animation
- Don’t change anything unless you have to for technical reasons. If the book is worthy to adapt, why would you change anything that wasn’t already constrained by the animation process, and we both know that animation offers no constraints. Period. We can do anything in animation.
- Don’t modify the plot, motivation or conflict so “modern” audiences can “relate” to it better. Again, if we love the tale, what benefit comes from modifying a major part of what made it resonate?
- Any character description should be taken as canon, everything else is fair game. If the author doesn’t mention any particular aspect or aspects of a character, you can flesh them out how you like, but if something is clearly stated, it needs to be there. Taking a text description into a fully-realized visual world means a lot will need to be filled in. The book, after all, is for the theater of the mind, so some expanded development is almost assuredly required for most any book.
- Don’t feel stuck making a film. In fact, DON’T make a film. Make a series, and make it as long as it needs to be to fit everything from the book in. Some books will lend themselves well to adapting a chapter to an episode rather neatly, while others might need more creative solutions. Trust the viewers to watch as little or as much as they prefer, much like reading a book!
- Hire the best voice actors for the cast, not just the “best” celebrity stand-ins. Name one time someone told you that the only reason they went to see a film was because actor X, Y, or Z was in the cast and no other reason. The draw is the tale itself, not whatever A-lister is attached to it. Sure, it’s a force multiplier, but this shouldn’t be about massive, unlimited profits, but the artfulness of the work and how it reflects on our human existence or shows us parts of ourselves that might help us better understand us as living, thinking creatures drifting through space and time just hoping the ride is mostly nice along the way. I don’t doubt, however, that money will be made.
So, just watched all of Amazon’s Secret Level series and here’s my review: It’s not… great. At least with Love Death & Robots we got original stories. These are glossy, extended ads for #VideoGames or, in the case of Ep. 15, an ad for Sony. Don’t bother. Just rewatch LD&R on Netflix.
www.youtube.com/watch As reported on #Animation World Network, #Netflix has dropped a teaser for Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight, the third CG #film from Alain Chabat and the first to be localized for English audiences. I read Goscinny & Uderzo books as a child in the 70’s and have loved them ever since. Each successive film has looked better and better, and it’s clear they’re leaning more into the comic roots of the tales of one village of Gauls against the Roman Empire. #movies
Um… WOW!? Looney Tunes haven’t gotten a lot of love in… decades? Just take in the teaser for Ketchup Entertainment’s new #animation outing, The Day the Earth Blew Up starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. The teaser is utterly hilarious, and it’s traditional 2D animation and hits theaters February 28th, 2025. #cartoons #movies www.youtube.com/watch
www.polygon.com/animation… #animation #movies I’ve recently watched Away for the first time and was blown away. I nearly passed out when I found out it was made by one person. Now director Gints Zilbalodis' new film Flow is in theaters now and people appear to be loving it. If you haven’t seen Away yet, you can watch it now for free on Tubi, with ads of course. But you should buy the Blu-Ray or rent it, as it’s better without interruptions.
www.amazon.com/gp/video/… #animation #videogames Just watched the first eight episodes of Secret Level on Amazon Prime. Like Love, Death, & Robots, it’s gorgeous. Unlike LD&R it is mostly soulless. Only Dungeons & Dragons (Ep. 1) and Armored Core (Ep. 8) feel like a part of their game worlds. New World (Ep. 3) offers a good chuckle. PAC-MAN (Ep. 6) shouldn’t have been made. It’s not a bad waste of a little more than two hours, though.
I’ve watched the vast majority of the fifty nine films on this list of the best anime films of all time according to /Film. How about you? I won’t bother critically analyzing the list. It seems accurate enough. #animation #anime #movies www.slashfilm.com/1202644/t…
Stoner Cats is a hoot! This is clearly not getting anywhere near enough attention, probably because of the shady crypto NFT bullshit perpetrated by the producers. It’s now on YouTube, though, so no NFTs needed! If you love a good laugh and are into stoner humor, you need to watch this! And the cast is stacked to the gills! Jane Fonda! Chris Rock! Seth MacFarlane! And more! Crazy! So many exclamation points. #animation #humor #youtube #420 www.youtube.com/watch
Aw, hell yeah! Just came across this in my recommendations and I’m going to support Stan and the his dream of making Orbital Search & Rescue a thing! Incidentally, I’ve also started watching Pantheon, which he worked on, and it’s fantastic and dark. It’s streaming on Netflix now. He also worked on Venture Bros., which is a blast!
