American Splendor

American Splendor features Paul Giamatti, playing Harvey Pekar, the author of the autobiographical comics American Splendor. I found American Splendor to be very similar to the documentary “Crumb”. This shouldn’t be a great surprise, however, as Pekar and Crumb were close friends, and Crumb actually illustrated many of Pekar’s novels. What to me seamed to be congruent between the two films was the characters that were featured. Again, this shouldn’t be a shocker as Crumb and Pekar were friends, and it should be unsurprising that the two would rub off on each other.

The film, I feel, was very well constructed. I feel like they did a great job at tying in personal history, artistic style, and narrative, to make a piece that was coherent, entertaining, and accurate the man and his comics. I also feel that the film was cast exceptionally well. Giamatti always does a great job at playing run down, depressed characters; in this particular role all Giamatti needed to change in his acting style was to amp up the weirdness. Other people, such as Joyce Brabner and Toby Radloff were cast by very skilled actors. When I saw the actors, and then the actual people they were portraying, I was shocked at how well they captured the likeness.

Pekar, Brabner, and Radloff all have very distinct personalities and mannerisms; that the film was comprised of such unique personalities contributes a certain peculiarity towards the film. Ultimately, this peculiarity coupled with the general melancholy of Pekar led to me receiving the film poorly. I walked away from this film respecting how effectively and artistically it communicated the life and art of Pekar, but feeling a bit unsettled and depressed no less. While it was well constructed, the movie still focused on a very odd, frustrated, and depressed man, and therefore was by no means a very light watch.

There were points of this movie that I did enjoy however. In building up to his meeting of his would be wife Joyce Brabner, and the beginnings of his career as a comic author, we are shown the struggles of Pekar. This of course, just equates to a greater amount of emotional impact when good fortune find Pekar. I do not feel as though this film balanced out the negative aspects of Pekar with his positives, however, and the end result of this is that I found myself annoyed with Pekar and his struggles, instead of sympathizing with him.

Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts

Electric Dragon is an interesting film, to say the least. I’ve watched the film 3 times throughout the course of this class, and I still can’t say for sure how I feel about the film, or precisely what happened. General confusion aside, however, Electric Dragon does a great job at conveying the mood and pace of comic media.

The Film is fast paced, exciting and brimming with ‘badassness’. Conversely however, the film is also confusing, corrosive, and far too often incoherent. I enjoyed the mood of the film, but I feel like I lost far too much of what the creators were trying to convey in regards to story content and characters. In the end I fathomed that there are two electricity themed superhero’s battling in the setting of modern day Tokyo (or some other large Japanese city). More than this, however, I would have a hard time deciphering.

This brings me to an interesting point in Electric Dragon. I get the impression that the aim of this film’s creators was not to make a piece of high art, or necessarily to construct a film with a compelling narrative. I think it is safe to say that the intent in making this movie was to construct something cool, to illustrate a battle between two superhero’s in a way that isn’t often seen today.

I’m personally getting very sick of rehashed adaptations of old marvel heroes in Hollywood. I feel as though the modern superhero movie has become rather formulaic, particularly in the West. In this context, Electric Dragon shines. It isn’t trying to be the incredible hulk, or the remake of the incredible hulk, or the remake of the remake. Electric Dragon shows us a fresh presentation of a classic formula, and in this way, the film stands out in the superhero world.

Battle Angel Alita!!!

I read through volumes 1-6 of Battle Angel Alita’s “Last Order”. In consuming this comic, I found myself reminded of several important influences in pop culture. Such influences include the Matrix, Fifth Element, Appleseed and most strikingly similar Ghost in the Shell. All of these but Ghost in the Shell were produced years later than battle angel, however, so its safe to so none of these influenced the design of this comic. One may speculate, on the other hand, that this popular manga has influenced many iconic movies. I was very interested that the construction of Gally, the cyborg protagonist, looked so strikingly similar to the construction of ‘Lilu’, the super warrior star of the film ‘The Fifth Element”.

I have to wonder if Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel influenced each other as they were being developed in roughly the same time. Both comics feature strong, cyborg protagonists in a more or less dystopian future. In reading through this comic I was reminded often of my viewing of Ghost in the Shell; this is the extent of how similar I found the two manga.

Having discussed the similarities I’ve found between Battle Angel and film media, I should mention that I feel as though Battle Angel would work wonderfully in any of a number of different media. I could easily see this comic adapted into an animated series; The comic’s numerous fast paced battle scenes would be great to see in animated form; in reading the comic I was constantly picturing my vision of what this comic would look like at 24 frames per second. While less plausible, I also feel like this comic would be a great feature film. I was shocked to find out that Battle Angel is currently in preproduction as a feature film, directed by James Cameron. While the director is most likely going to see The Dive and Avatar 2 through production first, the movie is currently set for release in 2011. I am hopeful that this comic will hit the big screen with such, especially with such a big budget.

The fast paced action and interesting environments made me excited to contemplate the idea of playing a Battle Angel videogame.

