jueves, 28 de abril de 2011

Recent cartoony movies

I recently found out that there are a couple of people-maybe three-who actually read and liked my previous article so I guess it's enough to keep it up. Even though this is extraordinary late in the game.

I think I'm gonna keep the entries shorter, though.

Continuing with the subject of my previous post, there had been some recent american animated movies that almost lacked the artificial pathos of most animated features.

I'd like to comment some of the closer ones.

1-Lilo and Stitch. This was a really well drawn, fun to watch, well designed movie that didn't feel in too many cliches. Even the emotion was mostly subtle and not overdone during most of the movie. For example I find this particular scene pretty great in terms of emotion, and it's not sappy at all.



We get Stitch is sad, but it's subtle and not overly dramatic. In fact it's a funny scene for the most part.

The second half of the movie is not as perfect as the first one. They overdo the "Ohana means family" theme, the introduce the Ugly Duckling analogy and other aspects that you'd usually find in a Disney movie. There's also an action scene which is pretty well done but doesn't totally fit with the tone of the movie.

Still they managed to avoid the good vs evil thing we usually see in the Disney "classics". Most of the characters have good and bad qualities.

2-Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.
This is the most cartoony movie I've watched in CGI.It's really funny and almost a pure comedie during it first half. However the motivations and emotions of the main character do include some of the usual "animated" cliches, like "daddy issues" and the wishdom of being recognized. He's kind of the underdog. I wasn't extremely happy with the change of the girl character, though it seemed like a parody of the typical nerdy girl that becomes beautiful without the glasses. This was kind of the opposite, at least that's how Flint character sees it. The movie is also a little overly cartoony too, and by this I mean its frantic rythm is a little too much for a whole movie.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller certainly know about comedy. I guess this time around they thought they had to entertain family audiences and maybe Sony Pictures had some influence too, so they had to include some pathos here and there. I thought his TV series Clone High was completely hilarious. But then again that was for adults (although it wasn't extremely inconvenient for kids).

I guess I'll continue some day.