Give OSR a watch and tell me you don’t think it looks cool and I’ll be sad. #animation #scifi #firstresponders #respect #youtube www.youtube.com/watch
Well, well, well. The first “Special Teaser #Trailer” for Lupin the IIIrd: The Movie penned by mangaka Monkey Punch dropped a couple days ago and it’s stunning. And, if my eyes do not deceive me, all hand-drawn traditional #animation and directed by Takeshi Koike (REDLINE, great film). A fine, fine return to its original form that I look forward to taking in next year. #film #movies #LupinThe3rd #anime #2025 youtu.be/KopjWLIz5…
Despite being cancelled after the second season (apparently the bill for production has been upwards of $250 million and it shows) #Arcane on #Netflix is an absolute, unquestionable masterpiece of #storytelling, #animation, #television, and just plain ol' #artistic excellence, and all from a little know French animation studio called #Fortiche. Even if they got to finish it, you’d never want it to end, but I understand it wraps up rather well anyway.
Check out the pilot for The Art of Murder, a fully #animated #series concept from Choc Chip Studios, on #YouTube. Everything about the #animation is excellent (i.e., charatcter design, backgrounds, key framing, voice actors, soundtrack, etc.). However, pacing is a tad sluggish, there’s a little too much exposition, and I’m not overly keen on the musical numbers. I am impressed and will be following to support the artists. Nice work, peeps! youtu.be/wBaNOjORA…
Wow! I really hate it when a show I’m interested in gets cancelled. I’m actually rather glad that I haven’t watched it yet. I was going to wait until Season 2 was over and then binge the hell out of it, but now I’m considering not even starting! Apparently it was just stupid expensive to make. What a pain in the ass! #netflix #arcane #LeagueOfLegends #RiotGames #videogames #animation www.slashfilm.com/1706812/a…
I started watching Adult Swim’s new 2D animated series, Invincible Fight Girl, and I’m in love. Catch it on Toonami or Max and you’ll see what I mean! If you love #animation, you’ll get it right away. #CartoonNetwork #AdultSwim #Toonami www.awn.com/animation…
Watchmen Chapter I, a review
What can I say about Watchmen that hasn’t already been said… is what I would say if DC hadn’t just released the first part of an animated two part adaptation of what is considered one of the finest comic books of all time. But let’s talk about the comic book first.
Released as a 12-issue limited series in 1986 and rendered into a trade paperback combining all twelve issues in 1987, the creation of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colored by John Higgins, Watchmen was a critical and commercial success and has remained so since its release. It would win a Hugo Award in 1988 and be added to Time Magazine’s 100 All-Time Best Novels list.
An Open Letter to Blue Sky's Chris Wedge
Hey look! It’s you!! Chris Wedge!!! Nice pic. Great movie.Dear Chris,
I heard the news. I’m sorry I didn’t write sooner. Things have been a tad crazy of late, what with the pandemic and gun violence and political division and illegal wars and whatnot. I started writing this before the war and Uvalde, but I felt it was important to acknowledge these facts of life and death we are facing before I launch into this escapist fever dream. Anyway…
Disney can be quite the pain in the ass these days, what with all the acquisitions and late-stage Capitalism and all. I recently read the Paste piece, An Oral History of Scrat Tales: The Death and Legacy of Blue Sky Studios, and I feel for you and your peeps. For the record, I don’t think it was a mistake to be hopeful that Disney would act to protect contemporaries of the modern animation industry. You know, because Disney is one of the most prolific animation studios ever.
