Index Of The Blog
“Soul”, dir. Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
Top contender for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – again from Happy Season 3. The studio’s Oscar hegemony does not seem to be about to end, but there is nothing surprising about that. Like almost all of her films, Soul skillfully maneuvers between adult and child (this time with a bias towards the former), complex existential issues and colorful fantasy worlds. Schoolteacher Joe Gardner dreams of becoming a successful musician, but when his finest hour comes, he unexpectedly falls through the hatch and dies. Not wanting to say goodbye to life, the hero escapes from the afterlife and, together with his unborn companion soul at number 22, returns to Earth to return his body.
In the Soul, the real world collides with the transcendental. From the ordinary Earth, the viewer goes straight to the abstract World After and the World Before, where souls dwell. Although a significant part of the story still takes place on our planet, the cartoon of Docter and Powers asks questions, pardon the pun, not at all mundane. Vocation and destiny, personality and death – these things, which seem to have been said a hundred times in the cinema, are discussed in a new way by Soul. Instead of truisms about following your dreams – trying to look back and understand what makes you truly happy. Frequent Oscar winner Pete Docter is almost certainly not going to be left without an award this year.
“The Legend of the Wolves”, dir. Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart
irector Tomm Moore continues to explore Irish mythology and life, while talking about British colonialism. The main character of the cartoon is the girl Robin, the daughter of a hunter from the local town of Kilkenny, around which deforestation is going on. Wolves prevent the English from settling in – they do not allow intruders to the trees, which is why they become the number one target. One day, the heroine finds herself right in the lair of the animals and learns that among them live the so-called wolfwalkers – people capable of incarnating in fanged neighbors and acting as guides between two worlds.
As in the case of Soul, it is not only the content that is interesting here, but also how it interacts with the form. A touching and tender story of growing up little Robin takes place in a completely man-made, tangible world. The authors of Vagabond Season 2 deliberately leave the finishing touches in the animation, focusing on the “drawing” of details and people. If anyone can compete with Soul for an Oscar for Best Animated Film, it’s Moore’s new work. A real art of visual craft, by which the selectors absolutely rightly could not pass.
“Forward”, dir. Dan Scanlon
Personal bitter experience inspired the author of “Monsters University”on a charming urban fantasy. Director Dan Scanlon lost his father when he was only a year old, and his brother – at the age of three. Once they got hold of a cassette with the voice of their father, and from that moment the director slowly but surely went to create a full-length story about the loss and search of a parent. The plot of “Forward” in many respects has something in common with this case. Elves Ian and Barley hardly remember their father, and the only thread connecting them with the past are photographs, again, audio cassette and stories of friends. For another birthday, high school student Ian (younger brother) receives a magic wand and almost returns his dad for the next 24 hours. However, the spell is interrupted in mid-sentence, and now the two brothers, together with a partially returned relative (or rather, with the returned legs of a relative – the matter has not gone above the belt) are going for the magic stone,
Sean the Sheep: Farmageddon, dir. Will Becher, Richard Phelan
The adventures of Sean the sheep and his friends continue. The alien Lu-La gets to the farm to the heroes, and an evil corporation immediately leaves behind her to catch the aliens. Formally, this is the same beloved “The Asterisk War Season 3” cartoon (most of the dialogues here are contained in the facial expressions and gestures of the characters) with stop-motion models playing Chaplin’s slapstick. Everything falls, explodes, whistles and makes noise – an ideal, in general, scenario for such an uncomplicated children’s story. On the other hand, with the replacement of authors (instead of Mark Burton and Richard Starzak – less experienced Will Becher and Richard Phelan), comedic elegance was slightly lost. Humor has become simpler, situations have become dumber, and the new “Shaun the Sheep” does not look as perky as its predecessor in 2014… What cannot be taken away from the franchise is its visual luster: plasticine animation is still tangible, and it seems that you can even touch the restless beasts. The film will definitely not win a gold statuette, but given the small number of competitors this year, it deserves its nomination.
“Journey to the Moon”, dir. Glen Keane, John Kars
Another cartoon about the loss and acceptance of death, as if piece by piece collected from the rest of the nominees for the “Oscar” for the best animated film of this year. From “Soul” – a journey into the transcendental world, from “Forward” – a story about humility and loss, from “Shaun the Sheep” – a whistling-squealing slapstick, and from “The Legend of Wolves” – an original ethnic aesthetics. All this, of course, is a coincidence, but it is precisely this comprehensiveness that makes Travel to the Moon a victim of the author’s ambitions. And even the touching story of the Chinese girl Fei-Fei, who lost her mother early and, remembering a fairy tale from childhood, went to the moon to find the legendary Goddess, will not help here. All this seems to be cute, but eerily old-fashioned: songs straight from the Disney musicals of the 2000s (Northern Rescue Season 2), annoyingly awkward comedian religions and soul-saving morals. One of the weakest nominees this year (and therefore the main outsider of the Oscar race), however, not devoid of charming naivety. We, like the members of the Academy, appreciated the attempt to co-produce China and the United States, but the matter will definitely not go beyond the nomination.
