Sitting snugly between my nerdy videogame lust and my healthy obsession with movies lies my love and appreciation for the art of animated films. Making a great animated movie is daunting task. All the classic cartoons consist of a similar formula. An hour and 1/2 of cutting edge animation. Some slapstick for the kiddies, and some adult humor that the goes over the kids heads. A dash of subtle observational humor based on the stereotype of the society, genre, or characters being featured (be it fish, bugs, robots etc.). All topped off with some serious attention to detail. The top two animation studios came hard with the good stuff this summer. Dreamwork's "KungFu Panda" and Pixar's "Wall-E" followed the formula perfectly and gave us two more classic animated films.
KungFu Panda is the story of Po, a noodle cooking panda who "loves KungFuuuuuuuuu". The beauty of the movie is that it follows the classic KungFu formula as well. An unlikely hero overcomes adversity and defeats scary bad guy in an awesomely action packed way complete with training montage and lots of slow-motion. The always over-the-top Jack Black really shines as a voice actor. The excitement in his voice and his genuine nature makes him the perfect choice for said kungfu panda. Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu was an equally great choice.
Wall-E is without a doubt the most visually impressive animated film to date. The amazing lighting effects and photo-realistic textures alone make it worth the price of admission to see it on the big screen. The titular "Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earthclass" is a simple robot on an uninhabitable Earth left to compact and stack trash. When he meets the sexy, sleek "apple-esque" EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetative Evaluator), he falls in love and follows her through the universe. The fact that they creators are able to convey the spectrum of emotion solely through body language and robotic "beeps and boops" is remarkable. The social commentary sprinkled throughout is also well done.
I thoroughly enjoyed both of these films. Wall-E's crispy beautifulness sets the bar pretty damn high for future Pixar endeavors. The first 45 mins were excellent but my interest was stalled with the introduction of the bone deossificated humans. KungFu Panda, on the other hand, was hilariously action packed from start to finish. Although not as detailed as Pixar's, Dreamwork's animation is great in it's own right. From the stylish opening, really cool prison scene, great character design, and slow-mo'ed fight sequences, KungFu Panda has my vote for the better of the two.
I would be remiss not to mention the totally hilarious and super creative Pixar short "Presto" that is shown before Wall-E. When Presto's magic show is sabotaged by his hungry rabbit Alec Azam, pure slapstick greatness ensues.
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1 comment:
deossificated? did proulx teach you that word? if you google it, this blog entry is the only result. not saying it's wrong, just saying - thanks for the new word. i loved wall*e. i thought the social commentary was the central theme, though, not an aside from the plot. i loved how unblinkingly subversive the whole thing was. i also love that disney sells cheap plastic toys to represent wall*e, basically a pre-documentary about how we destroyed our earth with garbage.
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