I saw Inside Out on Friday, which made me want to revist Pixar's Up, another movie that never fails to make me cry. In this case, it was only 5-8 minutes long. Once Ellie's gone, the emotion goes, too. It's a fun adventure for the now Elderly Carl, helpful Kenny the Wilderness Explorer, and the animals they meet on their way to Paradise Falls. The animal characters, Dug and Kevin the rare bird, were well animated. Kevin just squawks, but they get a lot of acting out of her, nonetheless, and Dug is a great dog. It just isn't consistently gripping like Inside Out, but that felt like a more personally relevant story to me, the viewer. I wondered what my dad thinks about Up. He has a lifetime of experience behind him and 3 active grandchildren always grabbing at him. He might find Inside Out ok but Up speaking to him. That's the beauty of Pixar's body of work: something for everyone. And as they keep going, they'll keep fleshing it out in a way that Disney never has, and probably never will. Disney makes princess stories and Pixar makes everybody's story as worthy of telling as a princess'.
Psycho-Pass, episode 1
exciting shots, changed frequently so excitement level was kept up, standard high pitched girl/woman character who goes weak at the knees. poker faced men. Halfway through, I thought, "If this was really Japan, we'd have a mascot." And boom! We've got mascots interacting with the public on the behalf of the police department. Classic! What's also classic, but not in a fun way, is Inspector Akane Tsunemori's constant meltdowns. She actually fires a gun from a knock-kneed position. Get a hold of yourself, Inspector! You went through the Academy, right? You were trained for this, right? I don't think I'll go back to find out. I guess every culture has trouble showing strong, realistic female characters who don't give in to cultural gender stereotypes.
Sometimes I feel bad because everybody around me is drawing manga and cool-looking sword fighting stuff and I'm drawing cute little people. Then I think, stick it! Because Japan is also home to My Neighbour Totoro and more cute Kawaii mascots than you handle. Yin and Yang, living side by side. There's a place for everybody.
Puss in Boots
Very inspiring in terms of shots, camera angles and putting together an exciting sequence. The Tuesday night Dance Fight that Puss gets into with Kitty Soft Paws is worth watching again and again. The Shrek movies, of which this is a spin-off, have really "ugly" humans. They're getting better and better, but I've never liked the look of them as much as Pixar's people. I give them credit, though, Dreamworks has really improved the movement of the people characters. They can be subtle and show thought in slight movements and facial expressions. This is really evident anytime Jack and Jill are on screen discussing Jack's plans for starting a family. Funny stuff.
Watching this gave me an idea: Puss sweeps his hat off to the camera, we cut to black and then the next scene. It made me think about doing some hat work in Monkey Saves the Daypaint. Can my Monkey be as cool as Puss in Boots?
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