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Cohen Cartoon Corner Oct ‘23
by Karl Cohen
Scene from 'The Inventor". photo courtesy: Capobianco/GranjonPLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
The Inventor Getting Good Reviews
It’s a delightful stop-motion feature directed by Jim Capobianco. A graduate of Cal Arts, a former Pixar employee with a long list of credits on Pixar features, he received an Oscar nomination for writing “Ratatouille”.
"The Inventor" is suitable for both adults and children. “The movie is marvelous, in a way: It's enchanting to see Leonardo drifting along in a reverie as his sketches fill the screen and sweet Renaissance-style music decorates the soundtrack.” Kyle Smith, according to the Wall Street Journal but corraborated by others.
“Oftentimes da Vinci is pleasantly lost in the cosmos of his mind, what Willy Wonka called ‘Pure Imagination.’ The target audience of “The Inventor” will surely relate.” San Francisco Chronicle
“A history lesson told with tongue-in-cheek wit, this animated tribute to Leonardo da Vinci is as peculiar as it is delightful.” Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue
“Funny, sincere, and moving.” Jackson Murphy, Cartoon Scoop
Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 74% based on 35 reviews. Their Critics Consensus said, ‘A beautifully animated history lesson, “The Inventor” seems somewhat uncertain as to which audience it's trying to reach, but it remains amusing and often engaging.”
Poster for 'My Love Affair With Marriage'. image: courtesy S. BaumaneMy Love Affair With Marriage Toured with Director
“My Love Affair With Marriage” by Signe Baumane had its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to screen at over ninety film festivals worldwide. It won twenty three awards including the Grand Prix at the Animafest Zagreb and a major prize at Annecy. It begins its West Coast tour with Signe appearing in person at screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and other cities.
“My Love Affair With Marriage” follows Zelma on her 23-year quest for perfect love and lasting marriage. She is a spirited young woman determined to find love in the bewildering world. Told from a woman’s point of view, the film blends historical, biological, social, and emotional arcs with a lively sense of humor and musical numbers. This animated film for adults tackles the issues of love, gender norms, domestic violence, fantasies, and toxic relationships to propel a woman's journey toward independence and liberation.
The film has a remarkable innovative look that combines hand drawn animation with dramatically lit 3D miniature sets and effects. It is an international co-production of companies in Latvia, the United States and Luxembourg, and it took seven years to complete. Baumane wrote, directed, and animated the film. Kristian Sensini from Italy composed 24 songs and wrote the score. Yajun Shi of China animated the biology sections. Dagmara Dominczyk voiced Zelma and Matthew Modine is an executive producer and plays "Bo", one of Zelma's husbands.
Signe’s award-winning animated feature will play in San Francisco at the Vogue Theatre, October 16, with Signe doing a Q&A. The date is firm, but she will not know the starting time until early October. She also knows she will be in the area from about Oct. 15 – 20 and she will do a Q&A in San Jose and at the Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol (details to be announced later). For updated screening details or trailer
Critics On My Love Affair With Marriage
"Latvian filmmaker Signe Baumane quietly delivered one of the best female resistance films of the year — and it's animated. It's a wonderful surprise in a movie already filled to the brim with them. It's a sprawling story that follows the life of Zelma (voiced by Dagmara Dominczyk), a girl who is destined to walk down the much-tread path of her ancestors to be married to a man and taken care of.
But the more she grows up and experiences new things, including bullies at school and terrible boyfriends, the more she realizes that what's destined for her may not be for her. Her body even resists the thought of such conformity.
“My Love Affair With Marriage” is an exuberant and complex movie about the journey to female rebellion," notes Candice Frederick, in HuffPost.
