Panic at the village!

First of all, I am deeply sorry for not posting more often.

Second, I apologize for the punny title.

For some reason I haven't seen anyone else post about this yet... Probably because we were all on break, so I'm gonna do it. 

Panique au Village, or A Town Called Panic (theres some english versions), is a quirky over the top story about Cowboy and Indian and the unraveling of events as they accidentally ordered 50 million bricks when trying to make their friend Horse a birthday present. When I watched this movie I was so enthralled and entertained, and I never looked away. It kept me laughing the whole time, maybe I'm just silly but every single little thing made me laugh. The way the story kept going and going, and eventually taking some weird turns, (center of the planet, parallel universes...) and I truly never wanted it to end. I want Horse to get his alone moment with Madame Longree!

The way the movie was able to show such emotion and excitement without facial expressions was simply brilliant, and I think part of the reason why puppetry might be so important to our understanding of movement in animation. The voices and the jumping around was enough to make the audience receive every emotion completely. Just having the crazy voices also made it a lot funnier. The use of toys and other really basically designed objects gave us as the audience room to sort of just appreciate humor and story, although they had some pretty great ground and landscape setting too. I also really liked some of the more ridiculous/dramatic shots, like all the bricks on top of the house. And some of the animation was pretty incredible; the movements of all the characters, the scene in which the house collapses, and falling to the center of the earth were great.

Overall it was a great film and truly just a wonder to be enjoyed and laughed at.

There's a tv series that came before the movie. I am very excited because I'm gonna go watch it, that's how much I liked this movie.

#ThatMomentWhenYouOrder50MillionBricksInsteadOf50

This was Liberty btws.

French Surrealism is a Thing (and a cool thing at that)

So, Im a bit late, but let's get this party started. Surrealist cinema is a genre of film that often takes what we are used to seeing in film and flipping it on its side. Instead of a very conscious story, these films often go into idea of the unconscious mind and creating a juxtaposition of pictures that act like the unconscious mind. The surrealist movement in cinema can link its origins back to Paris in the 1920s and is still found in French films to this day. Les Triplettes de Belleville and La Planète Sauvage both are great example of the French surrealism and how they use this genre of film to convey their message. 

Les Triplettes de Belleville is a beautifully done piece that emphasizes the over commercialization and consumption in the modern day world. In the beginning of the film, the grandma and grandson are both living in a little house in the countryside. However, as the years pass, the countryside is quickly swallowed up by tall sky scrapers and fast trains. Our modern day obsession with expansion and utilizing every piece of land is clearly seen with these first five minutes of the film. With the eiffel perched on the smoggy horizon, the viewer clearly gets the idea that this is a representation of modern day Paris. However, its worse on the other side of the pond. When the grandma has to travel across the sea to follow her kidnaped grandson, she comes to a place even more busy, more polluted, and more overpopulated: America. Again, the filmmakers don't try to hide the symbolism with their frames of the Statue of Liberty holding a cheeseburger in the harbor of the city. Pretty cool, right? While these parts of the film aren't as surreal, the way the film is presented is. The film is spent mostly with no dialogue. The only two pieces spoken were at the very beginning and at the very end. The rest of the film was spent using action and non verbals to get the point across. I feel that this is a very surreal experience, because its definitely something an audience is not used to, especially for that long of a movie. The audience isn't able to passively watch a film and simply listen to the dialogue, they have to become engaged with the film and anticipate every move the characters make to understand what is happening. Also, the issues addressed in the film are very relevant to its time frame. The film was created in the early 2000s, right when there was a lot of commercialization and consumption going on. There was a huge consumption of media (seen in how glued the viewers are to their TVs during the Tour de France) and food (people seem to be always eating in the film). The film reflects these habits that many had and tries to show how it needs to change. On top of the great story, the designs were really cool and quirky and the sound editing was amazing. 

The character designs were really cool. Not gunna lie.

EVERYONE IS SO FAT.

The big city with its over commercialization 

Fat Statue of Liberty with a cheeseburger. Im serious.

 The Triplets of Belleville, Before

And After

La Planète Sauvage is also a very surreal piece that again reflects the time period it was made in. Two races fight for survival, the humans aka Oms and the Draggs.  Each has their own biases toward the other that keeps them from peacefully coexisting on the planet. The two struggle for dominance on the planet and ultimate power as the superior race. Thankfully, the film doesn't end in the destruction of a race, and instead the two call a truce and learn to coexist on the planet. Now, on a superficial level, this film was pretty weird. From the crazy creatures and landscapes to the abrupt animation style, this film takes surrealism to a whole new level of unconscious thought. However, the film also has a point under all of its  oddness. The central theme was the struggle for power. When this film was created, the Cold War was in its height. The US and USSR were at odds against each other, each wanting power and to be the most powerful country in the world. Both felt that the end game had to be the defeat of the other and only one victor could stand. In the film, this mentality is proven to not be the solution. The two must learn to coexist and get along in the world for there to be peace. Violence for power isn't the answer, peace and equality is. 

