The Other Side of Animation 319: Spy X Family Code: White Review

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, Alex Organ, anime, CloverWorks, Crunchyroll, film review, Ichirou Ookuchi, John Swasey, Makoto Miyazaki, manga, Megan Shipman, Natalie Van Sistine, Official Hige Dandism, Phil Parsons, review, Spy X Family, Spy X Family Code White, Takashi Katagiri, Tatsuya Endo, Tyler Walker, Tyson Rinehart, WIT Studios

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I always feel wary about jumping into reviewing films based on anime franchises. Not that I worry about the quality, but it’s more about how one should approach talking about these films. Are they canon to the overarching story? Are they disconnected and can be placed at any point in the series’ continuity? Do you go in as a newcomer and want to see a vertical slice of what the franchise has in store for those who haven’t watched it? Do you go in with bias as a fan of the show and just love it because you love the show? Are you or are you not into anime? I always like giving these a chance, no matter if I am a fan of the franchise or not. If I can see them or am given a screener for them, I am going to be fair and judge it as a movie no matter if I have a bias about it or not. You should give every film a chance no matter the familiarity of it or not. Not everyone seems to give every film the same fair shake and that’s a shame. So, what do I think of Spy x Family Code: White?

Directed by Takashi Katagiri, written by Ichirou Ookuchi, and based on the hit manga by Tatsuya Endo. We follow the Forger family, including Loid Forger, dubbed by Alex Organ, Yor Forger, dubbed by Natalie Van Sistine, and Anya Forger, dubbed by Megan Shipman. Of course, they are no ordinary family with Loid being a well-known spy, Yor being a skilled assassin, and Anya being a telepath where they all try to hide their true identities as a fictional family and Loid can secretly try to stop a war between two nations breaking out. In this movie, Anya gets an assignment at school to make a dish that the principal will judge. Loid, knowing the principal’s favorite dessert, decides to take the family to a small town where the dessert is made. Sadly, on this vacation, Loid must stop an evil general from causing a massive war. Can Loid and the family help each other save the day? Will they be able to have a delicious dessert?

This one was one of those franchise films that I had a lot of thoughts going back and forward with how I felt about it. On one hand, it sets out to give us more of the stuff we love about the franchise. It has more Anya antics, more cute moments between Loid and Yor, some sweet action in the third act that is some truly stunning stuff, and it blends it all into the same mix of comedy and action that the series is known for. The whole instigating part of the film’s story is because Anya eats a chocolate bonbon that has some kind of microfilm in it that the villains are looking for. Anya has always been the highlight of the series with her expressive animation and cute antics when she is also with the family dog Bond Forger. While it is more comedy than action, when the action does kick in with the chase sequences, the opening assassin/spy sequence, and the final act that takes place on a giant military airship is truly a sight to behold. It doesn’t take a detour or do anything technically wrong with having the spirit and fun of the main series. If you wanted more Spy x Family, then you got more Spy x Family, and for some, that is what you are going to get and that will be enough. To be clear, whatever I am about to say next does not detract for those simply looking for more Spy x Family. If you wanted more, and that’s it, then that’s fine. Sometimes, we just want to be in the world of a certain show or film again.

So, why does this film not work for me at points? I think it’s because while it’s more of the series we love, part of it suffers from the fact that this is the director’s first time directing a feature film, and by the end of the film’s runtime, it feels like a longer three-part episode arc of the TV show. The thing that sets up the first half of the film is yet another plot where Yor sees Loid with another character in the show and thinks that he is being unfaithful to her, and that is what drives the first half of the film until the actions from Anya’s mishap with the chocolate and microfilm take over. It doesn’t feel as grand in scale for a film experience. Sure, not every film needs to be big and feel big. Some of my favorite films are small-scale experiences. With that said, if you are making a film, you want it to feel grandiose and different from the show, so it doesn’t feel like you are simply watching a longer TV episode on the big screen. It is also a shame that Yor’s insecurity and going through yet another misunderstanding plot line, since Yor got the short end of the stick in the series until the recent season on the cruise ship where she was able to shine and have a story for herself. It’s part of the problem with this not having any real connection to the TV series, since none of this will matter in the show’s story. Heck, they could technically take the Lupin III approach and have films/specials that take place whenever they want them to, since they are taking their time with going through the main story, but for now, the fact any of this won’t help the main story is a little disappointing. It’s weird how much my mind kept flip-flopping back and forward with this film, because the stuff I saw was fun. After all, this world and its characters are likable. It reminds me a lot of the Konosuba film where I liked a majority of the film despite it not feeling as film-like as it could have. The villain is okay as he fits into the world of the franchise, but he is just an evil military general and his two henchmen are way more memorable. It even introduces a late-game special henchman that comes right out of a Resident Evil game, but they will be forgiven for this addition, because as I said previously, the action scene between this guy and Yor is amazing. When we finally get to the second half of the story and we get past the annoying misunderstanding plot, the film finds its pace again and feels like a grand adventure for the Forgers.

The animation is also another part of this film where it has me going back and forward with how I felt about it. The collaboration between Wit Studios and CloverWorks has resulted in a visually splendid series, and has a lot of the usual eccentric animation for characters like Anya who is always a barrel of laughs and has unique facial expressions. With that said, the film doesn’t look any different than the show. It’s not a big enough visual upgrade until we get to the CGI that looks better for the film than the show, but it would have been nice to see this get a slightly nicer visual upgrade, so it doesn’t just look like the show. Well, to be fair, there is one sequence where Anya needs to go to the bathroom and the henchmen think she will expel the microfilm, and the sequence of Anya trying to hold it all in leads to a rather trippy visual moment, and it makes an elongated poop joke funny. If you are going to be absurd with your comedy, then you have to go all the way with stuff like this, because otherwise, folks will just scowl at poop jokes. Even the recurring gag of one of the henchmen using superstitions to help them on their way to get Anya is funny. The voice cast is also delightful with Alex Organ, Megan Shipman, Natalie Van Sistine, and Tyler Walker who plays Bond Forger are great as the titular family. Phil Parsons and Tyson Rinehart are great as our bumbling henchman, and John Swasey plays our villain Snijder with an unlikable air with some great comedic moments for him as well. The music is solid enough, but you are probably only going to remember the great song crafted by Official Hige Dandism, who did the first theme song for the show. Not that Makoto Miyazaki aka (K)now Name’s music wasn’t good, but it just felt like it was more of the same that we got in the show’s score.

This review jumped back and forward between my likes and dislikes about the movie, because that is how I felt about it. In general, Spy x Family Code: White is a slice of cake made of comedy, action, and fun family antics that will give you more of what you love from the franchise, and the action and comedy are great. It just needed to push the envelope a little more, and hopefully, we will see them do that in the future, because I would love to jump back into this world with another season and or movie adaptation of the next story arc. Just don’t rush it, and give the two studios and their creatives the time they need to make this series.

Rating: Go See it!

My Animation is Film Predictions: Annecy Edition

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 camseyeview Editorials 2D animation, A Boat in the Garden, Aardman, Adam Elliot, animation, anime, Annecy, Away, CGI animation, cgi film, Chang'an, Claude Barras, Disney, Dreamworks, Editorial, Elio, film, Flow, Ghost Cat Anzu, Gill, GKIDS, Jean-Francois Laguionie, Light Chaser Animation, Mary and Max, Memoir of a Snail, Moana 2, movies, My Life as a Zucchini, Naoko Yamada, Netflix, news, Pixar, Reiko Yoshida, Rock Bottom, Science Saru, stop-motion, Studio Ponoc, The Colors Within, The Glassworker, The Guardian, The Imaginary, The Storm, The Umbrella Fairy, The Wild Robot, Totto Chan, Ultraman Rising, Wallace and Gromit, Wild

The Annecy Film Festival has revealed its official lineup, Contrechamp lineup, and its Event and Annecy Presents screenings. I honestly had no idea what was coming out this year in the world of overseas animation, because so many of these productions take years to get done and are in various states of finished or in production. It always makes me excited to see what we get here, because not only do we see some truly lovely pieces of animated art, it is also an indication of what we could see at my favorite film festival, Animation is Film. It can come down to a case of me putting on a Sherlock Holmes or for anime fans, Sherlock Hound costume and seeing what will be coming to the amazing California-based Animation is Film Festival. I’ll also be sharing some thoughts on other recent foreign animation announcements. Here are my thoughts!