"Funny, moving, and visually stunning throughout, it's easily one of the most distinct animated films I've seen in quite a while and it serves as a needed reminder that animation is an art form that can be used for more than family-oriented narratives." – Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com
"A joyfully exuberant piece of work that manages to conduct some serious examination of human behavior whilst always being nothing less than gloriously entertaining. Many of its themes of gender, identity and conformity also seem incredibly timely." – Laurence Boyce, Cineuropa
"This film is something special. It's unafraid to reveal our innermost thoughts, fears, hopes, regrets, mistakes, and dreams. It celebrates unfiltered authenticity with clever writing and delightful visuals. It's an outstanding feminist film that will undoubtedly win over audiences everywhere." – Liz Whittemore, ReelNewsDaily
"One of the best movies of the year. Signe Baumane's film is absolutely brimming with life, wonder, exploration, grief, trauma, longing, love, and so much more to the point where you could easily argue that this is the most expressive film in years." – Caillou Pettis, Caillou Pettis Movie Reviews
For those who have more contained ideas about animated films, “My Love Affair with Marriage” will doubtless make them think twice about the medium's endless possibilities. This is a deeply funny, socially conscious sharp satire with heart." – Josh Batchelder, Josh at the Movies
"Right from the start, Signe Baumane's animation proves it has earned a place in the hallowed halls of raw storytelling. Rough, storybook-sketched 2D characters are layered on top of highly texturized stop-motion backgrounds, detailing every paint stroke, scrape, sometimes even mold spore. And the imagery is just the start." – Victoria Davis, Animation World Network
Animated Features Released In October
“Girls und Panzer das Finale, Part 4” (Japan) opens Oct. 6
“Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match” (US) opens Oct. 17
“Johnny Puff: Secret Mission” (US, Spain, Italy) opens Oct. 20
“Lendarys” (France, Canada) opens Oct. 26
“Digiman Advednture 1L The Beginning” (Japan) opens Oct 27
“Justice League X RWBY Suoedr Heroeds and Huntsmen: Part Two” (US) Oct. 31
Scene from Bill Plympton’s new feature, the musical-comedy-western 'Slide'. photo courtesy: B. PlymptonCohen's Review of the Mill Valley Festival
The festival included six new animated features and 18 animated shorts by both well know directors including Hayao Miyazaki, John Musker, and Bill Plympton and new emerging talent. They range from family films to far out experimental work. The festival ran from October 5 to 15 see details.
Plympton in Person with a New Feature
Bill Plympton’s new feature, "Slide", is a musical comedy western. Plympton describes the film as being about a logging town where “there’s a lot of lumberjacks, fishermen, and fog…and corruption. A mystical Clint Eastwood-type cowboy gets rid of the bad guys with his music.”
Bill’s growing up in the rural regions of Clackamas County, Oregon, influenced his creating “Slide.” Another influence was the old country music Plympton’s father liked, such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline. “I played a lot of slide guitar when I was younger,” he says.
ASIFA-SF’s Nancy Phelps saw a rough-cut screening of the film at Annecy. She told me she really enjoyed the film. "I think that Bill’s new feature is his best one ever and the music is great.”
Animation can be a time-intensive labor of love and “Slide” is no exception. “I did every drawing on this film,” Plympton says.
“It’s about 40,000 drawings. It’s pretty-rare, but for me, it was a joy. It took me seven years. COVID made it difficult to finance.” For that financing, Plympton turned to Kickstarter. 593 backers pledged a total of $84,145, slightly above the campaign’s goal of $77,800.
Earlier this year the roughcut of “Slide” was shown out of competition at the Annecy Festival in France. Now, the just-completed film has been shown at 2023 Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology, and the Woodstock Film Festival in late September.
Plympton says, “If Mel Brooks became a cartoonist, and Clint Eastwood too, and they made a film together, it’d be something like 'Slide'.” See trailer.
Robot Dreams Delightful Celebration
“Robot Dreams” Spain, France, 2023, 103 mins, directed by Pablo Berger is remarkable in several ways, including it not having spoken dialog. The film is a tale of friendship set in 1980s Manhattan. It is based on Sara Varon’s graphic novel about a lonely dog who purchases a robot. They bond and go off and have a wonderful time in a city populated by funny anthropomorphized animals. It is a tale of inseparable friendship that has its ups and downs. It becomes a tragicomedy that resonates with themes of acceptance, diversity, and enduring companionship.
