segaltoons Reviews

I'm Hip (2023)

A cool cartoon for cool cats

[10/10 · 18 December 2023]

This musical cartoon by John Musker is everything the title suggests. A cool cat (literally) fancies himself as the hippest in the room. The gags come at a rapid pace and all synchronized to the jazzy tune by co-writer and vocalist Dave Frishberg. It's a whirlwind of changing scenery and colorful styles. It's filled with caricatures of people Musker knew, which he enumerated in lectures at The Mill Valley Film Festival and also the CTN Expo. You would probably need to watch this cartoon 10 times to catch all the references. Even the end credits are full of inventivness. For those that don't recognise the creator's name (or don't know how to use IMDb) John Musker was half of the team who helped revolutionize Disney animation as co-director of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and many others. He made this film himself with a little help from his friends. It's cool, y'dig?

The Good Nurse (2022)

One of the Best Films of the Year

[10/10 · 17 October 2022]

Dark and foreboding, this film starts slowly and builds eerily and suspensefully.. Don't let the darkness and the brutally realistic portrayals of medical procedures scare you away from one of the best films of the year. The performances by the two leads Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne are intensely believable. Also worth mentioning are Noah Emmerich and Malik Yoba as the two detectives assigned to the case, they seem very real and unlike typical movie detectives. There are no car chases and no last minute capures. Just frustratingly slow and with infuriating bureaucracy. But it's clear that there is evil sometimes where you don't expect it.

I saw The Good Nurse at the Mill Valley Film Festival with very little knowledge of it, and that's how I recommend approaching it. Before writing this review I watched the trailer and I feel they give away too much. In his first English language film, Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm has directed a truly believable story based on real people and real events. Some of the people involved were consulted as part of the making of the film. Be patient with this film and you will be rewarded.

Bolden (2019)

Confusing

[3/10 · 3 May 2019]

I knew nothing about Buddy Bolden before seeing this film and after seeing it I know even less. This film is put together like a two hour trailer, the scenes jump around in time and never seem to build to a satisfying emotional conclusion. There are individual shots that promise something interesting, but never seem to finish. Even the jazz numbers which are well arranged by Wynton Marsalis, do not get to finish. And most music varies in fidelity and we move thru time and space.

The period details are perfect as is the music, sounding like it's played on period instruments. The performances are believable especially Gary Carr as Buddy Bolden who presents a broad range of emotions. He can be exhibiting a youthful energy exploring the nascent possibilities of jazz, or suffering trough rough parts of his life. The most familiar face in the cast is Ian McShane, but his charter is presented in such a choppy way, I have no idea who his character was or how he figured in Bolden's life.

I saw this at a special screening with the writer director Dan Pritzker in attendance, and he acknowledged that no recording of Bolden exists and so little is known about Bolden that he has no idea if he invented jazz or not, he just thought it was a good tag line.

Possessions (2012)

surreal adventure

[5/10 · 9 December 2013]

The film opens on a forest in the rain, it's stylized but still realistically rendered, however the foliage does not move at all and a rainstorm would most likely indicate some wind or at least leaves reacting to the rain. A lone traveler enters the scene and finds his way to a shrine. The animation is a bit stiff, looking a bit like drawings texture mapped on three dimensional objects. Once inside the shrine the story becomes more surreal. The film exhibits a strong Japanese style of rendering and motion. SPOILERS AHEAD There are some nice moments as umbrellas magically appear and the box he carries around is revealed as a repair kit and is put into service to repair umbrellas. He also encounters a magical frog character, who doesn't have much to do. The most impressive part is the objects becoming a fantasy dragon, building itself out of miscellaneous debris in the room.

Combustible (2012)

too slow and too distant

[3/10 · 25 January 2013]

Synopsis: Okawa the daughter of a merchant family and Matsukichi, disowned by his family, are drawn to each other.

Director Ôtomo is legendary for writing and directing the anime masterpiece Akira. But this is a very different film, a story about two childhood friends, one of which becomes obsessed with becoming a fireman. Much of the film is dialog(subtitled) which is my least favorite approach to animation. Almostthe entire story is told with extreme long shots, so you can barely see the character's faces. The animation has an acceptable amount of detail, but less that what we've come to expect from Ôtomo. There is very little action in the film until the climax and even then there really isn't a proper ending.

