Blog Entry #6 – Cat Shit One (Apocalypse Meow)

My supervisor showed me this trailer months back and my first impression was “Intense”. Even if the characters are a bunch of cuddly furry creatures you can still take this series with a serious face because of its approach. The music, camera angles, and its content makes it legit. After the long monologue in the beginning of the trailer, we see a truck driving through the desert storm. It almost looks real for a split second. The animation on this series is up to par with animation today. The cartoon entertains us with the story as its details entertains us visually. Originally it came from a Manga series based on the Vietnam War is flipped to be more based on today’s events. Because of it’s music, camera angles, plot, and visuals makes this series a one to watch.

If we go to (1:05) in the clip above, there is a scene from the sniper’s point of view. The sniper sees the enemy capturing some civilians and taking their lives. I know it’s a cartoon of bunnies but this is intense. The trailers gets action packed further along with gun fire, explosions, dialogue with much needed subtitles, and bunny’s eyes that you can’t say no to. The environment/background itself is so detailed. The animators definitely put some effort in it as well as the characters themselves. The way the furry creatures uses a gun or the way they move, they have human qualities. Watching this trailer reminds me of past animated films dealing with war. Such as “Waltz With Bashir” and “Persopolis” Although those films were based from actual events, “Cat Shit One” holds up because of it’s music, camera, angles, music, as well as its visuals and content. I’m definitely looking forward to see more of this.

Waltz With Bashir

Persopolis

I commented on Mike Griffith and Samantha Francis‘s Blog

Blog Entry#5 – Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends

For all those people who had an imaginary friend you were the only one who could see them. What if they physically existed? “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends” took a creative concept and turned it into a cartoon. It is a reminder of past animations like “The Brave Little Toaster” and the “Toy Story” series about a kid loving their inanimate objects but gets rid of them because they’re getting older. “Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends” is like that how kids get rid of their imaginary friends because they’re getting older and do not have the time to spend with their imaginary friends. The vivid imagery and fun narrative makes this cartoon a unique hit while also reminding us although inanimate things aren’t real, our creative imagination gives it life-like qualities.

The main relationship of the cartoon is between Mac and Bloo; who is the imaginary friend he created. Bloo is a simple looking character that is blue. Yet, he is very effective in all types of ways. Bloo shows all kinds of expressions with his tiny hands, eyes, and his mouth. In the video clip shown above at 2:44, there is Bloo and Cheese. Bloo does not like Cheese at all because he is Mac’s new imaginary friend he created. We can tell by this by Bloo’s facial expression when he is super angry and the way he folds his arms. The facial expressions are we can tell Bloo is jealous of the new friend. The animation itself is nothing fancy but it’s still effective because the narration, imagery, and creativity shows in cartoon.

The whole point of the show is how Mac has to be at Foster’s Home every day at this certain time because Bloo can’t live with Mac since Mac’s mother said he is too old to have an imagery friend. If Mac does not show up at that time, Bloo is available to be adopted by another kid. Mac does show up everyday and they always have some kind of adventure. Although imaginary friends aren’t seen as real, people have come up with such an imagination that make them do feel real. Even today when people are all grown up such as someone’s car and how they always wash it every weekend or go crazy if there is a scratch. Whether or not it is about your imagination or an inanimate object, the mind is a curious thing how we know some things aren’t real but yet, we give them the imagination where they are.

Commented on Mike Griffith’s Blog and Bradley Schoolfield’s Blog

Blog Entry#4 – David Lynch Animated Shorts

Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)

The Alphabet

David Lynch is notorious for being different. Surreal, dark, mixed in with a crazy soundtrack are the qualities in a David Lynch film for you. In his early career Lynch created a series of animated shorts that ties in with animation and live action. These days, we see that all the time but back in the 1960′s, not so much. From the first clip shown above, it is six guys vomiting their stomachs out, bleeding, and catching on fire. As much as I don’t really get the animated short, Lynch provides an explanation of him wanting to make his paintings in motion. As we discussed in class and watched clips of animators making 2-D drawings move is what Lynch was trying to do. To see a still image provide motion. The film itself is very experimental, different from what others like Disney were doing with animation. Whether you consider it arty or just plain weird, Lynch has created a different approach to animation compared to your friendly upright walking mouse that chuckles.

If we look at the other clip “The Alphabet” it is a mix of animation and live action. I repeat myself from before that sometimes I just don’t get a David Lynch film. As weird as his shorts are, the experimentation on them are interesting. Lynch shows us a more darker version of saying the alphabet. Thus provides us this scary thought between childhood and aging. When we see the animations in the past, they are happy, family friendly, but not the ones Lynch creates. That is what makes him different, because he guides us to a whole other aspect on how animation can also show a darker side. His shorts also tells us that animation is full of experimentation giving us more variety.

Here is a tribute to the Lumiere brothers. Lynch was not the only director to do this but 39 other directors did an homage to the original. In a Lynchian style, this tribute is dark and probably has some psychological issue in it. But though it is under the style of the Lumiere Brothers, it gives a what if the brothers shown viewers Lynch’s clip rather than a woman lifting her ankles or a train arriving? The results would be shocking. Whatever Lynch does, his films puts on a whole different approach to animation. If Lynch did an animation on a clown juggling, Lynch would make that animation the saddest clown ever physically and mentally. As experimental as Lynch is, his films are one of kind.

I commented on on Bonnie Hansen and Emily Witt

Blog Entry #3 – Beast Wars: Transformers

A little too young to remember the old transformers but old enough to remember the animation series “Beast Wars: Transformers” The show was a fully CG animated series created in 1996 from Mainframe Entertainment of Canada. Where in class we learned Canada is notorious for its animation from way back of the 20th century. The animation on here is sick for ’96 and ahead of its time for a Saturday morning show. Not only were there a bunch of robots battling but they were disguised as a bunch of animals. As we discussed in class, animators use animals instead of humans because it was easier. That’s one thing. But to have the characters capture the movements of real animals and then transformed into detailed robots is another thing.

In the clip shown above, this might look like the same graphics of a giant creature on the SyFy channel. You could probably use “Adobe After Effects” to recreate the same thing. But, if we look at it back then, the show captures quite great detail. Look at Optimus Primal, from facial features to his movements is close to the traits of a gorilla. Going a little further in the clip we see Dinobot disguised as a Velociraptor. Though he is a dinosaur, look at his expressions. His facial and hand expressions are human like. The way he makes a fist and his hands are wailing all over the place. We can tell he is pissed. The animators were able to capture the characters so well it was recognized for an Emmy in 1997. Thus why, if anyone watched the show back when they were 8 years old can remember it now because the animation’s quality was so detailed compared to the 2-D cartoons unless you also watched “Starship Troopers”

I commented on Scott Bell’s Blog #3 and Cory Finch’s Blog #3