It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the grand prize at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Festival. (This is not the 1988 feature of the same name that is based on short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov.)
Master Animation Class with John Musker
John Musker, a legendary animator, screenwriter, director, and producer is one of the creative talents behind some of the most iconic and beloved animated classics including “Aladdin”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “Moana”.
He gave an inside look into the process of his newest venture, his independently made short I'm Hip. It includes caricatures of animation colleagues, friends, and family. He will share his insights and wisdom about writing and directing animation. I’m Hip is about a self-absorbed cat in a jazzy song and dance film in which he proudly and comically proclaims his “hipness” to the world. The world is less convinced than he is. Recommended for all ages.
The Boy And The Heron by Hayao Miyazaki
The highly anticipated film from the legendary Academy Award-winning Hayao Miyazaki (co-founder of Japan's celebrated animation house, Studio Ghibli) has received outstanding reviews in Japan. Released as Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (translated as How Do You Live), the film is an original story written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by the Oscar®-winning Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki, and features a musical score from Miyazaki's long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi.
They Shot the Piano Player
2023, Spain, France, 103 minutes, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (the genius duo behind Chico & Rita) is an upbeat, bold work that follows Jeff, a New York music journalist voiced by Jeff Goldblum, on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of a young Brazilian piano virtuoso, Francisco Tenório Júnior. The resulting musical feature is not only an homage to the life of Tenório Jr. but also a celebratory origin story of the bossa nova musical movement, capturing a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s, just before some South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina fell under totalitarian regimes.
The film casts some of música popular Brasileira’s greatest figures, from João Gilberto to Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, Paulo Moura, and others, all of them giving heartfelt testimony to the enormous talent and vision that Tenório Jr. had and shared with them. Jeff Goldblum’s work as the main character and narrator “encapsulates the passion that seeps through the luminous animation.” The film takes us on a vibrant journey to the heart of a music that would change history forever, and shares the tragic story of a musician whose life was cut far too short.
Rosa and the Stone Troll
Rosa is a little insecure and dutiful flower fairy who always lived alone in her rosebush. More than anything she dreams of having a friend, but she is scared of everything and never dared to go out to the Summerland to meet one. One day the cool and adventurous butterfly Silk crosses paths with Rosa and they immediately become friends despite their differences. Silk wants to go on adventures in the Summerland and Rosa just wants to stay in her safe bush. But when Silk is kidnapped by an evil Stone Troll, Rosa lets go of her fears and set out on a dangerous journey to save her best friend. See trailer.
Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds
The artwork in the trailers is quite “trippy.” Agnès, the neighbor of Juliette (4 years old) and Carmen (8 years old), writes children's books that take place in a fantastic world, The Kingdom of the Winds. The two sisters discover a passage between their world and this extraordinary universe. Once there, the two girls take the appearance of cats, and discover the existence of Sirocco, this terrifying character able to control the wind.
Animated Shorts
The short program "Monster, Movies and the Moon" includes "Operation Frankenstein". Three siblings decide to create their own Frankenstein monster after finding parts of a discarded mannequin. But will you give life to your creation when you're seven years old and can only count on the help of your two older siblings? See trailer.
New Moon An imaginative surrealist journey of young Jay Jay and his mother Edie. Their inner-city dreams are illuminated by the new moon accompanied by the magic of Aretha Franklin playing on a summer's eve on a transistor radio in a backyard in West Philadelphia. Weirdo Could Jasmine and her middle-school frenemies be humanity’s best chance at stopping a monster invasion?
Short Program: Vive el Cine Infantil!
As part of MVFF’s ¡Viva el cine infantil! is a program for families including younger viewers. It celebrates Spanish-language and Latinx films. These are kid-centric animated and narrative shorts. Ages 6+
In “Cleo & Nina", Sara is 5 years old and loves the stories of her grandmother, Nina. They live in different countries, therefore they have not seen each other in a long time. Sara constantly asks her mother to call Nina to hear "the best stories in the world." The short film is an animated documentary that illustrates the telephone conversation in which Nina tells Sara the story of Cleo, her pet pig when she was a child.
