PM glimpse on Film 2001
Lee Johnson
Insignificant in the bigger picture, but incredible considering it's
surroundings. On tonight's BBC Film 2001, one of only two or three film
review shows shown on UK terrestrial Television (and the only one worth
watching), the British public caught a glimpse of Princess Mononoke.
So what? Well, the shown was heavily devoted towards animation tonight,
with a review of "Shrek" and a short feature on animation and photo
realism. The short feature was very good (IMHO) as it exposed a lot of
my fears re. the state of animation's future. To sum it up the feature -
"Photo realism may gain animation a lot of respect, but not because of
good old fashioned story telling. It may be animation, but when it
cannot be respected as animation (and not live action) then surely it is
a contradiction on terms"
During the feature, whilst animators and directors were expressing their
joys (mostly from those involved with the production "Shrek") and
concerns (lots of concern from Mr Terry Gilliam(sp?)) re. photo realism,
a short glimpse of Mononoke Hime was shown (no more than 5 seconds) and
it was suggested by J.Ross (the host of Film 2001) that Mononoke was one
of many recent animated features which has been a victim of photo
realism: "Princess Mononoke address important and adult themes, but
gained very limited release in the US and none in the UK". Whether or
not J.Ross has seen MH is unknown, but the short comment made was very
positive considering it's surroundings. And any positive vibes re.
Mononoke Hime in the UK are well worth sounding out.
I may e-mail Film 2001 and encourage them to mention that MH is getting
a UK release in the near future, although it would be overlooked as the
programme concentrates on theatrical releases and not straight to video
stuff. I'm sure the short glimpse spurred interest in some of the
viewers - and if that interest can be kept alive then we have much to
look forward to.
LJ
lawre...@lineone.net
http://website.lineone.net/~lawrencium
(Ghibli DVD comparisons and various articles)
Mrdini
<lawre...@lineone.net> wrote:
> During the feature, whilst animators and directors were expressing their
> joys (mostly from those involved with the production "Shrek") and
> concerns (lots of concern from Mr Terry Gilliam(sp?)) re. photo realism,
> a short glimpse of Mononoke Hime was shown (no more than 5 seconds) and
> it was suggested by J.Ross (the host of Film 2001) that Mononoke was one
> of many recent animated features which has been a victim of photo
> realism: "Princess Mononoke address important and adult themes, but
> gained very limited release in the US and none in the UK". Whether or
> not J.Ross has seen MH is unknown, but the short comment made was very
> positive considering it's surroundings. And any positive vibes re.
> Mononoke Hime in the UK are well worth sounding out.
I have a feeling he would've seen Mononoke, as he is known to enjoy
anime, such as GitS. Also, I agreed with what they said...due to the
fact Mononoke bombed in the US (it did technically bomb), it will not be
released theatrically here, which is a shame as British people seem more
receptive to arthouse films.
> I may e-mail Film 2001 and encourage them to mention that MH is getting
> a UK release in the near future, although it would be overlooked as the
> programme concentrates on theatrical releases and not straight to video
> stuff. I'm sure the short glimpse spurred interest in some of the
> viewers - and if that interest can be kept alive then we have much to
> look forward to.
umm...Film 2001 do (or used to) review straight-to-video releases. You
do have a good point, I will certainly write to them and suggest they
review Mononoke, and I advise everyone to do so, however not right now,
once a release date has been announced.
--
Yoav Felberbaum
E-Mail: y.m.fel...@wlv.ac.uk
Wulf Corbett
wrote:
>I would say there is a good chance that Mr Ross has seen
>the film. Not only is he a film buff (especially interested in
>cult films), but he specialises in cult films. I understand
>that he is also interested in comics.
He's a big Spiderman fan, I've seen that on a collector's show. His
dress sense looks Anime...
Wulf
Kevin Pack
> Here's a copy of the message I posted to the MML:
> expressing their joys (mostly from those involved with
> the production "Shrek") and concerns (lots of concern
> from Mr Terry Gilliam(sp?)) re. photo realism, a short
> glimpse of Mononoke Hime was shown (no more than
> 5 seconds) and it was suggested by J.Ross (the host
> of Film 2001) that Mononoke was one of many recent
> animated features which has been a victim of photo
> realism: "Princess Mononoke address important and
> adult themes, but gained very limited release in the US
> and none in the UK". Whether or not J.Ross has seen
> MH is unknown, but the short comment made was very
> positive considering it's surroundings. And any positive
> vibes re. Mononoke Hime in the UK are well worth
> sounding out.
I would say there is a good chance that Mr Ross has seen
the film. Not only is he a film buff (especially interested in
cult films), but he specialises in cult films. I understand
that he is also interested in comics. I seem to remember
he was one of the founders of Gosh (a comic shop
opposite the British Museum) and he was also the person
who introduced the anime shows on BBC2 a few years
back.
--
Kevin Pack
www.angelic-layer.co.uk
www.cardcaptors.co.uk
ke...@kevinpack.co.uk
Justin Palmer
<wu...@wulf.demon.co.uk> writes
but was vetoed by his wife!
--
Magic play is dancing | jus...@briareos.demon.co.uk |
Bathed in the glow of the Moon | |
We get you... you... you... | Chasing those Cats Eye... |
Mysterious Girl! | |
Quick&Dirty Guide to Japan: http://nerv.org.uk/japan_jp.html
Paul Tomlin
Didn't he kit his entire family out in Pokemon gear for the UK premier
of Tarzan (or some other Disney flick)? ^_^
--
Paul Tomlin
"And all the food will be made out of watermelon"
Kevin Pack
I seem to remember he gave his son the middle name -
Galactus.
