Non-traditional Animation.

[Steve T Power]

Watching Renaissance for the third time really got me thinking about other animated films that really eschew the norm. Films that think outside of the box, either in terms of the story they tell, or how the whole thing is executed visually. I'm not talking about non-traditional in the technical sense so much (like hand animated vs. CG) but rather in techniques used, or something in stark contrast to everything else that's out there on a thematic level. I'll throw my aforementioned title out there:

Rennasaince - Daniel Craig and Jonathan Pryce do a wonderful job in this dystopian cyberpunk outing. Lavishly animated with motion captured actors in monochromatic black and white (no shades of grey) - the film is an amazing thing to look at. The labyrinthine plot moves more slowly than anime or your standard American actioner - it's got more of a classic pacing, and the ending is pure noir. It's really an amazing piece of work.


anyone else have any they want to share?

[mavrach]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

[Tinderbox]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

I tried watching this and was really put off by its grotesquerie. The thing was grim and the characters were all so unpleasant to look at. I found it dreary and depressing and turned it off after a while.

[Steve T Power]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

I tried watching this and was really put off by its grotesquerie. The thing was grim and the characters were all so unpleasant to look at. I found it dreary and depressing and turned it off after a while.

I felt exactly the same, and the plot was preposterous - but at the same time, it shows some artistic skill, and was the other film i had in mind when i started this thread.

[Tinderbox]

Not to disparage French animation in my post above, so I'll mention Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage). The story and imagery is so far out and otherworldy, it's a real trip. Won the special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It's also the movie that Jennifer Lopez character watches as she chills out at her house in The Cell.

[Tinderbox]

Perhaps Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow should also get mention as groundbreaking animation. The story of the production itself is rather inspiring for new generations of filmmakers working with the democratizing medium of digital filmmaking.

[Tinderbox]

Since I can't put a link and a picture in the same post with the new forum rules , one per post only, here is a still from Sky Captain.




P.S. For a forum about the visual medium of film, a 200 pixel width limit on images is rather meager, don't you think? Grrr....
And why are images treated and restricted the same as hyperlinks??

[molly1216]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

I tried watching this and was really put off by its grotesquerie. The thing was grim and the characters were all so unpleasant to look at. I found it dreary and depressing and turned it off after a while.

I felt exactly the same, and the plot was preposterous - but at the same time, it shows some artistic skill, and was the other film i had in mind when i started this thread.

completely different response....i adored it. every frame. it was engravings come to life...i am waiting impatiently for more from this guy.

[Rabbit Fighter]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

I tried watching this and was really put off by its grotesquerie. The thing was grim and the characters were all so unpleasant to look at. I found it dreary and depressing and turned it off after a while.

I felt exactly the same, and the plot was preposterous - but at the same time, it shows some artistic skill, and was the other film i had in mind when i started this thread.

completely different response....i adored it. every frame. it was engravings come to life...i am waiting impatiently for more from this guy.

Agreed, Molly. This was the best one of the best animated films I had seen in a long time... unique and absolutely fascinating stuff. And I was humming that damn song for, like, weeks afterward....

[fred kite]

The Triplets of Belleville springs to mind - Essentailly no dialogue at all used to tell the story.

I tried watching this and was really put off by its grotesquerie. The thing was grim and the characters were all so unpleasant to look at. I found it dreary and depressing and turned it off after a while.

I felt exactly the same, and the plot was preposterous - but at the same time, it shows some artistic skill, and was the other film i had in mind when i started this thread.

completely different response....i adored it. every frame. it was engravings come to life...i am waiting impatiently for more from this guy.

I love The Triplets Of Belleville, it's one of my top 10 favorite animated films. I especially liked the care taken to accurately render the various European automobiles, it was a really neat bit of attention to detail. As far as the grotesquerie of the characters, it seems like most animated films indulge in grotesquerie in character design...it's one of those things animation does better than live action film, in my opinion. Also, I didn't really feel like the characters got too grotesque until they got to America, with all the immense fat freaks. In fact, that part was a little too lifelike...not much needed in the way of exaggeration, there.

[arciooh]

Not to disparage French animation in my post above, so I'll mention Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage). The story and imagery is so far out and otherworldy, it's a real trip. Won the special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It's also the movie that Jennifer Lopez character watches as she chills out at her house in The Cell.

It's been OOP for a while I think, it's in Amazon for $80 or so, used... I really want to see this!

[Sara]

Molly and I are big fans of The Adventures of Prince Achmed. It's actually the first animated feature film. It pre-dates Snow-White by 11 years. Plus, it was made by a woman! Amazing.



P.S. I have the Triplets of Belleville song on my Myspace right now...hehe.

[Gabriel Girard]

Alice (1988) or any other film by Jan Svankmajer who is a stop-motion surrealist!

[azul017]

Say what you will about it, but The Polar Express is one. In broader strokes, it is a computer-animated film but it is officially the first to use all motion-capture actors on a blue-screen and no live-action filming. And quite simply, it is a joy to look at and while the human animation may look "creepy" and "vacant", it's a nice deviant from the caricatures of regular CGI films and hand-drawn animation.

[Proteus]

Alice (1988) or any other film by Jan Svankmajer who is a stop-motion surrealist!

I couldn't agree more. Though I'm partial to Little Otik myself. The Svankmajer features are fantastic, but the shorts are really brilliant.
I'd also throw in Bruno Bozzetto. And the Quay Bros. The new Quay Bros collection - Phantom Museums - is quite astonishing.

And I remain impressed by Linkletter's animated films - though I know many would disagree with the term "animated." Still, they are among the most inventive and interesting visual experiences of the 21st century, I think, thus far.

Iahkoodoktah.

[mavrach]

The visuals of The Tripletts of Belleville actually turned me off at first and kept me from seeing it for the longest time. But after hearing so many great things about it, I finally gave it a day in court and loved it.


