Paprika
I really enjoyed this film. It was more than a little confusing at times, but I think I managed to make it to the end with both my feet on the ground. And I think that's impressive considering the surrealist storyline about journeying into people's dreams. The animation is really beautiful, although it was more restrained than I was expecting. And the film is undeniably influenced by Miyazaki, but that's never a bad thing.
It's worth a rental, but only if you've already seen Tokyo Godfathers, another, and I think better film made by the same creative team.
Futurama: Bender's Big Score
I was surprised to find I had more difficulty following this movie's storyline than Paprika's plot. There are a few good yucks here and there and the story wraps up nicely and with characteristic sentimentality. But in the end, it felt more like fan service and less like quality film. Pretty good, but not great. Then again, it took me a long time to warm up to the original series, so maybe my disappointment will change with time and repeated viewings.
UPDATE: Oh I can't resist! Here are the first 7 minutes of Tokyo Godfathers. Watch it, watch it, watch it!
3 comments:
I didn't think I would enjoy that video past the first 30 seconds, but before I knew it, the video was over and I had enjoyed several of the different scenes. I'm usually not a big fan of Miyazaki's work (Tonari no Totoro is the only film of his I've been able to get into without feeling it's overly convoluted or "Miyazaki art for Miyazaki art's sake"), but this film introduced three rather interesting and different characters along with an interesting plot premise. Made a lot of good comments, too, via its jokes, dialogue, and artwork.
Whoops, sorry for the confusion --I'm pretty certain Miyazaki had nothing to do with these films. I was just saying that Paprika specifically seemed to borrow from Miyazaki's canon.
The dialogue and humor is really snappy and smart, isn't it?
I understand; there was no confusion; and I was going entirely off of your own invite to compare Tokyo Godfathers with the style of Hayao Miyazaki. And I would agree with that assessment -- both the art and the story presentation seem to be highly in line with Studio Ghibli's ways.
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