We don’t watch a lot of movies in our family, but recently I
stumbled across The Secret of the Kells. The DVD cover did not prepare me for what was inside. OH! MY! WORD! It was so stunningly
gorgeous and so different from so much of the other animation out there these
days.
These still shots show how each scene was beautifully composed, but the real magic happened as all the lines moved with
purpose and grace around and through the story. It was such a breath
of fresh air which I hadn't even realized that I was needing.
Don’t get me wrong, the things they can do these days with computer
animation are a-maz-ing; but I think maybe the folks at studios like Pixar
& Dreamworks have gotten caught up with the awesomeness of technology at
the expense beauty and art.
I did a little googling and found a few more lovely animated
films. I finally found an English
version of a French one that a dear friend recommended a couple of years ago. (Gracias
Barbara). In English it’s titled The Princes’ Quest, in French it’s Azur & Azmar. SO SO wonderful!
Gardens straight out of the Alhambra
Palm groves that made my heart skip a beat.
And Arabic tiles to knock your socks off.
Azur & Asmar was done by Michael Ocelot and we found another of his films at our local library, Princes and Princesses. It appears that this one was never translated, so I ended up reading all of the subtitles aloud to the kids. It is a most charming story of 2 kids in an old theater making up and acting out 6 stories of princes & princesses and it is all done in black silhouettes on colorful backdrops.
Exquisite!
I'll warn you that the plots and action of these films are rather slow compared to, as one reviewer put it, "the stimula-tron, short-attention-span filmmaking" in the US. I'm okay with that. Really okay with that.
2 comments:
BEAUTIFUL! I'll have to find those.
well, it is oscar month and trav and i have been watching a lot of movies, too! trav and i agree with you on the computer animation bit, just because you can doesn't mean you should...i guess that is all pixar is about but, stop motion, hand drawn and mixed media stuff sure is refreshing. i also think that if the story isn't at least as compelling as the art than it loses appeal, too. this year's RANGO is the prime example, boring story...great animation...overall experience = less than desirable. anyway, love when you find something worth watching! love you!
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