If you haven't had the chance to catch Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues you can check it out on her website for free. Paley has been a strong advocate of free distribution. On her site she offers it in 3 resolutions, two of which are "broadcast" quality. Her use of 2 dimensional computer graphics is nothing short of splendid. Bright, vivid and humorous Sita dazzles.

Sita is a Hindu goddess, the leading lady of India’s epic the Ramayana and a dutiful wife who follows her husband Rama on a 14 year exile to a forest, only to be kidnapped by an evil king from Sri Lanka. Despite remaining faithful to her husband, Sita is put through many tests. Nina (the filmmaker Nina Paley herself) is an artist who finds parallels in Sita’s life when her husband – in India on a work project - decides to break up their marriage and dump her via email. Three hilarious Indonesian shadow puppets with Indian accents – linking the popularity of the Ramayana from India all the way to the Far East - narrate both the ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the epic.

In her first feature length film, Paley juxtaposes multiple narrative and visual styles to create a highly entertaining yet moving vision of the Ramayana. Musical numbers choreographed to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw feature a cast of hundreds: flying monkeys, evil monsters, gods, goddesses, warriors, sages, and winged eyeballs. A tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment. Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."

Watch it here.

Taxidermia initially premiered in the states at the Portland Film Festival way back in February of 08. It's now slated for an official U.S. release date of August 14. Taxidermia contains three generational stories, about a grandfather, a father, and a son, linked together by recurring motifs. The dim grandfather, an orderly during World War Two, lives in his bizarre fantasies; he desires love. The huge father seeks success as a top athlete — a speed eater — in the post-war pro-Soviet era. The grandson, a meek, small-boned taxidermist, yearns for something greater: immortality. He wants to create the most perfect work of art of all time by stuffing his own torso. Historical facts and surrealism become intertwined as magical realism, like in the works of Gabriel García Marquez or the Hungarian writer Lajos Parti Nagy; the script is based on two of the latter’s stories. Palfi added the third story, that of the grandson the taxidermist.

(Don’t worry, reader, no spoilers in this one.)

Coraline is a great picture that hits all the right chords with this viewer. It’s tender, funny, and even a little creepy at times. Everything about it is quality entertainment: good story, good characters, great performances, a fantastic soundtrack (None of that radio Disney crap), and really, really exquisite character designs. Everybody looks totally unique. And hilarious, too.

My favorite looking character, personally, is Mr. Bobinsky.

And when you’re watching this film, you have to sit in awe of the quality stop motion and the work that must of went into it. Stop motion has a unique and beautiful aesthetic of its own that you don’t see too much anymore in our modern 3D animation saturated films. We’re lucky to have directors like Henry Selick who are still driven to pursue this obscure kind of filmmaking. Keep up the good work, Henry!

Bottom line: I really liked this movie, and suspect it will be mentioned later this year as one of my favorite films of 2009. It’s certainly one of the more novel, entertaining, and surprisingly mature children’s films, outside of the Pixar ones, I’ve seen in recent years. No fart jokes whatsoever. If you haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favor a check it out right after you’re done reading my review. Seriously. Do it.

Now I bought the blu-ray version of Coraline, and it looks exquisite! The 2D version I mean. The overall subdued color palette is accurate to what I remember seeing in the theater, and the same goes for the picture’s sharpness, as well. You’ll marvel at all the little details you can make out in their clothes and in the background sets. WOWZA! It looks as good, if not better than the other fairly recent HD release stop motion picture, Corpse Bride, and totally annihilates the picture quality of Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Mr. Selick, too). I thought the picture on the Nightmare blu-ray was a little underwhelming, myself. Granted, though, that is a much older film.

Buying this blu-ray also gave me the opportunity, for the first time, to experience a 3D picture at home. This is the version I watched first, and I have some mixed feelings about this “3D presentation”: on the plus side, the picture was much more 3Dimensional than I had anticipated. I was genuinely surprised at how well the illusionary effect was rendered on this disc, almost as good as the 3D picture I experienced at the moviehouse in February of this year. However, I was a little disappointed that throughout the entire movie it looked like a semi-transparent sheet of pink and green was covering the picture. This multicolor sheen is due to the fact that the 3D glasses that come with it, 4 pairs to be specific, have a red violet lens on the right side and a green one on the left side. Unavoidable, I guess, but still a little distracting. At least the 3D didn’t cost extra, but, if pressed, I definitely prefer the 2D version.

As far as special features go, this disc delivers again. There’s a very nice 35-minute “making of” feature, a short look into the casting and the recording of the vocal performances, and extended and deleted scenes. That’s about it. Adequate.

The first trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland reached the internet this week. As far as I can tell it looks 1 part Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and 1 part Big Fish with a dash of Pirates. Burton morbidity has always remained juvenile and that seems to be the case here. It's weird but safe. I promised myself I wouldn't watch too much of this, but here it goes...




See it Here.
Via:cinematical

Remember when everyone thought Billy Bob was going to play Freddy a re-imagining of the Nightmare on Elmstreet property. Well that's a distant memory. Jackie Earle Haley has officially stepped into the role and Trailer Park has the pic to prove it. From the image we can't tell an awful lot except that Haley is barely distinguishable from Englund who originally played Krueger. Of course it's an extremely early photo, but it looks like everything is headed in the right direction. Although the photo is brimming with gritty realism à la The Dark Knight. We'll see.

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#1
XBOX LIVE PRIMETIME CHANNEL: "Scheduled Social Events"
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#2

MIDTERM REPORT
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ADAMS PICKS
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Apparently John Lasseter was trying his hand at C.G. way back in 1983. It was then that he did some test for a movie adaptation based on the famous Maurice Sendak book Where The Wild Things Are. Luckily for us, of that footage still exist. Of course the project and Lasseter were eventually canned due to enormous budget. But I think this is pretty dang amazing for 1983. Thanks to Elisabeth Rappe of Cinematical for the heads up.




For some reason the player doesn't work that well. Press the Space Bar to start it.