Alice in Wonderland - the Versions You've Never Seen

Alice



Czech animator Jan Svankmajer’s trippy Alice, may only claim to be “inspired” by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but it’s actually closer to the text than you might think if all you’ve ever seen are stills photos of this obscure gem. While this stuff is nightmare fuel to be sure, when you get down to the brass tacks and marmalade, it’s actually more faithful to the absurdity and dark wit of the original than the sugary-sweet Disney version and it’s imitators.
Highly recommended.

Phoebe in Wonderland




Here’s a great Alice in Wonderland inspired tale that was nominated for a few minor festival awards, but never won any. Which is a shame, because Elle Fanning gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the title character a little girl who has difficulty following the rules - but why? That’s the mystery at the heart of the story. But it’s not just Phoebe’s story, it’s also the story of her parents (Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman), who are embattled by Phoebe’s problems, and the baffled school administrators and counselors who try to deal with this problem child. But one misfit drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) may hold the key, in the form of a school play – Alice in Wonderland.

Probing the line between creativity and mental illness, with seamless blurring of fantasy and reality ala The Fisher King, this movie is a masterpiece. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Two Great Animated Films from Japan

We’ve talked about Hayao Miyazaki, and Studio Ghibli a few times. It’s no secret that I think Spirited Away is one of the greatest fantasy films of all time. But that was released in 2001 – just what have Miyazaki and the Ghibli crew been up to in the past decade?

Today we’ll look at the first two films they released following Spirited Away.

Cat Returns
(Neko no Ogaeshi)



Miyazaki came up with the concept (allegedly on request from a theme park) and produced this Studio Ghibli production, but turned the directing reigns over to Hiroyuki Morita. The Cat Returns is definitely skewed toward a younger audience than Spirited Away, more like the films Studio Ghibli produced in the pre- Princess Mononoke days, which is not surprising since it’s essentially a sequel of sorts to Miyazaki’s earlier film Whisper of the Heart.

The story involves a young girl who rescues a cat from being run over in traffic. It turns out that he is the Prince of Cats, and she soon finds herself the object of all sorts of unwanted attention from felines, including becoming engaged to be married to a cat.

While it’s far from the best Studio Ghibli has done so far, the story is fun and charming in a Wizard of Oz kind of way, and this is one anime that was so carefully handled in the English dubbing that I can definitely recommend the English language version.


Howl's Moving Castle




Miyazaki’s feature length directorial follow up to Spirited Away, is Howl’s Moving Castle, based on the book of the same name. This is another fantasy film with complex plots along the lines of Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away, and while not as good as Spirited Away, it’s still among Miyazaki’s best.

The story concerns a young girl afflicted by a curse, whose sole salvation lies in the hands of a self-absorbed wizard named Howl, but just finding howl is a challenge as his castle doesn’t stay in one place for long.

In addition to a pretty strong storyline, Howl’s Moving Castle features some of the best cell animation ever filmed – the artwork and landscapes are breathtaking. With this one I recommend the subtitled version (although you will miss out on Billy Crystal as the fire elemental ‘Calcifer’ – one of the few really good comic relief characters in English dubbed anime) which is a much better translation.

Cars May Not Be Pixar's First Place Winner, But It Still Makes Good Time

Cars

Like most digital artists, I was a fan of Pixar before they made their first feature film. In fact, by the time I saw their first short film Luxo, jr. many of us already knew their name from the .pxr (pixar) file format.

After a string of top notch shorts, most of us were excited to see their first feature film; the first feature film created entirely on a computer. True to form, Toy Story did not disappoint. Even if you took away the ground breaking animation, the fact that it launched a whole new type of animated film – you’d still have a damn good story. Entertaining even if it had been done with stop-motion, cell, or any other type of animation.

But Pixar didn’t stop there – for the next decade and a half, they continued to produce top-notch films, both long and short. While few (except maybe Toy Story 2) were as good as Toy Story they were all still outstanding.

Which brings us to Cars. Released as Pixar’s 20^th anniversary film, Cars follows the story of a race car, Lightning McQueen, on his quest to win the prestigious ‘Piston Cup’. As usual, there is great animation, fun jokes, and neat cameos. But this time, Pixar failed to win the Academy Award for best animated feature – a category that was practically created for the studio following the repeated snubbing of films like A Bug’s Life, and the Toy Story films. This was only the second time since the award was created in the early 2000s that Pixar failed to win. And the loss to Warner Brothers (and previously to Dreamworks) was deserved, as this (and the previous Monsters, Inc.) were neither among Pixar’s best, nor the best in the field.

But, the fact that Cars is still an enjoyable, and even superior film judged in the context of all animated features ever made, or all films ever made for that matter, just goes to show how high Pixar has raised the bar for itself and everyone else.