What Will Probably Show Up There

Ghost Cat Anzu
The Colors Within
The Most Precious of Cargoes
Memoir of a Snail
Wild
Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
The new Wallace and Gromit Movie

Why These?: For me, these are the films I think will be the biggest gets for Animation is Film. I chose these due to them either already having distributors like Ghost Cat Anzu and The Colors Within, showing up at festivals before Annecy like The Most Precious of Cargoes competing at Cannes, and or the directors themselves. Who wouldn’t want to see a brand new stop-motion film from Mary and Max director Adam Elliot (his new film is Memoir of a Snail) or the new film by the director of Oscar-nominated My Life as a Zucchini that’s called Wild, Claude Barras? Some of these also seem like easy choices like the fact the new Wallace and Gromit film being previewed at Annecy will show up at Animation is Film for Netflix to advertise what will probably be their big award contender for the Oscars and The Annies alongside The Imaginary and Ultraman: Rising. Totto Chan has been a fairly quiet film that has been getting hype the more folks have discovered its existence. I know many would probably guess The Imaginary from Studio Ponoc would be here, but since they are releasing it onto the service on July 5th, they won’t be showing it off here. It’s a shame because it would look amazing on the big screen, but Netflix has a weird hate/love relationship with the theatrical experience.

What Will Hopefully Show Up There

Chang’an
The Storm

Why These?: No Animation is Film is without some amazing and vibrant looks at the world of the animation scene from China, and they tend to usually have films from Lightchasers Animation with Chang’an being an obvious fit for the festival. Granted, it’s three hours long, but hey, as long as it’s paced well, the runtime doesn’t matter. It would be a cool change of pace to see a three-hour animated feature film get a release at the festival. I also think The Storm has a chance due to its vibrant 2D animation and its connections with the director’s previous film, Da Hu Fa aka The Guardian. It would be a great case to keep showing how fantastic the Chinese animation scene has become and hope that both films get brought over.

What Might Show Up There

A Boat in the Garden
Rock Bottom
Flow
Gill
The Glassworker
The Wild Robot Preview?
Moana 2 preview
Elio Preview?
The Umbrella Fairy

Why These?: While Animation is Film is one of the most beautiful ways to see a fantastic world of art that anyone can get into and hopefully partake in, the fact is that they are going to choose what they can and will only pick out the best of the best for this festival. A Boat in the Garden is by the famed director Jean Francois Laguionie, but his previous film didn’t show up at Animation is Film so it’s a real 50/50 chance that it may or may not be. Flow from Gints Zilbalodis who made the Annecy-winning Away could make it, but since Flow didn’t make it to Animation is Film 2019, who knows if this one will as well. Sometimes South Korean animation shows up at Animation is Film, but it’s not frequent and Gill could make it, depending on the reception it gets at Annecy. The Glassworker might get some push due to how it’s Pakistan’s first 2D animated film and that would be fun to see and receive the support it could get. It depends on what the reception and where they would put it in the runtime. As for the big studio previews, we know they will have a preview for Moana 2, because Disney always has an animated film preview there at the festival. I know The Wild Robot is probably coming out at the end of September, but do we even think that’s gonna happen? This film’s trailer was one of the biggest hits of the year, and yet I feel like it might get pushed back into November/December due to the animation strike, if studios decided to play stupid again like they did last year. But if that happens, we could see a preview of it. We might see a preview of Elio from Pixar. I don’t think we will, but who knows? The Umbrella Fairy is one of the newest animated films from China and it has some stylish visuals that look amazing, but with how random and inconsistent the US distributors are with bringing over films from China, who knows if we will get this one.

With all that said, all of these are just predictions, and who knows what will show up. I’m sure I am right about the ones that are going to be there, but I could also be wrong. It’s up in the air and depends on what contracts get signed and delivered for Animation is Film to get their line-up for the festival. Either way, I think all of these will be good movies, and I can’t wait to see what will show up at the festival. As always, I hope they announce it sooner than a month out from the festival.

My Favorite Films of 2023

April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews, Lists 2D animation, Aardman, animation, CGI animation, cgi film, Chicken Run, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Crunchyroll, Deep Sea, Ernest & Celestine, Favorite Animated Films of 2023, GKIDS, Hayao Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, movie-review, movies, Neon, Netflix Animation, Nimona, review, Robot Dreams, Sony Pictures Animation, spider-man, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Studio Ghibli, Suzume, The Boy and the Heron, Titina, Viva Pictures

2023 will surely go down in infamy, depending on how you look at the animation scene. On the one hand, we got one of the highest-grossing foreign animated films with The Boy and the Heron. On the other hand, we also got Disney with one of their worst-performing years in history and their big 100-year celebration film Wish underperforming at the box office. It was a changing of the guards, a real case of the tides changing, and that needed to happen. Not one studio can or should be on top all the time, and with filmgoing becoming more expensive, large film releases feel less special than ever before. How nostalgia and IP are no longer safe bets, we are seeing a sudden rough shift and it’s going to get bumpy. With all that said, there are still going to be great movies made and released during this time. 2023 had a lot of fantastic animated movies, and I wish I could put them all in my top 10, but these were my favorites of last year. Honorary mentions go to The First Slam Dunk, The Inventor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Elemental.

10. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

The fact of the matter is while this will never be the first film, it doesn’t mean Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a bad film. It’s honestly one of the rare sequels to come out that matches the first film in tone, humor, heart, and enjoyment. The voice cast controversies aside, Aardman continues to revel in their strengths to be consistently appealing on a universal scale with their films, and this one is no different. It’s got great action set pieces, vibrant visuals, a likable cast both old and new, and is the funniest film I have seen in 2023. That’s saying something, since this was a rather crackerjack year for comedies and films with fantastically witty dialogue. It’s on Netflix, and while I don’t envy them partnering up with the service, since this is how more people see their films due to the cruel fact that no one was going to the theater to see them, I still wish folks were able to see this film in theaters like I was. Still, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

9. Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Giberritia

While it would be tough to top the acclaim and impact left by the first film, A Trip to Gibberitia continues the fascinating journey of Ernest & Celestine by tackling the complicated theme of familial drama and finding the freedom to express yourself in a world that wants to limit those artistic voices. It’s a franchise that makes you feel good, and if you loved the previous film, then you will love this one. There is a reason why this film won the grand prize at the NYICFF 2023, because it’s just an incredible journey through the world of animation.

8. Blue Giant

It feels so rare that we get films like Blue Giant in animation. It is a bittersweet, enthralling musical drama about three friends who try to make it through the world of jazz. It feels special in a way that most films never truly earn that distinction. I like some films more than this one this year, but Blue GIant holds a special place in my heart in similar ways that Children of the Sea does, where it brings you into its world to let you swim along the spiritual stream that only jazz can give you. Its story isn’t anything groundbreaking and new, but if you love films like The Commitments, then you should get the Blu-ray of this film when it’s released. It’s a truly lovely experience.

7. Suzume

A stellar new film from Makoto Shinkai. A somber yet gorgeous experience of dealing with grief, broken relationships, remembering the people/memories of the past, and the connections and found family we make in our life. Honestly, Suzume is my new favorite Makoto Shinkai film experience. Seeing it on the big screen helped, but even on the smaller screen, this film feels the most focused on relationship dynamics between characters as they journey through the challenging world of relationships and find connections with those close to them. It helps that he has indeed moved away from what he has done in the past, and in interviews said he is done with making certain types of films that people love from him to branch out and craft new and exciting tales. It’s what’s fun when you journey through a director’s filmography to see how they change and grow as time goes on, from their art style to what kind of stories they like to tell. It’s why animation is such a fun medium of storytelling. You can do anything with animation, and the only limits you have are the ones you put on yourself.

6. Deep Sea

If you need an example of how incredible China’s animation scene has gotten, Deep Sea is right here. An animated feature that almost becomes too much in the visual overload department, it shows off a wholly unique visual style with some of the best CGI animation of all time. The dynamic sequences that truly illustrate where we can go with CGI animation show how animation is still growing and evolving with time and talent. It also helps that this film is also an emotional powerhouse in the story department, combining dream logic with a story about overcoming tough times and keeping moving forward. I have been so amazed at how the Chinese animation scene has blossomed into crafting some of the best films of recent years.