“With a Wool Ball" is set in the hills of northwestern Argentina, where a girl spends the winter in her hut. She weaves colored ponchos and goes in search of her friends, native animals of the area, to keep them warm with her wool and to invite them to her hut to drink mate together and warm up with a story and a song.
In “Mist", (Niebla) Nicolas is a kid who has moved with his parents to the suburbs near to an ancient fog forest. The place takes on a new meaning when he starts to have mysterious encounters with native animals. He will discover a forest full of life and will understand the importance between humans and nature.
“La Calesita" is a heartfelt story of the beloved Argentinian merry-go-round operators who have dedicated their lives to providing fun and happiness to children and their neighborhoods. This is a story of perseverance and community above the individual.
Short Program: The Circle Game
The program includes “The Innocent Bystander”, an affectionate tribute to the late San Francisco musician Dan Hicks, and “Starling” made by people who work at Pixar.
“Starling” stars a mischievous star spirit travels home to Istanbul to celebrate her birthday with her family one last time. After being blown off course, she must maneuver through the city before time runs out. The film was created by Pixar employees: Mitra Shahidi, director and writer, US 2023, 9 min. Producer Jessica Heidt; Editor Ayse Arkali; Cinematographer and Composer Andrew Jimenez; and Animation Supervisor Holger Leihe.
Short Program: Youth Works
A collection of peer-reviewed, youth-produced short films that showcases an international cohort of storytellers who span genres from animation to documentary, comedy, horror, and drama. Seven of the thirteen works are animated. The animated works are:
“My Sisters in the Stars: The Story of Lee Yong-Soo” covers a woman born in Daegu, Korea in 1928 under Japanese occupation. She was taken away from her home at the age of 14 by the Imperial Japanese Army and forced into sexual slavery on the front lines of the Pacific Theater in World War II. She is one of 11 remaining known “comfort women” survivors in Korea, a system that claimed more than 200,000 women and girls from Japanese-occupied territories throughout Asia from 1932 to 1945.
The short film “Burnout” shows the childlike creativity that fuels our ideas and how that can turn sour if expended in large bursts too quickly. The narrative is the journey of finding where creativity begins and the conflict of creative expiration through the concept of burnout.
Nancy Phelps wrote me, “’Burnout’ was made by our good friend Dario who was one of the original founders of the KLIK festival. It is the true story of his burnout and during the making of the film his producer suffered burnout and is moving from her native The Netherlands to Budapest to become a poet.”
In “Mountain Man” the eponymous hero battles an antagonist made of stone amidst a harsh winter landscape. Good thing he’s a skilled skier.
In “Room” a teenager struggles with depression and social anxiety, expressing it by locking himself in his imaginary room where his life plays out. The film is shown from the boy’s perspective in his “room” showing how real-life events affect him in it. Since the pandemic began, many teenagers have experienced feelings of isolation and some of them still struggle to overcome their depression even after the pandemic subsides as this boy can't get out of his psychological lockdown.
A man remembers his past and his memories shape his choices in “Yesterday, Again”.
In “Better Late Than Never”, two cousins arrive at Grandma's Day of the Dead celebration and wait for their Tia Carmen to arrive with the food.
Nightmare Before Christmas
One or more theaters in the Bay Area are likely to be showing this annual favorite before Halloween.
The 13th Annual Albany Filmfest 2023
The festival ran from October 12th to 15th at the Rialto Cinemas Cerrito, 10070 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito. In the program Seeing/Believing, Sat, Oct. 14, 10am, they will present seven eclectic short docs and narrative films “that look at believing what we don’t see, believing what we do see, and believing in what we see in ourselves.”
Two of them are animated. They are Sepe Rafiei’s Bunny is Missing (Celine's cat, Bunny, is missing, prompting a desperate search that leads to an unexpected discovery) and Laurel Eisenmann’s 3 AM (one night, a girl struggles to differentiate the parallel worlds of her dreams and reality as they begin to overlap). For information see program.
Karl F. Cohen—who added his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .
