Animation Hall of Fame

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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?

The Castle of Cagliostro (Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro) (Hayao Miyazaki, 1979)
Imdb

Date Watched: 11/11/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: rauldc14's Nomination for the MoFo Animation Hall of Fame
Rewatch: No.

In my quest to watch every film that made it onto the MoFo Animation Countdown, I watched 10 of Hayao Miyazaki's 11 feature films. The Castle of Cagliostro was the only one of his features that failed to make the cut and so it was also the only one of his features I hadn't yet seen. After being underwhelmed by his other offerings, I had no real desire to see this and were it not for the Hall of Fame it would have remained unwatched.

Raul assured me that this would be a very different experience from the other Miyazaki films. He wasn't wrong, but different is not synonymous with better. Although not fantasy like most of the other films, Cagliostro requires no less suspension of disbelief. Cars drive on vertical surfaces, characters leap from building to building, and are practically impervious to injuries as if they had superpowers or something.

Like Guaporense's nomination, this is one of a series of films based on a television series (based on a manga) and so character development is... lacking. (However, unlike Guap's nom, the story and the relationships between the characters were easy to understand.) Though I'm doubtful whether any further development of the characters would've actually changed my experience. I hated Lupin and cared little for Clarisse. I think I was meant to find Lupin's antics charming, but all they did was annoy me - while Clarisse offered virtually no personality to her role as damsel in distress.

But the film is not without its merits. The voice cast was solid (if unremarkable) and some of the artwork was really beautiful. I will also admit that a tiny hint of smile may have broken through my scowl a time or two, but none of that was enough to elevate my experience beyond mediocrity.



This completes my movie watching for the Animation Hall of Fame.

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Ballot sent.

Congrats on finishing all the films! I've enjoyed reading all of your write-ups.

Is there a record for the fasted time someone has finished a HoF? I feel like this was really quick haha.

It helped that I own 6/10 of the nominees on DVD or Bluray.

Vicky, from my limited experience (I have watched only this movie and a 12 episode series that came in 2012), the elements of the Lupin III franchise are very independent and standalone, and I'm yet to meet somebody who defends that you need to be experienced in some way with the character(s) to understand and enjoy Cagliostro. So I doubt, quite a lot, that being more knowledgeable about the franchise would solve your issues here. It's supposed to be perfectly functional as a standalone piece.

Did you actually read my review? I'm confused as to where this is coming from.

Here's what I said I disliked about the film:

It felt like I was watching a Wile E. Coyote short at times.

I literally said it was easy to understand. I also said that I doubt knowing more about the characters would've improved anything.

None of this has anything to do with it being based on a series, so I'm not sure where you're getting that I felt I needed to be experienced with the characters to understand and enjoy it. I understood it just fine. What I needed from the characters in order for me to enjoy it was for them to be less irritating.

Well... that's discouraging.

I watched ONE FILM so far for the this HoF!

I watched another animated movie today, actually! Alas, it wasn't any of the nominated movies but whatever.

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Slacker.

Vicky, you said that you thought character development was lacking and I'm telling you that it's very unlikely that you got it by watching more entries in the franchise because they are all pretty standalone, this included. Fine if we agree here.

Disappointed but not surprised.

Miss Vicky finished the 10 films in 12 days. Impressive

11 films if you count Guap's nom.

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)


What an utter, god-damn clusterf*** of a movie.


It was awesome!


Seeing as I'm not overly versed in animé, I'm still in the faze of watching relativley old movies/tv-series. As a result, it's rare for me to watch anything resent (resent here being post 2000). That's why it's such a treat to see something like this, wherein the animation has gone beyond stil-frames with movement lines and aggravated characters represented with a blank face and a giant, screaming mouth. To see them emote (somewhat) naturally, while still having the over the top style that I've come to associate with the medium is nice. Having Gin be flushed after a flat out run's something only a modern animé would bother with, as the old stuff often were on shoe-string bugets and cost efficency was the law of the day. The animation throughout was top-notch, with an artstyle that made me think of Perfect Blue (not surprising, the same man created both as you guys know).

The story then. It's relativley basic; Three homeless people finds a discarded baby on Christmas eve and sets out to find her parents. As the group falls victim to one catastrophy after another (getting shot at, kidnapped, beaten etc), we get to hear why they find themselves homeless, how they all found themselves resorting to flee their old lives for their current situations. It's a comedy/drama with a heaping spoonfull of people calling bulls*** on other peoples justifications while still maintaining that their lives are the hardest (which they have some right to say, but often what they say turns out to be fabrication or oversimplification). So there we have it: a drunk, a trans woman and a runaway girl, pulsing through the snow with a newborn infant, arguing all the way. It's hilarious, while also managing to be quite touching when it wants to, as well as a few times being uncharacteristicly violent and/or tragic. While the ending is bittersweet, the final act ramps up the uncomfortable feelings with a woman totally destroyed by the loss of her child and the lengths she goes to as she tries to deal with her feelings. It's an action-packed finale that will have you wondering at the outcome till the very end.