5. Nimona

While it has some predictable story beats that you can see coming a mile away, Nimona is a truly delightful experience that could have been lost to time, due to corporate greed and a lack of love for the medium of animation. Nimona is a beautiful bombastic punk rock fantasy journey through discrimination, broken relationships, and mending said dynamics with compassion and taking down the system. It’s truly a miracle this film was able to be revived and made, to be put out into the world, and as such, I hope everyone watches it. If you love animation with flair, and love a good comeback story in the world of animation production, then you need to check out this film. It makes me happy that a chunk of the people who worked on the original project were able to finish the project and see it blossom into a truly rockin’ journey.

4. Robot Dreams

Robot Dreams is a beautifully woven tale of friendships past, present, and future, where we gain and lose those bonds that we make along our journey through life. You might have lost friends or loved ones from past relationships, but that doesn’t mean you won’t move on to make new ones. With a dialogue-less script, almost cruelly placed bits of dark comedy, and a lot of pure unbridled beauty in the visual storytelling, Robot Dreams is one of those film festival flicks that is worth the hype from start to finish. I wish Neon was able to put the film out sooner than later in May of this year, but if you can find a way to watch it, please do. It’s such a splendid and perfect movie that shows you the power of not only filmmaking, but animation.

3. Titina

Titina is a brilliant globe-trotting wonder of animation. It’s a human journey of what can happen when one’s pride gets in the way of an experience that was meant to be a positive one for the world in which they live. Of course, we see all of this through the eyes of one of the cutest animals in history, Titina, and how what can get us through turbulent times is love, compassion, and connection.

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

There has been a talk about superhero fatigue that has also bled into the world of movies in other avenues, like other big tentpole franchises and even other major movies and some smaller releases. It’s not really fatigue towards superhero movies. It’s fatigue towards films that were either not given enough time to craft their stories or they came up with stories that weren’t great at investing you in the characters that are on screen. People like seeing flashy things and big names, but if the writing isn’t there, if the people in the audience aren’t getting something new or something that feels refreshing and original, then people won’t show up. Spider-Man: Across the Universe is a checklist of how to make not only a good sequel, a better sequel, but an amazing film. Miles and Gwen are put through the wringer as their worldviews are challenged, and these challenges are thrown at them through some of 2023’s best animation and visual storytelling. You have animation that is an awe-inspiring rollercoaster of sights and flair unlike anything else out there, characters that are complex to the core of the human experience of isolation and stress of living up to the way people see you, writing that is whip- smart and continually engaging, action set pieces that should give the animators, artists, and visual effects people all the raises in the world, and it’s only part one! Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a monumental web-slinging time at the films as 2023’s most exciting cinematic experience.

1. The Boy and the Heron

Whether this is the last film we will see of the acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki or not, The Boy and the Heron is a wonderful and heartfelt journey through animation. It is a tale of a boy overcoming loss, dealing with grief, and learning to move on with the world. There is a reason why it has been showing up in almost every single Best Films of 2023 list and won a massive amount of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Score, but I digress. If you have yet to see this film, as of right now, it’s going through a theatrical re-release, and if you feel a little confused by it, go watch it again. It is one of those films that gets better the more times you watch it, and it’s already amazing when you see it once.

The Other Side of Animation 318: The Concierge Review

April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews animation, anime, Crunchyroll, movie-review, movies, Natsumi Kawaida, Production I-G, review, Satomi Oshima, The Concierge, Tsuchika Nishimura, Yoshimi Itazu

We are at a pinnacle point in how much Japanese animation has broken into the theatrical release scene here in the States. More animated films from Japan are now getting released in theaters and it’s nice to see, because back in the day, you could only dream that an animated film could make it onto the big screen and not be sent directly to DVD. Unless you were Pokemon, Studio Ghibli, or the random festival darling, you never got to see Japan’s animated experiences on the big screen in the States. Obviously, due to the increased popularity of anime and the “demand” for more of it to the point that it’s killing its industry, you get to see a varied batch of animated films on the biggest screen possible. Of course, most are only showing up for the action franchises that have the biggest audience, and that’s a shame, because you could very much show that same support for your favorite films from anime franchises to either new original projects or lesser-known series getting the theatrical treatment. I’m extremely happy for everyone who showed up for The Boy and the Heron because it shows there is an audience that craves those cinematic animated experiences from Japan. Still, it is disheartening to know those folks will not show up for other original anime films or non-franchise stuff, because when you explore outside of that realm and be a little more adventurous, you can find stuff that you may not have known about or wanted. For example, something like The Concierge.

This film is directed by Yoshimi Itazu, written by Satomi Oshima, and based on the two-volume manga by Tsuchika Nishimura. We follow a concierge-in-training named Akino, voiced by Natsumi Kawaida. She is determined to work at the amazing Hokkyoku Department Store and help out the customers there. The thing is, the customers are all endangered animals, and they all have different needs and desires. Can Akino rise to the occasion and help out everyone who needs some assistance?

The real bitter part of this film is how it’s structured. Technically, there is nothing wrong with it being set up with the story being a bunch of smaller stories that reach the 70-minute mark. It means that you will either love or dislike this more slice-of-life approach. It makes sense that it’s set up like that due to the writer previously working on Fortune Favors Lady Nikkuko, which was also a film mostly held together by vignettes and amazing animation.With that format, it leaves a lot of characters to feel one-note and forgettable. There are some likable characters, and the touching moments work with how we cherish memories and the ones that are close to us. Something is appealing about a film that is all about being the best that you can be and bringing joy to someone you helped make their day. However, the more impactful moments would have worked more if there was, simply put, more time to let the story breathe, letting our main character bond and interact more with other characters or letting the side characters breathe. This film probably should have ironed out some of the story beat problems by being 90 minutes. Sure, the source material is only two volumes, but the film didn’t need to speed through everything and then halt the story to have a third-act conflict show up abruptly, or have some story moments resolve themselves fairly quickly with some last-minute saves. Again, this world where endangered or extinct animals shop at this giant luxury store is a fun concept where you can also talk about environmentalism and how humans have wiped entire species off the face of the earth. There is just not enough time to engross yourself or learn more about the characters.

The fact I want more out of this not only because it would help flesh out everything, but because I love the world they craft, it is a good thing. What we get is a film that has a lot of great ideas, but no time to explore them to the extent that they probably could. The cast is made of characters who have one character trait and not much else. Some characters pop in to be introduced, only to show up one other time. Still, our lead Akino is bubbly and always ready to do what she can, even under pressure to perform well from the mysterious individual grading how she is doing. The “villain” doesn’t have much to him outside of being the employer, and is more of a road bump that is easily solved by the customers that our lead has helped out throughout the entire runtime. Some of the best moments are when Akino is helping out certain animal customers, like a mammoth who is a famous sculpture artist, a father and daughter ferret duo who want to get each other a present after not seeing each other for a while, and a Japanese Wolf who is trying to marry/court another Japanese Wolf. When it delves into the store’s future and what kind of impression/legacy the owner wants everyone to associate it with, it was, to me, the weaker half of the film. I don’t recall why so many films in the theatrical animation scene recently feel like they have to rush to get to their next story beat. Let filmgoers chill and enjoy the worlds in which you are inviting them. Who knows, maybe they didn’t have the budget to make it longer, and or something happened during the production pipeline where they chose the vignettes as the focus rather than having a more cohesive and deeper plot. Or maybe it was just tough to make a film based on this property.

The animation is wonderful. The team at Production I.G. tends to put out some amazing work and it’s no different here. The characters feel so lively, the colors are vibrant and make the whole world pop, and due to the more simplistic designs and line work, the characters get to be more expressive than others with more restrictive designs. They squash, stretch, and have so many surprising expressions when they are reacting in a big way. The designs are also just wonderful and identifiable of what each animal is, and what type of person each character is in terms of who they were with a personality. It shows that you don’t need to go full-on MAPPA with the animation to make a good-looking animation. More detail doesn’t always mean the end product is going to be better. It just means more work. The store itself is also just grand in the scale of it. Even before we see how truly big it is, you can just see how large this place is. Not just having multiple specialty stores, but also a full-blown restaurant that serves vegan dishes. That part was honestly a nice little world-building detail, since when you are introduced to the dining experience, it makes you think about how this world would work with humans helping out animals at this department store. I also love all the little details, like how the guy watching over our lead will pop up from out of nowhere or from small compartments to make sure she knows something important about being helpful. With the energetic animation, quirky characters, and heartfelt themes, the overall presentation is just a lot of fun to watch.

