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Everything seems to be heading towards '3D' these days, especially in the world of animation, but I kind of miss the old traditional animated fare, or where as computer animation a la Pixar was new and inventive, it's now the norm, with every studio churning out animated features with varying degrees of results, but following the Pixar mold.

I bring this up, because last night I played the random DVD game, where I reach into a box and pull out something I've likely not watched for about five years to watch in bed/fall asleep to. Only this time I picked out the best Jennier Anniston film ever made, yes the classic of 'Iron Giant'

I can't rave about this film enough, yes it's a story about a boy and his robot, I'm going to like ti, given my TF pedigree, but the animation is so beautiful, the art gently married with the Giant's computerised form. The subtle nuances in his character, I don't know I just became incredibly nostalgic for some trad animation.

I'm a fan of PIxar's work and own all of their dvds except 'Cars' (It's wank), but I find I like Pixar more for their stories and scripts rather than their animation which, while impressive, is less stand out than when it first came on the scene.

Like the Borg, we've adapted, or at least I have.

So I've been watching 'Lilo and stitch', 'Emperor's New Groove' and my old favourite 'Starchaser : Legend of Orin' although that last one is rotor scoped iirc. But it's just nice to watch something different.

I'm not quite brave enough to buy 'Titan AE' for £1 from cash converters yet, but after this night of animated fun, I just might.

I also can't quite get into Ghibli's work, although have recently enjoyed 'Sky Crawlers', wacky dogfighting fun interspliced with talky talky themes on war, youth and stuff.

Not sure why I posted this, guess I just really like 'Iron Giant' and while 'How to train Your dragon' was awesome, I wonder if I'm just nostlagic for a period of animation that produced 90% duds compared to today.

Oh well.

Wildrider wrote:I'm not quite brave enough to buy 'Titan AE' for £1 from cash converters yet, but after this night of animated fun, I just might.

Thinking back, what, ten years... it wasn't terrible IIRC. Treat as a kids' film.

"Titan AE" was made at the end of Don Bluth's decade-long downward spiral. It was by no means the worst of his films from that period ("Thumbellina", "The Pebble and the Penguin" and "Anastasia" were all worse), and it deserves credit for being VERY different from all the Disney-esque movies Bluth had been ironically churned out since breaking away from Disney, but it is very average.

"Titan AE" tends to garner a lot of undue praise by nature of being cocococoCOwritten by Joss Whedon and his fanbase tend to be blind to any bad or average work on his part (they'll defend "Alien Resurrection", I shit you not).


As for the main topic, traditional animation and CG animation are aesthetic choices, each with their own benefits and drawbacks, and like every other film, completely at the mercy of the screenplay and talent brought in to bring them to life.

For me, personally, I prefer the look nad feel of traditional cel-based animation over CG work. Just my visual preference.

"Princess and the Frog" was great and kind of sad that it felt "refreshing" BECAUSE it was traditionally animated. I would like to see a resurrgence in traditional animation in the theatrical feature film market, but I believe the trend has drifted to CG so much lately that there's simply no going back outside of the ocassional "Princess and the Frog" as a visual "novelty".

Wildrider wrote:yes the classic of 'Iron Giant'

I love this film so much. Don't know why my wife can't understand what this film is trying to talk about. This is not just a robot. Anyway....

Wildrider wrote:I'm a fan of PIxar's work and own all of their dvds except 'Cars' (It's wank)

Buy it, if you can find cheap. It is good. I like it very much.

Tom and Jerry by Fred Quimby. It is so good even now.

DrSpengler wrote:"Titan AE" tends to garner a lot of undue praise by nature of being cocococoCOwritten by Joss Whedon and his fanbase tend to be blind to any bad or average work on his part (they'll defend "Alien Resurrection", I shit you not).

Just wanted to defend Alien Resurrection because I thought Jean Pierre-Jeunet's attempt at the Alien franchise was very well done in terms of the visual style.

But then I love 'Amelie', 'A very long Engagement' and 'Delicatessen'. Alien Resurrection is like a very watered down interpretation of him, but it's nice to see it anyway.

And I wish Michael Wincott survived longer than 20 minutes. Loved the voice and the style of that guy.

DrSpengler wrote:"Titan AE" tends to garner a lot of undue praise by nature of being cocococoCOwritten by Joss Whedon and his fanbase tend to be blind to any bad or average work on his part (they'll defend "Alien Resurrection", I shit you not).

A friend of mine adores Titan AE despite having had no idea it had a Whedon connection. I've never seen it, but want to... more because of Ben Edlund, though.

I used to be quite fond of Alien Resurrection (well, barring the last fifteen-twenty minutes anyway) back before I had any idea who Joss Whedon was. Time hasn't been kind to it, though. Whedon has a tendency to absolve himself of blame on anything where he didn't do the directing. He'll take credit for quality gags but tends to dodge the bullet on lazy scriptwriting or where parts just flat out don't make sense.