Posted on Nov 03, 2023 - 01:23 PM
by Karl Cohen
Scene from 'The Inventor". photo courtesy: Capobianco/GranjonThe Inventor Getting Good Reviews
It’s a delightful stop-motion feature directed by Jim Capobianco. A graduate of Cal Arts, a former Pixar employee with a long list of credits on Pixar features, he received an Oscar nomination for writing “Ratatouille”.
"The Inventor" is suitable for both adults and children. “The movie is marvelous, in a way: It's enchanting to see Leonardo drifting along in a reverie as his sketches fill the screen and sweet Renaissance-style music decorates the soundtrack.” Kyle Smith, according to the Wall Street Journal but corraborated by others.
“Oftentimes da Vinci is pleasantly lost in the cosmos of his mind, what Willy Wonka called ‘Pure Imagination.’ The target audience of “The Inventor” will surely relate.” San Francisco Chronicle
“A history lesson told with tongue-in-cheek wit, this animated tribute to Leonardo da Vinci is as peculiar as it is delightful.” Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue
“Funny, sincere, and moving.” Jackson Murphy, Cartoon Scoop
Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 74% based on 35 reviews. Their Critics Consensus said, ‘A beautifully animated history lesson, “The Inventor” seems somewhat uncertain as to which audience it's trying to reach, but it remains amusing and often engaging.”
Poster for 'My Love Affair With Marriage'. image: courtesy S. Baumane“My Love Affair With Marriage” by Signe Baumane had its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to screen at over ninety film festivals worldwide. It won twenty three awards including the Grand Prix at the Animafest Zagreb and a major prize at Annecy. It begins its West Coast tour with Signe appearing in person at screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and other cities.
“My Love Affair With Marriage” follows Zelma on her 23-year quest for perfect love and lasting marriage. She is a spirited young woman determined to find love in the bewildering world. Told from a woman’s point of view, the film blends historical, biological, social, and emotional arcs with a lively sense of humor and musical numbers. This animated film for adults tackles the issues of love, gender norms, domestic violence, fantasies, and toxic relationships to propel a woman's journey toward independence and liberation.
The film has a remarkable innovative look that combines hand drawn animation with dramatically lit 3D miniature sets and effects. It is an international co-production of companies in Latvia, the United States and Luxembourg, and it took seven years to complete. Baumane wrote, directed, and animated the film. Kristian Sensini from Italy composed 24 songs and wrote the score. Yajun Shi of China animated the biology sections. Dagmara Dominczyk voiced Zelma and Matthew Modine is an executive producer and plays "Bo", one of Zelma's husbands.
Signe’s award-winning animated feature will play in San Francisco at the Vogue Theatre, October 16, with Signe doing a Q&A. The date is firm, but she will not know the starting time until early October. She also knows she will be in the area from about Oct. 15 – 20 and she will do a Q&A in San Jose and at the Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol (details to be announced later). For updated screening details or trailer
Critics On My Love Affair With Marriage
"Latvian filmmaker Signe Baumane quietly delivered one of the best female resistance films of the year — and it's animated. It's a wonderful surprise in a movie already filled to the brim with them. It's a sprawling story that follows the life of Zelma (voiced by Dagmara Dominczyk), a girl who is destined to walk down the much-tread path of her ancestors to be married to a man and taken care of.
But the more she grows up and experiences new things, including bullies at school and terrible boyfriends, the more she realizes that what's destined for her may not be for her. Her body even resists the thought of such conformity.
“My Love Affair With Marriage” is an exuberant and complex movie about the journey to female rebellion," notes Candice Frederick, in HuffPost.
