Friday, March 3, 2017

Obscure Animated Feature Films - Part 4: The Modern Era

European Studios

Les Armateurs


Les Armatuers is one of the premier French animation studios, aside from Folimage and Gobelins, with France being one of the few countries other than Japan to carry the torch of traditional animation after the sad demise of the medium in America. Both The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet - 2003) and Ernest & Celestine (2012) were adored by critics worldwide and won numerous film festival awards as well as being nominated for Oscars. However, the mainstay of the studio appears to be the Kirikou series of films, directed by Michel Ocelot and starting with Kirikou & The Sorceress in 1998. Also, they have not released a feature film since the last one, deferring to the occasional animated series instead.


Folimage


Folimage also produces traditionally-animated features, at a more regular pace and more recently than Les Armatuers, though their work is likely not as well known as the former's. The majority of these were also intended to be contenders in international animation & film festivals.


Cartoon Saloon


Cartoon Saloon is based in Ireland, but their work is just as widely recognized as their French counterparts. The Secret of Kells (2009) was even a co-production with Les Armateurs. Same story here: these were mostly made for the festival circuit and not necessarily to wrangle with the big western 3D market, which typically dominates the Academy Awards as well.



Independent Films

France


If it was abundantly clear at this point, I don't have much commentary for the films in these categories, because not only have I only seen a scant handful of them, I also haven't really paid any close attention to the goings-on of this side of the pond. I'm about as detached from the "modern" animation industry as one can possibly be; the history of features from the 80s and 90s are more my domain. At this point, I will relent and simply list these movies in release order, with a little extra data beside their entries.

All of these films come highly recommended, considering their multiple festival awards and high Rotten Tomatoes scores. Unsurprisingly, the leader in independently-made animated films as well as those produced by studios is France, though there are growing industries in other nations as well. So without further ado, I'll let the works speak for themselves, as it would be impossible for me to do so.

  • Persepolis                                           2007      Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Paronnaud
  • The Illusionist                                     2010      Sylvain Chomet
  • The Painting                                       2011      Jean-Francois Laguionie
  • The Rabbi's Cat                                  2011      Joann Sfar / Antoine Delesvaux
  • April & The Extraordinary World        2015      Christine Desmares / Franck Ekinci
  • Long Way North                                 2015      Remi Chaye


Spain


  • Nocturna          2007   Adria Garcia / Victor Maldonado
  • Chico & Rita    2010   Tono Errando / Fernando Trueba / Javier Mariscal
  • Wrinkles          2011   Ignacio Ferreras


United States


  • Sita Sings The Blues          2008   Nina Paley (Watch This Land Is Mine!)
  • My Dog Tulip                      2009   Paul Fierlinger
  • It's Such A Beautiful Day    2012   Don Hertzfeldt (Watch Rejected now!)


Other Countries


  • Waltz With Bashir (Israel)          2008   Ari Folman
  • Boy & The World (Brazil)           2013   Ale Abreu
  • The Prophet (assorted)              2014   Roger Allers
  • Rocks In My Pockets (Latvia)      2014   Signe Baumane


And there you have it! Thanks for reading, I certainly hope this helped those of you who were itching to find out exactly what that one weird and mysterious animated movie of yester-year was, and where it came from. With luck, I won't face reprisals for any blatant and obvious omissions, and that what few lurkers come across these posts at least enjoyed my writing.

Until next time!

Obscure Animated Feature Films - Part 3: The Major Studios

1990s - 2000s: Major Studios

Warner Bros. Pictures


1994 was a pivotal year for animation when compared to the others in the decade. After the release of Disney's The Lion King, which became the highest-grossing film in the world that year, the other major film companies immediately rushed to start their own animation studios. They hoped to either see comparable success for their own creations, or that the very least to make a profit riding Disney's wake. Without a base of talent of their own, they mostly poached artists from Disney's studio itself, leading to an ever-increasing wage war that would ultimately lead to the downfall of traditionally animated features as a whole in the early 2000s.

Warner Bros. was one of these primary competitors, and while they started in the distribution business with Hyperion's Rover Dangerfield, Don Bluth's Thumbelina, and The Nutcracker Prince, they made their first entry into in-house productions with Space Jam (1996) using their own licensed Looney Tunes characters. It would be the only of their films to do well at the box office, however, and none of them would ever receive a positive critical reaction. While the lack of significant marketing could be blamed for their lack of success, these movies and those by others would nevertheless have an overall negative effect on the industry as a whole, as they cultivated a public perception that 2D films were cheap and exploitative, which wasn't far from the truth in most cases.

While Brad Bird's The Iron Giant is a must-see classic of its time, the others are all easy to pass up.

