2nd Animation Hall of Fame

For my reference:


The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed)
(Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch, 1926) IMDb
1 hour, 21 minutes / My DVD
Nominated by ahwell
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: July 29, 2019 / +


Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira)
(Shin'ichirô Watanabe, Tensai Okamura, Hiroyuki Okiura, and Yoshiyuki Takei, 2001) IMDb
1 hour, 55 minutes / Library DVD
Nominated by edarsenal
Rewatch? No.
Review: July 26, 2019 /


Ernest & Celestine (Ernest et Célestine)
(Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner , 2012) IMDb
1 hour, 20 minutes / My DVD
Nominated by Miss Vicky
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: August 2, 2019 / +


Meet the Robinsons
(Stephen J. Anderson, 2007) IMDb
1 hour, 35 minutes / My blu ray
Nominated by Funny Face
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: July 20, 2019 / +


Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)
(Hayao Miyazaki and Kirk Wise, 2001) IMDb
2 hours, 5 minutes / Library DVD
Nominated by ahwell
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: July 27, 2019 / -


The Sword in the Stone
(Wolfgang Reitherman, 1963) IMDb
1 hour, 19 minutes / Library DVD
Nominated by rauldc14
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: July 23, 2019 / -


Tower
(Keith Maitland, 2016) IMDb
1 hour, 22 minutes / Amazon rental
Nominated by Siddon
Rewatch? No.
Review: August 2, 2019 /


The Wind in the Willows
(Mark Hall, 1983) IMDb
1 hour, 19 minutes / YouTube
Nominated by HashtagBrownies
Rewatch? No.
Review: July 19, 2019 / -


Wizards
(Ralph Bakshi, 1977) IMDb
1 hour, 20 minutes / Library DVD
Nominated by Siddon
Rewatch? No.
Review: July 21, 2019 /


Your Name. (Kimi no na wa.)
(Makoto Shinkai, 2016) IMDb
1 hour, 46 minutes / My blu ray
Nominated by CosmicRunaway
Rewatch? Yes.
Review: August 2, 2019 /

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PROGRAMING NOTE:







WIZARDS will be on FXMHD on July 31st at 1:35 PM

The Wind in the Willows (Mark Hall, 1983)
Imdb

Date Watched: 7/18/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: The Second Animation Hall of Fame, nominated by HashtagBrownies
Rewatch: No

IMDb lists this as a TV movie and it definitely had that feel to it. That's not to say that the stop-motion animation was poorly done, but it did have a certain crudeness to it. Overall, I liked the look of the film and - most of - the character designs (Rat's facial features bothered me. They were too rounded and squirrel-like). There was an impressive amount of attention to detail with the sets and miniatures and I really liked the little touches like the "Semper Buffo" on the Toad Hall flag.

Unfortunately, I didn't care for anything else. What little there was of a story didn't grab me and I found the characters rather annoying - especially Toad, who I absolutely despised. It also didn't help that Toad was frequently breaking out into song. Making an already obnoxious character that much more unbearable.

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Spirited Away

The first time I watched Spirited Away I hated it. The second time I watched it I hated it. The third time I loved it. Why? What worked so well for me in that third viewing - and ever since? I've been trying to figure that out. Is it the whole bandwagon thing? "Everyone agrees its great!" For sure that influenced the fact that I watched a movie I knew I didn't like two times before I liked it. But in terms of my actual enjoyment, I don't think that's affected much. There are plenty of movies that are highly acclaimed that I just don't understand or like. So what is it? It might be that I was past the plot and the actual events in the film itself - it's a pretty simple plot if you think about it. Once I understood that and was past trying to rationalize this weird fantasy world, I realized that trying to rationalize the often absurd elements of Spirited Away is like trying to rationalize movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Inglourious Basterds. So, in essence, I let the giant baby, the chanting heads, the train ride, the witch twins, and everything else just seep in, instead of trying to question why the heck it exists. And that way just completely opened my eyes to the awesome and amazing experience that Spirited Away is. It is so filled with adventurous but quiet excitement, exploding creativity, and bizarre happenings that it's easy to miss it in the two hours of trying to follow Chihiro around while she turns her pig parents back into humans. It is now solidly in my top ten, and I don't see it leaving any time soon. I won't pretend to know what Spirited Away is "about" exactly. And I think that's part of its charm and spell that it casts on me and many others. It lets the movie be about you, letting you experience the struggles of a young girl whisked away to a fantasy land. The things in the movie are just as bizarre to her as they are to us. So I now realize I haven't really answered any of the questions that I posed at the beginning... and I probably never will.
Ah well

If you don't feel like reading that huge chunk, here's my condensed review:
Basically a masterpiece.

