Friday 15th

Hello everyone the film for Friday is going to be:

Tekkonkinkreet

Hope to see lots of you there!!!

The Aristocats- The last touch of Walt Disney

Theatrical Release: December 24th 1970

Running Time: 79 Minutes

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

The Aristocats may not be in many a top Disney film list, but I believe this film still holds its charm and grace. It may not be the best but it is still easy to fall in love with And being that it was the last film that Walt Disney gave the nod for, it has its key place in history and makes it a must see for anyone who hasn't seen it.

The film is set in 1910 Paris, and is about a mother cat, named Duchess, and her three kittens; Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz. When their loyal butler, Edgar, overhears that Madame Bonfamille wishes to leave everything to her cats he decides to kidanp the cats and take them out into the countryside. Once he gets out there in his motorcycle, he is attacked by two guard dogs and in the ensuing chaos the cats are left by a river. A stray alley cat, Thomas O'Malley, takes the family under his wing and helps them get back to Paris.

Phil Harris did the voice of Thomas O'Malley and if you have watched any other Disney features you may recognise his voice, as he also voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967) and Little John in Robin Hood (1973). Eva Gabors' gorgeous voice is used for Duchess and you may recognise her voice from The Rescuers (1977) as Miss Bianca.

A few critics just see the film as a spin-off to the 1961 101 Dalmations:

'Remember the classic song-filled Disney animated movie about a sweet group of pets who are in peril due to the interference of dastardly schemers? No, I’m not talking about 101 Dalmatians, although it’s far more memorable than that nine-years-later imitator. I’m talking about The AristoCats, a nice enough Disney feature that some consider an under appreciated classic and others view as a movie that’s distinguished only by the inclusion of a handful of cool jazz tunes.'

Brian Webster, The Aristocats, 6th October 2010, [Online] http://www.apolloguide.com/mov_fullrev.asp?CID=5750

You must agree that there are similarities between 101 Dalmations and The Aristocats such as in both films there are incompetent kidnappers stealing pets. One aspects that lifts the film away from its doggie counterpart is the music, especially the jazzy number 'Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat', from the Oscar winning combination of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who penned the songs for Mary Poppins. The music is the best part the film, like in most Disney features, and highlights the differences between Duchess' opera world and the street-smarts of Thomas' jazz friends.

Another amazing aspect of the film is how visually beautiful it looks. The film was made in a pre-digital age and the pain staking hours of drawing and painting shows. More than 325,000 drawings were completed for the movie over the course of four years, making for 1,125 scenes in total, using some 900 painted backgrounds. Here are just a few of the backgrounds:

The aspect that this film lacks, that makes it not as good as other Disney features is the absence of a lot of action and sense of place. The film is set in period Paris but with many of the actors sounding like they are from New York or London it is hard for the audience to buy into the french backdrop. And if the place of the film is not believable the action has to be, and alot of the film is cats wandering around. Although you can tell that the artists have studied cats' movements and it does add a certain charm to the film.

AKIRA- Breaking 'Anime' into the Western World...

Akira is one of those must see animations if you are getting into the Japanese anime genre. It still holds it head up high, even today, as a ground breaking animation addressing some of the major concerns of the time.

Katsuhiro Otomo wrote and directed Akira, adapting it from his own epic 2,182 page manga. One of the films' flaws is simply that he tried to condense such a mass of information into 2 hours of

animation. In fact, where the film ends is not where the manga ends, and there is another whole films' worth of story left.

The manga is packed with political scheming, revolution, religious conspiracy, the mystery of the awesome power of Akira and a couple of kids caught up in it all. When you try to pack all of that into a single film you end up with a gigantic tangled mass of information that can be very confusing if you don't pay close attention to it. I guess those who have read the manga will have no trouble deciphering what is going on and those who haven't are thrust into the position of the main characters as they are just as confused as the audience.

PLOT

The film starts on July 16 1988 with an apparent nuclear bomb destroying Tokyo and starting World War III. Thirty-one years later, in 2019, Tokyo is rebuilt on an artificial island in Tokyo bay and renamed Neo-Tokyo. The government is under a lot of strain from anti-government terrorists, political arguments and gang violence.

The government also has a mysterious program controlled by the colonel, which has experimented on children to unleash their latent mental powers resulting in three prematurely aged mutants, known as the espers.

The film centers around Tetsuo and Kaneda, two members of a bike gang called The Capsules, who are in a gang war against another bike gang called The Clowns. After a bike battle on a highway (one of my personal favourite scenes ever) the gang is involved in a web of military secrets involving a force known as "Akira".

THEMES

- YOUTH REBELLING AGAINST AUTHORITY

- METHODS OF CONTROL

- TRANSFORMATION EXPERIENCED AS TEENAGERS BECOME ADULTS (COMING OF AGE)

- JAPAN'S DANGEROUS RUSH TOWARDS TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE

- GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

- LOSS: ALL THE CHARACTERS IN SOME FORM ARE ORPHANED WITH NO SENSE OF HISTORY.

- MILITARY'S OLD FASHIONED HONOUR

- RELIGION, YOUTH CULTURE, CYBERPUNK, PSYCHIC AWARENESS, REBIRTH

CHARACTERS

Shotaro Kaneda- Kaneda is the gang leader of The Capsules who boasts a custom modified motorcycle. He and Tetsuo have been best friends since childhood.