Diary of a Dominatrix

On first Impression, I was a bit underwhelmed by the visuals of Diary of a Dominatrix. The drawings are unexpressive, have a hard time describing certain ideas or objects, and lack in general appeal. As I read through this comic, however, the unique narrative begins to draw me into the story, as I’m curious to read a real humans perspective on such an interesting job. This becomes the main appeal of the comic for me, as every aspect of the comic, from the dialogue to the drawings, helps illustrate the thoughts and struggles of an ordinary person working in a rather extraordinary job. This is the one aspect of this comic that lead me to investigate the story, as if it weren’t for the personal perspective of an actual person, I fear this comic would have degraded to nothing more than a pornographic comic more humorous than most.

This being said, I wish the comic focused more on Zelda, the Dom’s personal life and less on her life as a dominatrix. The scenes focusing on her preparing for her work, or afterwards I found to be the most interesting. I understand that the main demographic of this comic most likely pick up this comic for its adult material, but I personally found this aspect to be the least interesting. I enjoyed the humorous aspects of the sex scenes (why is there a Kermit doll, umbrella, and pogo stick amongst Zelda’s sex toys?), but I found much of the comic’s more explicit scenes either uninteresting of conversely too graphic to want to read. I should have been prepared for this when I opened the comic, but regardless certain descriptions of torture and bondage left me somewhat disgruntled.

Some aspects of this comic that I found particularly unique, and therefore interesting were its focus on texture, fantasy, and a few pages, which were designed more creatively than most. Such pages include one wherein we see the thought process and fantasy of Zelda as she considers killing and dismembering a client and then the repercussions that would follow afterwards. This page is illustrated with minimal character acting or dialogue; much of the page is described in newspaper or book clippings.

Crumb

I found Mr. Natural, and other of Crumbs comics to be rather tasteless and offensive. The actual aesthetic of the comic isn’t terrible; Crumb’s style is interesting at times. In reading this comic though, I have to wonder what Crumb’s motives are for publishing such crude art. In his comics we see various illustrations of rape, fecal humor, and general indecency. I have to wonder why Crumb chooses such subject matter. It may be that crumb wants to illustrate such subject matter in an attempt to shock his viewers, perhaps to widen the reader’s perspective. On the other token, it may just be that Crumb is illustrating his own sick fantasies. At any rate, I have to conclude that Crumb’s comics are what I would consider sick and antisocial. I have never condoned censorship, yet at the same time I wouldn’t condone any media that endorses or flaunts acts of rape and mutilation. I was most shocked when during the documentary we watched the development of Crumbs comic wherein a character had sex with a decapitated woman. I find this, and similar comics extremely offensive and tasteless, and find much difficulty in classifying this example of personal expression as art. Crumb relinquished his title of artist when he allowed work that may be harmful to the general public to be published. This in turn, however, presents an interesting question; at what point can media become considered harmful to its viewers or humanity in general. I may not have the most objective opinion in this matter, as my views on art and censorship have been influenced by years of videogames and violent movies. I personally feel that the line should be drawn where media profits on depictions of rape or violence lacking narrative or cause. If an artist or author wants to depict such heinous acts for no cause greater than shock value or his own amusement, I feel that greater means of censorship should be taken on such media.

Triplets of Belleville

Triplets of Belleville may very well be my favorite movie made (almost entirely) in 2d. This film varies greatly from my standard preconception as to what great animation is. Prior to viewing Triplets, I had the idea that there were only two great schools of thought in regards to traditional animation; the first being Disney, the second being Miazaki and studio Ghibli. This film made me recognize that great animation could come from somewhere other than Japan or the states.

The film excels in several regards, all of which I find very relevant to my chosen field. The first is that the movie is very strong from a conceptual standpoint. Triplets manages to continue to surprise the viewer by consistently throughout the film making original choices as to how the film should tackle a particular problem, or convey a certain idea. This is seen in all aspects of the film; Character design is original, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly is rooted in a functional level. One such example is the henchmen and mob bosses; the henchmen appear as almost a single entity formed of two individuals, they are solid, stoic, and menacing. The mob bosses, alternatively, are much like babies, possessing no real power by themselves. The film plays on this correlation by heightening the joke with baby cries when their henchmen desert the mob bosses.

Another level on which Triplets achieves a higher level of creativity than most films is how the characters solve problems. Mob bosses rig racing bicyclists into stationary bikes in front of projectors, old singers fish with grenades, and a caring grandma uses egg beaters and a lawn mower to tend to her grandson’s sore muscles. The frequency and originality of these actions is so refreshing in an age where 90 percent of all films are an adaptation of something else. Watching this movie made me realize exactly how much potential animation, and film in general has.

One other aspect of Triplets that I enjoyed was that the film was almost entirely pantomimed. The film was mostly silent, and I found this a point which made the films success all that more impressive. In areas where the film could push cheap exposition with dialogue or even narration, Triplets chose to show us everything, explain a child’s yearnings with photographs and a scrapbook found in his room. I suppose the correlation between this film and my media (computer animation), is that triplets sets an example as to how we can be efficient and refreshing storytellers in an age where it may seem at times that everything has already been done.