 
Universal Studios & Amblin Animation


Amblin Entertainment was started by director Steven Spielberg in the 80s as his own personal production company, and their films would be distributed by Universal Studios. They started with memorable television series based on Warner Bros. properties such as Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs through the Fox Kids and Kids WB networks. Their feature animation branch, nicknamed "Ambimation," would produce a small number of films in the early 90s during Disney's height of popularity, including a sequel to Don Bluth's An American Tail. As is usually the tale, none of these performed well in theaters and the studio was closed down in 1997.Some of the animation staff, however, would go on to join Spielberg and former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg at Dreamworks Animation, including the director of the films Simon Wells.
 
I'm a personal fan of Fievel Goes West, but the overall appeal of the Amblimation collection was so-so.


Crest Animation


Technically, they were still "Rich Animation Studios" at the time these films were released, but that doesn't matter considering that most people don't even remember their work. Their films were adapted from a ballet, a musical, and a novel respectively, but the majority of their output were those "bible story" cartoons shown to children attending Sunday school (no, not VeggieTales, the other ones). Lest we forget all those direct-to-video Swan Princess sequels and the ill-fated Alpha and Omega and Norm of the North films, from when they attempted to break into the lucrative 3D animation market.
The failure of their Rankin/Bass collaboration, The King and I, led to their selloff to Crest Animation by the new millennium, and they've been eternally punished to pump out DTV sequels to Alpha and Omega ever since.


20th Century Fox & Turner Animation


Technically, Fox had their in-house studio that produced Don Bluth's Anastasia and Titan A.E. (the latter which resulted in such a massive loss that it led to the studio's shutdown), but prior to that distributed Wizards and Fire & Ice for Ralph Bakshi and Raggedy Ann & Andy for Richard Williams in the 70s and 80s. In between these times, they would release films such as Bill Kroyer's FernGully, Hanna-Barbera's Once Upon A Forest, and Turner Animation's The Pagemaster. Cats Don't Dance was also one of Turner's films, but was distributed by Warner Bros., while their Tom & Jerry movie was handled by Miramax, which you may remember from the Thief and the Cobbler fiasco.

Out of these select three, only FernGully performed well, although Cats Don't Dance is often considered a modern animation classic. Afterwards, Turner was merged into Time Warner and 20th Century Fox would mostly produce animated films through their subsidiary Blue Sky, whose franchises included Ice Age and Rio. Other works of theirs include traditionally-animated The Simpsons Movie, the stop-motion Fantastic Mr. Fox directed by Wes Anderson, and The Book Of Life from newcomer 3D studio Reel FX.


DreamWorks Animation


Now here's an interesting case. DreamWorks got its start after the initial success of Disney's early 90s films, when Jeffrey Katzenberg served as Chairman of the studio. After the tragic demise of then-President Frank Wells, he immediately petitioned for the vacant position, seeing it as his right that he earned after the achievement of said features. CEO Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney took offense to the audacity of such a move and his arrogance, even though they would have likely promoted him if he had not been so impetuous about it. After Katzenberg was forced to resign, he swore revenge in the form of DreamWorks SKG, a joint venture with Steven Spielberg (again) and David Geffen. 

The foundation of its animation studio comprised of animators pulled from Spielberg's Amblimation and some of the staff that Katzenberg had negotiated away from Disney. Signing a deal with Pacific Data Images, this new company would at first produce both traditional and digitally-animated films, starting with Antz and The Prince Of Egypt in 1998. They even partnered with world-renowned stop-motion studio Aardman Animations on Chicken Run in 2000, at the same time releasing their own The Road to El Dorado. The lackluster performance of their following 2D features, as well as the stupendous levels of success for 3D films starting with Shrek (2001), would lead to the exclusive production of CGI animation at the studio. Since then, DreamWorks has started a multitude of animated franchises, all of which finding varying levels of fortune but mostly scoring lower on average in critical reviews than Disney and Pixar's output for the remainder of the new century.

The Prince Of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado are both fantastic flicks at least, though Rotten Tomatoes seems to disagree, but the other two were admittedly mediocre at best. What makes my feelings towards the studio even more mixed is that as a general rule, I've had an extreme distaste for their 3D films and their decidedly anti-Disney approach to storytelling, which contributed to my disinterest in animation as a whole in the mid-2000s. But, if I can compliment Katzenberg in any way, it's that regardless of the questionable quality of his company's work he will find a way to turn a profit regardless, as was the approach during his tenure at his previous employer.

 
Miscellaneous


Speaking of Disney, and specifically the 90's Renaissance, even they weren't safe from the plague of "mockbusters" that became notorious in more recent times through companies such as The Asylum, Video Brinquedo, and Brightspark. In the animation world there was perhaps none more infamous a studio than Golden Films, which proceeded to ride Disney's coattails with their cheaply-produced knockoffs, most of which bore the exact same name as their legitimate counterparts. Their defense was the fact that the majority of Disney's adapted stories were based on fairy tales and other folk stories in the public domain, but their scheme was obviously to make as much cash as quickly as possible with minimal effort.

