Review: "Spirited Away" is Pure Magic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 45 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) – animation

Running time: 125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Hayao Miyazaki

PRODUCER: Toshio Suzuki

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Atsushi Okui

EDITOR: Takeshi Seyama

 

Spirited Away (2002) – USA English dub

MPAA – PG for some scary moments

WRITERS: Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt – English script

PRODUCER: Donald W. Ernst

Academy Award winner

 

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE 

 

Starring: (voices) Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, and Tara Strong

 

The world’s best director of animated films is Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke), and even the masters at Disney represent with Miyazaki. In 2001, his film Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi became the all-time highest grossing film in Japan, and in 2003, Spirited Away, the English language version of the film, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

 

While moving to their new home, a ten-year girl named Chihiro (voice of Daveigh Chase) and her parents get lost on an overgrown stretch of road. At the end of the road, they find a lonely building that her father surmises was part of an abandoned theme park. Continuing to track through their discovery, the parents wander into the park where they catch the smell of cooking food. The parents begin to chow down on a veritable feast that they find in an empty restaurant. They don’t know that the food is enchanted and meant for the spirits. Within minutes, the magic transforms Chihiro’s parents into pigs.

 

Chihiro meets a boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) who tells her than the theme park is actually a rest haven for spirits. Haku tells her that he will help her and her parents, but she must wait. Meanwhile, Chihiro indentures herself to Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), a greedy and devious she-creature who runs the bathhouse that is the centerpiece of this magical world. Yubaba changes Chihiro’s name to Sen and forces her to work in the bathhouse while the girl struggles to find a way to free herself from slavery and her parents from the spell.

 

Whereas Miyazaki’s previous film Princess Mononoke was an epic tale of magic versus modern with the threat of a great war as the backdrop, Spirited Away is a magical fantasy in which the level of magic reaches epic proportions. From beginning to end, Miyazaki fills every frame of the film with an eldritch charm that defies comparisons to any other movies, including his own work. It’s a dazzling display of the supernatural that held me spellbound. Witches, monsters, phantasms, spirits, creatures, mythical beasts, and wondrous landscapes populate the world of Spirited Away. It’s part Alice in Wonderland, part faerie tale, and part Japanese myth. Every frame is pure wonder and fantasy.

 

All of the magical creatures seem so real and so much real part of their environment. Miyazaki has a variety of fantastical beings for almost every scene, and it never seems like too much or too phony. So many filmmakers cheat now because of computer-generated imagery and throw anything on the screen just because they it pops into their heads. The wondrous people and things of Spirited Away seem natural and purposeful, a part of a divine order, not forced, but correct and part of a circle.

 

The film’s story and script, also by Miyazaki, isn’t so much about plot as they are about the imagination, the magic of the film’s world, and, in the end, about growing up and losing the magical corners of youth where ethereal, unreal, and surreal things exist and happen. Chihiro/Sen’s adventure is a wonderful one, and Miyazaki so draws you into Spirited Away that you feel the presence of the supernatural as much as Chihiro does, and like her, you hurt from the loses that come with growing up and getting older.

 

This is more than just a great animated film; this is simply a great film. There are times when it did seem a bit long, and Miyazaki’s craft seemed too polished, too perfect, but a master like Miyazaki can’t help but be overbearing at times. He’s a filmmaker and a magician. Spirited Away has to be seen on the big screen; it’s the only way to truly feel the awe-inspiring enchantment of the most fantastical film since Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

 

There are a lot of fantasy films and films about magic, but only once in a generation is one so resonant with the mysterious of power miracles, magic, and fantastic beings that the film itself feels other worldly. Spirited Away is the supra fantasy of this time.

 

9 of 10

 A+ 

 

NOTES: 2003 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature” (Hayao Miyazaki) 

 

2004 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki)

 

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Henry Selick Returns to Disney, Lands at Pixar

Last week, Variety broke the news that Henry Selick, the director of such stop-motions films as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Oscar-nominated Coraline, had signed an exclusive long-term deal to make stop-motion features for Disney/Pixar.

Selick first worked for Disney in the late 1970s. The deal also reunites Selick with his CalArts classmate, Pixar's John Lasseter. For more, visit Comingsoon.net.

