the animation. Its only a 10 second clip of the last shot in a trailer and while we don’t get even a glimpse of the superhero ninjas in action, the visual presented in the clip looks stunning. Keep in mind that the animation is a work in progress so its subject to change. Check it out at our Twitch Player after the jump.
According to the site, the theatrical release date is in 2010.
Continue Reading "Teaser Clip and Images for Imagi’s GATCHAMAN"...
[This review originally appeared as part of my ongoing TIFF coverage over at Showcase. Thanks to the Goat-Boy for letting us reprint it here.]
At first glance the idea of an animated documentary seems odd, maybe even counter-productive. After all, isn’t the point of a documentary to get as close to its subject as possible with as little interference from the film maker as possible? And doesn’t animation by its very nature require constant interpretation and reshaping by the director? But mere moments into Waltz With Bashir the decision to make the film an animated feature not only makes sense, it is arguably the only real option to make the film at all.
Much as Art Spiegelman’s Maus - one of the greatest graphic novels ever written - dramatically re-cast the holocaust memoir by drawing his own family history as a literal game of cat and mouse, Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir is a total re-envisioning of what the war documentary can be. Like Spiegelman, Folman is not so much concerned with the history of the events he is documenting - though neither project is light on history by any means - as he is with the effects on those involved, the prime person involved being Folman himself.
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A stop motion animated feature fusing childhood animation techniques with gouts of blood, absurd violence, copious jokes about Winnipeg, and 19th century science from the mind of Guy Maddin’s regular screen writing partner as directed by a key animator on uber-surreal television series What It’s Like Being Alone and Aaron Woodley’s Rhinoceros Eyes. Should be a recipe for instant gold in these parts, right? I mean, what could go wrong? Well, rather a lot, really, rendering Neil Burns’ Edison and Leo a significant misfire on a number of levels.
Continue Reading "TIFF Review: EDISON AND LEO"...
“Somewhere, in a country similar to ours There are children who do not become adults. They are very similar to us.” goes the tagline of Mamoru Oshii‘s latest film. One that carried the promise (during its production cycle) of a more linear form of story telling after the convoluted Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and the strange Tachigui. I am overjoyed to report that while the story is linear, it is anything but straightforward or simple, and not the least bit diluted or dumbed down in regards to his philosophical and social musings - basically the essence of what makes Oshii stand out from his generation of masters of the Japanese animated feature. Using a pastiche of elements of contemporary science fiction (From Ender’s Game to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) mashed up with stirring World War II aerial dogfights and a his unique brand of austere and cold melodrama, The Sky Crawlers certainly will not be for everyone. The film is a feast for the senses, not only in the gargantuan fighter plane battles, which may be safe to say are the best ever committed to celluloid (and yes, that includes Hell’s Angels and the space climaxes of any of the best of the Star Wars pictures). This is true in ever single detail of the film (Production I.G. have outdone themselves!) even the small moments: The cigarette smoke swirls, a Vespa engine hums as it idles, the airplane hangars and living quarters are textured, lived in, and the apple pie and coffee diners are gorgeously rendered down to the most minute detail. And the sound design (courtesy of Skywalker Sound) is among the best work they have ever done.
But wait, much this technical praise could be more or less said of, say, Katsuhiro Ôtomo‘s equally well crafted Steam Boy, and that movie was more or less a failure due to overly convoluted and stilted story telling. The narrative may be cool and deliberately paced for a film with designs on a gigantic canvas, but that dovetails beautifully with the story Oshii is trying to tell (call it the antithesis of Hayao Miyazaki‘s similar setting, but radically different Porco Rosso). Make no mistake, this is social science fiction, and tonally controlled storytelling at its finest.
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It is great to see how emerging animation studios progress and see their projects develop. Case in point, Studio Flying out of Korea. Not known as a hot bed of animation it is studios like this one that get Korean animation the attention it deserves. Their project Aachi & Ssipak is already a cult classic in animation circles and they drew a lot of attention last year with Mad Monkey. And now we have another full feature called Dokkaebi, which is Korean mythology not unlike Japanese Yokai.
And thanks to the watchful eye of our reader TheOrientalNightfish and the mighty website Catsuka we now have a smack of images of the character designs right from the studio walls. Find them after the jump!
