Hey folks, harry here with a look at an animated feature - that I have to say sounds absolutely killer. Can't wait to see this! Here ya go...
Hey, I'm a longtime reader who has never written in before, but that's mostly whenever there's been a film that flat out amazed me, the filmgeek world has either been anticipating or seeing it for quite some time and there wasn?t much I could add to the pot. Yesterday however I had the privilege of seeing the spectacular MINDGAME at Fantasia in the presence of the director Mr. Masaaki Yuasa. I'd rant fantastic here but I'd rather let the review I wrote do the talking. People MUST know about how great this film is.
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Not to be a dick...but I know animation.
I took a class by an ONF guy (obviously not a known one since I don't remember his name, but he was my friend's uncle...AND I can't seem to find my notes which would have been really useful for such a review) and I've watched cartoons since before I could pronounce understandable speech fragments.
I know animation.
So it?s with a certain amount of awe that I say that Mindgame is one of the best feature length non-episodic works of animated art that I've seen in my life. One that reaches back to Avery, Jones (Chuck, not Mike) and Bakshi while also looking towards eastern European animation, the best headfucks of anime and psychedelic creations like the Savage Planet and (specially) Yellow Submarine. Of course, this is what's going through the viewers mind as he attempts to pick his jaw off the floor. In reality the director Mr. Masaaki Yuasa, while perhaps influenced by all the above stated that he simply adapted a manga he liked. In the words of a bad actor: Whoa.
The aforementioned Yellow Submarine is a good starting point for the "feel" of the movie (part of it anyways), only instead of a nice little storybook world, the LSD in this film is constantly shifting and moving at hyper speed. In a unique break from the tedious assembly line design style of recent Japanese animation, the film layers visual style over visual style like samples in a Beastie Boys record, shifting from scene to scene and even from shot to shot. When I say this pushes the possibilities of animation, I'm referring to the fact that each shot uses an appropriate visual style disregarding the previous. Where a scene may be mostly "cartoony", a shot with a lot of detailed emotion would be rotoscopped. It works tremendously well and I hope it'll inspire animators in Japan to go the extra mile (I doubt it) because if a 4-5 person team can accomplish this than Oshi and Myasaki should be making god knows what with that man labor.
In addition to Yellow Submarine, another Beatles reference is appropriate: Sgt. Pepper. With each scene completely shifting in style yet maintaining the fun, positive style; the different sequences almost feel like songs on a well made concept album: interconnected yet individual in cord structure and melody. I would give a plot summary but even the Fantasia Guide says too much: suffice to say its simultaneously action packed and thought provoking. That's high praise.
In conclusion, if you liked Katamari Damacy for the Ps2, Earthbound on the old SNES, records by Dela Soul, The Beastie Boys or the Beatles or are simply a fan of animation I urge you to see this film anyway you can. It's that damn good. An hour earlier I'd just seen the incredibly trite melodrama Place Promised In Our Early Days which lead me to state that "Anime jumped the shark...there hasn?t been anything groundbreaking since Eva."
I think my first words after Mindgame sum my thoughts on that issue nicely:
I take it all back.
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If you use this call me FDB
