Well Geeks, ol Ozymandias had himself a fun time the other day, 2 pretty fine animated features in a single day... Heaven! Father Geek here gets to see TITAN AE tomorrow and then CHICKEN RUN on Tuesday and again on Thursday. I've been looking forward to this experience for some time now, but for right now I'll let our man in the Dublin penthouse tell you his tale of joy...
Just for you I have a look at two of the Summer's
big animated features - both at different ends of the stylistic
spectrum but both proving the medium can hold its own with live
action any day of the week.
Just for you I have a look at two of the Summer's big animated features - both at different ends of the stylistic spectrum but both proving the medium can hold its own with live action any day of the week.
Had one of the most fun days in recent history this week when I got invited to a series of private media screenings held here in Dublin for movie reviewers, distributors, cinema owners and general media types. My mouth was watering at the very prospect. High Fidelity (which I really liked and thought was actually superior to the book!), MI:2 (which again, contrary to many sentiments already expressed in AICN, I though was a damn good thrill ride with a brain) and to start off the day -
Chicken Run!
Harry, you can breathe a sigh of relief - this is one of the all time great animated movies and one of the best films OF ANY KIND I've seen this year. I won't bother going into spoilerish plot details here (I always hate it when reviews do that - let me have some surprises for crying out loud!!!!) but I will say that one or two of the piccies you showed on the site the other day have slightly different interpretations than the ones you gave them. The "Rocky in front of the billboard" shot is where he's actually running away from the camp having failed to teach the chickens to fly (the chicken pie machine being the intended fate of all the chickens and not just the non-egg producing ones!), the two rats are dancing at a celebration the chickens are having in Coop 17, the "17 chickens building in the coop" shot is where Mr. Tweedy finally catches them "conspiring" (imagine the rest of the shot - he opens the coop lid, sees what's in the shot you have, they all swiftly hide the tools behind their backs and start whistling nervously before they attack and tie him up!!! Brilliant.) and the final shot you have is one of my favourite in the whole movie - the "Luke and Leia" shot (a parody of the "swinging across the abyss to escape the stormtroopers" shot in Star Wars!)
I came out of the auditorium with one word on my lips - "stunning". It's very, very, funny, visually gorgeous, well sustained over its length (I know many people had worries in that department) and is possibly one of the best written and directed films of the last 12 months. In tone I suppose you could say it comes closest to a James and the Giant Peach/Roald Dahl sort of thing but it did most remind me of Toy Story - a great story, very funny and well told through really tight direction. Regardless of how much money it will make in your part of the world (and don't get me wrong, in this I think it has the potential to be a $100m+ movie in the US!) it will be one of the most fun 90 minutes you'll spend in the cinema this Summer. Hope you all enjoy.
TITAN AE
Then there was another special screening in downtown Dublin this morning was one of Don Bluth's Titan AE. As you probably know Bluth has a special connection with the city as his operation was based here at one time and the screening was apparently attended by one of the head honchos involved with the production.
This one too is one of the biggies this Summer and deservedly so. The finished product is a seamless mesh of CG animation (mostly for backgrounds and the bad guy aliens) and traditional stuff for the characters (very Dragon's Lair looking, Harry - I too spent many happy childhood months pouring 10p pieces into the arcade version!) crossed with manga influences and a wonderful muted "Alien" style colour scheme. Very strinking. The plot itself is pretty standard fare but it doesn't sag with any usual Disneyesque distractions leaving us to enjoy the action, and what action!! Although many of the action sequences are fairly derivative they are crackingly directed (particularly the "hide and seek chase through the ice rings" sequence - an instant classic), visually breathtaking in some places and designed to leave you gasping for more.
Bluth has really come up trumps with this one - looks gorgeous, fairly rattles along in the action department (leaving most conventional action/sci-fi flicks I've seen in the last year in the dust!) and straddles the kiddie/adult divide quite nicely allowing the best of both box office worlds. Another one in the must see box for what is already turning out to be a Summer of must see flicks.
