Animated
I’ve been meaning to write about a couple of excellent and unusual animated films I’ve seen recently. The first was shown over Christmas, and was a BAFTA-nominated retelling of the story of Peter and the Wolf by a joint UK/Polish team. There’s no dialogue, but it uses Prokofiev’s score for the story, fitting the action in the visuals to the musical themes. It’s hard to say what is so enchanting about it, but the characters are so engaging (Peter in particular) that you’re genuinely upset when the duck gets eaten by the wolf (I know — a spoiler — but I’m assuming that most people already know the story). The film manages to have a dark, contemporary feeling, without losing the timelessness or charm of the original story.
The second animation — The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello — is much more unusual visually speaking, but also features fantastic story-telling. Jasper Morello is a navigator who has lost his professional reputation after a tiny mistake lead to the death of a man. He’s been given another chance to prove himself on an airship voyage to unknown territory. The passenger — a ‘controversial scientist’ — is performing experiments to try to find a cure for the incurable plague which is killing much of the population.
The visual world that Jasper inhabits is a wildly imaginative riff on Victoriana, with gothic touches worthy of Mary Shelley, M. R. James or Conan Doyle. The world is rendered in rich, dark sepia, with etiolated, silhouetted Giacometti-like characters. This darkness makes the occasional splashes of red or orange, or changes of lighting, all the more striking. The technology is Victorian engineering gone mad: there are gears, cogs, steam engines, steel beams, rivets and wrought iron everywhere, and wonderfully excessive ornamentation on every structure. Jasper’s narration sounds like a Victorian gentleman’s journal, and fits well with the visual feel.
The animation is superb, but what holds your attention is the wonderful, old-fashioned story-telling. It feels like someone telling you a gothic horror story (the kind that is enjoyably creepy, rather than terrifying) around a cosy winter fire, and we were gripped by the tale. It was rightly nominated for an Oscar, and is well worth a watch if you can track it down.
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If I may interrupt; it's nothing directly related to the subject at hand, but everything to do with beauty:
The French claim to have invented Impressionism, but we know it was the great John William Mallard Turner…… don’t we. I’ve chipped in my £10 worth, halfway up the left hand side - go on, you know you should.
by Jonathan Briggs @ 22/01/2007 10:39 pm • Permalink •
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Ooops!
Artfund.org
Should get you there.
Bsag, should I have used [ ] brackets instead of < >?
by Jonathan Briggs @ 22/01/2007 10:47 pm • Permalink •
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I don't even drink, but I was definitely having one of those forgetting my wife's name nights yesterday....
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Sorry about that.
Every day in every way dum de dum de dumb!
by Jonathan Briggs @ 23/01/2007 9:00 am • Permalink •
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Jonathan Briggs: Yes, a worthy cause. I love Turner's paintings. The problem with the first link was a rogue space between the first " and the http (which I fixed). I also wrapped the second in a link because it was throwing my layout out of alignment.
For reference, the first method with angle brackets was fine (just don't put a space in by mistake), but you can also make a link like:
linked text </pre>
which is a bit easier, typing-wise. And the Preview button is your friend
by bsag @ 23/01/2007 6:21 pm • Permalink •
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I found "The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello" shortly after it came out. Fantastically creepy, with incredible animation, and such a riveting story. I want to say more about it, but don't want to spoil it for any that haven't read it.
At least here in the States, it can be found on the iTunes Store with the other short movies.
by Nathan Ladd @ 01/03/2007 11:05 pm • Permalink •
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Nathan Ladd: I think you have a much better selection of films in the iTunes store in the US: we just have the Pixar shorts and a few music videos. Anyway, it's a great animation.
by bsag @ 02/03/2007 6:23 pm • Permalink •
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