Nenslo Animation Torture Test Part 3

From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 10, 2004

All opinions stated here are my own, but if you had one lick of sense in
that thick skull of yours they'd be your opinions too.

The Phantom Tollbooth **** : I am not a Chuck Jones fan. I think there
are maybe five of his Warner cartoons that deserve even some of the
adulation and encomia heaped upon them by afficionados and dilettantes,
the rest being repetitious exercises in brutality, and sequels to
sequels to sequels. That's why I think it's unfortunate that this
movie; produced, directed, and written for the screen by Chuck Jones, is
so little known. It is his finest work. Perhaps Norton Juster's
original story provided him with the structure and inspiration he may
not have had in finding two dozen new ways for one character to hurt
another. It certainly provided some laugh out loud dialogue and
eccentric ideas. The animation is literally WONDERFUL and ADMIRABLE,
fantastically creative and unlike anything else. Look for it.

The Pagemaster * : Pretty much the opposite effect is found in this
effort to cash in on McCauley Culkin before he got ugly. Cowardly
fastidious kid gets a knock on the head and wakes up as a cartoon,
learns from three talking books how to be brave. Naturally, one of the
books is Whoopie Goldberg. Pretty fair art can't compete with pretty
poor plot.

The Road to Eldorado *** : An unpretentious buddy adventure, enlivened
with some snappy writing and BEAUTIFUL art. Goosepimplingly luscious
art. The Elton John songs are mercifully short and the comedy relief
animals do not talk. If I have learned one thing in this life however,
and I do hope I have, it's that real villains are not always LAUGHING
UPROARIOUSLY into the sky with GLEAMING EYES and GRINNING TEETH,
airwashing their hands over the excellence of their fiendish plan.

Osmosis Jones *** : Mrs. Nenslo sometimes comes in to check out these
things and ended up watching all of this and then rewinding to watch the
beginning. Oh, she's got all these STANDARDS of EXCELLENCE but then
give her a grossout cop buddy movie about a white blood cell and a cold
pill and she's glued to the screen. I liked it pretty well, had some
good art and gags and stuff, worth seeing once.

The Rescuers *.5 : I did like seeing the way, as in The Aristocats, they
matched the style of the background artwork to the scribbly style of the
xerographic technique of copying tranparencies directly from penciling.
The story was pretty episodic and weak, and few of the characters were
of much interest. Once again, an attempt to make a villain insanely
excessive only ends up being irritating. Note, however, that villains
do get the coolest vehicles.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - ZERO : It would be silly even to try to
list ways this maudlin atrocity is ALL WRONG. I will only say it has
about two minutes of kick-ass animation, and the most pointless,
useless, inconsequential and unnecessary comedy relief characters in the
history of the cinema.

The Rescuers Down Under *** : Surprisingly good. No really brilliant
story, the usual child in peril stuff, but it's well paced and not
loaded down with a lot of tripe. The art and animation is all first
class, some of the studio's cleanest and prettiest work, and this
villain, voiced by George C. Scott, is just plain MEAN - not a grinning
lunatic, just plain bad mean but really well animated in his comedy
scenes. And drives a killer psycho outback halftrack.

Oliver and Company ** : Not as bad as I expected, had some good moments
in spite of its blatant adoration of New York City, that stinking
crap-hole. Kept my interest. Villain drives very nicely animated
devil-car in a deranged chase through the subways. Why they had to base
it on Dickens I don't know. Good work by Bette Midler.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: brthrn@dangermedia.org (MRvDC)

I saw this (Rescuers Down Under) while staying at the Children's Hospital in Philly. They
have a channel that just runs kids movies all day long. I was very
high on morphine at the time. I recall becoming emotionally involved
with this one in particular. I really dug that little lizard thing
that worked for the villian.

> Oliver and Company ** : Not as bad as I expected, had some good moments
> in spite of its blatant adoration of New York City, that stinking
> crap-hole. Kept my interest. Villain drives very nicely animated
> devil-car in a deranged chase through the subways. Why they had to base
> it on Dickens I don?t know. Good work by Bette Midler.

I've been expecting to hear your take on the updated version of Little
Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. It's probably my favorite American
animated film. I believe Ray Bradbury and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud were
involved in the project.

Then again. I loved Iron Giant.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>

MRvDC wrote:
> I've been expecting to hear your take on the updated version of Little
> Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. It's probably my favorite American
> animated film. I believe Ray Bradbury and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud were
> involved in the project.

I saw it a few years ago and am not re-watching anything for this
series, only seeing things I've never seen before. I regret that I do
not share your enjoyment of it. Having read quite a lot of Little Nemo
(first saw it when I was about six) I could tell that the long shots
were the REAL Little Nemo, but all the middle and closeup work was some
kid actor. Didn't care for the plot either (Whatever you do little
Audrey, I mean Nemo, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR! WELL I WONDER HOW THAT WILL
TURN OUT.), or the way every time the damn kid started moving more than
about two miles an hour he had to yowl WOOOOOAAAAAAAAoooooooooh!!!
People don't really do that. I liked the opening sequence.

> Then again. I loved Iron Giant.

Iron Giant totally DID NOT SUCK. I kept waiting for it to suck even a
little bit, and anything with kid in it has potential to really suck,
but it never did suck, not at all. Not preachy, mopey, sappy, or stupid
at any point. Amazingly good.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: nenslo <nenslo@yahoox.com>

"C.S.Strowbridge" wrote:
>
> BTW, Chuck Jones is an animation GOD. You just have to look at his
> resume to know that:

Too late - I've seen his ACTUAL WORK. Repetitious spectacles of
brutality and sequels to sequels to sequels like I said.

Up one level
Back to document index

Original file name: Nenslo Animation Tor#1AD1C2.txt - converted on Saturday, 25 September 2004, 02:05