Review: "Princess Mononoke" is Simply Great

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 43 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux 

 

Mononoke Hime (1997) – animated

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Hayao Miyazaki

PRODUCER: Toshio Suzuki

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Atsushi Okui

EDITORS: Takeshi Seyama and Hayao Miyazaki

 

Princess Mononoke (1999) USA release – English dub

Running time: 134 minutes (2 hours, 14 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13 for images of violence and gore

WRITER: Neil Gaiman – English screenplay

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE/WAR/ACTION

 

Starring: (English voices) Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Keith David, John DeMita, John Di Maggio, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Billy Bob Thornton

 

Many consider Hayao Miyazaki to be Japan’s greatest animator and one of that country’s finest directors. He has several films to his credit, including Majo no takkyubin (released in the U.S. as Kiki’s Delivery Service) and Tenku no shiro Rapyuta (Castle in the Sky). In 2003, he won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for Spirited Away, the 2002 English language version of his film Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi. However, his first real shot at mass appeal in the United States was the film known in America as Princess Mononoke.

 

The story centers on Prince Ashitaka (voice of Billy Crudup) who finds himself in the middle of a war between the elemental and spiritual forces of the forest and Tataraba, a human iron-mining colony. The town’s leader , Lady Eboshi (Minnie Driver) has conspired with a sly assassin named Jigo, sublimely voiced by Billy Bob Thorton, to kill the great forest spirit. Ashitaka meets San, the Princess Mononoke (Claire Danes), a girl raised by the Wolf God. San leads the animal gods of the forest against Lady Eboshi, who has also made her colony a haven for outcasts. Ashitaka walks a razor’s edge, trying to save both the humans and the forest before the two destroy each other, and, although he it not the title character, he is the story’s focus.

 

Although the drawing is not as polished and as classical as a Disney film, the animation in Mononoke is nothing short of breathtaking and fantastic. While so many Western animators use computers to augment their films, Miyazaki used traditional hand drawn cels, reportedly correcting by his own hand 80,000 of the films 144,000 cels. The animation takes on a scope of epic proportions while simultaneously being romantic.

 

Miyazaki and his animators created a film that manages to be encompass the film genres of action, adventure, and war, while being a dramatic film of beautiful and poetic touches. The depth of the storytelling is novelistic in its approach. It has so much going on that the audience cannot help but be captivated and enthralled even if the references to Japanese mythology goes over their heads. The voice acting for the English dubbing is excellent, which includes not only those actors mentioned prior, but also Jada Pinkett-Smith, Gillian Anderson, and Keith David. They did have a good script with which to work. Fantasy novelist and comic book scribe Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman comic book, wrote the film’s dialogue in a friendly American vernacular Mononoke.

 

Fans of anime and animated films cannot miss Princess Mononoke. For people who loved epics like The Lord of the Rings, this film fits right in that vein. It stands, not only as an accomplishment in animation, but a special achievement in movie making.

 

9 of 10 

A+ 

 

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Oscar-Nominated Documentary "Food, Inc." Goes to the Dark Heart of Bad Food

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

Food, Inc. (2008)

Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes) 

MPAA – PG for some thematic material and disturbing images 

DIRECTOR: Robert Kenner

WRITERS: Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, and Kim Roberts

PRODUCERS: Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Richard Pearce

EDITOR: Kim Roberts

Academy Awards nominee

 

DOCUMENTARY – Food 

 

Starring: Gary Hirshberg, Michael Pollan, Troy Roush, Joel Salatin, and Eric Schlosser

 

Drawing on the books, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, director Robert Kenner’s documentary, Food, Inc., lifts the veil on the food industry in the United States and explores the food industry’s detrimental effects on both our health and our environment.

 

