feature animation
Dec. 15th, 2002 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
egypturnashI finally got around to watching Ashy's copy of 'Yellow Submarine' that's been sitting on top of the TV for a few months. I can see the flaws in it far more clearly than I could when I first saw it, but I can also see the things it's trying to do in the context of other feature animation.
Among other things, it's the first feature-length cartoon I remember seeing. No, not when it came out, I'm not that old! It was at the ever-amusingly-named Pitt Theater, with my father. The Pitt was - well, it wasn't quite an art-house theater. They never showed anything new, that I could remember, but then never showed art films. Just a lot of old stuff on their one large screen.
I'd probably seen a few Disney features beforehand; I could do some checking on the Mouse's re-release cycles and hazard guesses. But it's 'Sub' that I remember. Sitting there in the dark watching these nigh-unanimatable designs pose and posture, strange creatures doing strange things, in often-changing animation styles. It was an interesting introduction to what a cartoon could be, but almost never is. Certainly not on feature scales. It was also my introduction to the music of the Beatles, with whom I was fascinated for some time. I still love their music, from the simple harmonies to the weird experimental stuff.
What do I remember about early viewings of Disney flicks, by contrast? The case of the runs that interrupted my viewing of 'Aristocats'. The horror at forcing Gurgi into the Cute, Zany Sidekick mold in 'Black Cauldron'. (Okay, Alexander wrote him as a zany sidekick in the original books, but he certainly never read as cute to me.)
Um. There's not really any point to this entry, besides 'Yellow Submarine still r0xx0rz and I don't think you could get away with making it now'. Oh yeah, and I just found out that, according to the liner notes of this DVD, two of my all-time favorite Beatles songs were written for the movie. 'Only a Northern Song' and 'Hey Bulldog', if you're curious.
Among other things, it's the first feature-length cartoon I remember seeing. No, not when it came out, I'm not that old! It was at the ever-amusingly-named Pitt Theater, with my father. The Pitt was - well, it wasn't quite an art-house theater. They never showed anything new, that I could remember, but then never showed art films. Just a lot of old stuff on their one large screen.
I'd probably seen a few Disney features beforehand; I could do some checking on the Mouse's re-release cycles and hazard guesses. But it's 'Sub' that I remember. Sitting there in the dark watching these nigh-unanimatable designs pose and posture, strange creatures doing strange things, in often-changing animation styles. It was an interesting introduction to what a cartoon could be, but almost never is. Certainly not on feature scales. It was also my introduction to the music of the Beatles, with whom I was fascinated for some time. I still love their music, from the simple harmonies to the weird experimental stuff.
What do I remember about early viewings of Disney flicks, by contrast? The case of the runs that interrupted my viewing of 'Aristocats'. The horror at forcing Gurgi into the Cute, Zany Sidekick mold in 'Black Cauldron'. (Okay, Alexander wrote him as a zany sidekick in the original books, but he certainly never read as cute to me.)
Um. There's not really any point to this entry, besides 'Yellow Submarine still r0xx0rz and I don't think you could get away with making it now'. Oh yeah, and I just found out that, according to the liner notes of this DVD, two of my all-time favorite Beatles songs were written for the movie. 'Only a Northern Song' and 'Hey Bulldog', if you're curious.
We all live in a...
Date: 2002-12-15 11:43 pm (UTC)The Eleanor Rigby sequence still awes me -- so elegant and powerful in its simplicity -- the moving song combined with animation that was created by simply panning the camera and moving the brightly-colored Submarine over xeroxed photographs of a dreary London backdrop with its weeping inhabitants unaware of the flying Sub.
BTW, Northern Song, Bulldog, All You Need is Love, and Eleanor Rigby were some of my favorite Beatles songs. I wore my Yellow Submarine album out.
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* British Pop artist Peter Blake designed, photographed and collaged the very-famous album cover artwork for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 08:43 am (UTC)The Disney philosophy of how to make an animated picture is pretty damn good - if you have a story that's worth it, and if you're going to have music, decent music that fits into what's going on, rather than a Bollywood-style "drop everything we have to sing now".
The Beatles made damn' fine music, and the story aspect of Yellow Submarine is really good. When I think about the storyline, I think "this film is probably great if you're stoned out of your skull" but I also think "this is a wonderful animated film for children". If there's anything I really hate about American animated films, it's the way that assuming animated films are for children also seems to presume that the children in question are total morons.
don't think you could get away with making it now
Date: 2002-12-16 08:48 am (UTC)