Faith through Film and Fiction

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

I have watched a few movies by this director and have never been disappointed.  It is a Japanese animated film otherwise known as anime, but it is one of the greatest animated films I've ever watched.  I had high hopes after Hildy fell in love with Wolf Children (by the same director) in anime club and even finished it on his own.  Despite it being an anime, it's unique but universally appealing storytelling describe a tale that appears simple but then becomes heartwrenching.  The animation is beautiful and fluid, the voice acting is natural, and the plot is subtle.  This is one of the few movies where I was genuinely surprised and holding my breath.  Salkil you better watch this movie, I'm hesitant to even talk about it to spoil it.  Anime movies are some of the best animated films, and once you're brave enough to explore outside of Studio Ghibli films you will be amazingly surprised.

10/10

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Before this movie, Toy Story 2 was my favorite animated movie sequel of all time. However, HTTYD2 has made me rethink this idea. The film begins with the island of Berk fully connected with the dragons and having a competition between them. We then having a visually stirring opening sequence with Hiccup and Toothless. This flying sequence helps us reconnect with them and feel connected to these characters. The film takes a lot from Empire Strikes Back (the uncovering of the masked vigilante, Hiccup's lost leg, leaving the island where Hiccup trains to return to his friends in danger) which definitely lends itself to the effectiveness of the film. In addition, the music choice of this film is excellent. While not a music-heavy film like Frozen or The Lion King, the Celtic abllad sung in the film adds to the most poignant moment in the film. While "Let It Go" and "Hakuna Matata" are rousing, memorable songs, this one helps us really feel connected with Hiccup's parents. The animation is superb and helps create this fantastical environment. The movie pursues several well-trodden but avoids feeling stale by giving us relatable, yet intriguing characters and providing a more realistic payoff than other children's films.

This week, i watched The Iron Giant. I had never seen the movie, but had heard it mentioned on a few occasions so i decided this would be a good week to watch it. Overall, i was impressed. The animation quality, especially for its time period was really solid. The animator did a great job giving each character a personality and mood through movement and facial expressions. The voice acting was pretty good, a little bit spotty in some areas. I realized two thirds through that the giant was voiced by Vin Diesel because they either didn't really use a metallic filter or it was the first set of actual lines he had besides grunts and single words. The movie also does a really good job of making you hate the primary antagonist. First of all he's a complete jerk to the main character who is probably 13 years old, then he betrays America just to prove a point. The movie does give a good deal of closure, the single mother gets married to the junkyard guy who befriends the kid early on, the giant isn't actually dead because of his ability to repair himself, etc. I would recommend watching this movie, it's not terribly long and it's got some really charming moments consistently throughout. I would rate this film a 7/10

This week for the animated film topic I watched Zootopia. I figured it would be a good movie since it was made by Disney and it had amazing reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. As for as animated Disney movies go, Zootopia was very similar to most as it involved talking animals and had very light humor that could appeal to both adults and children. I was not at all disappointed in Zootopia, as I had high expectations from the trailers I had seen. The plot of the movie itself was entertaining and creative as it explored not just a world of animals but instead a society of different animal castes that create a division among the animal population. The main idea of the movie focused around Judy Hopps, a bunny who wants to become a police officer and prove herself to the rest of the force, which is dominated by predators such as a rhinos and lions. She is forced to team up with a predator, Nick Wilde, who happens to be a fox, the main species that hunts bunnies and also the species that caused her so much trouble in her childhood. The movie was full of plot twists, humor, puns, and even some life lessons. I can see how it appealed to children as it had a clear message of believing in yourself and not following society's prejudice views. Even as an 18 year old, I found myself enjoying the movie and laughing along with the rest of the audience at parts in almost every scene, especially the sloth scene. The movie demonstrated themes of both man v. man as animals battled it out as well as man v. society as the main characters had to fight against society's established prejudice views of them. The ending also had an incredible plot twist that I did not see coming, but it made complete sense once you thought about it. Overall I found Zootopia to be a very entertaining and feel-good movie full of humor that appealed to all ages, and as far as animated movies go, I would give it a 8.5 out of 10.