It might be uneven, a bit too short in the runtime department, and it needed something to keep it all together more, but The Concierge is a delightful film that wears its charm on its sleeves. I don’t think folks will prefer this over some other major Japanese films coming out this year like The Imaginary from Studio Ponoc and Yoshiyuki Momose, but anytime a new non-anime franchise film comes out and is this delightful in its execution and appeal, then that is just as important to show that anime is not just one type of Japanese media. It can be a multitude of visual looks, stories, characters, and experiences. Not entirely sure when Crunchyroll, who bought the rights to this film, will release it in the States in theaters, but if you can watch it in theaters, please do so. Even though I very much loved seeing Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds last year at Animation is Film, I wanted to see this film also. It might not be perfect, but there is a lot to love about it that still makes it worth watching.

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 317: The Boy and the Heron Review

March 22, 2024March 22, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, Academy Awards, animation, Animation is Film, Barbra Goodson, Christian Bale, Dan Stevens, Dave Bautista, Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, GKIDS, Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese Animation, Japanese film, Joe Hisaishi, Karen Fukuhara, Luca Padovan, Mamoudou Athie, Mark Hamill, reviews, Robert Pattinson, Studio Ghibli, The Boy and the Heron, The King and the Mocking Bird, The Wind Rises, Tony Revolori, Willem Dafoe

As I have watched and reviewed over 300 movies, it makes me feel grateful to be able to see so much amazing art being made by some of the best talent behind the animation scene. So many amazing folks, whether they are from the bottom to the top of the production team, pour their hearts and souls into these films. While sometimes it doesn’t work out due to whatever happens in production, when we do see something fly high in the sky, and it reaches the goals that it sets out to complete, it’s a marvel that there are so many amazing films made by the hands of real human artists. In the current battle of what’s going on with the animation industry here in the States and in places like Japan trying to replace animators with AI and cheaper alternatives, it means that we have to fight to make sure we don’t lose out on other amazing artists that can take their paths to create amazing work. We should all be thankful we live in a world where Hayao Miyazaki can come out of retirement and craft an Oscar-winning experience like The Boy and the Heron.

Directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki, we follow a young boy named Mahito, voiced by Luca Padovan. He loses his mother during a fire during the Pacific War (aka World War II), and shortly after that happens, he moves to Japan’s countryside away from Tokyo with his father Shoichi, voiced by Christian Bale, and his new wife who just happens to be the sister of his deceased mother. He is disconnected from his new mother, his father, the folks staying at the countryside estate, and from life itself after everything that happened with the fire. During his stay at the mansion, he finds a mysterious Grey Heron that pesters him by flying around and observing him. One day, the Heron, voiced by Robert Pattinson, speaks to Mahito. He tells the troubled boy that if he follows him, he can go find his mother who is alive. The boy decides to venture forth into a mysterious building by the estate to see if it’s true. What this ignites is a fantastical journey into another world for Mahito and the Grey Heron as they embark on traversing a world born of conflict and death.

So, the original movie’s title was How Do You Live? It means the movie is in the tradition of most Ghibli adaptations, loosely based on the source material. I remember reading folks being mad at the name change, but it’s more or less a homage to The King and the Mockingbird, the animated film that inspired Hayao Miyazaki. Even then, the original title itself shows up in The Boy and the Heron as a book that Mahito’s mom had. This movie has been considered one of the heavier and harder to get into of Miyazaki’s flicks, due to how it isn’t as “open” and “friendly” to the viewers of this world and story. I love Hayao Miyazaki’s work, and while I do see some of those complaints in this movie, I think letting the film sit in your mind to think about more, or going to see it again (if you can), does open up to be a more complex story about how one lives life. It’s interesting to note that Miyazaki named the film this title, because he didn’t have an answer to the question itself. He takes some biographical elements, as well as some homages to his previous work, and crafts a beautiful story about a boy discovering how he is supposed to live. Should he give up after his mother died? Should he take up the mantle of the wizard in the film voiced by Mark Hamill and bring balance to the world? Should he let go of the past and keep moving forward down his path? How does one keep living in a world full of strife and pain? It’s more philosophical with how Miyazaki framed this film’s story. Mahito struggles to find a way to create a world with no conflict when that isn’t possible, and feels like he has to take up the mantle of the previous generation’s work. What it boils down to is that you do what you need to and find your way to craft your own story. Life is messy and complicated. He also weaves in elements and commentary about nature, war, and how pride can destroy one’s self, as we see later on when one character ruins the world due to his actions. It has some dream and fairy tale logic to explain parts of its story, but why would anyone want an animated film to be as realistic as possible? Realism can be boring, and the demand for more “realistic” stories and writing is what gave us those awful Disney live-action remakes.

Do we even need to say how good the animation is for The Boy and the Heron? It’s Studio Ghibli! They tend to put out some of the best and most visually distinct animations in the overall industry. The beginning scene where the city is covered in flames is aggressive and violent. We see the visuals get rough and ragged as Mahito tries to run past the crowds to get to his mother. The countryside is emblematic and peaceful, the ocean shores are calm and filled with an ominous and mysterious tone from the cave on the shoreline, the parakeet city is bustling and filled to the brim with the monstrous bird folk, the garden found in the granduncle’s realm is lush and full of life, and the small home that the mysterious fire girl named Lady Himi is cozy and really homey. I mean, it’s a little cottage home, so it should be. There are too many amazing scenes to count where the animation just oozes with passion from the opening fire scene, the warawara floating up into the sky to become living beings, the first time Himi meets Mahito, the sequence where the Parakeet King and Granduncle walk and talk while the score for The Great Collapse plays, the multiple encounters and scenes with the Grey Heron, and you get the idea. The character chemistry between the major players of the story is fascinating. There is an uneven alliance between Mahito and the Heron that starts off antagonistic, but the journey they take together leads to some great moments that are also fairly funny. Despite its more philosophical tone at times, some comedic moments are more subtle than bombastic in the punchlines. Mahito’s animation is the most subtle of the bunch as his face generally defaults to one expression of a stoic closed-off individual, but the animators make tweaks as to how he reacts to everything once he begins to open up to the world around him and the people he meets. Instead of Mahito saying his change in worldview, the animation illustrates it perfectly. The Grey Heron is such an odd and out-there design with a small Danny Devito-looking weirdo inside a magical bird suit that sometimes when not in use, shows the human’s head and hands could come off distracting, but doesn’t. The parakeets were a fan favorite design from the screenings I went to, with how adorable they look, but how vicious they truly are works off of their fluffy looks with flying colors.

It was nice to see Miyazaki come back to a more fantastical world after he did The Wind Rises, which still had incredible animation and fantastical sequences, but they were few and far between compared to this one where it’s more 50/50 with the film taking place in both the real world and the fantasy world. Even the maids at the mansion each have their own quirky walk cycle, where you see who they are as characters just by looking at them. The music. Where to even start with Joe Hisaishi’s newest composition with some of the most elegant and mesmerizing tunes? If I had to pick a favorite song from last year from any movie, it would have to be The Great Collapse which plays near the end of the film. The combination of piano and stringed instruments makes my heart swoon as I feel myself carried away by its bountiful melody. Oh, and the theme song that plays at the end, Spinning Globe by famed artist Kenshi Yonezu is another whimsical display of beauty that caps us off on another Ghibli journey and one that was a long time coming. The voice cast is also the cat’s pajamas. English dubs for Ghibli films tend to be some of the best dubs around, and the celebrities they got this time around make for one of the more stacked casts in animation from 2023. Luca Padovan, Karen Fukuhara, Florence Pugh, Mark Hamill, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Dan Stevens, Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Barbra Goodson, Tony Revolori, Mamoudou Athie, and of course, Robert Pattinson as the titular bird. Hearing who is usually a pretty chill-looking guy go full-on gremlin mode with his performance shows how ready and excited he was to do some voice work for a Ghibli film. You don’t even get that it’s him most of the time, and instead, see the pathetic broken bird man that Mahito has to put up with. Some of the actors were more noticeable than others in their performances, but the acting was exquisite. If there was a best acting moment in the entire movie, it would have to be when Luca Padovan and Karen Fukuhara’s Mahito and Himi have to say goodbye to one another, and even though Himi is going to be going into her time period where she will end up perishing, she is okay with it because of how she gets to become Mahito’s mom. That scene alone still breaks me every time I think about it.