Food, Inc. explains that a handful of corporations control our nation’s food supply, and these corporations often put their profit and bottom line ahead of their workers’ safety, their consumers’ health, the livelihood of the American farmer, and the wellbeing of our environment. Kenner also spotlights the men and women who are working to reform the industry and change the way Americans think about food. Pollan and Schlosser are among those people. Food, Inc. exposes our nation’s food industry’s dark and highly mechanized underbelly, a side of it that has largely been hidden from the American consumer. The film declares that the food industry has been able to hide its dark side from us with the consent of the regulatory agencies that are supposed to police them, the USDA and FDA. The film presents an industry rife with monopolies, with questionable interpretations of U.S. laws, and with political ties that grants substantial government subsidies to the industry. One of the consequences of the food industry’s practices has been (and continues to be) rising rates of E. coli outbreaks. As evidence of the industries strange and harmful practices and innovations, Food, Inc. offers stories of science-designed food: bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad (because of the gas to which these tomatoes are exposed). The film’s scariest bit of information concerns new, drug resistant strains of E coli, the harmful bacteria that causes illness in tens of thousands of Americans annually and is not only being found in meat, but also on raw vegetables sold in grocery stores. I think of Food, Inc. as an important movie, but as far as documentary filmmaking goes, it isn’t particularly remarkable. Food, Inc. is more like an overview covering a wide range of topics, many deserving their own films. For instance, Food, Inc. informs us that the meat processing industry often hires illegal immigrants as labor. That’s not surprising, but the fact that the industry coordinates with immigration officials on ICE raids is. However, Food, Inc. only covers that aspect of the food industry in passing, and when this film does that to other subjects, I can’t help but be frustrated because I want more.

 

Still, Food, Inc. nourishes our awareness of food industry issues and leaves us hungry for more. This activist documentary may be frustrating, even infuriating at times, but it is successful at grabbing our attention concerning food issues that must have our attention.

 

7 of 10 

B+ 

 

NOTES: 2010 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein) 

 

Wednesday, April 07, 2010 

 

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Review: "Fast Food Nation" a Stomach-Turning Great Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fast Food Nation (2006)

Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)

MPAA – R for disturbing images, strong sexuality, language, and drug content

DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater

WRITERS: Eric Schlosser and Richard Linklater (based upon the nonfiction book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser)

PRODUCERS: Jeremy Thomas and Malcolm McLaren

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel

EDITOR: Sandra Adair

DRAMA

Starring: Patricia Arquette, Bobby Cannavale, Paul Dano, Frank Ertl, Luis Guzmán, Ethan Hawke, Ashley Johnson, Greg Kinnear, Kris Kristofferson, Avril Lavigne, Esai Morales, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Lou Taylor Pucci, Ana Claudia Talancón, Wilmer Valderrama, and Bruce Willis

Richard Linklater’s film, Fast Food Nation, is a fictional take on Eric Schlosser’s 2001 best-selling nonfiction book of the same name. Like the book, the film critiques America’s fast-food industry, and the narrative covers everything involved in manufacturing, marketing, and selling hamburgers. Linklater was nominated for the “Golden Palm” at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his work in this movie.

The story takes place in and around the imaginary city of Cody, Colorado. It begins with Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear), a hotshot marketing guru at the fictional Mickey’s burger chain. Don arrives in Cody to investigate why there are contaminants in the frozen patties used to make, “The Big One,” Mickey’s best-selling hamburger. His visit takes him inside the bowels of their patty supplier, Uni-Globe Meat Packing, where undocumented workers toil in wretched conditions. As he visits strip malls, ranchers, and suppliers, and people recommended to him, Don doesn’t see nearly all the people who are connected to him and his company. He wonders what his investigation will make of all these perspectives because the fast-food world turns out to be fraught with more peril than he ever realized.

Richard Linklater achieves that rare feat of directing two great films released in the same year: the trippy, animated, sci-fi drama, A Scanner Darkly and the recent socio-political drama, Fast Food Nation. Both films examine flawed, but likeable people caught in larger dramas and dealing with forces of which they have no control or have much less than they think. Both films are at their best when Linklater allows the narratives (and audience) to hang out with an eclectic collection of flawed characters. In that, Nation has some similarities to Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and John Sayles’ Sunshine State. Fast Food Nation, however, deals with the immediate world in which we live today.

While it may seem as if Linklater and his co-writer Eric Schlosser, the writer of this movie’s source, are condemning Nation’s characters to hopelessness, this film is a rallying cry to all of us to wake up about the food we put into our bodies – both the food itself and how and who produces it. Although Nation isn’t merely a message film, it is informing us of our food culture, and Linklater and Schlosser allow the characters to inform us in concise, but rich and vibrant banter and debates. To that end, the filmmakers assembled a far-flung cast made of one bona fide Hollywood megastar (Bruce Willis), some well-known film and TV stars (Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, and Greg Kinnear), some acclaimed veteran actors, (Luis Guzmán and Kris Kristofferson), and some up and coming young talent (Paul Dano, Ashley Johnson, and Catalina Sandino Moreno). It’s obvious watching these earnest performances that the cast believes in this film, and each actor does his or her point to tie the various sub-plots and storylines together, so rather than something disjointed, we get a coherent multi-layered narrative.

