The Animation Thread

I thought we could use a thread like this. Cartoons, CGI, stop motion etc. I've been getting away from live action stuff and becoming really interested in this sort of medium recently.

 

I love you and you don't have to be alone anymore.

Really excited to see The Red Turtle and My Life as a Zucchini whenever they get a release close by!

Any stuff from last year you thought flew under the radar? I'd say if you have any interest in Japanese animation at all, you really owe it to yourself to check out Belladonna of Sadness.

 

I only just started to venture into any sort of non-Western animation with Studio Ghibli and have been loving it. I'll definitely check out Belladonna of Sadness. Any other recs you have at all, I'd really like to hear em

 

This thread is relevant to my interests

 

Haha, well I'm not quite the 'otaku' I used to be - I still love anime, but I really haven't been up to date on it since I got out of high school almost a decade ago. Still, I've got a couple recommendations...

Ghibli is always a great place to start, I think it's where most of us do (Spirited Away was my first.) In general, most of the anime you've heard referenced over and over again are indeed worth your time: Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Ghost in the Shell and the like. If you're looking for stuff in the same whimsical vein as Ghibli, you might want to check out the work of a couple up-and-coming directors: Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and Makoto Shinkai (The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters per Second, Your Name)

Slightly more off the beaten path, my all-time favorite show is probably Baccano! It's very strange, set in 1930's America, told out of sequence, and following tons of different characters. Most of the story takes place on one train ride, following several groups of gangsters each vying for control of the train, but it jumps backwards and forwards several years in time (and in one episode, centuries.) Alchemy is involved. It slides back and forth between character study, slapstick comedy, and EXTREMELY graphic violence. However, unlike a lot of shows that attempt the same blend of tones, I feel like Baccano! somehow manages to make it all feel like part of the same universe. It's hard to describe, but I feel like it's ultimately a very warm-hearted show. It's a journey I've never forgotten, and one I've always enjoyed revisiting. It also has a rock solid English dub, and it's gorgeous!

Not quite as violent, but pretty gritty, Black Lagoon is an action show that's a lot of fun and also has a lot of memorable characters (as well as a solid English dub). FLCL is an extremely wacky, surreal show I was obsessed with as a teenager, trying to decipher every cryptic element of. Probably the most recent show I watched to completion was Kill la Kill, which is pretty relentless on the 'Ass & Titties Quotient', but if you can deal with that is very funny, has great a great sense of design, and tackles some real interesting ideas in its later half. And while I'm at it, may I also recommend pretty much anything by Kyoto Animation (Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, K-On!) They tend to specialize in high school sitcoms, most of them centered around girls, sometimes with a sci-fi/fantasy twist, but to my memory they are uniformally funny, well-written, and fucking beautiful to look at. I can't vouch for their most recent shows, although I really liked Beyond the Boundary. Apparently the general consensus is that it was kinda lame, but I really enjoyed it! I think the finale just also hit me at a really specific place in my life.

Going back a little farther, I'd say you really owe it to yourself to check out the work of Satoshi Kon. He died of cancer in his 40's, so were robbed of a lot of treasures, but the small filmography he left behind is incredible. Most people will tell you to start with Perfect Blue, which is pretty good. But my personal favorites are probably Paprika and his TV show, Paranoia Agent. Tokyo Godfathers is basically a Frank Capra movie that happens to be animated and set in Japan (which is a good thing!) Kon was similar to David Lynch in how interested he was in psychology and perspective, and how effectively he could use those ideas to build a sense of dread and uncertainty. Either way, all of his stuff is incredibly smart, suspenseful, and - surprise, surprise - gorgeously animated.

As you can see, I've rambled for way too long and barely even scratched the surface! But even then, that's part of what's so great about anime: there's so much to choose from! And even with all its flaws, I think the Japanes animation industry does understand something that I wish the Western industry would take note of: that animation can tell other stories than just family comedies or adult comedies.

Happy hunting!

 

Also, while it's not strictly 'non-Western,' France has been fucking killing it on the animation front for a while now.

