Month: April 2006

I’d say “big kids” because I do sort of enjoy the stigma that animation still has about not being serious and because the connotation of “adults” is a bit unclear at best. Anywho The Onion AV club recently put out a list of their top 15 animated films for grown ups. I’ve seen about 5 of them and am interested in seeing a few of the others given the descriptions. Personally I find that animation can be a great stylistic choice for many films as it can allow for something beyond the mise-en-scene of typical cinematography. I would think of how Linklater used cartoon images in thought bubbles while some of his characters were waxing philosophical in Waking Life as an example of something that animation allows. I don’t know about telling typically dramatic stories in the form of animation as it seems like that extraordinary element is not used. Of course I don’t really care of melodrama in any form so my distaste for some cartoons that can more easily be placed into such a genre has nothing to do with them being animation. That said I would not feel compelled to watch something just because it is animated. But I digress. One movie I think they missed is The Brave Little Toaster. I saw this when I was a kid but that said I think this one has some adult like themes in terms of what is happening. Also An American Tail seemed a bit more serious in tone at times aswell. Who knows it is possible that this list in seeking to find “adult” animation simply wrote off the mainstream producers of animation such as Disney. That’s cool I guess a good list needs parameters.

I just found this cool site that has many of the old adult swim bumps I have been a fan of the programing block since early 2002, so this has a certain nostalgic appeal to me. Not only can you download and enjoy some of the more interesting little 15 second clips but many of them also include information about the music (often some pretty cool jazzy, trip-hop type stuff). Aside from the great old school ones of the old people swiming in the pool; my favorites in order of how they appear on the site:

• You Can Be Happy
• Strawboard Canister
• Rescue Lion
• No Banking, No Loitering
• Atomic Truck
• The Best Things are Collective
• all of the imges of Japan, Fujiyma at 6:02 is the best
• Shoot the Freak
• Adult Swim Master Control
• Swim & Western Bridge
• [adult swim] on TV

Have a good one.

People that fight for truth justice and the American way (Superman, etc) all seemed reasonably impressed with prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s demeanor and his ability to rise above the politics of the Plame leak case “leakgate” (I’m sure there will be a few as this is the year of the leaks) and focus on the legal issues. I wasn’t overly impressed with Fitzgerald but I did notice in his press conference months ago that he seemed like a reasonable fellow that was doing his job objectively in a politically difficult situation.

Fitzgerald recently had to make a correction to a document he released. It hasn’t gotten much coverage in the usual outlets, I found it mentioned in the New York Sun:

The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, claimed in a court filing last week that a former White House aide facing criminal charges for obstructing the probe, I. Lewis Libby, said he was told by Mr. Cheney to inform a New York Times reporter that one of the key judgments of a 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq was that the country was “vigorously trying to procure” uranium.
While the intelligence report indeed alleged that Iraq was aggressively seeking nuclear materials, that finding was not among the key judgments contained in the document’s early pages. The allegation that Mr. Cheney told Mr. Libby to misstate that fact to the Times journalist, Judith Miller, was noted prominently in some news accounts and contributed to an uproar that threw the White House into a tailspin last week.
However, in a letter yesterday, Mr. Fitzgerald advised the judge overseeing the case, Reggie Walton, that the government’s April 5 filing was inaccurate. “We are writing to correct a sentence,” Mr. Fitzgerald’s letter begins. He told the judge an error occurred in the following statement: “Defendant understood that he was to tell Miller, among other things, that a key judgment of the NIE held that Iraq was ‘vigorously trying to procure’ uranium.”

I see this correction of his original statement as reflecting Fitzgerald’s commitment to proper language and accuracy in how he prosecutes. When speaking of legal issues, semantics are very important and Fitzgerald has demonstrated, as he did in the press conference months ago with his careful choice of words in dealing with the press, that he is committed to proper “spin free” prosecution (truth?). That he is not only being methodical but willing to admit a mistake (guess that makes him human) reflects well on his character and the eventual results of this case.

So I’m back on lists and this one is a blast from the past. Toonzone has started a list of what obscure/failed cartoons should be put to DVD. Given the constant push to market nostalgia to the 18-34s I don’t doubt that these toons will be out soon enough. I think our technologies such as DVD and the internet (you don’t think I actually remember the Bravestar theme? . . . okay I did remember the bit about the bear but I thought it was sight of the eagle, not hawk See: Retrojunk) allow us not only the ability to bask in nostalgia but to discover and rediscover stuff that one might have missed. Sure cartoons are a pretty base example of this recent cultural immor[t]ality but for what it’s worth we have more stuff that we can check out and have fun with and that’s pretty cool . . . you know until it’s not but I guess you don’t have to buy it or listen to it or build it or “chirp” it but atleast we have more choices now.

Twenty years ago I had this VHS tape (remember those). The tape is a collection of cartoons made by a variety of studios and one of them, made by the Happy Harmony Studio is called: To Spring. The cartoon begins in the midst of a repressive Winter where snow and ice cover the bleak surroundings. Quickly we are taken underground to a cavern where many Elves (possibly the Underwear Gnomes, working their 3rd job) are waking up. These Gnolves begin their work making the colors; like paint and ink they work in their cavern and pump these nutrient saturated colors back into the Earth bringing forth Spring. For a moment there is a struggle as “Old Man Winter” fights to keep his icy world but Spring wins out for now. And now after all these years I’ve found that cartoon and I think I will watch it because like it or not the months of being stuck inside enduring cold miserable weather are almost over. It is Spring, time to air out the house and go for a walk and see if the problems that festered confined in the cold are really so bad. Course today is April Fool’s Day, who is to say that the weather doesn’t have a sense of humor.