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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 07/23/2008 : 21:53:05
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I missed this one at Sundance 2007, and frankly I'm a little hesitant to "recommend" it to you. I just watched it, and I'm not even sure whether I "liked" it or not. All I do know is: I couldn't take my eyes off the screen; it's the most creatively original animated film I've ever encountered; and this is brand new stuff -- you've never seen anything like this before.
The director/designer/writer/animator/etc etc etc calls himself M dot Strange. [His real name's Mike Belmont, but I like the nom de cinema better.] It took him three years to put this together, and he promoted it on YouTube until he got the call from Sundance, which booked WATS for its midnight series [that's why I missed it].
The "plot" is virtually nonexistent. You're inside an abandoned video game and you've chosen the perspective of the character called "Camera," which doesn't participate, only records. The story is something about a boy who wants to ride a train to get some ice cream and a beautiful dancer whose blue skin turns scaly every time she speaks or smiles. [Still with me?]
The plot is not the point. The point is an eye-poppingly inventive combination of traditional animation, computer-assisted movement, stop-motion, and Eighties-style 8-bit graphics, for an effect which the filmmaker [quite fwifferly, in fact] calls "Str8nime." The tabletop work is as good as Henry Selick's. This is a DIY film, but by someone who really knew what he was doing.
What makes it remarkable, though, is the magnificent graphic inventiveness of the world depicted, at the pace and with the logic of a dream. Clouds whiz by, shapes form and mutate, creatures that only exist otherwise in the mind of Bosch or Del Toro [way, way beyond, say, MIRRORMASK] charm and menace. Nearly every frame is crammed with so much exotica that you just can't take it all in [again, like a dream]. The soundtrack is as weird as are the images. This guy is bursting with creativity.
WATS has a bold beauty that really enthralled me -- but I nearly turned it off after five minutes. This is because I hadn't yet surrendered to the illogic and didn't think I would have the patience. It was the fabulous images [and perfectly matched sound fx] that won me over. But don't blame me if you hate it: you have been warned. This one won't be everybody's cuppa, but in the time it took to write this, I've decided my thumb is way up. 88 minutes, less intelligible dialogue than WALL-E.
Here the official website if you want to learn more.
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 07/23/2008 : 22:16:26
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| I heard a review from a guy who really, really hated it, and that has kind of put me off of it. But more importantly, the guy calls himself M dot Strange, which REALLY puts me off of it. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 07/23/2008 : 22:30:24
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If you're suggesting that the director himself hated the movie [he had to fight to make the Sundance deadline], try it on his DVD, as I did: you can either watch the "released" version [we must pause to chuckle at that] [ok, straight face again] or dot's cut, with all his pre-"release" cuts [listed as zapped "for pacing"] restored.
But, even more importantly: you're saying you won't give this visual Zappaesque flick a try because of something you read? |
Edited by - randall on 07/23/2008 22:34:21 |
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MisterBadIdea
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 07/23/2008 : 23:43:47
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The guy made a convincing argument (more convincing than yours -- sorry), and I have a million other movies I actually do need to see which actually sound good, but more importantly, the guy named himself M dot Strange. It's difficult to imagine someone who would actually call themselves M dot Strange making something worth watching. That's a stupid name. (So is Str8nime.)
Toy Story was amazingly inventive for its time, but mostly people said they were impressed with it because it didn't rest on the splendor of its visuals. I haven't seen it, but I'm really not convinced that We Are the Strange is more than just random scribble-scrabble. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 07/23/2008 : 23:55:57
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| OK, fair enough. I'll see you at the next McG or Tarsem. [And I bet I will!] |
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We Are The Strange