"Funny, moving, and visually stunning throughout, it's easily one of the most distinct animated films I've seen in quite a while and it serves as a needed reminder that animation is an art form that can be used for more than family-oriented narratives." – Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com
"A joyfully exuberant piece of work that manages to conduct some serious examination of human behavior whilst always being nothing less than gloriously entertaining. Many of its themes of gender, identity and conformity also seem incredibly timely." – Laurence Boyce, Cineuropa
"This film is something special. It's unafraid to reveal our innermost thoughts, fears, hopes, regrets, mistakes, and dreams. It celebrates unfiltered authenticity with clever writing and delightful visuals. It's an outstanding feminist film that will undoubtedly win over audiences everywhere." – Liz Whittemore, ReelNewsDaily
"One of the best movies of the year. Signe Baumane's film is absolutely brimming with life, wonder, exploration, grief, trauma, longing, love, and so much more to the point where you could easily argue that this is the most expressive film in years." – Caillou Pettis, Caillou Pettis Movie Reviews
For those who have more contained ideas about animated films, “My Love Affair with Marriage” will doubtless make them think twice about the medium's endless possibilities. This is a deeply funny, socially conscious sharp satire with heart." – Josh Batchelder, Josh at the Movies
"Right from the start, Signe Baumane's animation proves it has earned a place in the hallowed halls of raw storytelling. Rough, storybook-sketched 2D characters are layered on top of highly texturized stop-motion backgrounds, detailing every paint stroke, scrape, sometimes even mold spore. And the imagery is just the start." – Victoria Davis, Animation World Network
Animated Features Released In October
“Girls und Panzer das Finale, Part 4” (Japan) opens Oct. 6
“Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match” (US) opens Oct. 17
“Johnny Puff: Secret Mission” (US, Spain, Italy) opens Oct. 20
“Lendarys” (France, Canada) opens Oct. 26
“Digiman Advednture 1L The Beginning” (Japan) opens Oct 27
“Justice League X RWBY Suoedr Heroeds and Huntsmen: Part Two” (US) Oct. 31
Scene from Bill Plympton’s new feature, the musical-comedy-western 'Slide'. photo courtesy: B. PlymptonThe festival included six new animated features and 18 animated shorts by both well know directors including Hayao Miyazaki, John Musker, and Bill Plympton and new emerging talent. They range from family films to far out experimental work. The festival ran from October 5 to 15 see details.
Plympton in Person with a New Feature
Bill Plympton’s new feature, "Slide", is a musical comedy western. Plympton describes the film as being about a logging town where “there’s a lot of lumberjacks, fishermen, and fog…and corruption. A mystical Clint Eastwood-type cowboy gets rid of the bad guys with his music.”
Bill’s growing up in the rural regions of Clackamas County, Oregon, influenced his creating “Slide.” Another influence was the old country music Plympton’s father liked, such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline. “I played a lot of slide guitar when I was younger,” he says.
ASIFA-SF’s Nancy Phelps saw a rough-cut screening of the film at Annecy. She told me she really enjoyed the film. "I think that Bill’s new feature is his best one ever and the music is great.”
Animation can be a time-intensive labor of love and “Slide” is no exception. “I did every drawing on this film,” Plympton says.
“It’s about 40,000 drawings. It’s pretty-rare, but for me, it was a joy. It took me seven years. COVID made it difficult to finance.” For that financing, Plympton turned to Kickstarter. 593 backers pledged a total of $84,145, slightly above the campaign’s goal of $77,800.
Earlier this year the roughcut of “Slide” was shown out of competition at the Annecy Festival in France. Now, the just-completed film has been shown at 2023 Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology, and the Woodstock Film Festival in late September.
Plympton says, “If Mel Brooks became a cartoonist, and Clint Eastwood too, and they made a film together, it’d be something like 'Slide'.” See trailer.
Robot Dreams Delightful Celebration
“Robot Dreams” Spain, France, 2023, 103 mins, directed by Pablo Berger is remarkable in several ways, including it not having spoken dialog. The film is a tale of friendship set in 1980s Manhattan. It is based on Sara Varon’s graphic novel about a lonely dog who purchases a robot. They bond and go off and have a wonderful time in a city populated by funny anthropomorphized animals. It is a tale of inseparable friendship that has its ups and downs. It becomes a tragicomedy that resonates with themes of acceptance, diversity, and enduring companionship.
It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the grand prize at the 2023 Annecy International Animation Festival. (This is not the 1988 feature of the same name that is based on short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov.)