Lots of really interesting, mostly hand-drawn films to choose from: Ernest and Celestine, Mia and the Migoo, The Rabbi's Cat, April and the Extraorinary World, The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist, even last year's The Little Prince was a French movie. The list goes on and on...

One of my all time favorites is Persepolis, an autobiographical tale about one woman's life growing up in Iran, then moving to Europe, then back to Iran. It's adapted by the same person who wrote the graphic novel it's based on, which I read in high school and floored me.

 

One last rec before I drift off to sleep...

Waltz with Bashir. An Israeli animated documentary. As weird as that concept sounds, it's one of the few films I can think of where the form and theme of the film are inextricable: each one is essential to the other. It's all about how our dreams and our memories can feel more truthful than reality, and how reality can often feel like a dream you can't remember.

A life-changing movie, for me.

That said, with the state of the world right now, its content might be a little too timely.

 

Thanks a lot! I loved reading your thoughts and I've put all your suggestions into a list.

What are some of anyone's favourite animated TV shows? Cartoons, animes, miniseries??

 

Glad to hear it! Let me know which ones you check out and what you think.

I've been checking out the new season of Voltron on Netflix, which is fine, but I don't think I'm gonna stick with it.

My younger brother got me the entire Rocko's Modern Life collection on DVD for Christmas, which was A+ work on his part! Another friend got me the first season on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which I need to check out soon.

I will say, in general, that I'm more of a Cartoon Network guy than a Nickelodeon one. That said, I'm not crazy about Adventure Time or Regular Show. They feel like part of trend in comedy as of late where the joke comes out of just saying stuff in a silly and talking about weird ideas as opposed to... y'know, doing anything with them. (Their boss is a gumball machine, BUHwowUHWOWowow!!)

I honestly prefer The Amazing World of Gumball and Teen Titans Go! They seem to build their jokes through inventive slapstick and the actual relationships between their characters. My two cents.

 

Cartoons that I'm sad never seem to have gotten a comprehensive rerelease...

Cow & Chicken
Sheep in the Big City
Kim Possible

 

I have some fond memories of Rocko, but I'm more of a Spongebob guy. I got into Adventure Time for a while there, but I haven't ventured far past the beginning of the first season. I avoided it for years for the same reason you're not into it, but once I gave it a shot I really became captivated by the world it created. It's charming and whimsical, but I guess I didn't end up getting as immersed as some do. Maybe because I was only watching one episode a day. It's totally something I can go back to, but it started to feel a bit like junk food at some point there.

Interesting that you're a fan of Teen Titans Go!. I've only heard bad things about it, but I've never seen it myself. Are you a fan of the original show?

 

Lol, guilty as charged!

 

Two and a half hours of Russian Tom & Jerry for yo ass!

 

Any recommendations for stuff along the lines of Wallace and Gromit?

Could be claymation but doesn't have to be. Just anything that's well done and fun.

 

Sooo... Anyone else seen Your Name yet?

 

I saw it a few days ago. At the very least, it was incredible seeing traditional animation on the big screen again. I may have become desensitized to the amount of work that goes into every frame of an animated film, so it was a great reminder of the nuances of the art form

 

True that. I've seen it twice now, first time was also my first time at an Alamo Drafthouse, couldn't have asked for a better experience. They showed it on their biggest screen, and I think that was oddly moving for me having never seen a subtitled anime film on a screen that big before.

Of course, all Makoto Shinkai's work is gorgeous, but the traditional Japanese dancing scene (don't know what it's called) but that shit in motion just made me go hhhhhhhnnnnnngggggggjrjfhrhejhdjjjjrksjdiuei

Overall, I thought it was good. Didn't floor me or reinvent the wheel, but at the same time I just can't get over how well thought out and earned all the beats they hit are.

 

And that J-rock soundtrack's been stuck in my head for days...

 

Just picked up the complete Hey Arnold series from a second-hand shop. Never watched this one too much growing up so I'm looking forward to the next few weeks

 

For Christmas, my younger brother gave me the complete Rocko's Modern Life on DVD, and my best friend gave me the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It's like they know me or something...

I still have my complete Powerpuff Girls and Sonic the Hedgehog sets I never got all the way through.

 

My favorites lately:
Clarence
Sanjay and Craig