Animated Films

So I was thinking about an overall theme for a series of blog entries (if for no other reason, I figured it would make it easier for me to come up with ideas for individual posts, since I sometimes have a hell of a time coming up with a good idea for my next blog entry), and decided I could focus on different genres of film that I enjoy (which sprang out of the idea of doing a blog about video game movies). A number of genres that I’m a big fan of quickly came to mind – westerns, war movies, heist films, mob movies. But then I latched onto a subject that’s not so much a genre of film, as a category of film, and one that sadly I think doesn’t get nearly the respect (in this country, especially) that it should, and that is animated films.

Let’s get a little nomenclature out of the way first – I don’t care what it might say in the dictionary, animated films are NOT cartoons. Cartoons are animated television shows aimed primarily at children. Which, of course, is the big problem that animated films have with American audiences. In the mind of the average American film-goer, animation is automatically linked to Saturday morning cartoons, which is why 98% of all US animated films are family/children’s movies. And sadly that final 2% struggles to find an audience, simply because people looking for a serious, non-children’s movie are likely to ignore it (simply because it’s animated), and people looking for a family-friendly movie who do go see it are immediately going to pan it and give it bad word-of-mouth, because it wasn’t the kid-oriented movie they were expecting (again, simply because it was animated).

The simple truth that American audiences don’t get (and let me state now that all of this is simply my opinion based on personal observations – other people may look at all of this from a different viewpoint and completely disagree with me), is that animation is simply a medium. It’s a way to tell a story, and there’s no reason why you can’t tell any sort of story that you like. I run into the same situation when I talk about being a comic book buff (and I’m a HUGE comic book buff) – when you say the words “comic book” to most people, they immediately assume juvenile fiction featuring super-heroes. And while admittedly that’s the main focus of the mainstream comic book industry, there is a world of serious, well-crafted literature to be found in comic books if you take the time to look (but that’s a whole other discussion that I could go into at great length, but I will refrain, as this is a movie blog – although one of these days I need to do a review of “comic book movies” that have been made that have nothing whatsoever to do with superheroes).

As an example of the sort of animated movie that suffered (in my mind) from this perception of animated films as strictly kids’ movies, let’s take a look at the highly underrated Titan A. E. This is a brilliantly animated, wonderfully enjoyable science fiction film. Here’s the problem, though (at least in part) – it was directed by Don Bluth, creator of such kid-friendly films as The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go To Heaven. And while it’s only rated PG, Titan A. E. pushes the boundaries of the rating, and is by no means a little kids’ movie. But because of the director’s previous film, Fox of course had to push it as a family movie. And shock of shocks, the critics weren’t at all impressed (but my very, very low opinion of newspaper movie critics is a subject for a whole other rant). So what happens? All the parents who take their kids to it opening weekend based on the director’s previous films are disappointed because it’s not really a kids’ movie, and the sci-fi fans who the movie was meant for don’t bother to go see it because they figure it’s a kids' movie. And thus a good movie fails at the box office at least in part because of misconceptions on the part of the audience.

But I don’t want this entry to be a rant (well, not too much of a rant), so let’s shift into the positive. What I really want to focus on here is all the great animated films out there that people are potentially missing out on because they only think of animated films as 'cartoons'. And the best place to start is with the brilliant films of director Ralph Bakshi. Bakshi got his start with Terrytoons, working on such classic cartoons as Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle. Then in 1972, he released his first feature film, the infamous Fritz the Cat (which is most notable as being the first animated film to receive an X rating – although by today’s standards it would likely only receive an R). He continued to release controversial, yet critically praised, animated films from there.

His most well known (and my opinion, his best) movies were released in 1977 and 1978, and those were Wizards and The Lord of the Rings, respectively. Wizards has to be one of my top 10 all-time favorite animated movies. It’s a very well done post-apocalyptic fantasy/sci-fi film, that focuses on two brothers, one good and one evil. The good brother uses magic, while the evil brother uses technology. The film’s story is solid and in many cases thought-provoking, and the animation, while not super realistic like so many movies strive for nowadays, still has a very distinctive style that is enjoyable to watch.

Next came the brilliant The Lord of the Rings. Prior to Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy, this was the definitive Lord of the Rings film. Unlike Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi was only able to get the movie studio to greenlight two movies as opposed to a full trilogy, and even more tragic, after the first film was released he wasn’t able to get studio backing for the second half (which is a damned shame, in my opinion, and a clear sign that Hollywood producers were just as generally stupid back in the '70s as they are now). Like Jackson’s films, Bakshi stayed as true to the original books as he could (while still being forced to streamline the story to fit a movie’s length and pacing). And he really did do a good job of it.

