HATSO - POSTER (my anime film)

Hatsu didn’t know she was going to be dead by the age of 21, but neither did you, until now. so here's the story...

Hatsu had just moved from the country to the big city, she had just moved out of her parents house and wanted to start a fresh. 

PONYO - REVIEW

PLOT 
The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human

 REVIEW 
In my opinion, this movie is not acceptable for age 6 and below. I would say it should be for older children only. There are several very scary scenes. Additionally, a 5 year old is show being left alone during a storm, entering the ocean by himself and lighting matches.While I realize this is fiction and a fantasy film, it was too much and did not deserve it's G rating. My 6 year old was terrified. I rely on this sight to help guide my movie choices and I feel let down regarding this film.

SPIRITED AWAY - REVIEW

PLOT 
In the middle of her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures.





 REVIEW
 Magical is a word used casually about films like this, films about fantasy and childhood. Yet this one really does deserve it: an enchanted and enchanting feature from the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki which left me feeling lighter than air. It is a beautifully drawn and wonderfully composed work of art - really, no other description will do - which takes us on a rocket-fuelled flight of fancy, with tenderly and shrewdly conceived characters on board.

My Neighbor, Totoro

PLOT Two young girls, Satsuki and her younger sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuki and Mei discover that the nearby forest is inhabited by magical creatures called Totoro's (pronounced toe-toe-ro). They soon befriend these Totoros, and have several magical adventures.


 REVIEW Totoro is probably one of the greatest kid movies ever made. It doesn't have a complicated plot, instead it focuses on two girls moving to a new place. Totoro himself might look and sound a bit odd, but he's quite sweet and gentle.

AKIRA - Film Response.

At first i didn't like the film, not only because it was in english subtitles but it was just weird. I wasn't expecting peoples arms to get blown off, but i got used to it in the end i really enjoyed it and would totally recommend it!

SMALL FILMS / OLIVER POSTAGE

Smallfilms was a British company that made animated television programmes for children, from 1959 to the 1980s. It was a partnership between Oliver Postgate (writer, animator and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker and illustrator). Several very popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including The Clangers, Noggin the Nog, and Ivor the Engine. Another Smallfilms production, Bagpuss, came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite children's programme

These are some of the main cartoons which were made, (BAGPUSS)

Stop Motion is a technique which is used. Stop-motion animation (or stop-action) is the painstaking process of photographing a model, moving it a miniscule amount, then photographing it again. Finally, you string the photographs together and the tiny movements appear to be action. This form of animation is the simplest to use and is great for beginners.

You can watch bagpuss on www.youtube.com, and www.watchtvseries.ch/serie/Bagpuss

Oliver Postgate

He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most p . opular children's television programmes. Pingwings, Pogles' Wood, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Bagpuss, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with Peter Firmin, and were shown on the BBC between the 1950s and the 1980s, and on ITV from 1959 to the present day. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time

SHADOWS/LIGHT

Caroline Leaf’s films are convincing proof that great film effects can be created with incredibly simple methods. Colour or even just sand are the basic materials for her pictures, which are painted on a sheet of glass. Lit from below, light and shadow produce expressive, even magical effects. Caroline Leaf changes the hand-drawn figures picture for picture, directly under the camera. Moving figures change their position in the picture. They must therefore be continually painted over, and the background suitably adjusted. Caroline Leaf works step by step to advance the movement and plot. Each picture must be destroyed to make the next. Nothing can be repeated. Caroline Leaf has mastered this creative technique. She gives proof of her extensive talent with her mind for stories. Lyric poetry and humanity are her concern. The depth and inner warmth of her figures coarsely drawn on the sheet of glass, achieve a unique degree of identification. The stories are neither comic nor tragic. They move through humour and emotion at the same time. Here is an example of Caroline Leaf's work ---> The Street

PUPPETS

A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, which is a very ancient form of theatre. There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made of a wide range of materials, depending on their form and intended use. They can be extremely complex or very simple in their construction.