Alas, I remember somewhat enjoying their version of Aladdin, released in the same year as the "real" version, which itself borrowed heavily from Richard Williams' ongoing project. Other completely original works of their can be found here.

Filmation, however, was a legitimate animation studio and was producing content as far back as the 60s. Most of their work consisted of animated series, DTV and made-for-TV films, television specials and theatrical shorts, but they created a handful of feature films before finally folding in 1989. Happily Ever After, the "unofficial" sequel to the Disney classic, was released posthumously four years later. Before that, they also produced their own sequels to The Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio, and...a BraveStarr movie?

 

Foreign Imports

Hemdale Films


None of these films have anything to do with each other, they all just happened to share the same distribution company. Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland is a Japanese and American collaboration produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (the studio behind the 1988 Akira film) and based on the classic comic strip by Winsor McCay, and it is an excellent movie. The same can't be said for the others, especially not The Magic Voyage, which is a German feature from out of nowhere.
The Princess & The Goblin was made in Hungary (those guys again!) and wasn't received that much better.


Trickompany


Trickompany was one of the few reputable German animation studios, but I can't find any information on them that isn't translated into English. Regardless, the two films that American audiences *might* recognize them are Felidae and Pippi Longstocking. Felidae, like the Martin Rosen adaptations of Richard Adams' novels, is remembered as a non-child-friendly and graphically violent animated film, released at a time when G-rated family movies couldn't have been more prominent.
Yet for adults, it is a surprisingly well-made and intriguing crime thriller - just, y'know, starring talking animals.
Pippi Longstocking (1997) is the only animated version of the character I'm familiar with, aside from DTV sequels
made by the same company.

Stay tuned, the present state of traditional animation (and its future) is next!

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Obscure Animated Feature Films - Part 2: The Classical Era

1920s - 1960s: The Golden & Silver Ages

Fleischer Studios


Fleischer Studios was the primary competitor to Walt Disney Studios during the Great Depression, up until the latter's release of Snow White in 1937. Characters in their repertoire included Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor Man, and their Superman series exhibited animation that is still considered phenomenal to this day. The demand for full-length cartoons led to the rapid development of both Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes To Town, both released alongside Disney's "golden age" films. The studio's acquisition by Paramount following a period of financial troubles was the deathblow to such productions, and Famous Studios (known for Casper the Friendly Ghost and other characters) was built upon its ashes. The original Fleischer company, however, is still fondly remembered by those nostalgic for the style of those first-wave cartoons.


United Productions Of America

 
United Productions of America (commonly called UPA) was crafted by former upper-echelon Disney artists, after the 1941 strike that led to a mass exodus from the studio. After struggling to find their unique identity in the 40s through wartime training films and theatrical shorts (there was not much business in features at this time, for understandable reasons), their breakout success came in the form of Mr. Magoo, Dick Tracy, and Gerald McBoing Boing. The success of these series set them up as the trendsetters in design for the animation industry as a whole throughout the 50s and the 60s, which started a stylistic choice separating them from the realism of Disney and ultimately became a cost-cutting measure for the studios at Warner Bros, MGM, and Hanna-Barbera. However, they only managed to produce two features themselves before shuttering in 1970, those being 1001 Arabian Nights (starring Mr. Magoo) and Gay Purr-ee, written by the inspirational Chuck Jones who would also direct The Phantom Tollbooth.


Other Features


The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is often cited as the true first feature-length animated film, in contrast to Disney's claim with Snow White. The latter was the first in full sound and color, however, while Prince Achmed is a silent film animated in silhouette with paper cutouts. Neither aspect takes away from the film's overall quality or innovation, and though other features were being produced as early as the first World War, many of these are considered "lost films" while Lotte Reiniger's work is preserved in a restored format to this day. If anything, it deserves a place among other experimental films made during Germany's Expressionist era, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Metropolis.

Animal Farm (1954) is widely considered the first "official" animated feature produced and released in Britain, though it was nominally financed by the United States' CIA as part of its cultural war with the USSR. Not quite as satisfactory as the George Orwell novel it is based on (especially considering the forced change to the ending to make it appear more optimistic than cynical), but it's certainly preferable to other, less faithful adaptations in later years.

Yellow Submarine (1968), directed by George Dunning, did little to improve the already massive popularity of the Beatles at the time. It did help to renew interest in animation as a medium for serious film rather than just children's fare, as was the common notion at the time. It also shined a spotlight back on often overlooked Disney classics such as Fantasia and Alice In Wonderland, particularly for their more "psychedelic" sequences.