It is a masterpiece. I do think it's unique how there's a film that you once didn't like in your top 10. I can't think of a film that is rated that highly by me now that has gone on a similar track like that.

@HashtagBrownies, if you enjoy fantasy, I would highly suggest Fire & Ice which Bakshi joined up with an incredible and iconic Fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta for your next Bakshi film.

In fact, should you care to:


Frazetta was highly known for many cover arts for fantasy books and a few rock albums way back in the day. Was always amazed by his work and this film brought it life.

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Or his version of "Lord of the Rings." Certainly different from the Peter Jacksons to say the least.

HUUUGELY different LOL

Bakshi was big on painting over live action.

Wizards(1977) fun fact: originally this film was titled War Wizards and it was the other franchise Star Wars that requested the name change...oh and Star Wars also plucked this guy


and made him Luke Skywalker, yup Mark Hamill's first voice work was as a fairy in Wizards.

Anyways the film is a trip, inspired by Tolkin and offended by Disney Ralph Bakshi wanted to make an experimental animated film that tackled several heavy topics.




Bakshi wanted to make a film for teenagers, but he also wanted to blend in as many different animation styles as possible he used rotoscoping to trace over live action pieces, he used classic flat animation in the prologue and he would constantly change the camera angles to give you stunning visuals




And while the art style is incredible what I enjoyed most about the film is the characters. Avatar is the lead wizard and yet we're seeing him near the end of the his life, he has doubts and insecurities and that plays out throughout the story. Peace is a fascinating figure a terminator style robot set to first kill Avatar and then to go after Blackwolf. Weehawk was actually one of the weaker characters in the story mostly because he was being set up for a bigger role in the sequel. And finally Elinore



Yup...glad I didn't see this movie when I was 13.

Wind in the Willows- 1983



Why has this movie been made so many damn times? This version I didn't care for all that much. I wouldn't necessarily say I hated it but it didn't stand out for much of anything in the animation department. The sounds we're my biggest annoyance with constant background cricket chirping, background water noises and clock ticking. I get that it is legitimate sounds that could be made at the time but it just felt to stale.

I didn't hate any of the character but there were no standouts either. Often times I went back and forth thinking that Toad was rather obnoxious and overdramatic and sometimes I just found him to be funny. Quite silly seeing him not knowing how to drive the damn cars and then the plane. But my God what an awful song "When the Toad came home was". They would have been much better leaving singing out of this altogether. The animation altogether felt different to me obviously but I'm not sure it was really a different that I cared for either.

Someday I may watch the 1987 version as it looks most promising but not anytime soon. This and Ichabod and Mr. Toad are two movies that leave me scratching my head at the importance of the story The Wind in the Willows.

@ahwell @Miss Vicky @rauldc14 @Siddon @HashtagBrownies @CosmicRunaway

I have a rather a bit of an issue.
Funny Face let me know that there is a 404 Error message for the link I sent you all for my nomination.
I looked and found that they no longer have it on that site. And since this is nearly impossible to find online, depending on how you all want to do this, I may have to switch out nominations with one that IS very easy to find.
If we go the replacement path, I can A: post my new nomination or B: simply send it to Raul. Should we go that way.

So, until this gets worked out, PLEASE, hold off watching Cowboy Bebop for now.

THANK YOU and so very sorry for the inconvenience of it.

I have a 404 message too. Thank you for responding so swiftly.
You don't have to change the nom (Well for me anyway). I can get it on amazon for eight bucks.

I'll go with the crowd if you want a new one

@edarsenal

It doesn't matter to me. My library has the DVD and I've already requested a hold, so that has Funny Face and me covered. But I'll hold off on watching until you make your final decision.

Do a second nom, because I already rented this from Netflix and it looked like something I would score highly based on the trailer.

@edarsenal

I have a HD link for your nom that works. I'll message it to you.

Thanks everyone, I just like to be sure that a nom is available when I put it in, so if everyone can find it elsewhere I would LOVE to leave it. Which is why I spent so long finding a site without pop ups of any kind for it.
For myself I have it at my library as well.
So if everyone is good, then I'll leave it.

And thanks CR, the links didn't work out, but I truly do appreciate your efforts, MOST kind of you!