Assorted Loose Ends

[tealin]

Friday's sketchbook - Studies for a gag sketch I'm planning. Gabby knows what it is but for the rest of you it will be a surprise! Mwahaha! (Unless I mentioned it a while ago and forgot...)
Saturday's sketchbook - it was late + I was tired = more Left-Handed Potter. Apparently zombie parties are flowing with booze. (Hey, if you're already dead...)

Congratulations Nick Park and Steve Box! You really do deserve your Oscar! I hope the little golden man doesn't feel out of place on the shelf with all those Annies. And the Wallace and Gromit theme tune must be the single best thing to which one can walk down the aisle.*

As for 'The Moon and the Son,' I haven't seen it, but it must be good to have beat Pixar. I do want to see 'The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello' though. I wonder if I ever will...

Do not. Want. Monday. NO MONDAY. ~D8 (that's a stunned drooly face, if you couldn't tell.)

*An awards-ceremony aisle, anyway ... maybe not 'the' aisle; that might raise a few questions.

Comments

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

-Loved the Looney Tunes drawings - can't wait to see what you do with them
-Once again, can't BELIEVE you can draw a hippogryph so perfectly with ANY hand (the captions were also very crudely funny)
-I MISSED almost ALL of the Academy Awards (except the last few, including the BIG surprise upset by Crash) and can't find anyone who taped it willing to share, so I'm gradually having every surprise ruined for me...wish I could have seen what I assume were gigantic bow ties! I think of the three nominated that "Were-Rabbit" was probably the most well-rounded: not as cutting-edge design-wise as "Bride" (definitely serviceable and often very funny designs, though) but a much more solid story; not as dramatic or imaginative as "Howl"(obviously much sillier by design) but also not as convoluted and with more believable (to this westerner's eyes, anyway) emotional reactions and performances, overall (Grommit's acting in particular is, as always, a triumph) and generally more sophisticated character animation (a gripe I have increasingly with most anime, however daring conceptually or gorgeous the backgrounds may be - as well as repetitive, generic, BORING character design! I know this opinion won't make me popular, but it has to be said!)
-I HAVE seen all of the shorts (when I should have been working! Oops!), including the winner, and I've met the filmmaker, John Canemaker (an extremely knowledgeable animation historian). The best thing I can say about it is that it's daringly personal, emotionally raw, and conceptually ambitious and sometimes sophisticated (basically, Canemaker tries to resolve his broken relationship with his dead father through imagination and animation) - it also sports quite an acting pedigree for the voice talent as well (Eli Walach as his father, John Tuturo as John Canemaker - I wouldn't mind being so well-represented!). It was fairly LONG at 28 minutes (although the fact that I was operating on very little sleep probably made it seem worse), and sometimes somewhat crude in execution (although it often seemed appropriate: a lot of it is from his unsophisticated, child's-eye view, and it mirrors the raw, honest storytelling), and the fact (DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON"T WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING! even though it isn't too surprising:) that it is dramatically unsatisfying in the end that, of course, for all his efforts, he really can't resolve his feelings or the unanswered questions he has for his father (although this is more realistic) - kind of like when I have had conversations with dead relatives in my dreams that seem real, but are ultimately one-sided, unsatisfying, and pretty depressing - which is probably the film's greatest asset - I can't deny it had a very emotional, involving quality that left me with a very strong bittersweet feeling that lingered long after the end. I really thought the excellent "9" was going to win, but this post is already RIDICULOUSLY long, and perhaps I'll wait and post a longer entry on all of the shorts, as well as my feelings about the other oscar nominees in my own 'blog(if anybody's interested).(But I will say that Jasper Morello - also QUITE long, but in a good way - practically a feature! - was pretty stinkin' cool! IMHO, of course)