1970s - 1980s: Small Studios

MGM Animation & Nelvana Ltd.


Full disclosure: only Rock & Rule was produced by Canadian studio Nelvana; it was
distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The others are in-house productions of MGM.

Initially known for the classic Tom and Jerry shorts, MGM tried their hand at animated features with The Phantom Tollbooth (1968), directed by the venerable Chuck Jones. It would be the first (and last) animated film released by MGM, as it ultimately led to the closing of the company's animation department. This division would not be resurrected again until the 1990s, whereupon it produced original works such as Babes In Toyland, an anthropomorphic Tom Sawyer, and direct-to-video sequels to Don Bluth movies. Judging by their covers, these are all probably terrible.

In contrast, Rock & Rule has the greatest film poster of all time. Of all time.


Rankin / Bass Productions


If Rankin/Bass Productions is known for anything out of the countless films, television specials, and cartoon series they've created, it is both the stop-motion Christmas movies of the 60s and 70s, and the traditionally-animated Tolkien films released long before Peter Jackson signed a deal with New Line Cinema. The latter are included here, as well as other 2D films that have fallen to the wayside over time. Honestly though, not only would The Last Unicorn be the only one somewhat familiar to modern audiences, it is also the only I have seen besides The Hobbit and The Return Of The King. I can't really say much for the others, other than I wish they were played every year during the holidays instead of the infernal Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.


Nepenthe Productions

 

Martin Rosen was the director/producer/writer of Watership Down (1978) and The Plague Dogs (1982), both of which are based on novels written by Richard Adams. Both of these films also happen to be infamous as two of the most traumatizing movies originally intended for children, as it was still the common perception that animated movies (especially those featuring cute, talking animals) were strictly family-friendly. Rather than go the political or urban route of Ralph Bakshi, or the violence and sex of Heavy Metal, this pair of films features generous helpings of blood and gore. Though they are hailed by fans for the depth of their stories or the treatment of the source material, it will be a long time before there isn't someone who looks back on these films and blogs about how disturbed they were as a child to have watched them.


Hanna-Barbera Productions


In the time between Disney's two periods of cultural supremacy, there was the "Dark Ages" of animation when the rule rule for cartoons was to produce them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Of all the small studios that run amok in this era, Hanna-Barbera was king, and it flooded the market with countless series, shorts, and films, as well as the numerous characters that populated them. It was an off-shoot of its direct predecessor MGM, and founded by the very men who created Tom & Jerry themselves. Rising to prominence in the 1960s, it would dominate the animation landscape throughout the 70s with series such as the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and the Smurfs, until petering out in the 80s during the decline in relevancy of the "Saturday morning cartoon" formula. Media mogul Ted Turner would buy them out in the next decade, and use their catalog as the basis for his new children's program: Cartoon Network. And the rest is history...

 The majority of the films produced by Hanna-Barbera were based on these trademarked characters, such as the Top Cat and Tom & Jerry movies which I included for my own childhood memory's sake. A few, however, were either adaptations of novels (Charlotte's Web and Heidi's Song) or original concepts by the studio itself, including Rock Odyssey which I have never seen or heard of, and Once Upon A Forest which came and went quickly in the early 90s. I can't really argue for the quality of any of these movies, nor can I say that any of them are as classic as other studios' output. Overall, it was not a time in animation I was particularly fond of; neither for the excess of marketable mascot characters or the simplified method in which they were given life on screen. I was always much more interested in the resurgence in "real" animation towards the end of the 20th century.


Hyperion Pictures


The 1970s were a period of transition for the animation world: many of the "old guard" or directors and artists had either retired or passed away within the previous decade, including Walt Disney himself. This necessitated a changing of the so-called guard and the recruitment of a whole new generation of animators, some of whom were taught and trained by the Nine Old Men themselves at CalArts. This included Disney veterans such as Don Bluth, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja,
Tim Burton...and John Lasseter.

Lasseter was among the first in the industry to propose a film animated completely by computers, and he did so with The Brave Little Toaster story as his prototype. His pitch to the studio executives was not warmly received however, considering its significant reach and expense, and he was promptly fired while the project was handed over to the company's newest subsidiary: Hyperion Pictures. The aforementioned picture would therefore be animated traditionally, while the claim to "first" full CGI feature would be given to Toy Story by Pixar, a company founded by Lasseter.

A Brave Little Toaster would remain largely forgotten save by animation chroniclers and those affected by the film's sparse moments of intensity, and the follow-ups Rover Dangerfield and Bebe's Kids would suffer the same fate as well. Like many of the larger studios that followed them throughout the "Renaissance" period of the 90s, they would not return to the business after such costly failures.

Stay tuned, that Renaissance Era is next!