Alien Ressurection, it has a few redeeming features, Ron Pearlman talking backwards "You will learn I am a man with whom not to ****" or something and genuinely looking more alien than the aliens and surviving and I quite liked the new Ripley and her statuesque predator.

Jenuet's style just grated so badly for me, I'd never seen a film by him before and was gobsmacked that nothing sounded, looked or felt the , in my mind an ALien film should have done. Even the guns looked flimsily made, just looked a bit cheap, yet 'A Vey Long Engagement' is one of my favourite films.

I'm a huge advocat of 'Alien 3' it's a fantastic film, really taps into the fear and horror of an Alien film and the cinematography is breath taking and the whole prison thing worked really well for me, director's cut is fascinating as well. Go go cow alien!

Yup I think I will take the plunge with bit of 'Titan A.E.' can't beat a biut of gratuitious sci-fi, that's why I'll be picking up 'Battle for Terra as well, despite it being shrivelled in the shadow of Avatar.

Brian Cox, nuff said.

Halfshell wrote: I used to be quite fond of Alien Resurrection (well, barring the last fifteen-twenty minutes anyway) back before I had any idea who Joss Whedon was. Time hasn't been kind to it, though. Whedon has a tendency to absolve himself of blame on anything where he didn't do the directing. He'll take credit for quality gags but tends to dodge the bullet on lazy scriptwriting or where parts just flat out don't make sense.

I tend to view it more as the Firefly version of the Buffy movie rather than an Alien film (the dodgy space pirates including a young woman who's got secrets that means she's basically super powered and Ron Pearlman doing his best Adam Baldwin). It's throwaway fun but it's just a shame that the bad ideas- like the Goldfinger spoof- weigh it down.

A few years back my wife and I joined the Disney Movie Club since they had a crazy deal going on, and we were preparing for life with a child. All we have ordered from them are old classics and Pixar films (and The Nightmare Before Christmas, a stellar stop-motion animation film, which was a totally accidental order since I forgot to reply to the monthly selection, but worked out great!). I really love old animation of this sort, with several films coming to mind: Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Jungle Book, The Emperor's New Groove, Dumbo, etc.

Those movies are just good fun and the animation/artwork is amazing. I haven't seen The Princess and The Frog yet, but I was glad to see the Disney studio at least paying attention to the old animation style. It just seems to flow really well on screen...

I love The Emperor's New Groove. The wackiness of the dialogue and the animation fit with each other so well.

It's also great when they properly blend computer animation with hand-drawn. So Aladdin and Beauty & the Beast are good early examples of it, but I was really impressed with its use in Treasure Planet, which I think is quite a cool little film.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire did the same thing, perhaps with more panache.

ganon578 wrote:A few years back my wife and I joined the Disney Movie Club since they had a crazy deal going on,

Speaking about Disney, I still don't understand why they made the Micky Mouse Clubhouse in computer animation. The old Micky Mouse & Friends was animated so good and so fun.

Paul053 wrote:Speaking about Disney, I still don't understand why they made the Micky Mouse Clubhouse in computer animation. The old Micky Mouse & Friends was animated so good and so fun.

Maybe they wanted to demonstrate that Disney is still capable of producing computer animation that looks like it was from the early to mid '90s?

I'd definitely recommend Studio Ghibli films. There are a couple to avoid but the big 3, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle are definitely worth watching. Nausicaa Valley of the Wind is also pretty good, and has Patrick Stewart in it! Come to think of it the voice casts for all of the English dubbed editions are pretty good. Oh and My Neighbor Totorro and Kiki's Delivery Service are beautifully animated.

I likes cel animation too. Somewhere along the way, animation studios got carried away having to appear all future proof rendering stuff in CGI. God knows why, the technology moves so quickly that it dates the work very quickly, whereas traditional hand drawn cel animation stands the test of time. Why? I dunno, but maybe its the craftsmanship thats clearly visible on screen. I'll take a hand drawn background over a CGI wire frame anyday. That said, I'm not a total luddite (I do like Beast Wars after all!), but I just wish it hadn't become the rule for producing animation features.

Although its not totally animated, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? still looks fantastic after all these years, and its mix of live action and animation has yet to be bettered (er, unless you include the animated torpedoes in Hunt For Red October...)

Studio Gilbi's whimsical imagintaive stories are charming, but they haven't blown me away.

I'm a lover of actual drawn animation as well. If you look at 1995's Neon Genesis Evangelion, you see the truly asthonishing amount of details and depth in the images. With that, I don't need GCI anymore, but unfortunatley, that isn't the case...