Whether this is the last film we will see of the acclaimed filmmaker or not, The Boy and the Heron is a wonderful and heartfelt journey through animation. A tale of a boy overcoming loss, dealing with grief, and learning to move on with the world. There is a reason why it has been showing up in almost every single Best Films of 2023 list and won a massive amount of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Score, but I digress. If you have yet to see this film, as of right now, it’s going through a theatrical re-release, and if you feel a little confused by it, go watch it again. It is one of those films that gets better the more times you watch it, and it’s already amazing when you see it once. Hopefully, with its theatrical release being a massive success, folks go seek out more films, from not just Ghibli, but other incredible filmmakers. They are out there and all you gotta do is take one step on that adventure.

Rating: Essential

The Other Side of Animation 316: Robot Dreams Review

March 17, 2024March 17, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, Alfonso De Villaonga, animation, Animation is Film, Annecy, film, movie-reviews, movies, Neon, Pablo Berger, review, Robot Dreams, Spanish film

When it comes to the festival circuit that takes place during the first three quarters of the year, so many films begin their salmon-like journey through the festival scene, and when normal folks finally get to see the film, you don’t quite know how anyone and everyone reacts. Reviewing films during a festival run at one of the major festivals sets you up with a different vibe than seeing the film in a normal theatrical viewing experience. You have high expectations that a lot of movies are going to be all classics and new masterpieces in the making. Well, while a lot of good movies come through the festival circuit, sometimes the hype isn’t worth it, and some films are, simply put, not good. It becomes this “tournament of champions” style elimination bracket of what film goes through the festival circuit and gets more and more hype or suffers the consequences of being released to the public and dying on the vine. Some films enter the theater scene after one festival release, and sometimes that works. It’s up in the air as to what is going to connect with critics and audience goers. Sometimes it is obvious, but when you get down to the finals of the film festival journey, you find something so special and distinct that it not only hits it out of the park, but hits you in the deepest part of your emotions and soul. That’s how I felt with Robot Dreams.

Directed and written by Pablo Berger, this film is based on the comic of the same name by Sara Varon. We follow the life of a dog living in New York City in the 80s. Feeling alone in his life, he sees an ad on the TV for a robot buddy. He orders it, builds him, and the robot comes to life, with the two becoming the best of friends. The question is though how long will they stay friends? Will they be able to overcome everything in their way?

With this film, you will notice that there is no spoken dialogue and no voice cast. If you are not familiar with animated films with no or limited dialogue, you should check out The Triplets of Belleville and/or The Illusionist to get an idea of what you will be watching. Everything is relayed through visual storytelling and the reactions and actions made by the characters we follow. This was one of the films that rose to the top of the festival hype circuit when it showed up at Cannes, Annecy, and Animation is Film. It gained acclaim, won film prizes, and then was picked up by the distributor Neon. It’s a real shame that Neon decided to questionably release this film two months after the Oscars and not before or at the very least, in April, due to how very few animated films and family films there are this year and will probably be the same next year, with the upcoming animation strike that we should all support. So, what made this film stand out? Despite its cutesy art style and how it looks like it would be a typical family film, this is anything but typical. What we get here is a film all about friendships. It ventures through every avenue about them.

It starts us off with how lonely our main character is and how everyone yearns for the need for friendship and connection. Once we see the friendship form between the robot and the dog, we watch how connected they become. When we get to the middle part of the film, we start to see the reality of how many friendships unfold as our two leads are separated from one another. While that bond may be there, the distance with which they are separated becomes bigger. They start to grow disconnected, and move on to new friendships and bonds. For a film with such an unassuming art style that many will probably find “childish” and “simple”, it is anything but that. With no dialogue and a 102-minute runtime, we have a movie that is more in-depth and complex than most live-action films that come out of the film industry. It hones in on the most important details about relationships, and uses those bits to bring in some emotionally powerful moments. The moment you pick up that something has changed in the vibe of the relationships is truly when the film shines, and how sad yet poetic and beautiful the journey of connection can be. That’s a good way to describe this film, it’s sad, but it’s also beautifully poetic. It might be more art-driven with how it tells its story and will have some very abstract and heartbreaking moments, but it is by far and away one of the most recent films that talks about a highly universal and incredibly relatable part of life. Most films wish they could capture the emotional depth this film has with its story about a dog and robot’s friendship.

The animation is quite pleasant to look at. It has a case of more modern animation approaches with the round designs, but that doesn’t really matter. Animation fans need to indulge and embrace different art styles, and cease wanting everyone to do what Richard Williams did with his work in animation. The art style doesn’t hold back the tone or mood for which the film is going. It is playful and it is fluid in its animation. It has personality in each of the designs. A goal to keep in mind with character design is that you can tell what the character is doing or what their character is all about through their design and movements. Luckily, this film passes with flying colors in that department, due to how it isn’t held back by dialogue and voice work. You get everything you need to know about our two leads, and even the background characters are full of life and personality in their designs. The music is fantastic with a wonderful score by Alfonso De Villaonga that captures New York in such stunning accuracy with its composition. With all that said, the way the film uses Earth Wind and Fire’s September in two very different points makes the emotional core of this film even more effective. It can be such an upbeat song, but you then listen to the lyrics, and how it’s used at the end makes for one of the most perfect scenes from any film from last year. If you can find any interviews with the director, he talked about this when I saw this film at Animation is Film and he was such a swell guy.

Rating: Essential.

The Other Side of Animation 315: Kensuke’s Kingdom

March 17, 2024March 17, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, Aaron McGregor, animation, Annecy, Cillian Murphy, film, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Ken Watanabe, Kensuke's Kingdom, Kirk Hendry, Michael Morpurgo, movie-reviews, movies, Neil Boyle, NYICFF, Raffey Cassidy, reviews, Sally Hawkins, Stuart Hancock

One of the things you need to seriously understand is that a lot of the cool 2D animated stuff coming out of the rest of the world takes a very long time to come out here. You might say that didn’t stop Disney during the 90s, but Disney was essentially working on two films at around the same time, and when one was done, they would be on their way to greenlighting another one or beginning the production of another one. They also had a small army of animators and studios full of talented and trained 2D animators. These days, while there are small indie studios and plenty of folks who can do 2D animation, we are simply not in the same spot as we were in the 90s and 2000s. There is a reason why so many of these productions have a handful of production company logos in front of the movie, why some of them are collaborations between two different countries, and why you will see a pitch for the film, and then nothing about it for years until they just pop up out of the blue at Annecy and hopefully, Animation is Film and other festivals. It makes being hyped for these films difficult, when you don’t exactly know how long it’s gonna take to get these films made or if they get made at all. It’s a shame, because then you see that the film is now finished and yet you may not have a way to see it unless you go to the festival where it’s playing. A fantastic example of this kind of film that takes a good long while to get made and then becomes tough to see is a film I have been waiting for and following for years, Kensuke’s Kingdom.

This film is directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and is based on the book of the same name by author Michael Morpurgo. We follow a young boy named Michael, voiced by Aaron McGregor. He is on a boat with his family, which includes his mother and father, voiced by Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy, and sister Becky, voiced by Raffey Cassidy. One night as he tries to save his dog as the boat is going through a serious storm, Michael and the dog are swept off the boat and end up as castaways on an island. They then find out that they are not alone on the island when they meet an old man named Kensuke, voiced by Ken Watanabe. As the two bond, Michael finds a means to live, grow new bonds, and survive.

This story and film feel like they were from the era of the 80s and 90s animated fare that cropped up to either overshadow Disney or compete against them. No, it isn’t trying to feel hip or use its stacked cast to pull you into the world this film brings you. It has the vibe of an animated film where the team knew this story didn’t need to talk down to its audience and rather let the visuals and quieter moments push the story forward. There aren’t any pop songs or references thrown in for the sake of appealing to a mass audience. While Michael can be a bit bland, the story focuses more on his growth as he learns to love and care for the wildlife and nature of the island alongside Kensuke. Kensuke also gets some focus as he learns to connect with Michael as a means to heal from the loss of his family from the past and share his bond with the orangutans with Michael. One of the strongest moments in the film is when Michael interacts with Kensuke as he watches the old man paint an illustration of his wife and son while finding out what happened and how Kensuke got there. It’s all done with a beautiful watercolor/ink visual style that tells you everything with its minimalist style, and the moment when you see ink drop onto the page representing the bomb on Nagasaki was both gorgeous to watch in motion and emotionally powerful.