A emotional roller-coaster with humour and heart in equal messures. Makes me glad I have Paprika in the shelf, waiting to be seen. Will need to watch some more of Kon's stuff beyond that too, I think. An excellent nom, Miss Vicky!

Sorry it took me too long to watch one.

All Dogs Go to Heaven.

I thought I kind of saw this one, but in fact I remember the 2nd one a little bit (but it was a long time ago so I didn't remember it at all) I thought the movie was going to be like: Charlie you can only return to heaven if you do 1 well action or something like that . It was quite entertaining. The dogs that gumble, drink beer and drive cars from the beggining made me wonder if that world was a world of dogs for dogs, I mean like they were the dominant race. Then the little human clear out my doubts, a girl that can talk to animals. I love the end too! SPOILERS: How every dog was going to help Charlie and even the crocodile singer went to help. The end was like a Peter Pan one, the bad guy being chased down by a crocodile . It had a lot of aspects that I didn't expect, making it quite original. I was kind of scared at the end too, when that big red dog in the backround (probably the devil) was saying "Chaarlieeee..."

Glad you enjoyed it so much, Clazor! I was a little nervous nominating it, since I always wonder how people will react to a character like Hana.

Was this your first Kon? I guess you've probably seen Perfect Blue, since you compared them. Godfathers is pretty different from his other features, which are much more serious than this. I'll be interested to see what you think of Paprika. I kind of go back and forth as to which is my favorite. This one has so much heart and I'm a sucker for the emotional stuff, but Paprika has really disturbing, unforgettable imagery. I do really need to watch Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress again, though.

I did that too! Sat there waiting for a cat dressed in dog clothing to pop up and be the main bad guy. Glad I'm not the only one confusing the movies.

She was awesome! Deffinetly my favourite of the main three. Totally over the top and a little crazy, but with a 24k gold heart. Very funny to meet her "mother" as well. Gin worked as a good straight man (pun not intended), and Miyuki, while being a bit too whiny sometimes, had funny banter with the other two. Really felt for her in the scenes she had with the spanish woman, didn't seem like she got to be a kid very often, so probably good that she had someone to actually talk to without the possibility of being judged.

Actually, this was my first Kon. I watch alot of Animé Abandon (youtube review series) and I saw some scenes from Perfect Blue there, but I haven't actually sat down to watch it, though it's on my list. I picked up Paprika after seeing a gif on the forum and became intrigued, and I've heard good things from Omni regarding his last work before he died, a series called Paranoia Agent. I aim to watch them all, eventually.

I only remember some of the weird imagery from Paprika, nothing about the movie itself or whether or not I really liked it. I do remember thinking that Millennium Actress was really boring though, but I saw it around 2002-2003 (so I was probably 15 at the time, given my late birthday), and I know for a fact that at that age I wouldn't have appreciated...anything, really, if it wasn't action-packed. My room mate owns it on VHS, so as long as it's not a dub, I think I'll give it another watch if I like Tokyo Godfathers.

Madagascar 2 (2008)


This movie never really clicked with me. It's not the story, the basic premiss is fine and the artstyle was new, with a more angular design that made it stand out from both disney and other Dreamworks projects (the first movie excluded). It actually brings to mind a cleaner, brighter, more three dimensional version of Mike Mignola's drawing style.

We pick up more or less where we left of in the first movie. The four main characters have spent some time on Madagascar and are now ready to leave in a plane built by the penguines. Predictably, this dosen't go well and they crash in the middle of an african savanna. At this point, the movie branches of into four parts as the four friends discover more of their own kind. Alex's story turns into something akin to The Lion King, complete with an evil uncle wanting to take power as Alex finds his parents in the local lion population. Through Alex, the uncle manages in one fell swoop to banish not only him, but also Alex's parents from the pride and install himself as the new Alpha. Meanwhile, Marty wrestles with indentity issues, Melman becomes a witch-doctor and Gloria gets courted by the local Hunk of the hippos.

In the end, I think it's the characters that I didn't like. Or maybe it's more acurate to say I don't like the way they're written and the humour they provide. I found Julian annoying (nothing new there, never been a fan of Sasha Baron Cohen)and the main four were kinda bland most of the time. Schwimmer's hypochondriac giraffe got tired half an hour into the previous movie and the hippo's part could've been cut as far as I'm concerned.

I liked the penguins, they're allways good for a laugh, and the chimps forming a union and fighting for better conditions cracked me up. What few glimpses we got of the tourists led by granny steelfist was entertaining, but my guess is that they had the proper amount of them so as to not overdo it. There were some actor that delivered solid performances; Alec Baldwin's allways entertaining, and as the evil uncle he got a few moment that made me smirk a bit. Bernie Mac put in a lot of heart into Alex's dad, being somewhat disaproving of how he turned out, but in the end he saw how Alex had survived in another form of hostile enviorment.

Overall, some good and some bad, resulting in a meh from me. Sorry Tatt, this just wasn't a favourite of mine.