Most enjoyable for me, though, was the visual style of the film. Bakshi used a technique called rotoscoping, which involves shooting live action scenes with real actors, then having the animators trace over the film frames to produce the animation. This produces a more realistic animation style, and allows for more complex scenes to be animated (this technique was also used on Titan A.E.). He also used a photographic processing technique called posterization (named so because it was originally used in making posters), which I’ll let my good readers research on their own if they want to know more about it (since it’s kind of hard to describe, and I don’t feel like copying the Wikipedia entry here). If you’ve seen the film, the shots that look like live action, but with a distorted, pseudo-animated quality to them, these would be posterized shots.

When released, the film was without question a financial success (on a $4 million budget, it made $30.5 million at the box office), but for whatever reason, the studio decided not to pursue the second half of the film, so you only get half of the story. And while Peter Jackson’s version is clearly superior (not surprising, considering he had a significantly higher budget, was allowed to make each book into a separate film, and was actually allowed to make the entire trilogy), Ralph Bakshi’s version is still an absolute must-see in my book. Bakshi continued to make films after this, some that I enjoyed, some not so much, but these two stand out as the two I would highly recommend to any film buff.

The next movie I want to touch on is the cult classic Heavy Metal. I’m only going to discuss this one briefly, as it’s not one I own (and I haven’t watched it in years), but it’s a significant enough movie (that really fits the topic of non-kid friendly animated films) that I felt I’d be remiss if I didn’t give it at least some mention. The 1981 movie was executive produced by the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, and featured a series of short stories, all either taken from, or inspired by, stories from the magazine. And just like the magazine, all of them featured a fair bit of violence, sex, and nudity, and are definitely not for children (or the easily offended). Being a collection of stories, each with their own writers and animators, you get a variety of quality, and some parts of the movie are definitely better than others. All in all an okay film, but not really high on my list of great movies. It is, however, a great example of the use of animation to produce a movie specifically geared for a mature audience. An interesting bit of trivia about the movie – it took 15 years from the theatrical release before the movie was released on video. And this had nothing to do with the popularity of the movie; no, the release was held up because the filmmakers had gotten theatrical and soundtrack release rights for the music, but hadn’t thought to get video release rights. And so it took them 15 years to iron out the legal issues surrounding the music in the movie (which is a key aspect of the film, so you really couldn’t release the movie without the music). This is yet another topic I could do an extended rant on – how all those greedy, selfish bastards in the RIAA are continuously causing problems for DVD releases (although that mostly applies to television shows as opposed to movies, so probably not something I’ll go into on my blog).

Leaving Heavy Metal behind, let’s now move back into the realm of great animated films that I can highly recommend as being well worth seeing. Let's start with Watership Down and The Plague Dogs. The reason I’m covering them together is they are both based on the novels of Richard Adams. I’ve only read the book of Watership Down (which is a wonderful story), but based on how much I enjoyed the movie version of The Plague Dogs, I’m guessing it’s also a great novel. These are both of these are great, great movies. However, they are not exactly kid-friendly movies. I especially would not recommend them for younger kids, as both movies are pretty violent, even though they're rated PG and PG-13, respectively (I was somewhat annoyed (although hardly surprised) to see how many 1 star ratings Watership Down got on Amazon, evenly split between fans of the novel who were disappointed with the movie version (which I completely understand), and idiots who were shocked and upset because it wasn’t a movie for little kids (it had bunny rabbits on the cover, how could it not be a kiddy movie???) – which is exactly why I wanted to write this blog post). That being said, I feel that both films are prime examples of animated films meant to appeal to a broader, more discerning audience than just children, and truly exemplify how animated movies can tell amazing stories that live action/CG can’t really capture (and while that is changing as CG technology improves, I still feel that some stories just work better as traditional animation).

Watership Down is easily the more successful and well known of the two films, so we’ll start with it. There aren’t enough good things that I can say about this movie (and I don’t care what criticisms others may have about the story or animation). Firstly, it does a very good job of staying true to the book (well, as true to the book as any movie can be expected to be – which of course means that most die-hard fans of the book will be disappointed, but at the end of the day, that tends to be true for any movie adaption of a beloved book). Most importantly, it maintains the darker, more violent aspects of the original story, without trying to soften it or make it more lighthearted to appeal to a younger audience (this is most likely because the movie was produced in Great Britain as opposed to the US). And not only do you get an amazing story, but the animation is just absolutely gorgeous (at least I think so). The movie is so enjoyable to watch just on a purely visual basis. I may be biased, though, because without question Watership Down is one of my all-time favorite movies, of any category. If you haven’t seen this movie, you really should.

