Forty Years Animated
Elemental, Spirited Away, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Mickey's Christmas Carol
We have limited screen time for the kids, and they have been spending it slowly working through all the free episodes on Pokemon TV. I'm very close to canceling our Disney+ subscription, but here are some goodies from the past few few months.
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Elementals, Peter Sohn, 2023
Another forgettable Pixar movie. Two months after watching it with the kids, I remember almost nothing from the film.
But the visuals are cool.
All I remember are everyone else's opinions — the overblown negative commentary when it came out, the reaction that it's actually good, and the fact my kids enjoyed it.
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Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki, 2001
The train scene is one of my favorite moments in film. Beautiful, slow paced, fully earned.
My personal preference still lies with Isao Takahata (My Neighbors the Yamadas and Pom Poko) and Whisper of the Heart (Yomshifumi Kondo, 1995), but this movie is the Ghibli masterpiece. So good that Mama and I talked about watching movies together as a family more often.
Over the years, I had developed a silly notion that Spirited Away is ponderous. It is slower than blame western animation's junk food freneticism, but it earns every minute. Each frame is gorgeous and no time is wasted. It's paced perfectly.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, 1993
Watched it again for Halloween, I suspect this will be a annual tradition.
Music, visuals, and story all still great.
Last year, I suddenly noticed Mr. Burton's cuddly spookiness everywhere. I wonder what it feels like to be an artist who has visually conquered a holiday.
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Mickey's Christmas Carol, Burney Mattinson, 1983
As I remembered it from growing up. Fun like The Muppet's Christmas Carol, but shorter. I don't think we've found our Christmas movie yet.
The boy kept counting how many ghosts were in the movie.
I feel like the Scots got stereotyped here.
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colors sing lines dance animate worlds breathe
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Disney has really diverted from the beautiful art of ... say ... Snow White. I just took it for granted that it was a beautiful cartoon, but when my parents raved about the realism in the artwork, I noticed those things more closely. The wood grain in the well's bucket. The shapes and shadows of the stone pavers around the well. The way the water sloshed and dribbled down the well's wall. While Disney/Pixar hasn't devolved to the level of Hanna Barbera cartoons yet, the frenetic motion and pace is blinding. Of course, my grandson's favorites are the Cars series, but the freneticism fits there. It's racecars, for pete's sake.
Beautiful calligraphy!