cc-30@cory.BERKELEY.EDU (Sean "Yoda" Rouse) (02/14/86)
I probably SHOULD be posting this to net.movies, but as the people here seem to be more concerned with "cartoons"/animation, this seemed the right home for it. If a theater near you is advertising the Tournee of Animation, it's something really worth going to see. Several award-winning pieces are in the program. Admittedly, it repeats a lot of stuff from last year's (?) Festival of Animation, but only the really good stuff. The pieces I remember: Varga's "Lunch", "Charade" (You guys remember this one! "....Su..Su..Superman.") "Vincent" ('nuff said.), "Bottom's Dream" (nice pastoral stuff) "Anna and Bella"... lots of neat stuff. Admittedly, they forgot "the Killing of an Egg", and "Tango" but hey, even the title credits are impressive. And there were two pieces in particular I admired. Tezuka (of Japanese animation fame, the "god of comics" himself) has done a piece entitled "Jumping". The art is kind of cartoony, looking rather like colored pencils. But there is no dialogue. No central character. The piece is done from a first-person point of view. You are on a country road, and you are jumping up and down. Unexpectedly, your jumps become bigger, and bigger...and BIGGER and *BIGGER*.... You go from countryside to suburbs to city to ocean (sideswiping a couple birds along the way.) If you've ever wanted a view of what it would be like to jump off a skyscraper, this is the piece to see. It's amazing to see what one man can do with a camera and cels, and Tezuka is undoubtedly a deity in my mind, now. The other piece that impressed me, was called "Skywhales", and the art rather impressed me as Ken Macklin-type art. The beings speak in unintelligible gibberish, but the animation and production look of this piece is amazing. The grace and alieneity (word?) of the characters and setting is marvelous. All in all, I am simply hoping to peak interest (not that it really needs the push) in the current state of the art animation is in, right now. There's more than Bullwinkle and Japanese-stuff (although I dearly love both), and it's all within reach. --Kathy Li =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ARPA: cc-30@cory.berkeley.edu UUCP: ucbvax!cory!cc-30 "The last registered case occureed in Peking. When the Americans dropped their bacteriological bombs on China, the famous Seven Sages, China's central computers, got absolutely smashed. To the question 'What would be our best response?' they answered, 'Buy a million and a half aspirins.'" -Dr Frank Einstein -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=