Such presence gives you the impression that they might commiserate. In retrospect, they did end up protecting a legacy, namely their own … by engaging in predatory catch-and-kill just to shut you down and absorb your valuable intellectual property and talent. But hey! Live and learn, right? We just have to process and integrate the setbacks and and keep pushing forward while keeping a sharp eye on our past, as it informs us of potential futures and how to avoid them. (If that’s what “we” want, that is.)
And there’s nothing Disney can do to erase Blue Sky’s legacy as one of the few smaller studios that could offer the big players a challenge at the box office, to be sure alongside Chris Meledandri’s Illumination. Thirty-five years, thirteen theatrical films, more than $5 billion in revenues, and two Oscar nominations, Blue Sky was no joke. Dude! You yourself won a freaking Oscar for Bunny back in 1998 only to release Ice Age two years later. And I don’t care what anyone says, but 2005’s Robots is a just a masterpiece. One of the truly underrated greats, in the same vein as The Road to El Dorado, The Iron Giant (Vin Diesel’s best role by far), or Disney’s own The Emperor’s New Groove, to name a few.
You, sir, are a force in the world of animation.
But, here we are. It’s 2022 and it has become clear that being a force for anything offers no friction to Disney’s ambitions. If they want to take on or end something, they can simply buy it. It’s like Disney went to the park with its ball, had a great time with everyone else while doing their damnedest to ignore you, and when he took his ball to go home, took your tricycle for good measure. And it’s not like the pandemic has been ‘helpful.’ I wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest to learn that aspects of Disney’s decision to close Blue Sky was to let them shunt more cash into their cash strapped amusement park division and fretting over content for their then upcoming Disney+ streaming service.
Looks like someone needs a new tricycle…
So, this is a pitch… of sorts. But it’s not a pitch for me. I’m simply offering the concept. I have no skills aside from stringing some vaguely comprehensible words together in sequence, but I do have an imagination. No, it’s a pitch for you.
Animate books.
Now, I’m not talking about the atrocious adaptations (not ADAPTIONS, people! A-dap-TAY-shuns, for cryin’ out loud) that plague our cinematic past, or even the really good ones, for that matter. Regardless of the quality, or lack thereof, these adaptations necessarily strip out loads of context, interactions and impressions, additional plot lines, and almost everything else to focus on the core story because, you know… two hours.
So, as insane as it sounds, what if you don’t do that. Instead, adapt the book as closely to the written work as possible. Take the dialog wholesale. Design the scenes to appear as described in the pages. In other words, use the book as the script, stage direction and all. Make each page fly out of the book and into a tangible world where the rules make sense because you know the story in static form.
A few more suggestions:
If I, as a complete nobody that brings nothing to the fore, were to opine on a first step, I’d say take it slow. I’d shoot for a few test scenes from a book of your choice. If I were to choose, I’d start with Isaac Asimov, preferably Caves of Steel, the first in his Robot series.
The description of Isaac Asimov’s “The Caves of Steel” taken from GoodReads.com — “A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between [Lije] and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot — and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!” The novel is one of Asimov’s many “proofs” that science fiction can be applied to any genre, not just its own, not that Asimov needed to prove anything to anyone :)
Simply put, and apologies for being a tad brutal here, but nobody has given the idea of a 1:1 adaptation through the artistry and flexibility of animation a go before, and it’s not like you’ve got much else going on… I mean you’re exec’ing on some Puyo Puyo movie and some “Popeye” thing. That can hardly be taxing.
I kid… a little.
With the right property, the correct treatment, with solid massaging by a quality team that groks the rules, I think you’d have one killer app on your hands, and significant demand for more. But like I said before getting excited again, take it even slower.
Whip the first few chapters of Caves of Steel into storyboard form. Try blocking out some solutions for inner monologues and other “unfilmables”. Cobble out a few scenes, see how they work around the dialog. How much runtime can you get out of a chapter?
Of course, for a storied legend in your field, this would be a cake walk.
;P
Sincerely,
Tyler Knows Nothing