Michael and Kensuke’s bond is great, and I only wish the film was a little longer so we can see more of that bond or we got to the island sooner, since Michael’s family is used more as an ignition point and some foundation for the latter story beats, like when we learn about Kensuke’s family. It’s funny watching this after Cillian Murphy won his Oscar and seeing some other big names like Sally Hawkins, Raffey Cassidy, and Ken Watanabe, but don’t expect to see Cillian, Sally, and Raffey’s characters for a ton of the runtime outside of the first 13 or so minutes. They do show up at the end, but the actors that get the most spotlight are Ken Watanabe and Aaron MacGregor. Not that it’s a bad thing, but you know how people reacted when we saw Bryan Cranston and Sally Hawkins in the Legendary Godzilla films. The only major conflict is when a group of poachers hunt the animals in the jungle. This is where we see how the film really cements how important family, connection, and life are. They don’t even let the leads go into a rescue mission or anything. It’s just a slice of the rough relationship that humans have with nature, and how we are willing to abuse nature for our own gain. Now, I did look up some details from the original book, and while I am sad we didn’t see the epilogue of the story due to how it abruptly ends, the story is still strong.

There is no denying the fact that Kensuke’s Kingdom is a beautiful 2D journey in filmmaking. The 2D animation on display is gorgeous. The movements carry a lot of naturalistic weight to how these characters maneuver around the environments. The thing that may throw off some folks are the visuals used for the environments. They look nice and atmospheric, but you can tell they took real-life photos of jungle environments and then placed the 2D animation onto the photo-like environments. That being said, they don’t look bad, and you have absolutely seen this decision and artistic choice done before in films like Words that Bubble Up Like Soda Pop. It just looks a little distracting compared to the beautiful 2D human and animal designs. It doesn’t break the film, since the vibe and tone are still strong, but every once in a while, the environments stick out to me. The voice cast is good, but Cillian Murphy and Sally Hawkins don’t add much to the parent characters, and Michael and Kensuke’s actors, Ken Watanabe and Aaron MacGregor have to carry a lot of the film’s performances on their shoulders. It’s one of the few times where having big names added nothing to the story. Stuart Hancock is the composer for this film. He brings in tunes that mix tragedy, connection, family, whimsy, and love into some beautiful adventurous tunes. The music used during Kensuke’s history reveal and the montage with Michael and Kensuke are the strongest musical moments.

Kensuke’s Kingdom is a film that starts off a bit unassuming and slow, but when the emotional core shows up, it becomes a truly distinct adventure into the world of animation. The wait was worth it due to how this results in a film that is described as a quiet beauty. Sadly, it’s one of those great animated films that is nowhere near ready for a US release, due to not having a distributor attached to it in the States. Obviously, that doesn’t mean the end of the world since a lot of folks love importing things. As of writing this review, it’s a shame that there is no real way for folks to watch this film, and we all assume some distributor is going to want to have “Oscar Winner Cillian Murphy” on their Blu-ray cover. Even then, I want people to see films like this, because they need bigger audiences and more support. Animation fans seem to want stuff like this, but then don’t always do any of the leg work in looking for and watching these movies. Anyway, Kensuke’s Kingdom is a touching human journey that you should definitely watch when you can find an avenue to see it.

Rating: Go See It!

The Other Side of Animation 314: NYICFF Batch of Quick Reviews

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, animation, Cartoon Saloon, Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo, Dounia: The Great White North, film, Karla Nor Holmback, movie-review, movies, NYICFF, Puffin Rock and the New Friends, reviews, Rosa and the Stone Troll, Toke Westmark Steensen

I had to tackle a lot of films during the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give every film that I saw a big review, but I still wanted to show some support and love to the festival films that may be aimed at younger audiences. I know we fight and talk about how animation is not just for kids, but not every kid is going to start their animation journey with something like Son of the White Mare. It’s okay for kids to start with something not super intense and striking, and we need those types of films to have a good starting point for the more ambitious and thrilling experiences out there. Let’s get started!

Rosa and the Stone Troll

Review: This animated film from Denmark is directed by Karla Nor Holmback and written by Toke Westmark Steensen. It’s about a flower fairy who befriends a butterfly-like fairy named Silk, and must venture forth to overcome her loneliness and save the day from a villainous stone troll. While I am not fully fond of the rigging style used for the character movements, the visuals have a lot of charm to them with the children’s storybook designs of the characters and world. The painted backgrounds are lovely, and there are some cool-looking moments. It very much uses fairytale logic in its storytelling, and it’s aimed at a super young audience. Again, that’s not a bad thing, since young kids need their entertainment, but just don’t expect anything complex with this one. Its morals are solid enough about overcoming your fears with the help of your friends. At least for a film aimed at little kids, it’s not too loud and in your face with its characters, due to how it lets the film be quiet and uses the lovely background music to convey a mood, even if it’s just for a few seconds. I could have done without the fart jokes though. It might not reinvent the wheel, but any animated film with charm and whimsy is worth checking out at least once depending on when this gets released stateside.

Puffin Rock and the New Friends

Review: A brand new movie based on the popular Cartoon Saloon-produced TV show where Oona and her friends, old and new, must protect a new puffin egg from the environment and an upcoming storm. The charm of the original series is alive and well in this new installment, as it introduces us to new characters, places an emphasis on environmentalism, and illustrates the feeling of being homesick. It feels paced like a couple of episodes smashed together with many plots going on all at once, but the wonderful low-key charm of the show and Cartoon Saloon’s visual aesthetics make for another cozy installment of the popular kids’ franchise. It doesn’t hurt either that it has a wonderful watercolor look to the animation that makes this small-scale story feel much grander in tone and execution. When the storm blows in on the island, it looks like a Japanese ink painting, a truly special detail that I adore. Most think that you can’t do much with visuals and storytelling for media aimed at little kids, but give the project to the right studio and hand them a good timeline and budget. You can get something like this where it might fumble in the story and pacing, but still offers a lot of what makes Cartoon Saloon such a wonderful studio. It’s a cute movie with enough going on under the hood to make for a charming experience for a kid’s first animated feature. Oh, and Shout! Factory is going to be releasing it so that’s fun!

Dounia – The Great White North

Review: The follow-up to the previous film by directors Marya Zarif and Andre Kadi We now have Dounia living in a small town in Canada, where she learns about new cultures and hopes for her father to be safe and to see him again. While it feels like three plots from a nonexistent TV series put together, and it’s shorter than the previous film clocking in at under an hour, it’s a solid follow-up. It’s a cozy experience as the story commendably talks about how we might have different cultures, but we can come together to be friends with one another. Kudos to the film for having three different languages as well and not feeling like it needed to talk down to its audience about the situation that is going on in the world. It might not rock your world, but there is something admirable about a film that introduces a lot of concepts like the ones seen in this film to a young audience. We need more films aimed at young audiences to do that. Kids can handle a certain amount of topical subject matter without having to not talk about it or dumb it down to a nauseating degree. Dounia continues to be this adorable film series that I hope keeps getting better as they make more of them.

There is always going to be discourse around what we can and can’t show to kids and how children’s media should be talking up and not down to their audience. It’s a tricky balance since some kids will want to see The Super Mario Movie and love it over something that could be considered more intense like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It’s always going to be a kid-by-kid basis with what they can or can’t handle. If they can handle more than they are usually given, then let them watch some of the heavier stuff, but there needs to be films and shows made for everyone and every type of kid. Some may want zany action. Some may want something more laid-back and chill. Some may even want an animated film that talks about headier topics that they want to know at a young age. Some films and shows can balance out the experience, and all that the films and shows need to do is, when they are crafting the experience, to not talk down to the audience. It just shows that even with these three films aimed at younger audiences, there is still something fun and respectable about them, due to what they bring to the table. If you can find a way for your kids to see these films and want to start them on their love for animation journey, then give these a try.

The Other Side of Animation 313: Chicken for Linda Review

March 10, 2024March 10, 2024 camseyeview Film Reviews 2D animation, animation, Animation is Film, Annecy, Chicken for Linda, Clement Ducol, Clotilde Hesme, french film, GKIDS, Melinee Leclrec, movies, NYICFF, reviews, Sebastien Laudenbach

I have been partaking in the New York International Children’s Film Festival right now, and many of the films will be up for the review lineup. Boy howdy, do we have a slew of animated features that show how creative and vast the animation landscape can be. There was a notion among animation fans that more detailed character designs and animation meant it would objectively be better than something more simple or abstract. That is simply not the case, since one thing animation fans don’t seem to get is that more detail doesn’t instantly mean better quality. With how vibrant you can be with the medium of storytelling, why would you think there should be only one way for a film to look or tell its story? One of the most visually stunning films was 2017’s The Girl Without Hands by Sébastien Laudenbach. The incredible visuals for that film were able to tell you everything while looking minimalist. It helped tell the dark Grimms-style fairytale, and that stood out more than some films with intricate designs that take forever to animate. It’s not 100% better, but it completes its goal with flying colors. Well, lucky for us, Sébastien is back with director Chiara Malta with their newest film, Chicken for Linda.