Fast Food Nation will make you think about fast food, in particularly meat: the dangerous conditions in which meat packing workers toil; how the industry obtains these workers and then virtually enslave them; and how the animals that become our food are treated. Perhaps, Nation’s strongest point is revealing again the conditions in which these animals live and what food and drugs they are given. In a matter-of-fact, but engaging visual style, Linklater turns real world news into cinematic art – the most essential and important, important film in years.

9 of 10

A+

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

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Review: "The Future of Food Takes" on Frankenfood

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Future of Food (2004)

Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Deborah Koons Garcia

PRODUCERS: Catherine Lynn Butler and Deborah Koons Garcia

CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Chater

EDITOR: Vivien Hillgrove

 

DOCUMENTARY - Food 

 

First, let me say that the documentary, The Future of Food, is essential viewing for anyone who eats – from high school students to senior citizens. If you have the intellectual capacity to understand the nightly news, you can get this film. This is an excellent example of a documentary that takes a very complicated subject and simplifies it so that it is of practical use to the viewer.

 

The Future of Food takes a look at the shadowy relationship between agriculture, big business (in the form of chemical companies that dominate the pesticide and herbicide industries and the seed industry), and government (in the form of Congressmen who take campaign contributions – really bribes – from those industries in order to pass legislation favorable to corporations). Director Deborah Koons Garcia takes an in depth examination of biotechnology, specifically genetically modified organisms, GMO (such as plant cells), and genetically engineering, GE, food.

 

The film also goes into the history of agriculture, and then shows how the birth of agri-business and the agricultural industry changed how humans had been cultivating crops for millennia. The agricultural industry dumped historical methods, which were time-proven safe, for new and potentially dangerous methods of cultivation without pause for examination and scientific study.

 

In Europe, where the national governments forbid the importation of GMO’s, such food is known as “frankenfood,” after the name Frankenstein. Some will remember the furor in the late 90’s and early 21st century that erupted when consumers and consumer advocates learned that genetically engineered corn was showing up in most processed corn foodstuffs such as corn chips, breakfast cereal, and taco shells. Scientists are unsure of what genetically modify food will do to people – good or bad. The GMO industry in the U.S. (and with the consent of Congress, the Courts, and the Presidency) isn’t willing to wait for scientific research of humans eating genetically engineered food.

 

Garcia’s film also looks at how big business’s GE practices have hurt family farmers through litigation and patent law. She also gives us a glance into how GE food and genetically altered seeds are finding their way oversees. Garcia has made a riveting documentary that takes advantage of her extensive research, archival footage, and wide-ranging interviews with farmers, farming advocates, and scientists.

 

The film’s weakness is a lack of commentary from the other side, which is likely because GMO companies, in particular Monsanto, which makes “RoundUp” herbicide, are on receiving end of this documentary’s criticisms and likely declined to participate. The film’s last 20 minutes are mostly spent on feel-good images and interviews that seem tacked on and a jarring divergence from the body of this documentary.

 

It’s as if after giving us a vision of food Hell, the filmmakers want to give us a wishy-washy assurance that everything will be OK. Still, The Future of Food is a must-watch, since you could be serving genetically modified food for dinner.

 

8 of 10 

A 

 

Saturday, February 18, 2006

 

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Drawn Together Movie on DVD April 20th

THE MOST TITILLATING AND SALACIOUS ANIMATED MOVIE OF ALL TIME IS FINALLY HERE!"

THE DRAWN TOGETHER MOVIE: THE MOVIE!"

THE FIRST FILM BASED ON THE CULT ANIMATED SERIES "DRAWN TOGETHER," AVAILABLE ON DVD AND DOWNLOAD-TO-OWN ON TUESDAY, APRIL 20

Original Cast Returns And Features "Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane As The Voice Of I.S.R.A.E.L.

COMEDY CENTRAL Records To Release For The First Time. The “Drawn Together Soundtrack” CD On Tuesday, April 20

Watch The Red Band And Theatrical Trailers, View Outrageous Bonus Material, Launch The Full Episode Player (Watch Every Episode From All Three Seasons), Play The I.S.R.A.E.L. ATTACK! Flash Game
And More, Available At www.thedrawntogethermovie.com

"The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" Screening At Anaheim Comic Con On Saturday, April 17. From 7:00-9:00 P.M. PT With Select Cast Members And Creators, Writers And Executive Producers Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser

Get drawn in all over again. From the warped minds of creators, writers and executive producers Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser, comes the most reprehensible and most guilty-pleasure movie of all time – "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! http://www.thedrawntogethermovie.com/" This is the first animated film based on the "Drawn Together" series featuring the entire original cast and "Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane as the voice of I.S.R.A.E.L.