Okay so I watched ice age 3 dawn of the dinosaurs. It is now my favorite movie of all time. It was so funny and was even funny for people under the age of twelve. Cause a lot of times that isn't the case. Nothing was too pushed or forces the script was so original and hilarious. The animation itself was great! The ending did a great job at sort of being a cliff hanger like it wasn't the typical happy ending! Which is good because that's so boring. It wasn't too short or too long it was a good length. I like that the movie was kinda surrounding did because he is my favorite character. He is everyone's favorite character. But it wasn't a movie just about him. It had great themes like family and community and those are very important for kid movies it also had many fun little sub plots like with the squirrel and the acorn. So that was fun and kept you interested . I give it 9/10

For my animated film I watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I was debating between this and Treasure Planet. I'll be honest I have seen both of these movies. The last time I watched Atlantis was probably 10 years ago so I didn't remember much except the very basics about the movie. I choose this movie because none of the newer animated movies that I could watch looked good at all but I remembered liking this movie as a kid so I figured I would give it a try and see if I liked it now as an adult. I did really like this movie and I definitely think I could appreciate and understand more about this movie than when I was a kid. I don't know why this movie had such mixed reviews from critics (49% on Rotten Tomatoes) but whatever. 

First off, I love Disney animated movies and oddly enough have never seen Mulan. After seeing all the videos in class about sound etc. I have a new found appreciation for animated movies. I have come to realize how much work everything requires in order to finish it. I absolutely loved the movie Mulan. I really liked all of the music it was super catchy. Even though I am an eighteen year old girl watching a kids movie I was thoroughly entertained throughout the whole hour and a half. My favorite character was Mooshoe the dragon. He was highly entertaining and actually even though is jokes were cheesy made me laugh. I think Mulan did a great job of telling a story with a meaning easy enough for younger kids to understand. I also like how it made the main character a strong female who can be a role model for younger girls. I think Disney does a good job of making lead roles a strong female character. Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie and listening to the music. Rating 9/10.

This weekend I watched for my animated movie the South Park movie which was weird and funny at the same time. I haven't watched south park in a while and I would have to say that trying to put the show into a movie was something that was a little overboard, but I'm glad that I did watch it. It seemed to just have been a really longer version of an episode which was kind of exhausting to watch. One thing that I didn't like about this movie at all is that they turned it into a musical and there was a lot of singing and dancing which was not something that I expected in a south park show. Overall I would rate this movie a 7/10 and would only recommend this movie to people who enjoy south park (even though most south park fans have already seen the movie) or if you like stupid comedy. After learning about how they create sounds from what we watched in class, there were a lot of times where I wondered where they got the sound from because they traveled to many places like Hell and time travel tornadoes that don't have a sound and you can tell they put a lot of effort into creating all the sounds.

For my movie I watched the new cgi Jungle Book film. The original cartoon was my absolute favorite movie growing up so I came in with a huge bias and very high expectations, they were met and then some. This movie was an absolute masterpeice and had something for absolutely everybody. First and foremost the cgi animation was nothing short of stunning, and at no point was there any disconnect from reality for the viewer. The movie itself became the perfect meshing of the happy go lucky children's cartoon kids like me grew up on and the deep and serious philosophical questions about man and his destructive power. Nowhere was this more apparent than the casting, which in my personal opinion is one of the best selected casts for any movie that I've seen. On one hand, you have the deeply terrifying and menacing presence of Idris Elba as Shere Khan conflicting with the protective mother of Lupita Nyongo as Raksha, and the issue of loyalty and the well being of one versus the well being of all that they bring up that move the viewer and make them think. On the other hand you have the perfect comic relief of Bill Murray who provides a perfect release of tension and gives the movie a light hearted happiness, not to mention the best Disney song of all time(Bare Necessities), and the conflict that produces with the protective and nurturing guide played by Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. The movie deals with a wide array of philosophical topics and issues, and does so in a beautiful manner. The baby Mowgli is orphaned by the attack of the vindictive Shere Khan, but rescued by Bagheera and raised among the wolves. The entire movie Mowgli struggles to find his identity, as he wants to be a wolf, but doesn't want to forsake his "tricks" that make a man cub so clever. Shere Khan represents the idea of hate and revenge the permeate the entire film. The men are undoubtedly destructive and their "red flower" reduces everything to ash and slaughters the animals, but nevertheless the audience finds themselves siding with Mowgli, because he is innocent, and ultimately he cannot be evil just because he was born a man cub, and it is Shere Khan's hate and prejudice that turn him into a villain. Overall the movie provides a touching story of love, acceptance, and loyalty mixed in with the playfulness of a children's movie, and it is just an amazing feat on all fronts. I would give this movie a ten out of ten and I will absolutely watch it again.

