dvdjunkie wrote:Timon/PumbaFan wrote:
No they aren't, becuase "The Wild" isn't even a Disney film. It's made by a new company in San Francisco called, "Complete Pandemonium". Disney is simply distributing it like Valiant, but it isn't really made or owned by them.
Can't the same be said of Japanese Anime'.........it isn't made by Disney it only distributed by them?
I don't see depth in animation from the Japanese Anime', there is no background motion, and everything is in the foreground. There isn't much fluidity in their walking and running. As far as story goes, they take so long to get to the story that I get totally bored with it. I guess I am just spoiled by the Walt Disney Classics, and Warner Brothers cartoons. To me, these Japanese 'toons are just like Saturday morning cartoons, lots of action and no substance. When I read that Japanese Anime' uses the same amount of gels for a 30-minute Saturday morning 'toon that Disney used for its 7-minute cartoon shorts, that tells me where the quality lies.
I think I give the Japanese Anime' films a fare shake, because I do try to watch them, I rent them whenever I can, but I just can't get into them. I think I would rather watch a terrible B-movie before I sit through an Anime' film.
Maybe it is just the age thing again. I was raised and cut my teeth on Disney and Warner Brothers, so all of the others are just pretenders to the throne.
As people have mentioned before in this thread, Studio Ghibli at least is several cuts above the sort of stuff that gives anime such a bad rap, i.e. Pokemon, DragonballZ, Sailor Moon, etc, etc. I know that Hayao Miyazaki, in particular, has been known to look over every cel of his films and make changes if necessatry - that's how much he cares about what he is crafting. His films have a level od detail and subtlety not seen much in American animation, including Disney.
Let me caution you, though, that animation is not seen in quite the same light in Japan as it is in the US, in that while the common public perception in the US is that animation is only fit for family or kid stories, in Japan ANY story is seen to be a candidate for animation. Grave of the Fireflies is a prime example: an extremely intense, heart-breaking war story that makes Bambi look like an episode of Care Bears. And while quality stories often get animated across the pond, a lot of cheaply done stuff gets made too. Admittedly, I'm not fond of a lot of series and films animated in Japan, but that hardly affects my perception of Japanese animation as a whole.
Soooo...if you are looking for more movement, mroe color, and exciting stories, may I suggest the following by Studio Ghibli:
- My Neighbor Totoro: two sisters meet a family of forest spirits who, in turn, help them thorugh a troubled time. One of the best movies about children and for children out there.
- Porco Rosso: a great, action-packed story about sea plane pilots of the Adriatic Sea. The title character gave up on being human due to his disgust in humanity, and became a pig.
- Kiki's Delivery Service: a young witch leaves home to train and find out what her "special ability" is, which is different for every witch.
- The Cat Returns: a teenage girl helps out a cat one day, and the entire cat kingdom decides to reward her in strange and humorous ways.
Beyond these, my absolute favorite is Princess Mononoke. It's a gorgeous, powerful film which easily stands right up there with the best live-action films I've seen. But, it is slow-going in parts, just to warn you.
I'm sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about some great movies that you might not otherwise see. There are other good directors and studios out there (I also adore the movies of Satoshi Kon, for example), and this is by no means all that even Ghibli has to offer. Even I used to not care for anime much, until I saw just what the very best of Japanese studios had to offer. It's by no means a one-dimensional field.
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