"The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" DVD will be released by COMEDY CENTRAL Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment on Tuesday, April 20. It will be also available on download-to-own platforms in HD and SD including iTunes (pre-order 4/5), Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Zune, Sony PlayStation Store, and Amazon Video on Demand. For the first time, COMEDY CENTRAL Records will release the “Drawn Together Soundtrack” CD on Tuesday, April 20.

“The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!” stars the incorrigible cast of the most offensive animated reality show ever to air and this time they’re starring in their very own feature-length movie! When the mystery-solving musician Foxxy Love notices she and her fellow housemates can curse without being bleeped – something they’ve never been able to do before – she realizes their show has been canceled. Determined to get back on the air, the gang travels to Make-A-Point-Land in order to get a point (and get back on the air). With more depravity than could have ever been shown on TV, this is the definitive "Drawn Together" experience.

"The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" DVD features over one hour of bonus features including: “Anatomy of An Animated Sex Scene,” an in-depth investigation into the genesis of the soon-to-be infamous 3-D sex scene; “Re-Animating Drawn Together: From the Small Screen to The Slightly Bigger Screen,” a technical piece focusing on the production/animation end of the project; “Drawn Together: The Legacy,” a faux-serious reflection on the show’s impact and lasting cultural relevance; “Drawn Together: True Confessionals,” intimate interviews with the actors and co-creators about the show and the dawn of the movie; “Drawn Together Minisodes,” a fond remembrance of all the loveable characters from the series hosted by The Jew Producer; “D.I.Y 3-D Glasses,” step-by-step instructions on how to create your own 3-D glasses; and deleted scenes.

In addition, "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" will be available on Tuesday, April 20 on download-to-own platforms in HD and SD including iTunes, Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Zune, Sony PlayStation Store, and Amazon Video on Demand. On Monday, April 5, fans will have the opportunity to pre-order it on iTunes with “Re-Animating Drawn Together: From the Small Screen to The Slightly Bigger Screen,” a nine minute bonus feature available only with the purchase of the movie.

Also available for the first time is the soundtrack to the hit series “Drawn Together.” COMEDY CENTRAL Records will release the “Drawn Together Soundtrack” CD on April 20 with music from fan favorites including “La La Labia,” “Black Chick’s Tongue,” “Suck My Taint” and many more. The album contains songs from all of the seasons including the new movie in their raw, uncensored glory.

Log onto www.thedrawntogethermovie.com to watch the red band and theatrical trailers, view outrageous bonus material, launch the full episode player (watch every episode from all three seasons), play the I.S.R.A.E.L. ATTACK! flash game and more. Users can also become a fan of the movie on Facebook .

The "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" screening will be held at Anaheim Comic Con on Saturday, April 17 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. PT at the Anaheim Convention Center, immediately following the closing of the show floor. Join creators Silverstein and Jeser and select cast members as they discuss their new film and host a Q&A with fans.

"Drawn Together " premiered on COMEDY CENTRAL in October 2004 and aired for three seasons and 36 episodes. The series presented a world in which cartoon characters from various genres of animation were brought together to live under one roof. The characters left their animated "reality" and entered a new world where their cartoon universes collide with a bang, combining different styles of animation and different personalities, all "drawn together." This was COMEDY CENTRAL's first original animated series that was drawn traditionally and in 2-D digital ink and paint animation.

The eight stars/housemates represent iconic archetypes from the world of animation and include: Captain Hero, a not-so-moral do-gooder reminiscent of the Saturday morning TV super heroes of the 70s; Clara, a 20-year-old sweet and naive fairy-tale princess; Toot Braunstein, a black-and-white pudgy heart throb from the 20s; Foxxy Love, a sexy mystery-solving musician; Spanky Ham, a foul-mouthed Internet download pig; Ling-Ling, an adorable Asian trading card mini-monster; Wooldoor Sockbat, a wacky Saturday morning whatchamacallit; and Xandir, a strong young gay video game warrior.