Chicken for Linda! is written and directed by Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta. We follow the story of a young girl and her struggling single mother. They are named Linda and Paulette. They have been by themselves for a few years now after the passing of Paulette’s husband/Linda’s father. Tensions rise when Paulette and Linda argue over the disappearance of Paulette’s ring. After the fight results with Linda getting hit and taken to Paulette’s sister’s place, the ring is found as the result of a misunderstanding. Paullete apologizes to Linda, and she decides to do anything for her daughter. What Linda wants is a special dish of chicken and peppers that she remembers her father making. What this results in is a wild and vibrant journey of finding the chicken for the dish that will bring peace between the two of them. Sadly, this is all happening while a strike is happening, and things escalate from there.

When describing this film about a mother and daughter trying to get a chicken and how antics unravel, it sounds like a terrible 90s family film that we got back then where they were insulting and obnoxious to the audience that went to see them. Thankfully, this is not the case here. Sure, it sounds silly and it can be fairly comedic with the dialogue, musical numbers, and sequences of trying to kill the chicken itself. With all that said, the film is not truly about the chicken. Like, it is about making the chicken dish, but it’s not really about the chicken dish. It’s more about what the chicken dish means to Linda. A dish can just be a dish, but the memories attached to a certain dish are what matters, and that is where we are with Linda. Other than this dish, she doesn’t have any memories of her father before he passed away. It’s the same thing for Paulette and the ring. It’s not just a fancy ring that she wanted to wear to go out for a night on the town. It’s the ring that her husband gave her, and she didn’t want it to be taken anywhere. The film has multiple dramatic layers under all the character interactions. Whether it be the kids working together to get the ingredients to help make the dish, the tension with the officer trying to do his job and failing to understand the misunderstandings, the delivery driver and the mother, and the background strike going on and how it visually parallels with what happens at the apartment complex/neighborhood in which the majority of the film takes place. The way the film handles the metaphorical idea of memories and what they represent gives this film a complex in-depth view on life and how something as simple as a chicken and pepper dish can bring people together. This is the power of animated storytelling, where you can take such a simple premise and make it as complex as the most endearing drama. It also helps that its comedy is more subdued, with some old-school physical comedy and dialogue bits that come from all of the different characters as they grow and change or even bond during the film. This film finds a way to make familial drama captivating and engaging. Whether it’s between the two adult sisters or the children trying to capture the chicken, or how the other adults react to the situation, it’s a movie with more substance than most award-season flicks.

Once again, the director returns with the same visual style that he used in his previous film with this one. The painted line work and empty designs lead to striking visuals, and the way the animators use the line work to express emotions and the mood of the film. Everyone has a distinct color, and when the film wants to express something like say, breathing, the lines thin out and then become thicker. The contrast between colors, the chicken looking like a little ball of lines from afar, and the downright gorgeous shots of how they tackle what memories look like inside our minds make this one of the prime examples of animation being a wonder and miracle of a medium for storytelling. You could probably try to make this film in live-action, but even the most pristine shot compositions of this story would look less than what we have here. The acting gets a passing grade all around. I love the grounded dialogue and the chemistry between the actors. They act like they all have a history with one another. Clotilde Hesme as Paulette and Melinee Leclrec as Linda have some great back and forth interactions, and feel like a real deal mother and daughter. You only get connections like this from certain directors like Chris Sanders, who can capture that feeling of a mother-daughter bond. The overall soundtrack composed by Clement Ducol is very vibe-heavy and it works due to how it perfectly fits the mood of the scene from the quiet and somber tunes when Linda and Paulette are reconciling with each other to the more antic-driven chase to get the chicken. The musical numbers do a good job getting into the head spaces of certain characters, but I would say they are the weakest part of the overall movie. Still, you will get a laugh at the one based around candy and the stress Paulette’s sister has about her antics.

Chicken for Linda! is the primo stuff when it comes to high-quality animation. Not only do you have a visually striking look to the overall presentation, but a real commitment to a script that brings these characters to life and grounds them in the most believable of ways. A true victorious triumph in animation that everyone should go see when this film gets a release on April 5th in the states. If you have some way to watch this film, then please do. It’s a truly monumental feat in animation to get experiences like this. Hopefully we can see more of them in the future.

Rating: Essential

A Cold Cup of Winter 2024 Anime Season Impressions

March 10, 2024March 10, 2024 camseyeview Editorials, Lists 2D animation, 7th Time Loop, A Sign of Affection, anime, Brave Bang Bravern, Bucchigiri?!, CGI animation, Cherry Magic, comedy, Crunchyroll, Delicious in Dungeon, Disney, fantasy, HiDive, Hulu, isekai, Ishura, Japanese Animation, Metallic Rouge, Mr Villain's Day Off, Netflix, Pine jam, review, Sengoku Youko, Sentai Filmworks, Solo Leveling, Studio MAPPA, Studio Trigger, The Weakest Tamer, The Witch and the Beast, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Tis Time for Torture, TV series review, Villainess lvl 99, Winter 2024 Anime Season

The Winter 2024 season has been a wild ride of what we have seen coming from an industry that is in dire need of change. It’s a slow change, as we deal with said slow change to the industry and how it treats its animators and seeing the shows that get greenlit. New and returning titles flood the airwaves via Crunchyroll, Netflix, HiDive, and Hulu/Disney+. While there are a few terrible shows this season, it might have the biggest gap between high-quality, mid-quality, low-quality, and terrible shows that I have ever seen. The terrible stuff is vastly smaller than the amount of great stuff, and even the other stuff is from mostly good, fine, to nothing worth talking about. I am going to try and go a little bit of a different route with this editorial since I want to talk about my biggest takeaways of the season. I still watched an array of new non-returning shows per usual, but after a while, with so many shows coming out and so many tending to have the same problems, it’s more interesting to talk about the big takeaways from the season.

Takeaway #1: Isekai/fantasy shows decided to Step It Up!

The fantasy/isekai genre can be a very hit-and-miss genre, and more times than not, a lot of the most mediocre shows every season come from this genre. So many want to be the new Re-Zero or whatever big isekai is still big, and that has led to many creatives either missing the point or cannibalizing each other. They all think an overpowered lead and a harem is all that you need instead of interesting characters, worldbuilding, and a compelling story. Whether it’s because the titles getting adapted are getting better or they are picking better properties to adapt, the fantasy/isekai genre was way better this season than usual. Whether it was Delicious in Dungeon, which combined a fantasy dungeon crawler with cooking and environmentalism, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic and its zany boot camp journey of our lead learning to be a healer, The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey Picking Up Trash’s self-healing journey of discovery and taming monsters, 7th Time Loop’s Edge of Tomorrow style of storytelling with our lead’s backstory of trying to survive and end ups courting the villain in her previous lifespan, Villainess Level 99: I May Be The Hidden Boss, but I’m Not The Demon Lord!’s silly twist on the villainess subgenre with our main character being the hidden boss of the visual novel that wanted to be ignored but then became priority number 1, and you get the idea. It was refreshing to not have to sit through so much fantasy/isekai stuff that wasn’t male empowerment or just another bog standard experience with no flair. Not that every fantasy/isekai show was good, but…

Takeaway #2: Even middling titles had something of note!