Luminaris (2011)

Whimsical and charming

[10/10 · 25 October 2011]

This is a story of two people who work in a light bulb factory and the curious adventures they have when one of them has a big plan, but his plan doesn't go as he originally expected. The film is pixilated, (people are animated frame by frame) and beautifully shot. Production values are top notch with people moving in synchronization to the naturally moving shadows and there are lots of added bonus touches like moving diagrams and animated puffs of smoke. And even a throw away master shot showing a factory-like atmosphere, a complex shot to prepare (even if it was created using computer graphics) but seen only for a few seconds. The film is short and sweet.

I met the film maker and he was very gracious and apologized for having trouble answering my questions in English, but his answers were easy to understand. He said that the exterior shots had to be precision timed and they only had 15 seconds for each frame because they had to synchronize with the moving shadows. They shot mostly in the morning and fog was a persistent problem.

Damon the Mower (1972)

an innovative experimental hand drawn animated short

[9/10 · 9 June 2011]

This is a brilliant hand drawn animated short. In Damon the Mower the title character is swinging his scythe and his figure is drawn in different positions so the scythe stays in the frame even when he moves it way to the left or right or above his head; so sometimes part of the character goes off the edge of the paper. The drawings are on small cards placed on a table to be photographed. The camera is framed wide enough to see several inches around the card, so when the framing of the action changes the card is moved frame by frame to see all of the action; so even though the card moves, the character stays in the same place. The drawings are sketchy and a little rough, but the effect is mesmerizing.

Variety (2009)

A young boy engages in plate spinning

[7/10 · 10 January 2010]

This is a charming animated film. It is a hand drawn cartoon with what looks like computer added blurs. He throws the people in his life on top of the plates and tries to keep them all spinning. It seems to be a comment on the phrase that we all have to keep many plates spinning in our life. It is well paced and funny with no dialog and a nice musical score. The drawing is a bit loose and crude but the film is still fun, with some exaggerated action and gestures. The drawing style reminds me of Jim Tyer's animation at Terrytoons.

This film was selected as one of the finalists in contention for an Academy Award in the short film category.

Komposition in Blau (1935)

Early color film

[10/10 · 29 January 2007]

This is a truly amazing film, very early full color work. It is not Fischinger's first in color, Kreise (1933) a.k.a Circles and Muratti Greift Ein (1934) a.k.a Muratti Marches On (a cigarette commercial) were both in color, but the color may not have been as full as in this film. The music is from the overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai. His wife, Elfreide did a short segment in the middle. The film is mostly colored boxes moving in tight synchronization to the music, at the climax there is some striking painted work that foreshadows some of his great work to come, like Allegretto. This film was a sensation in Germany and the attention brought him a contract with Paramount which allowed him to escape Nazi Germany.

Lunch Hound (1927)

Fun in cartoon land

[9/10 · 26 September 2006]

This is a delightful film. It's an early effort from Walter Lantz who would later create Woody Woodpecker, and Clyde Geronimi later to become one of Disney's top directors. The film starts with Lantz in person slapping some paint on the bottom of a canvas, turning it over and the paint drips down to create a forest that his dog pal can live in. He draws a roast turkey then he moves it around as the dog chases after it, it just a photo cut-out of Lantz's hand, but he can move the turkey INTO the painting (achieved by animating the turkey getting smaller as it moves further into the background). The maid has quit so the two must find lunch by themselves. Thus begins the parallel adventures as the dog goes to the pond, the butcher shop, and up a tree to find lunch, meanwhile Lantz cooks bacon in the real world. The real bacon is animated to crawl out of the frying pan. In the end, the dog uses a bicycle pump to inflate a small fish but when Lantz cooks it, it explodes. The angry artist draws a prison to punish the naughty pup.

It's full of imagination and lots of good gags, it's no wonder Lantz earned a reputation as someone who can deliver.