Madmind

Do you know, why a long timeframe or many leaps in time can cause story problems for a movie?

Imagine the following fairy tale: once upon a time there was a poor farmer. Though he had to work a lot he also was bored with life. One day he therefore walked into a dark forest full of ghosts and gremlins going after each living soul in their reach. After a long walk he sat down on a tree. Four days later he was killed by one of them.

As you can see, the leap in time might on the first look be a way of storytelling, but on second thought it only causes big problems. Not only tension-wise but also logically.

A great and recent example for this problem is the movie

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After reading my regular newpaper websites, I strolled around the net (or better: my well known bookmarks) and finally go to the blog of John K. There I not only noted but also read the very interesting (and in many ways insightful) post about flash vs. traditional animation vs asia.

Since I was hooked up I went to the original blog post and its discussion John K refers to and read it with its insightful and yet mildly controversial thoughts.

While reading the various pro and contra and in betweens regarding flash and traditional animation in the comments the post stirred, I came across a comment containing a link to the website of Adam Philips. Somehow I went with the flow and clicked it.

On this site I noted

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While I think that most of the more recent examples of 3D animated movies show some lack of inspiration I start to believe that Pixar could be the company that will save 3D animation from the fate its 2D counterpart had to bear…

Buy Big and Large at Buy n Large

Buy n Large is a rather interesting example of a big company selling great and cool product to its customers. Their website is nicely done and modern. The only drawback? Well, this company doesn’t exist. Or better: doesn’t exist yet.

The website of this future company is completely faked, created by the genius minds from Pixar for a viral marketing campaign and as my blog post shows, it is successful in its goal (*lol*, where is my money…!!)

Imagination vs. Safe

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While I agree that currently 3D animation can’t be thrown off its throne and is a good thing to have (heck, I want to create a 3D short movie), I also believe that the downfall of 2D animation is caused by the weak stories that accompanied it. Not only that but also the fact that the directors frantically tried to subdue the benefits of the 2D animation while trying to imitate 3D animation. But by trying they missed the real benefit traditional animation had to offer them.

Titan A.E., Treasure Planet and freedom

If you watch the movies Treasure Planet by Disney or Titan A.E. you can see the approach to imitate 3D-movies very well. In Treasure Planet the ship they are cruising on is 3D as the robotic arm

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Is it too crazy to believe? Will Warner Bros. really produce a live action movie of the groundbreaking Manga/Anime-Movie Akira originally written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo? I always dreamed for it but had fear for it on the same time.

You know, Akira is one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time. It was not only the first animated movie that literally showed me with a blast that an animated movie can go further than perfect looking princes or women singing songs. No, it was and still is one of the finest examples of animation I can think of. I still remember the first time I watched it. And my reaction to the first moment after the title

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