That's all. Peace.

Analyzing the Strange Worlds of The Triplets of Belleville and The Fantastic Planet

Easily my favorite part of the movie! :)
I'm just gonna point out that I was listening to music as I wrote
this post, and Gangam Style came on while I was looking at
this gif... and it was hilarious. Yay, unfitting music.

I really enjoyed the The Triplets of Belleville. Its unique art style was the perfect vehicle for capturing the quirky world in which the story took place, and the fact that the feature-length film was told almost entirely in pantomime is very impressive. My one critique of the film visually would be that it was very obvious when the film used CGI to shortcut certain scenes (many of the biker shots, the boat, etc.). As for the meaning of the film, I for some reason got the sense it had something to with not getting too attached to possessions. Multiple scenes seemed to hint at this for me. The Grandmother, for example, was unable to make her grandson happy except through gifts, and at points her efforts in his training seemed more focused on his career than his happiness. Smaller scenes, such as the run in with the homeless man when they first reach Belleville also appeared to suggest this. The Triplets' happiness despite a general lack of possessions is also a clue. Additionally, it also seems to preach the value of perseverance, as the Grandmother is willing to go to any lengths to rescue her grandson. Both these messages came across clearly to me. Also, side note, but the incompetence of the Mafia was hilarious. They were shooting from six feet away and still didn't even manage to hit one of four old ladies! Also, they must buy pretty bad cars if they can't catch up with a bicycle power vehicle.

Really, Mafia? Really?

Now, onto The Fantastic Planet. Admittedly, I liked this movie a lot less than the first. I appreciate all the effort that must have gone into creating such detailed animation frames, but it made for rather limited and inorganic movement. One could argue, however, that this was intentional. The inorganic nature of the animation might serve to further the sense of dehumanization in the Oms. I've heard fellow students interpret this film as a protest against the mistreatment of animals and morality of keeping pets, which may very well be the case, but I personally interpreted it differently. Considering animals' lack of higher intelligence, I saw the situation to be something more of a parable against assuming your superiority over others. This idea could be applied societally, industrially, and interpersonally. I think, at least to some degree, the film wants the audience to remember to put itself in their companions' shoes before reckless actions. This seemed clear enough to me. The story, however, seemed fairly formulaic, and none of the characters incited any real sense of connection in me. The random insertion of Torr's kiss with his friend, in particular, seemed rather out of place, that said, I recognize the value of the film as a whole.

Alright guys, I'm out

Hi everyone,

So I guess I'll start by agreeing with many other people that the character design in Triplettes of Belleville was genius.

I especially love these "three" well mainly two characters.  Its funny that when the two characters come together they make one large person.  Also having these two characters with the shorter characters makes the little man seem more scary that he is.

The one thing I did not realize until someone mentioned it was why the dog hated trains so much.  It was clever to have the toy train run over the dogs tail when it was little so it hated trains when it grew up.

Another things I loved was the background perspective.

As for Fantastic Planet, I liked the concept of the film but not how it was presented. I liked the idea of humans being treated like animals and the idea of a human genocide.  Also, the development of the alien's culture and planet was interesting.  

The film really showed the culture of the aliens.

Ultimately, both films were interesting both in different styles of art and concept.  One was more science fiction while the other was comedy.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

For the most part, I enjoyed this film and its slower plot development.  The way the story unfolded made me feel like I was reading a children’s story, and added to the importance of the film’s moral message.  Because of the story was told in this old fashioned way, the slow and repetitive scenes didn’t detract from the film, but add to it and make it more enjoyable.

 

            On a different note, another one of the aspects of this film that I found particularly interesting was the way in which all of the people in the city appeared as rats.  This similarity in appearance adds to the film’s message that gluttony and greed will always end badly, by visually illustrating that the rat infestation, caused by their flaws, had become part of them.  

This subtle comparison is more easily seen when the rat’s behavior begins to mimic the behavior the city’s citizens.  This element of the film is powerfully illustrated by the rat who steals valuables, just as his human counterpart does.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this film’s dark and realistic take on the problems of greed and gluttony that cities create.  I believe that this film has a message that is still as applicable to modern society, even though a rat problem like this will probably never happen.