A historical animation document with shorts tied together with a common theme. What the viewer walks away with are the origins of Nickelodeon's Adult Swim. For a target audience of 1980s High Schoolers, it is spot on.
SYNOPSIS: A cartoon rabbit is framed for murder after his cartoon wife is caught playing Patty-Cake with the head of Acme Industries (seriously)
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Adult cartoons for adults that grew up watching anvils getting dropped on coyote’s heads.
PROS AND CONS: The only con to this film is that it can get a bit to ‘manic’ is places. Sometimes the actions is just a bit to hard to follow.
Other than that, this is a great film with an interesting plot, astounding visuals and a subtle message about progress and whether it is a good thing or not.
It is a good film, if nothing else for the fact that by the time you are halfway through it, you no longer sees the animation as cartoons but as an integral part of the plot.
To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
SYNOPSIS: A shy introverted child learns to confront his fears by journeying through a fantasy library.
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Trying to tap into that rich Disney vein of childhood cinema. When you miss the mark, you tend to go full blown creepy.
PROS AND CONS: The animation was interesting, boarding on artistic in places. That is the only pro about this film. The rest will all be cons.
Never been a fan of MacAulay Culkin, I am even less of one now. We have a trio of cute animated characters in the film. None of them work. Patrick Stewart as a pirate novel and Whoopi Goldberg as a fairy book, no, sorry, it was just too weird.
In the end, there was no real identification with the characters in the film and the concept of the library was never really defined, so there is very little structure of the fantasy.
To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
SYNOPSIS: A runaway orphan boy and his invisible pet dragon pass through a small turn-of-the-century seaside town and cause havoc.
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: The warm fuzzies and where they come from. The Disney Factory at the height of its family values era.
PROS AND CONS: This is not one of Disney’s best. It was made at the end of their animation period and it just doesn’t work. The acting is over-the-top and the music just isn’t that memorable.
After mulling over the film, I realized that this was the kind of film that thrilled me as a child, but as an adult you have a hard time believing that stuff like this could really happen.
It is the sort of film that you could take a toddler that is just learning to walk and speak, park him front of the television and he would watch this for hours. It's harder for adults.
To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
SYNOPSIS: An interstellar Loan Ranger, patrols the galaxy doing good, with the help of twin brother and sister and their pet monkey. (I can’t make this up)
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Strange creatures bad, good space people kill bad creatures.
PROS AND CONS: I watched this as a kid and thought it was really cool. I watched it 40 years later as an adult and I am somewhat horrified and embarrassed.
I had to remind myself, that this was Saturday morning television fair, 30 minutes with three 7 minute stories. So you have to pretty much sum up an entire independent story between the commercials.
Those seven minutes usually left enough time to find danger, confront danger, and defeat danger. There wasn’t ever negotiations or empathy for the defeated. They got what they deserved. Chilling and empirical when viewed with today's mindset.
To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
SYNOPSIS: A pack of stray dogs fight over a young girl that can speak to animals, so they can cheat at horse racing.
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Supposedly, a heart of gold can overcome a life of crime.
PROS AND CONS: One of the features that I built into this whole project was the ability to have a random film come up to watch. The focus of the project is to exercise and be more healthy, not to watch only the films that were wanted.
That is why I ended up watching this film. A film I would have otherwise never put on the turntable and for good reason. This is a bad film. While the animation is well enough, everything else about the film just stinks.
In essence, this is an adult tale about gangs and crime and violence and death told with cartoons along with a cute young girl thrown in to hopefully hold the attention of the children in the audience. But it does not work.
Any decent film has a ‘flow’ to it that sweeps you along. It is a combination of empathy for the characters, good dialog, good acting, competent camerawork and direction. This film has none of those elements and in fact, it is a bit on the disturbing side where viewing by children is concerned.
To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
SYNOPSIS: A teenage mermaid longs to be human in order be with the man of her dreams.
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Young female frustrations and desires. Deals made with the devil never end well, unless you have “Its A Wonderful Life” friends to save the day.
PROS AND CONS: First off, I am not a huge fan of Disney, especially their animated work of this genre. That said, this is an entertaining film. While I am not certain, I believe that it is one of the last all hand animated films that Disney produced. There are no computer graphics or digital animation in this film. The hands-on process brings a warmer and more surreal aspect to the film than the current crop of Disney / Pixar fair.
I am going to bite my tongue on the whole “raised by Disney’ aspect of this film and the unreal expectations that it gives young impressionable woman. Suffice to say, that if I had a daughter and she watched this film, I would have a long discussion with her about what expectations and reality are.
The primary mover in most Disney films such as this is the music, and this film does not disappoint. I will be humming “Under The Sea” and “Kiss The Girl” for the rest of the day. The most memorable character in the film is the evil sea witch Ursula. That is one bad ass villain.
To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
