Animation Tidbits #3: What's Cam Looking Forward To? 5/22/17

 



(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this quick editorial!)

So, I know it’s soon to do another editorial like this, but I found a slew of animated films to be on the lookout for, and since the Annecy Film Festival is right around the corner, I decided to do another list of films I’m looking forward to. Now then, let’s take a look at some of the films that will be competing at the festival first.

 In This Corner of the World

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaRqwKfMlKU&w=560&h=315]

First up is the Japanese animated film by director Sunao Katabuchi, In This Corner of the World. This character-focused film that is about a young woman named Suzu during World War Two is a beautiful and emotionally-driven experience. While the story is said to be a fictional tale that takes place during that period in time, it is apparently based on real life events of said historical period. I love the soft watercolor look to everything, and that should be no surprise due to the director having previous award-winning films under his belt like Princess Arete and Mai Mai Miracle. I can’t wait for Shout! Factory to release this in the states with Funimation helping out because I will definitely be going to see this film when and if it comes to Austin.

Zombillenium

[vimeo 89597468 w=640 h=360]

Like with Icarus from the previous list, Zombillenium has probably one of my favorite settings for an animated film. It’s a French animated film about a theme park where all the ghosts, ghouls, monsters, skeletons, and mummies are, in fact, real monsters. One day, a human named Hector, a safety regulations officer, is threatening to shut down the park. That is, until the vampire manager of the park decides to bite him and bring him on board as an employee. First off, the art style has this great comic book/cartoony style that is very eye-catching. Then again, this is based on the comic book series by one of the directors of this film. I feel like this setting could lead to some very interesting social commentary, with how the monsters work and live at the park, and how some of the monsters could symbolize labor laws and so on. I also get a vibe from something like a good HBO/FX drama, where it’s about the life and the days of the characters in their environment. Unfortunately, I don’t have a traditional trailer for this film, but instead, a music video. It’s done by Arthur DE PINS, one of the directors and the creator of the comic. I bet you that this was a huge excuse for not only a fun music video, but a tech demo to get funding for the film. It’s for a song called Nameless World by a French Rock Band called Skip the Use. This is also one of the films competing for the grand prize at the Annecy Film Festival, and it’s the only animated film competing at the Cannes Film Festival. I hope it turns out to be a fantastic flick.

UDATE: Here is a teaser for Zombillenium!

[vimeo 218430013 w=640 h=360]

Bird Boy: The Forgotten Children

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=konXGh5f3F0&w=560&h=315]

Well, GKids just got the rights to bring this film over in the fall, so I might as well talk about it next. Plus, I can’t pass up a GKids distributed film. This dark yet cartoony animated film from Spain is directed by Alberto Vazquez and Pedtro Rivero. If you are into the foreign animation scene, then you know about Alberto Vazquez, who is releasing a new movie called Unicorn Wars. And yes, that is a real movie. This guy is known for combining great animation, with cute designs and strikingly dark visuals. I can see it catching some people off-guard, but I think challenging what defines animation in terms of visuals is breathtaking. It might not be the first animated film to have super dark visuals and a story to boot, but it’s something I like to see going on from time to time with animation. I can’t wait to see who they get for the main cast, and I hope they can bring over his new film in the future.

The Swallows of Kabul

[vimeo 141172738 w=640 h=360]

This one caught me by surprise. This French-animated film, based off the book of the same name, is being directed by two female directors. One of them is an actress-turned-director by the name of Zabou Breitman and designer/animator Eléa Gobbé-Mevellec. It’s also being produced by Les Armateurs, who worked on The Secret of Kells, The Triplets of Belleville, and Ernest & Celestine. Its watercolor art direction brings out some very beautiful visuals, and the character designs are fantastic. Then again, when one of the directors worked on The Prophet, The Rabbi’s Cat, and April and the Extraordinary World, it should be no surprise that it looks great in motion. Even though I know the story will be a bit more mature than your typical animated film, I don’t find the designs or the animation to be distracting. The teaser also does a good job at getting me intrigued about the story, as I’m curious to know what happened after the guard Atiq watched as his eyes were set on a beautiful woman who is the newest prisoner in a female prison. This is another good example why European animation can be so wonderful. Hopefully, in the future, we can hear more about the film.

The Breadwinner

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnJ5Zu1qEk&w=560&h=315]

While Wolfwalkers is in the early stages of development and funding, we can look forward to Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming film, The Breadwinner. This beautifully animated film from the studio that made Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells is based off the book of the same name. It’s also being partly produced by Angelina Jolie. I’m a tad concerned about that part, since I have found her recent projects to be pretentious and lackluster, but just by the teaser trailer alone, the film looks impressive. I also enjoy the fact that they went full frontal with the casting, since they hired multiple actors of Afghan descent to be the major characters. It’s a wonderful-looking movie, and I can’t wait to watch it later this year.

Loving Vincent

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shLSWO659vs&w=560&h=315]

This is probably the most visually striking of the films listed in this editorial. How many animated films can you think of that are painstakingly painted by very specific animators and artists that recreate and pay tribute to one of history’s greatest artists? I love the idea of someone going around asking about the legacy and impressions the artist left on people that he met. It’s such an impressive feat to watch what was going to be a short film directed by director Dorota Kobiela, and has now become this hugely passionate animated film celebrating the beauty and history of art from the infamous painter, Vincent Van Gogh. After it hopefully does well in the Annecy Film Festival, I will patiently wait for theater showings in my neck of the woods.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZSYYiATFTI&w=560&h=315]

While this entire list has been mostly following smaller and foreign releases, it doesn’t mean I’m not looking out for the bigger releases. While we have gotten this trailer a few months back, I wasn’t really thinking about it until recently, as I was thinking back to The LEGO Batman Movie. It’s honestly going to be interesting to see how people react to another LEGO movie in one year. One kudos that I will give this film instantly is that no one has to watch the TV show with the same title to watch this movie, since neither the film nor the show are connected in any way. It also helps that personally, The LEGO Ninjago Movie gave off a strong first impression with good laughs, good animation, and solid voice work. It also helps that the film has a director that has worked in different positions on action-focused cartoons before, like The Powerpuff Girls Movie, Batman: The Animated Series, Tron: Uprising, Samurai Jack, and a lot of Cartoon Networks’ biggest and most popular cartoons. Now, I am concerned with how much emotional substance will be in this film, and how it’s going to have a slew of characters to introduce in one go, but I think Warner Animation Group has been pretty spectacular these past few years. Hopefully, The LEGO Ninjago Movie can be another feather in their cap.

Well, that’s it for this list. I probably won’t have enough to talk about for another one for a while, and I plan on doing an editorial on Blue Sky’s Ferdinand instead of adding it to a list, since I’m excited for it, but not fully on board with it due to the studio. Thanks for reading, and I hope you all get excited for these films as well!