Its not very often to hear a studio willing to produce an edgy animated feature film with mature themes for the R-rated audience so when word got out in March that Paramount is developing another Heavy Metal anthology (the first film came out in 1981), I was quite pleased. Based on a dark sci-fi and fantasy comics magazine of the same name, the film will contain eight or nine segment with each directed by a different director. Much like its past predecessors, there will most likely be bloody violence and sexual content. Director David Fincher is already attached to the project with CG animation provided by Blur, the studio responsible for various intro cinematics in video games and an Oscar nominated animated short. Then in July, Paramount has decided to put the project on hold, citing its “too risque for mainstream audiences”. Apparently, that was not entirely the whole story. Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and owner of the Heavy Metal magazine, gave us the lowdown on why Paramount really pulled the plug and where the project has moved.
“We developed it for Paramount in January… And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, ’The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,’ [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time… and so they said, ‘Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we’re not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.’ And David said, ‘Fine, f*ck you, I’m going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,’ so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there.”
Eastman also dropped a few names of director who express interest in helming one of the segment. These include Guillermo del Toro, Gore Verbinski, and Zack Snyder. What a hell of a line-up if they manage to get all of them onboard. The tentative release date is sometime in 2010.
To date from the 65th Venice Film Festival we have shown you Coffin Joe, Fabrice Du Welz, Kaiju and now Hayao Miyazaki! A super size image of him at the festival today is at the link below and several more added super size images from Ponyo On The Cliff. Hayao Miyazaki was at Venice screening his latest work and proclaiming his steadfast and unending love for non-computer animation. He told reporters after the Ponyo screening:
“I think animation is something that needs the pencil, needs man’s drawing hand, and that is why I decided to do this work in this way. Currently computer graphics are of course used a great deal and, as I’ve said before, this use can at times be excessive. I will continue to use my pencil as long as I can.”
More from Silvia Aloisi of Reuters
Well, now ... Tomm Moore’s Brendan and the Secret of Kells is a film I’ve been aware of for quite some time but my thanks go out to regular Twitch reader The Oriental Nightfish (why don’t we have any readers called Steve? Or Tom? Heh ...) for pointing out that there is an initial teaser for the film. Now, director Moore has pointed out that this is not a formal trailer, per se. There’s still a lot of compositing work to be done and the proper trailer will be much longer and a bit more polished when it arrives but this is something he knocked together to show of the look of the film. And it looks rather good.
The film is a France / Belgium / Ireland co-production about the monk behind the famous Book of Kells and it features some very impressive artwork and a fairly unique style. Todd likes. You’ll find the teaser below the break.
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REMINDER: Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo On The Cliff will be screening at the 65th Venice International Film Festival on August 31st (event listing). From all accounts so far of the film it seems Miyazaki explores new ground this time around with details so intricate and dense that anything less than seeing it on film on the big screen would be a crying shame. It even lead to a member of KineJapan wondering if even Blu-Ray would be able to represent its multitude of details and artistic touches. At the moment from everything I’m hearing, Summer 2009 would be the earliest Disney would release it in the US. Some additional images for Ponyo at the link below.
Synopsis:
This is the story of Ponyo, a little fish from the sea who struggles to realize her dream of living with a boy named Sosuke. It also tells of how five-year old Sosuke manages to keep a most solemn promise.
Ponyo On The Cliff places Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid in a contemporary Japanese setting. It is a tale of childhood love and adventure.
A little seaside town and a house at the top of a cliff. A small cast of characters. The ocean as a living presence. A world where magic and alchemy are accepted as part of the ordinary.
The sea below, like our subconscious mind, intersects with the wave-tossed surface above. By distorting normal space and contorting normal shapes, the sea is animated not as a backdrop to the story, but as one of its principal characters.
A little boy and a little girl, love and responsibility, the ocean and life - these things, and that which is most elemental to them, are depicted in the most basic way in Ponyo On The Cliff. This is my response to the afflictions and uncertainty of our times.
- Hayao Miyazaki
My thanks goes to “Innocent_Eyes” from the Astro Boy Online forum for uncovering some images from Imagi’s upcoming CG animated feature film Astro Boy. In the forum is a snapshots of the character model of Astro and some concept art which were perhaps photograph from either Comic-con or Siggraph 2008. I have taken the liberty of enhancing and rescaling the snapshots with Photoshop for a clearer view. There is a few slight difference I notice from this one and the work-in-progress screenshot from a year ago but nothing too drastic. Other than that, the CG model is staying true to the original design by Osamu Tezuka. So what do you think of this interpretation of Astro?