Master Animation Class with John Musker
John Musker, a legendary animator, screenwriter, director, and producer is one of the creative talents behind some of the most iconic and beloved animated classics including “Aladdin”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “Moana”.
He gave an inside look into the process of his newest venture, his independently made short I'm Hip. It includes caricatures of animation colleagues, friends, and family. He will share his insights and wisdom about writing and directing animation. I’m Hip is about a self-absorbed cat in a jazzy song and dance film in which he proudly and comically proclaims his “hipness” to the world. The world is less convinced than he is. Recommended for all ages.
The Boy And The Heron by Hayao Miyazaki
The highly anticipated film from the legendary Academy Award-winning Hayao Miyazaki (co-founder of Japan's celebrated animation house, Studio Ghibli) has received outstanding reviews in Japan. Released as Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (translated as How Do You Live), the film is an original story written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by the Oscar®-winning Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki, and features a musical score from Miyazaki's long-time collaborator Joe Hisaishi.
They Shot the Piano Player
2023, Spain, France, 103 minutes, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (the genius duo behind Chico & Rita) is an upbeat, bold work that follows Jeff, a New York music journalist voiced by Jeff Goldblum, on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of a young Brazilian piano virtuoso, Francisco Tenório Júnior. The resulting musical feature is not only an homage to the life of Tenório Jr. but also a celebratory origin story of the bossa nova musical movement, capturing a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s, just before some South American countries such as Brazil and Argentina fell under totalitarian regimes.
The film casts some of música popular Brasileira’s greatest figures, from João Gilberto to Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, Paulo Moura, and others, all of them giving heartfelt testimony to the enormous talent and vision that Tenório Jr. had and shared with them. Jeff Goldblum’s work as the main character and narrator “encapsulates the passion that seeps through the luminous animation.” The film takes us on a vibrant journey to the heart of a music that would change history forever, and shares the tragic story of a musician whose life was cut far too short.
Rosa and the Stone Troll
Rosa is a little insecure and dutiful flower fairy who always lived alone in her rosebush. More than anything she dreams of having a friend, but she is scared of everything and never dared to go out to the Summerland to meet one. One day the cool and adventurous butterfly Silk crosses paths with Rosa and they immediately become friends despite their differences. Silk wants to go on adventures in the Summerland and Rosa just wants to stay in her safe bush. But when Silk is kidnapped by an evil Stone Troll, Rosa lets go of her fears and set out on a dangerous journey to save her best friend. See trailer.
Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds
The artwork in the trailers is quite “trippy.” Agnès, the neighbor of Juliette (4 years old) and Carmen (8 years old), writes children's books that take place in a fantastic world, The Kingdom of the Winds. The two sisters discover a passage between their world and this extraordinary universe. Once there, the two girls take the appearance of cats, and discover the existence of Sirocco, this terrifying character able to control the wind.
Animated Shorts
The short program "Monster, Movies and the Moon" includes "Operation Frankenstein". Three siblings decide to create their own Frankenstein monster after finding parts of a discarded mannequin. But will you give life to your creation when you're seven years old and can only count on the help of your two older siblings? See trailer.
New Moon An imaginative surrealist journey of young Jay Jay and his mother Edie. Their inner-city dreams are illuminated by the new moon accompanied by the magic of Aretha Franklin playing on a summer's eve on a transistor radio in a backyard in West Philadelphia. Weirdo Could Jasmine and her middle-school frenemies be humanity’s best chance at stopping a monster invasion?
Short Program: Vive el Cine Infantil!
As part of MVFF’s ¡Viva el cine infantil! is a program for families including younger viewers. It celebrates Spanish-language and Latinx films. These are kid-centric animated and narrative shorts. Ages 6+
In “Cleo & Nina", Sara is 5 years old and loves the stories of her grandmother, Nina. They live in different countries, therefore they have not seen each other in a long time. Sara constantly asks her mother to call Nina to hear "the best stories in the world." The short film is an animated documentary that illustrates the telephone conversation in which Nina tells Sara the story of Cleo, her pet pig when she was a child.