Tetsuo Shima- Tetsuo is seen as the black sheep in the group and suffers a major inferiority complex under Kaneda. He looks up to Kaneda but resents the fact that he has to rely on him. After his psychic abilities manifest he becomes Kaneda's nemesis. He seeks to prove himself supremely powerful and that he does not need anyone's help. His powers become to powerful for him to control and the espers then have to awake Akira to stop him. His torment, god complex, and desperate breakdown give an emotional center to events that are otherwise drastically out of human scale.

Akira- Akira was a young boy who developed god like abilities when serving as a test subject for a secret ESP government program in the 1980's. He lost control of his powers and the blast completely annihilated Tokyo. They recovered Akira's body and when their tests came up with nothing they cryogenically froze his remains and stored them underneath the Olympic Stadium so that future generations can study it.

The Espers- Masuru, Takashi and Kiyoko, three children that were also on the same ESP program as Akira. They are not as strong as Akira but to prevent the event of 1988 they gave them drugs to control theirs powers which kept them in a state of perpetual but ageing childhood.

WHY IS AKIRA SO POPULAR?

Akira still looks amazing today, and for the time it was out of this world. At the time, and if you still watch budget cartoons today, animation companies cut comers by having limited motion e.g just having a characters lips moving but the rest of the frame still. This film broke the trend with its meticulously detailed scenes, attention to detail and super fluid motion. Also the lip dubbing is exact as they recorded the voice after the animation was made, unlike other companies of the time.

Those of you who have watched this for the first time today, may be a little confused and hopefully some of this have cleared it up for you. For others who have seen this I hope you can agree with me that this film just gets better and better ever time you watch it, and that is what makes the anime a must see film for all anime watchers.

If anyone has any questions about Akira please feel free to comment :)

Totoro Bus Stop

Just when you thought Totoro was the cutest most cuddliest thing in the world....

This is quite a famous piece of work on deviant.com, just thought I would share it :D Here's a link to the artist's page; http://sachsen.deviantart.com/

MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

My Neighbour Totoro...I gather by the the frequent bouts of laughter that everyone enjoyed it!! I didn't give a lecture about it this time because it is truly a heart warming film, and I just wanted people to enjoy it for what it is, for a change, instead of me piling on the usual death, war and destruction themes I have given to you in past weeks. To understand this film you do not really have to know the ins and outs of it to just love it, but I am going to explain what it is all about anyways :D

My Neighbor Totoro is the second feature of the studio Ghibli and the second directed by Hayao Miyazaki. In this film Miyazaki gives us a break from previous frantic action packed animations such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Vampire Hunter D and Dragon Ball and gives us a more realistic view of family life with believable bundles of fantasy thrown in. The plot is basically about two sisters, Mei and Satsuki who move into the rural Japanese countryside with their father to be nearer to their mother, who is in hospital suffering from TB. Once the children get there they discover that they are living amongst fantastical creatures such as soot sprites and forest spirits.

The story takes place in the 1950's in Tokorozawa City in the Saitama prefecture. This place used to be a farming community and the residents are trying to stop urban development on this land calling Totoro no Furusato (Totoro's Home) National Trust Movement, using Totoro as it's symbol character. Miyazaki also donated $3 million to Tokorozawa City so they could buy up land that was about to be developed.

The film has a personal touch by Hayao Miyazaki, and many believe that it is an auto-biography. Miyazaki grew up in the same prefecture the film was set in, his mother also had tuberculosis and spent a lot of time away from home.

What is totoro?

Well Totoro is completely of Miyazaki's own design and imagination and is meant to be the spirit of the forest. It seems to some that he is made up of several animals; an owl due to the patterns on his chest, a cat because of his ears and facial expressions and tanuki's ( a Japanese version of raccoons). The other little spirits that you saw in the movie are also Totoro, the little white one is called Chibi- Totoro meaning small totoro. The blue totoro is called Chuu- Totoro meaning medium Totoro and the massive Totoro is called Oh- Totoro meaning...big...well duh

What is catbus?

The Japanese believe that when cats get old enough they have magical shape changing abilities, known as "Bake Neko". Miyazaki imagined that a bake neko saw a bus and was intrigued by it and decided to turn itself into a bus. It is also believed that Miyazaki was inspired by Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire cat, as the cat disappears and reappears in similar fashion and smiles in a similar way as well.

Is there a message?

Miyazaki says in numerous interviews that he saw this film as primarily entertainment with no real message. But however there seems to be several clear messages. The title tells us that humans and the rest of nature are friends. 'Look at this wonderful countryside' Miyazaki seems to be saying:

"I honestly did Totoro from my feelings, not by nostalgia for a time. I hope that children will always want to run in the fields, picking up acorns, playing behind the temples, and to be curious enough to look under the veranda of the house, after seeing my film. That's all I want. "

With My Neighbor Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki knew what he wanted to make a warm film with no conflict or confrontation. It is truly a film about childhood innocence, friendship and the belief that magic is all around us.

Welcome!!!!!!!!!

So this is now the blog page for the Wednesday night animation club. Here will be a more in depth look at the animations that we watch, simply because there just is not enough time to go properly into a lot of detail in the 2 hour slot that we get.

I hope that lots of you will continue to refer back to this page after you have watched the animation to gain further insight and understanding.