 EXAMPLE OF PUPPETRY

DIGITAL ANIMATION

Digital animation is when there are a series of graphics which are the same only placed in different areas in each frame so that it can create the illusion of movement when in reality they are still pictures A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. Cartoons on television is one example of animation. Animation on computers is one of the chief ingredients of multimedia presentations. There are many software applications that enable you to create animations that you can display on a computer monitor.



EXAMPLE OF DIGITAL ANIMATION: 

ROTOSCOPING

Rotoscoping is used to capture realistic human movement by drawing over film footage of live actors. Perhaps this sounds like cheating, but adding an artist's vision to the movements of a human actor can create a unique storytelling medium that is just as stylistic as any other form of animation.

PIXILATION

EXAMPLE OF PIXILATION

Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet. 

CLAYMATION - Clay animation

In clay animation, each object is sculpted in clay or a similarly pliable material such as Plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature. As in other forms of object animation, the object is arranged on the set (background), a film frame is exposed, and the object or character is then moved slightly by hand. Another frame is taken, and the object is moved slightly again. This cycle is repeated until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. The human mind processes the series of slightly changing, rapidly playing images as motion, hence making it appear that the object is moving by itself. To achieve the best results, a consistent shooting environment is needed to maintain the illusion of continuity. This means paying special attention to maintaining consistent lighting and object placement and working in a calm environment.

STOP MOTION (stop frame)

Stop-motion animation (or stop-action) is the painstaking process of photographing a model, moving it a miniscule amount, then photographing it again. Finally, you string the photographs together and the tiny movements appear to be action. This form of animation is the simplest to use and is great for beginners.

DRAW ON FILM - Techniques

Draw on animation (also known as 'direct animation' or 'animation without camera') is an animation technique where footage is produced where the images are created directly on film stock. as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.

ANIMATION AFTER 1938

What could animation feature do after 1938?

- By 1938 animated cartoons had improved to a point were audience interest could be sustained for more than 6 or 7 minutes. So the cartoon feature could be a possibility. Snow white is an example of a feature length cartoon/film.

- Walt DISNEY

What does he say if the primary purpose of animation?

-Fantasia: This type of cartoon did not rely upon telling a story, but rather to tempted to create an emotional response in the audience by combining form, colour and motion to interpret fine music

What does he say combine to create this effect?

-  The cartoons combine together form, colour and motion to interpret fine music and to create an emotional response towards the audience.

Explain how they made the film images using paint brushes, what effects were created?

- Every effort was made to retain the fragile character in the inspirational sketches. Most of which were rendered in pastels and chalks. In adapting the production it became apparent that the usual hard ink lines and flat opaque areas of colour could not do them justice. To retain the authorial quality transparent paint were developed. The reproduce the pastel affect a dry brush technique was used. In this technique the brushes wiped almost dry of paint before application, leaving a grainy, chalk like texture on the cellulites.

 He later says that the drawings and art are only half of a successful animation, what does he say on the other half?

 -The equally important other half is the music.

How many frames make up ‘The Nut Cracker Suit’

-20,000 frames.

-Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

FRED QUIMBY

Frederick Clinton "Fred" Quimby (Saturday, July 31, 1886 – Thursday, September 16, 1965) was an American cartoon producer, best known as a producer of Tom and Jerry cartoons, for which he won seven Academy Awards. He was the film sales executive in charge of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, which included Tex Avery and the team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, creators of Tom and Jerry.

Quimby was born in Minneapolis, and started his career as a journalist. In 1907, he managed a film theater in Missoula, Montana. Later, he worked at Pathé, rising to become a member of the board of directors before leaving in 1921 to become an independent producer. He was hired by 20th Century Fox in 1924, and then MGM in 1927 to head its short features department. In 1937, he was assigned to put together its animation department.

CHUCK JONES

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He directed many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and a slew of other Warner characters. Three of these shorts (Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening and What's Opera, Doc?) were later inducted into the National Film Registry. Chief among Jones' otherworks was the famous "Hunting Trilogy" of Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1951–1953).

After his extraordinary career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing memorable cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new series of Tom and Jerry shorts and the television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions, which created several one-shot specials, and periodically worked on Looney Tunes related works.