The next film adaptation of a Richard Adams novel was The Plague Dogs (directed by the same man who directed Watership Down). While it doesn’t quite have the same beautiful visual quality as Watership Down, the animation is still well done, and the story is really well done. Having not read the book, I can’t vouch for how close it is, but from what I’ve read online the filmmakers worked to try and keep it as true to the book as they could. While not as high on my list as Watership Down, it’s still definitely a movie worth seeing. One word of caution, though – while the story is superb, the dark, tragic nature of the story makes it hard to watch at times (and I fully admit to crying by the end of the movie, but that’s just me). It hits you hard, which makes it a tough movie to watch multiple times, especially when you know how it ends (in a lot of ways it reminds me of Bridge to Terabithia in that respect – if you’ve seen that movie you’ll have an idea what I’m talking about). Interestingly enough, this is the one big change from the book. From what I’ve read online (again, not having read the book), the movie drops the epilogue of the book, which provided a much happier (and more fully resolved) ending to the story than the one the movie leaves you with.

As I head into the last section of this blog entry, no discussion of animated films would be complete without some mention of Japanese anime. And as I am a very big fan of anime, I’ll be doing much more than just mentioning it. Japan seems to be the one country to have fully developed animation into a broad spectrum medium, easily equal to live action. Japanese animated movies run the full gamut from family/kid movies all the way to hardcore pornography, and everything in between. You can find sci-fi/fantasy, dramas, thrillers, comedies, you name it. For pretty much any category of movie out there, Japan likely has at least one animated film that fits the bill. There are enough solidly enjoyable anime films that I’ve seen that I could easily do a full blog post on just anime, but as this entry is already plenty long enough, I’ll try to narrow it down to just some of my absolute favorites.

Naturally the first director I need to discuss is the one who is likely most familiar with American audiences, and that is the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki. Of course, part of why he’s found success in the US (at least in my mind) is that his films by and large fall fully on the family-friendly side of the movie spectrum, putting them more in line with the American mindset on animated movies than a lot of Japanese anime. But this doesn’t change the fact that he is an amazing storyteller, and every one of his films more than deserves the accolades and success that they have received. I would say that Pixar is the only American animation studio that even comes close to being able to tell the mature, complex, yet completely family-friendly stories that Miyazaki tells in his films. And call me old-fashioned, but I’m going to buck the current trend and say I much prefer the traditional style animation of his movies to the CG style of Pixar’s (which is not a criticism of Pixar at all – I really enjoy their movies as well).

On the subject of Pixar, while I’m not going to discuss their movies -- since they clearly don’t have any problems with people not seeing their films -- I do want to briefly discuss why I think their movies work as well as they do, and why they are across the board better than the rest of the animated family/kids’ movies being produced in the US these days. This relates to Miyazaki’s movies in that he does the same thing (it’s not surprising that John Lasseter, executive producer of Pixar, intros the US DVD releases of all of Miyazaki’s movies, and was the driving force behind getting them released in the US). It’s all about the stories (something the other studios just don’t seem to get). Here’s my opinion of how Pixar/Studio Ghibli (the studio that produces Miyazaki’s films) movies differ from other animated family movies: with most kids' movies, you get a story clearly written specifically for kids. The filmmakers then go back and throw in a handful of scenes/bits of dialogue meant to try and entertain the parents in the audience. Sadly the problem here is that these occasional moments aren’t going to offset the mind-numbing silliness of the rest of the movie (and in way, way too many cases, the filmmakers make the questionable choice of putting in risqué and in my mind somewhat inappropriate moments that they’re hoping will make the adults laugh while being over the heads of the kids, the assumption being that the kids won’t realize Mommy and Daddy are laughing at something they’re not old enough to need to know about).