“With a Wool Ball" is set in the hills of northwestern Argentina, where a girl spends the winter in her hut. She weaves colored ponchos and goes in search of her friends, native animals of the area, to keep them warm with her wool and to invite them to her hut to drink mate together and warm up with a story and a song.
In “Mist", (Niebla) Nicolas is a kid who has moved with his parents to the suburbs near to an ancient fog forest. The place takes on a new meaning when he starts to have mysterious encounters with native animals. He will discover a forest full of life and will understand the importance between humans and nature.
“La Calesita" is a heartfelt story of the beloved Argentinian merry-go-round operators who have dedicated their lives to providing fun and happiness to children and their neighborhoods. This is a story of perseverance and community above the individual.
Short Program: The Circle Game
The program includes “The Innocent Bystander”, an affectionate tribute to the late San Francisco musician Dan Hicks, and “Starling” made by people who work at Pixar.
“Starling” stars a mischievous star spirit travels home to Istanbul to celebrate her birthday with her family one last time. After being blown off course, she must maneuver through the city before time runs out. The film was created by Pixar employees: Mitra Shahidi, director and writer, US 2023, 9 min. Producer Jessica Heidt; Editor Ayse Arkali; Cinematographer and Composer Andrew Jimenez; and Animation Supervisor Holger Leihe.
Short Program: Youth Works
A collection of peer-reviewed, youth-produced short films that showcases an international cohort of storytellers who span genres from animation to documentary, comedy, horror, and drama. Seven of the thirteen works are animated. The animated works are:
“My Sisters in the Stars: The Story of Lee Yong-Soo” covers a woman born in Daegu, Korea in 1928 under Japanese occupation. She was taken away from her home at the age of 14 by the Imperial Japanese Army and forced into sexual slavery on the front lines of the Pacific Theater in World War II. She is one of 11 remaining known “comfort women” survivors in Korea, a system that claimed more than 200,000 women and girls from Japanese-occupied territories throughout Asia from 1932 to 1945.
The short film “Burnout” shows the childlike creativity that fuels our ideas and how that can turn sour if expended in large bursts too quickly. The narrative is the journey of finding where creativity begins and the conflict of creative expiration through the concept of burnout.
Nancy Phelps wrote me, “’Burnout’ was made by our good friend Dario who was one of the original founders of the KLIK festival. It is the true story of his burnout and during the making of the film his producer suffered burnout and is moving from her native The Netherlands to Budapest to become a poet.”
In “Mountain Man” the eponymous hero battles an antagonist made of stone amidst a harsh winter landscape. Good thing he’s a skilled skier.
In “Room” a teenager struggles with depression and social anxiety, expressing it by locking himself in his imaginary room where his life plays out. The film is shown from the boy’s perspective in his “room” showing how real-life events affect him in it. Since the pandemic began, many teenagers have experienced feelings of isolation and some of them still struggle to overcome their depression even after the pandemic subsides as this boy can't get out of his psychological lockdown.
A man remembers his past and his memories shape his choices in “Yesterday, Again”.
In “Better Late Than Never”, two cousins arrive at Grandma's Day of the Dead celebration and wait for their Tia Carmen to arrive with the food.
Nightmare Before Christmas
One or more theaters in the Bay Area are likely to be showing this annual favorite before Halloween.
The 13th Annual Albany Filmfest 2023
The festival ran from October 12th to 15th at the Rialto Cinemas Cerrito, 10070 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito. In the program Seeing/Believing, Sat, Oct. 14, 10am, they will present seven eclectic short docs and narrative films “that look at believing what we don’t see, believing what we do see, and believing in what we see in ourselves.”
Two of them are animated. They are Sepe Rafiei’s Bunny is Missing (Celine's cat, Bunny, is missing, prompting a desperate search that leads to an unexpected discovery) and Laurel Eisenmann’s 3 AM (one night, a girl struggles to differentiate the parallel worlds of her dreams and reality as they begin to overlap). For information see program.
Karl F. Cohen—who added his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .
Posted on Nov 03, 2023 - 01:23 PM