I actually just finished The Secret of NIMH, which is a movie I've always loved as a kid yet seemed to never remember. I never hear this one referred to ever either. I picked up yesterday after seeing the review here. Anyways, it had a much drier tone to it. It started as a light family film, and by the end there are scheming rats trying to kill each other for political gain. The entire tone of the movie was a thing of its own.



Oh yeah, any animated film that doesn't feel the need to be a musical gets bonus points in my book. It seems like every Disney cartoon, as well as anything trying to copy them, makes itself a musical just for the sake of trying to be "normal."

[BrettCullum]

One that always comes to my mind was the movie adaptation of Watership Down. Not that any of it was particularly groundbreaking in the way it was drawn, but the savage tale of rabbits looking for a new warren worked well on the screen. It's nowhere near as good as the book, but then what ever is? They also did an adaptation of The Plague Dogs which is even more of a downer and somber as it is about laboratory dogs that just want to be normal. I say these are non-traditional because they are both aimed at adults, and refuse to be cute even in the slightest. I wish Disney would go this route now and then - imagine a really brutal mature version of Mulan.

Heavy Metal should be in here as well as American Pop - both films are well worth looking into as a great marriage of rock and roll coupled with mature material. Parts of The Wall fall in here as well... the plants, the hammers, the trial are brilliant stuff!

[sneakers]

Sin City
Scanner Darkly
300

come to mind.

[J.M. Vargas]

What, no love for Yellow Submarine?

[Dunnyman]

Let's not forget the pilot for South Park that was all done with construction paper. In the words of Trey Parker "Yeah, it looked great, but was a nightmare to do, so we just went with regular animation for the rest of the show"

[Andrew Forbes]

Molly and I are big fans of The Adventures of Prince Achmed. It's actually the first animated feature film. It pre-dates Snow-White by 11 years. Plus, it was made by a woman! Amazing.

I've always been intrigued when you (or Molly) have posted stills from this film. Is it available on DVD in a decent state?

Edit: don't bother answering, I just found the Verdict review! T'will be mine, someday soon, I hope.

[Tinderbox]

One that always comes to my mind was the movie adaptation of Watership Down. Not that any of it was particularly groundbreaking in the way it was drawn, but the savage tale of rabbits looking for a new warren worked well on the screen. It's nowhere near as good as the book, but then what ever is? They also did an adaptation of The Plague Dogs which is even more of a downer and somber as it is about laboratory dogs that just want to be normal. I say these are non-traditional because they are both aimed at adults, and refuse to be cute even in the slightest.

Thanks for mentioning Watership Down, I meant to do that. I find the animation quite beautifully done. The watercolor backgrounds in particular and the abstract aboriginal-style bookend/folk-storytelling scenes.

[Rabbit Fighter]

One that always comes to my mind was the movie adaptation of Watership Down. Not that any of it was particularly groundbreaking in the way it was drawn, but the savage tale of rabbits looking for a new warren worked well on the screen. It's nowhere near as good as the book, but then what ever is? They also did an adaptation of The Plague Dogs which is even more of a downer and somber as it is about laboratory dogs that just want to be normal. I say these are non-traditional because they are both aimed at adults, and refuse to be cute even in the slightest. I wish Disney would go this route now and then - imagine a really brutal mature version of Mulan.

Heavy Metal should be in here as well as American Pop - both films are well worth looking into as a great marriage of rock and roll coupled with mature material. Parts of The Wall fall in here as well... the plants, the hammers, the trial are brilliant stuff!

Yeah, I didn't mention Watership Down or The Plague Dogs since they are animated in a basically "traditional" style, but they are definitely aimed at an older audience. Both are beautiful, incredibly moving films... They both make me tear up pretty much every time I watch them... Maybe some day we'll get a decent DVD release of these classics.

And Svankmajer... good call! I have always adored his Alice and Faust... In fact, his version may be the most dream-like and disturbing take on Alice in Wonderland that I've ever seen....

Sara, good choice of music for your Myspace... it's available on Itunes as well, anyone who want to give it a listen.

[Tinderbox]

Also Tron. Great production design by comic artist Moebius, Syd Meade (Bladerunner), and Peter Lloyd (What Dreams May Come). Along with the clean and colorful computer graphics depicting the world inside a computer system, note in particular the handmade animation treatment of the live-action characters which lended it a rather retro feel. Director Steve Lisberger's backlit animation was quite a unique process. I wish animators would use it again. The extras on the Tron disc document the technique quite well. Lisnerger claims that the Academy refused to nominate Tron for special effects that year because they felt that the use of computer effects was "cheating"!

[The Omen]

Alice (1988) or any other film by Jan Svankmajer who is a stop-motion surrealist!

Hell yeah. Great one.

[Tinderbox]

Then we must also give shout outs to Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans), Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit), and Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) for their amazing achievements in stop-motion animation.

[Parklife]

I saw the Disney/Dali collaberation Destino a couple months back. Fascinating stuff but far too short. It was actually quite moving.

Count me in the camp of the huge fans of Triplets of Bellville. On of my favorite films of the last few years.

[Boba Fett]

Also Tron. Great production design by comic artist Moebius, Syd Meade (Bladerunner), and Peter Lloyd (What Dreams May Come). Along with the clean and colorful computer graphics depicting the world inside a computer system, note in particular the handmade animation treatment of the live-action characters which lended it a rather retro feel. Director Steve Lisberger's backlit animation was quite a unique process. I wish animators would use it again. The extras on the Tron disc document the technique quite well. Lisnerger claims that the Academy refused to nominate Tron for special effects that year because they felt that the use of computer effects was "cheating"!

TRON is, to borrow a line from Bill Curtis, "the balls."