Posts filed under ‘Disney’
2010 – The year Indian Animation proves itself?
Well, out of ALL of the Indian animation features announced to release in 2009, NONE got released.Can’t blame Indian animation for that. 2009 was just BLACK. Period. Projects got postponed, paused or canceled due to the global economic crisis. It was probably the worst year Bollywood ever had – ever.
BUT: The good news is several Indian animation features are NOW – April 2010 – ready for release:
- Kireet Khurana’s TOONPUR KA SUPERHERO (Eros/Climb)
- Chetan Desai’s RAMAYANA (Maya Entertainment Ltd)
- Nikhil Advani’s DELHI SAFARI (Krayon Pictures)
- Arnab Chaudhury’s ARJUN (UTV)
Animation Nation – New York Times, June 05, 2009
A look at a select forthcoming animated films. Read more at The New York Times »
2009 – The Year Indian Animation matured?
2009 will be a year in which not less than 15 (in words: fifteen) Indian full-length animation films are expected to hit the theatres. Since Percept Picture & Sahara One released HANUMAN directed by veteran director V. G. Samant and director Milind Ukey in 2005, not a single great film has followed.
Jumbo (2006/2008) – A Thai film-turned-Indian
Percept Picture Company triggered a huge wave of Indian-made animation feature films with HAMUNAN (2005) followed by their RETURN OF HANUMAN (2007). Percept’s No. 3 was JUMBO, released – simultaneously with Aamir Khan-starrer GHAJINI – on 25th December 2008.
Artefact 7 – The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
“She was born with magic hands.” — Jean Renoir on Lotte Reiniger
Do you like Animation? Well, then there is absolutely no excuse to miss this magnificent masterpiece, the oldest surviving full-length animation film in the world.
Artefact 6 – The Pixar Story (2007)
Ed Catmull wanted to be an animator and artist but just felt he wasn’t good enough. When he took up Physics and Computer Science, he fell in love with Computer Graphics. Ed’s animation “Computer Animated Hand” featuring his own left hand was years later used in the film FUTUREWORLD (1976) and thus went down in history as the first use of 3D-Computer Animation in a feature film.
Artefact 4 – PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA – Miyazaki’s ‘Ponyo’ tops anime awards
Read this article on Variety Asia.
Artefact 3 – Goro Miyazaki’s Tales from Earthsea (2006)
TALES FROM EARTHSEA aka GEDO SENKI (Japan, 2006), the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki, created a lot of controversy in the Japanese media, not because of the film itself, but due to the dispute of the father and son, the reason being that Hiyao Miyazaki felt his son is not ready yet to direct.
TALES FROM EARTHSEA is loosely based on a combination of plots and characters from the first, third, and fourth books of the Earthsea-series by Ursula K. Le Guin. It it is very well-known that Hayao Miayazaki kept Le Guin’s novels for years on his bedside table and even requested Le Guin several times to authorize him to turn them into a film. That time Le Guin was not familiar with Miyazaki’s work and kept refusing. As she came to know his work many years later, she offered him the rights, but that time Miyazaki was busy directing HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. So we can see that this topic is a highly emotional one for Hiyao Miyazaki and we can understand him being irritated that his son took up the sujet for his debut.
Artefact 2 – Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (1979) – Hiyao Miyazaki’s Directorial Feature Film Debut
In the Miyazaki-Lassetter-Video-Letter we come across a scene in which Pixar Vice-President John Lassetter describes the time when Miyazaki first showed him LUPIN III aka RUPAN SANSEI: KARIOSUTORO NO SHIRO and how thrilled he was when he saw it. He felt this is exactly what had to be done and what he wanted to do too: Animation as entertainment not just for children, but for everybody. It also shows the European comic-tradition which influenced Miyazaki strongly and the way Japanese animators used to adapt French graphic novels for an European market.
According to Lassetter nobody directs action better than Miyazaki and this 1979-film is so packed with car chases, fist fights and an enthrilling story that it proves this point quite well. Lupin III is the grand-son of Maurice Leblanc‘s fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Conan Doyle‘s creation Sherlock Holmes. Lupin III has been the hero of various films and a TV series on which Miyazaki worked before directing this film.