With Pixar/Studio Ghibli movies, what you get is the exact opposite. Their writers craft stories pointed specifically and directly at adults. They are complex, well thought-out, moving and emotional stories. They then go back and make sure there are at least a couple of very silly, kid-friendly characters, and a good helping of exciting, action-packed animated scenes to make sure the kids are entertained. And what you end up with are brilliant movies the entire family can enjoy. Because let’s face it, the simple truth of the matter is that kids (especially younger kids) are paying little if any attention to the story. They’re way more focused on the silly talking dog who’s constantly distracted by squirrels (from Pixar’s best movie to date, Up). So why on earth would you try and write a story that only works in the mind of a 5-7 year old, and just expect the parents to suffer through it? So for what little it’s worth, here’s my advice to all writers of family movies (be they animated or live action), as well as to moviegoers looking for family movies the entire family can truly enjoy – you want a story that’s written with the parents in mind, and NOT the kids. And to the good folks at Pixar, all I can is – keep up the great work!!

And on that note, let’s get back to Hayao Miyazaki and his wonderful films. Although it’s actually one of his later films, the movie that first brought Miyazaki to the attention of American audiences (in a BIG way) was Spirited Away, which beat out 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch to win the Best Animated Film Oscar for 2003 (and very deservedly so). Amusingly enough, Disney, which holds the American distribution rights for all of Studio Ghibli’s movies, had only bothered to give the movie a limited theatrical release, until it won the Oscar, after which Disney suddenly decided to go ahead and give it a full wide release. While not my favorite Miyazaki film, it’s really high on the list, and easily among my favorite animated movies (but that’s a true statement for most of his films). For those folks reading this who somehow haven’t seen this movie yet, I’m not going to go into details about the story, I’m just going to tell you to see it! You won’t regret it (and if you do, all I can say is go back to watching your reality television, as quality storytelling is obviously beyond you).

While I absolutely loved Spirited Away, I would have to say that my favorite Miyazaki film would be the one that directly preceded it, Princess Mononoke. This is one of the few Miyazaki films that’s not really geared for kids (not younger kids, at least). It is an epic fantasy adventure about mankind versus nature (the inhabitants of a mining town battle against the spirits of the nearby forest, while a young warrior tries to convince both sides to put aside their differences and live in peace). The animation is amazing, there’s plenty of action, and the story is compelling and a joy to watch unfold. I highly recommend this movie.

I own almost every one of Miyazaki’s movies that have been released on DVD in the US, and have enjoyed every one. Anyone who enjoys good storytelling is not likely to be disappointed by any of his movies. But his films are far from the only Japanese anime worth checking out. There are a numerous great movies, covering a broad range of subject matter. Before bringing this long and winding entry to a close, there are a couple of notable movies that I wanted to touch on. The first is Ninja Scroll. This is a fantasy/martial arts film set in feudal Japan. Our hero is a wandering swordsman who finds himself battling a group of ninja who are searching for a ship filled with gold (well, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the quick summary of the plot). The visuals are very well done, and the villains all have supernatural abilities, many of which you’d have a hard time pulling off in a live action film without them looking silly. But seeing them in an animated film, they look great. The fight scenes are also very fun to watch (another example of this is Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which is such a better movie than the silly live action version that Jean-Claude Van Damme was in).

The final film I want to touch on is Perfect Blue. This psychological thriller tells the story of a former pop idol turned actress, who finds herself tormented by a stalker, while those around her are murdered – with her as the prime suspect. She becomes more paranoid and delusional as the film goes on, and the film does a great job of intertwining her delusions with the things going on around her. It also blends scenes from the TV show she is starring in with things going on in the real world, leaving the viewer constantly guessing what’s really going on. It brings to mind (at least for me) the movies of Brian De Palma, and is easily as enjoyable as any live action movie of the genre. If you enjoy a good thriller, especially a complex psychological thriller, then this film is well worth your time. And while this is a movie that could very easily be done as live action (as was originally intended to be live action, but then the production's budget was cut, so they chose to make it animated instead), that the fact that it is animated in no way makes it a less enjoyable or well-made movie.

These are but two of the many, many great anime films out there. Among the more well known in the US are such movies as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Appleseed (all great sci-fi movies that I highly recommend to any fans of science fiction). But as long as this entry has gotten (and as overdue as I am to get a new entry published on the ol’ blog), I’ll forgo detailed reviews and simply recommend them as worth watching. And so I at last bring this entry to a close. My one hope would be that the reader walk away from it with, if not a new-found appreciation of animated cinema, at least a curiosity to investigate the numerous wonderful animated films that are out there, and a willingness to approach them with an open mind. Do not do like so many (I’ve particularly seen this in customer reviews on Amazon) and immediately condemn a movie as not being any good simply because it’s not (and was never meant to be) a children’s movie.