Oh you lucky, lucky people. The first wave of titles for this year’s edition of the Toronto After Dark Festival was announced today and you are in for a treat this year! Festival director Adam Lopez and his team, including our lord and master Todd, have put together another fine selection of films for your viewing pleasure and horror and wonder. These titles will already be familiar to Twitch viewers and if you haven’t had the chance to catch yet you can do so in October.
In its first wave of film titles revealed for 2008, Toronto After Dark Film Festival is proud to announce a selection of eight outstanding new horror, sci-fi, action and cult feature films that will have their Toronto Theatrical Premieres at the festival this October 17-24. The initial lineup includes a number of critically acclaimed and award-winning films from around the world including the much-anticipated new sci-fi horror musical REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, Sundance selection revenge thriller RED based on Jack Ketchum’s novel, cult horror action movie TOKYO GORE POLICE, celebrated vampire feature LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which won Best Picture at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton’s dark and twisted modern fairytale, IDIOTS & ANGELS.
For more information on the complete lineup of films at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival, to watch trailers, or to buy advance festival passes which are now on sale, visit the festival website.
All eight title descriptions after the jump. We’ll see you in the dark!
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The French make some of the most beautiful DVD-packaging in Europe, and my home would be full of them if I wasn’t so terrible at speaking or understanding French. For they hardly ever deign to put English subtitles on their movies. I always hope they’ll use Dutch ones so you can cover the whole Belgian market but alas, that business model has apparently no merit.
It’s not just the French either: many European distributors just don’t believe in an international market.
Because of this, I often check the far East to score decent versions of European movies on DVD. Want the Scandinavian puppet epic “Strings” English-friendly, in widescreen and with decent sound? Go to China!
So even though I was delighted to see Michel Ocelot’s recent stunningly beautiful movie “Azur et Asmar” get a UK release, old habits die hard and I checked our friendly Asian affiliate as well.
“Azur & Asmar” was championed and distributed in Japan by Studio Ghibli, and the Ghibli Museum even held an exhibition of Ocelot’s art for the movie! This made him pretty well-known in Asia amongst animation fans, so lo and behold: the Koreans had copied one of the French special editions, adding English friendliness to a killer French packaging!
I just couldn’t resist buying it and after watching it several times I couldn’t resist writing a review either.
We like us some Ocelot here at Twitch: Todd already gave his pretty spot-on review last week, and GhibliWorld.com’s Peter van der Lugt had a very extensive interview with the man himself.
But if you’re curious what (else) I thought about “Azur & Asmar”, or are interested in this specific edition, then read on after the break!
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Now here is a real treat, people.
GhibliWorld’s Peter van der Lugt (friend of our site and occasional contributor) visited Michel Ocelot in his studio in Paris, and had a loooong talk with him about, well, all things animated. So if you have any interest in the subject, head over to GhibliWorld.com and read!
Michel Ocelot is of course the creator of “Kirikou and the Sorceress” and recently the absolutely stunning “Azur et Asmar”.
Amongst the many things being discussed are a short movie Mr. Ocelot created which plugs a big gap in “Azur et Asmar”, and the inspiration for it was…
...but that’s too cool a story to ruin.
Birdsong (El Cant dels Ocells)—Albert Serra, Spain. Stunningly shot using only natural light, El Cant dels Ocells is a contemplative reinterpretation of the Biblical journey of the Three Wise Men in search of the newborn Messiah. With a cast of non-professionals performing an improvised script, Albert Serra’s second feature builds on his ongoing interest to cinematically express real time through the exquisite exploration of earth and sky. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08, where El Cant dels Ocells screened in the Directors’ Fortnight. Robert Koehler reviews El Cant dels Ocells for Cinema Scope and—though not available online—in the same issue Mark Peranson (who portrays Joseph in the film) diaries on his participation with the project. At l’Humanité, Jean Roy declares “this contemplative, sensitive film takes us on a quest for the essence of cinema.” Duane Byrge drivels alliterative disdain at The Hollywood Reporter, describing the film as “tiresome twaddle” and “pretentious piffle.” North American Premiere.
Continue Reading "TIFF08—VISIONS"...
Just as a reminder that animation pretty much everywhere in the world other than here in North America is not reserved strictly for children, here comes a trailer for Argentinian feature Boogie El Aceitoso. Based on characters created by famed Argentine comic author Fontanarrosa, the film follows the adventure of a surly, misanthropic hitman out to prove that he is still number one despite the rise of a younger rival. Violence? Check. Bloodshed? Check. Ball scratching? Check. And that’s just the trailer, which you can find below the break in the Twitch Player.
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