Something I noticed this season was that I wasn’t finding myself as frustrated or constantly disappointed with the shows I was checking out. Even the more middling experiences had something of note that made them more interesting than most. The Undead Unwanted Adventurer, while needing more time to cook, was a compelling beginning with our hero being revived as a skeleton after a horrific dragon attack in a dungeon. The Strongest Tank takes from the genre of fantasy shows where someone with a specific class from RPGs is seen as inferior, and while I like the base dynamic of our lead’s bond with his sister, these types of shows dive way too much into the harem genre that quickly derails them, and the fact the supposed harem looks to be of young girls is not helping the matter. But the fact our lead was a more defensive character was something we don’t often see with these shows. Too bad the reasoning behind their departure from the hero’s party is never as captivating as the premise should be. Delusional Monthly Magazine was a wild swing-and-miss original property that feels like it could quite pick between being the life of a weird monthly magazine or some globetrotting supernatural adventure. Fluffy Paradise may have been basic and more low-key with its focus on a lead who got turned into a child in a fantasy world, but the fact it captures the love and feeling of just wanting to cuddle and chill with friendly animals makes for an appealing if not urgent watch. Sasaaki and Peeps has a ton of different hooks, such as having an adult male lead obtain a pet bird who happens to be a magical wizard. It is also an odd isekai premise where our lead can traverse between two worlds and then gets enrolled with helping to take down psychics. It is an original idea, but your mileage will vary depending on how much you feel invested with this combination of things. Dr Elise is another isekai where our lead has been reincarnated in a different world multiple times and goes from the real world to the fantasy world once more, and just so happens to be a skilled medic. The show plants an interesting seed of a premise, but doesn’t quite make the landing with the world and character being as compelling as they need to be. Chained Soldier and Tales of the Wedding Rings offer mix-ups with their takes on the fantasy worlds in which they pull us. Tales of the Wedding Rings falls apart due to the harem element taking center stage, leaving the writing and animation to take a hit. With its writing and building up character relationships as our lead is sent on a quest to get a harem due to magic reasons to protect the kingdom, it at least has more going on under the hood than others. Chained Soldier has a mix of action, harem, and ecchi elements with a world where women gain powers to take down monsters, and sexual shenanigans happen on the side. It at least put in the footwork to make the male lead likable, and the dynamics with the women he is staying with are likable enough to not make it just a show where the viewer has to sit through the creative’s BDSM fetish. If you can walk away and say “Hey, I didn’t vibe with it, but I admire what it was doing” then that’s better than walking away feeling like you earned nothing through the experience. Even then…

Takeaway #3: Despite the bloat, some titles are still surprising!

I always love to be surprised by the shows we watch, and I am always going to be down with shows that catch me off-guard with how much I enjoy them. Although it came out a tad late during the seasonal drop, Bang Brave Bravern is a callback to old-school mecha anime, with all of the world-building and political asides mixed with giant robot action and very homoerotic overtones that make for a charming series with some stellar action. The Witch and the Beast offers up a supernatural buddy-cop dynamic between a mage and a woman who must track down the witch who cursed her. We get some stellar action and captivating mysteries as we finally have a killer fantastical mystery anime that I haven’t seen since the summer season last year with Undead Murder Farce. Metallic Rogue is an original anime from Studio Bones, with a cool sci-fi dystopian action show that may be light on the exposition, but heavy on the vibes, likable leads, and killer action. Tis Time for Torture offers a comedic take on a demon general trying to interrogate a princess about her kingdom’s secrets using delicious-looking food and video games to force her to crack under pressure. Mr Villain’s Day Off captures the relatability of trying to have a day off, even when you are a general in an evil army that is constantly at battle with a Power Rangers-like group of heroes. All he wants is to not deal with coworkers, and enjoy time looking at the panda at the zoo. Romance anime gave us a trio of three hits with A Sign of Affection being the best one of the bunch, as we follow the romantic tension between a deaf woman and a guy who wants to be a part of her world. It’s such an endearing and lovable series that shows us the world from her perspective which makes for a heartwarming romantic experience. If you are starving for something similar to My New Boss is Goofy, the more Yaoi-focused Cherry Magic! has a goofy little premise of our lead gaining mind-reading powers due to turning 30 as a virgin, but his dynamic with his coworker who has a crush on our lead is heartfelt, spicy, and is a good follow-up for those that loved My New Boss is Goofy. While the Demon Prince of Momochi House is a bit melodramatic and takes some time to wind up its mystery of the mansion, its inhabitants, and the romance between our leads, the visuals and chemistry between our two leads result in a real solid romance anime. No matter the number of shows released, we tend to get a lot of good ones, but with that said how many anime we get…

Takeaway #4: Why did we get Snack Basue and Gushing Over Magical Girls?

Even though anime companies are willing to sell the rights to every new show during every seasonal drop, we still don’t get every title. It’s funny, because every once in a while, there will be an anime from random seasonal drops that just don’t show up until either way later on some streaming service, or just gets pirated online with folks crafting fan subs for them. Now, to some degree, I get it. Why bring over an anime that may or may not be attached to a show or property that is big or at least more well-known in Japan than the States and why would they think it would do well here? But that seems to be an even smaller case that barely happens. Still, no one can watch all of these shows, especially when you have a total of 50+ shows at times, and it feels like a shotgun approach is taken these days. Bringing over anything and everything no matter if it looks appealing or has any chance of being a hit can be a hit-or-miss propostion. So why do we get titles like Snack Basue, which has no real wide appeal, absurdly cheap-looking animation, and is about a nightlife culture that most fans and viewers aren’t going to know about? I should love this zany weird comedy, but something either doesn’t and won’t translate to an audience not familiar with the style of comedy they are going for, and with the bad animation, the jokes don’t land as well as they should. Gushing Over Magical Girls I can understand a bit more, since everyone loves a good magical girl deconstruction, but when a lot of it is based around BDSM fetish with middle school-aged characters that becomes fairly explicit, it makes you wonder who this is for outside of a very questionable group of folks who would enjoy this type of show. We don’t get Pon no Michi, a show about a group of girls running a mahjong parlor, but we get these two that have a way smaller viewer base. It just makes you wonder where the priorities are, and prompts a discussion about the point of ecchi anime or anime that borderlines on pornography or much more problematic stuff, but that’s a topic for another time. For now, another takeaway I had was…

Takeaway #5: So much violence!

Something that I noticed between shows like Solo Leveling, Ishura, Sengoku Youko, and Meiji Gekken: 1874 was that the blood and violence levels were higher than usual. Not that they were all at the levels of the stuff you would see in the OVA boom from the late 80s and early 90s, but you normally don’t see this much unless it was something like Attack on Titan. With dismembered limbs, folks getting sliced in half, and you get the idea, they use violence as a means to show how dangerous the world is. Solo Leveling builds up the dangers of the dungeons and leads to training to get stronger with everyone getting slaughtered in the first two episodes. While struggling to balance out its historical and silly anime action beats, Meiji Gekken uses it to show the brutality of war and humans. Ishura delivers a world on the constant brink of war and bloodshed with multiple strong individuals all meeting and or roaming the earth for the next big battle they must overcome to become the main hero. Sengoku Youko uses its violence in its samurai-era setting to show the complexity of war and the conflict between humans and demons through the eyes of our wannabe samurai who joins a human who hates other humans and a kitsune spirit that loves humanity to become stronger. It isn’t just gore for the sake of gore. They are still going to be action shows through and through, but it doesn’t mean they can’t use that violence to elevate the themes and commentary they are bringing to the experience.

Takeaway #6: The mediocre titles were few and far between!

Honestly, the really bad titles were few and far between for me this season. There were only two shows I would say were deeply terrible. I already talked about how mediocre and terrible Gushing Over Magical Girls was so I won’t repeat myself here. On the other hand, My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered is meant to be a parody of the isekai genre. You can see in some small moments how obnoxious, instantly dislikable, and dull the characters are, and how it tries to shove in a lot of the slop you see in bad isekai anime. Either the fans don’t know what a satire/parody is or the team that made it decided to play everything straight when it wasn’t meant to be. It’s a tedious show to sit through and the introduction of a third character who is meant to be the comedy relief is annoying. Yeah, maybe she is meant to be annoying, but if that’s the joke, then you need a better joke. It wasn’t clever or substantial in the way this show needed to be. We can have One Punch Man-style shows with different genres, but they need to be whip-smart and creative.

So then, that is what I have to say about the Winter 2024 season. Here are the anime I highly recommend checking out on Netflix, Hulu, HiDive, and or Crunchyroll.

Anime I’d Recommend in no order: Ishura, Solo Leveling, Tis Time for Torture, Delicious in Dungeon, The Witch and the Beast, Metallic Rouge, Sengoku Youko, The Weakest Tamer Began Their Journey Picking Up Trash, Cherry Magic!, A Sign of Affection, 7th Time Loop, VIllainess lvl 99, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic, Mr. Villain’s Day Off, Bucchigiri?!, Brave Bang Bravern.