For my animated film review this week, I watched The Princess and The Frog.  I had heard really great things about this film before but I had never been able to watch it.  This film is one of my favorite Disney princess movies.  The music that they incorporated was my favorite part of the entire film.  It really went along well with the New Orleans "theme" and style of the movie.  I also really loved the color scheme of the entire film.  Everything was very bright and neon colored.  I thought Tiana was such a perfect character for this movie.  Her voice was done by Anika Noni Rose and it was such a perfect choice for the entire movie.  She had a great voice that covered all of Tiana's emotions.  I loved this movie because it is so different from other Disney's princess movies.  There was so much culture and history shown through this animated movie.  I think the lesson it gives can help a lot of children in their own lives.  I would give this movie a 10/10 for animated film.

          For this week's theme of animated film, I was deciding between watching this and The Lego Movie. I have heard great things about The Lego Movie, but it has never really seemed very interesting to me. I have not heard of one person who has seen Spirited Away (besides Evan who doesn't count because he's seen everything). It is the top animated movie on IMDb, so this certainly caught my attention. I decided to watch Spirited Away, and I am pretty sure I gave my computer a virus in the process. This happened because I searched some very sketchy websites for an English version of this film. I decided to go with the Japanese version however, due to ease of access, and due to the fact that I heard anime films are supposed to be better in their native languages. I watched with English subtitles.
          Besides some Pokemon movies when I was younger, I have never really watched anime (not actually sure if Pokemon counts as anime). Either way, this is the first anime film I have seen in Japanese. It was... interesting to say the very least. It is definitely very imaginative. I wonder if Japanese people think our cartoons are this odd, trippy, or frightening. I am honestly surprised this was classified as a family/kids movie, as if I had watched this as a kid, many of the monsters, spirits, semi-human creatures, and gory scenes would have scared me to death. It reminded me a bit of Alice in Wonderland mixed with a Narnia-like plot. However, even after saying all this, I did enjoy the film. I have even considered watching another Miyazaki (the director) film, even though I likely won't. I certainly understand why this movie is so highly rated, and for a cartoon film I truly enjoyed it. It had a very unique plot that kept me interested. The acting was hard to judge due to the fact that is was voice-over and not in my language. However, the emotions seemed to fit the scenes well. The animations looked like typical anime to me, but I was definitely impressed by several of the vast land/oceanscapes that were drawn out in this movie. The imaginative designs of the characters impressed me as well, and Haku's dragon-form was a visually appealing character. This was a very charming movie, even though some parts of it really did not seem to make much sense to me. I would guess that they make more sense to someone familiar with Japanese culture. I heard that this movie also has some sort of underlying metaphor to child prostitution in it, and this makes sense after thinking about it. It is interesting to try to guess what the director's message was with this film. In all I might recommend this film to others, but only if they are very open to foreign culture-shock type movies. I give it 8 soot balls out of 10 (btw the soot balls were my favorite characters in the movie).

Lauren Slouffman

For my bad movie this week I watched the movie Vampire Academy which had a 11% on Rotten tomatoes. I chose this movie because just from the title I assumed it we be some stupid Twilight type teen fiction and the trailer was fairly confusing. The movie follows a girl named Rose Hathaway, who is a dhampir, and Vasalissa aka Lissa, who is a royal Moroi. Ok so a  quick breakdown of the different types of people in this movie- Moroi:basically the good vampires, they have a normal lifespan and have magical powers; Strigoi: basically the bad vampires, they are undead vampires and prey on dhampir, humans and moroi; and Dhampir: half humans- half vampire they train to protect the Moroi from Stragoi. I used wikipedia a bit for that but you get the general message from the movie. So the movie starts off with a car crash involving Rose, Lissa and her family, only Rose and Lissa survive. This turns out to be a nightmare Lissa was having but Rose was also seeing so basically they're connected. They ran away about a year ago from St. Vladmir's Academy aka Vampire Academy. So these damper guardians from the academy show up and capture the girls, but first Rose beats up like three only to be stooped by one named Dimitri. The rest of the story follows the girls return to their high school and protecting Lissa from an unknown enemy. Basically a cross between Mean Girls and Twilight. On a positive note on more than one occasion it makes fun of Twilight and vampire fan culture. 
I think the acting was fairly decent and the story line for the Vampire genre was actually pretty good. Note this is based off of the first book in a series. The plot was very very rushed and it switched from scene to scene very fast. The editing and special effects were fine but nothing to be proud about. It had some typical cliches and very cheesy moments but it wasn't the worst I've ever seen. I think the cinematography was pretty decent and the setting at the Academy was very pretty. I don't think this movie deserved as low of a rating as it got, I'd probably give it a 5/10 mainly because it actually did keep my interest and it wash't near as bad as Twilight.