Joe Curzon
>the film. Not only is he a film buff (especially interested in
>cult films), but he specialises in cult films. I understand
>that he is also interested in comics. I seem to remember
>he was one of the founders of Gosh (a comic shop
>opposite the British Museum) and he was also the person
>who introduced the anime shows on BBC2 a few years
>back.
Not only that, he used to be a comic book artist. He drew a series under a
pen name (I can't remember what it is) when he was younger. IIRC the
comicbook character was called Dr Death, from the artwork I have seen he is
definitely up to a professional standard.
Joe Curzon
Kill Digi Carat's Bunny Friend to reply.
Anime Digital - http://www.anime.org.uk/digital
The Pirate Anime FAQ - http://www.anime.org.uk/digital/piratefaq.html
Ziggy
<lawre...@lineone.net> wrote:
>During the feature, whilst animators and directors were expressing their
>joys (mostly from those involved with the production "Shrek") and
>concerns (lots of concern from Mr Terry Gilliam(sp?)) re. photo realism,
WOW! I would be incredibly intersted in what Gilliam had to say about
MH. If you have a copy, please allow me to beg for a borrow -
otherwise, whatever you can remember. Top , TOP director /
conceptor-guy-thing (Anno come close only in style).
--
Anime Crush Of The Week: Nanaka Nakatomi (MTT!)
Fansubs: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ziggy.lawson
Kevin Pack
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2001 00:25:26 +0100, Lee Johnson
> <lawre...@lineone.net> wrote:
>
> > During the feature, whilst animators and directors were
> > expressing their joys (mostly from those involved with
> > the production "Shrek") and concerns (lots of concern
> > from Mr Terry Gilliam(sp?)) re. photo realism,
>
> WOW! I would be incredibly intersted in what Gilliam had
> to say about MH. If you have a copy, please allow me to
> beg for a borrow - otherwise, whatever you can remember.
> Top , TOP director / conceptor-guy-thing (Anno come
> close only in style).
Sorry, he was only on screen for a couple of seconds and
he was expressing his opinion on how he didn't like (or
see the point) in using animation to provide a photo
realistic story. This was to do with Shrek and Final Fantasy
and not Princess Mononoke.
Lee Johnson
> WOW! I would be incredibly intersted in what Gilliam had to say about
> MH. If you have a copy, please allow me to beg for a borrow -
> otherwise, whatever you can remember. Top , TOP director /
> conceptor-guy-thing (Anno come close only in style).
He had nothing to say about MH, but a lot to say about photo realism
animation. Here's the article (taken from the MML):
> I managed to catch the report on tape: very surprised to see a Mononoke
> extract! Here are some clippings from the report:
[Feature showcased some of the recent Photo realistic animatied films -
Shrek, FF movie, Toy Story, Monsters Inc]
>
> Jonathan Ross (host): One toon that does take a technological leap
> forward is Columbia's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It claims to
> achieve animation's holy grail, to create human characters so real you
> can't tell the difference between its computer images and that of a
> live-action film... The film producers claim that their photo-realistic
> synthespians are a new form of vision for the cinema. How exciting is
> that? (sarcasm).
>
> Terry Gilliam: I think it's really boring.... the idea of animation
> being reduced to photo-realism or realism takes away the magic of
> animation. To me, animation is great because it's not real, it's
> slightly abstracted, it's a world that couldn't exist in reality and so
> it has a freedom within that that's magical.
>
> (Nick Park - 'I'll always be a die-hard clay animation fan' - followed
> by clip from Cats and Dogs)
>
> Ross: With many more highly-anticipated animations to come, such as
> Warner Brothers' Cats and Dogs, is all this toon activity actually
> developing animation as an art-form?
>
> Gilliam: The way animated feature films are developing at the moment,
> they're _not_ doing 'anything you can do,' it's still staying within
> fairly straight and narrow toons... It's not experimental, it's just
> another form of storytelling, when you look at it they're basically
> character-driven pieces with a strong narrative. It's reduced animation
> to its more infantile side as opposed to its more dangerous side.
>
> Ross: There have been casualties. The Japanese-made Princess Mononoke is
> one film that addresses adult themes, yet received only a very limited
> release in the US and none at all in the UK.
> (Brief montage of extracts from Mononoke, including two of the more
> violent images; the bandit getting his arms cut off, and the beheading
> of the horseman from a few seconds later. The caption says, 'Copyright
> 1997 Nibariki/TNDG)
>
> Giliam: I think there's a repressive regime in existence now, but it's
> called the marketplace and it's dictated by American distribution, so
> that in a sense is a kind of censorship... if you judge the worth of a
> film by how well it does in the marketplace, I think that kind of
> repression is in some ways more dangerous than political repression...
>
> COMMENT: Although Gilliam's observations are spliced around the mention
> of Mononoke, it's by no means clear if Gilliam has even heard of the
> film, nor if it's a kind of animation he would personally defend. (He
> seems to prefer much less realistic kinds of animation than Ghibli
> usually serves up, although maybe he'd enjoy Yamadas.)
> --
> andrew osmond
Not about MH, but interesting nonetheless.
Ziggy
<lawre...@lineone.net> wrote:
>
>> I managed to catch the report on tape: very surprised to see a Mononoke
>> extract! Here are some clippings from the report:
Cheers, mate - appreciate it.