film: Persuit of Happyness

Jerman's Rating: 4 steps forward, 1 step back. Defcon 3 for the tough situations the main character is in and the desperate plight in the plot. This film is for 18+, basically anyone out of high school and about to start a family or career.

This film was really hard for me to rate, the main character is definitely in the poverty level. The line between survival and morality becomes less and less clear, making rating this one very hard.


One of the biggest morals and contributors to the rating is how family was handled. Christopher (the son) is the most important thing in Chirs's life (the dad). Being able to care for his son gives him the greatest happiness. The mother (unlikable character, but highly relate-able) eventually leaves the family but not before confronting her choices and making the decision based on what is best for her son.

The main character, Chris, does many things we would consider immoral, like avoiding rent (Spiderman does it too), not paying rent at all, tax evasion, and illegal parking. He gets a fair consequence for all of his actions, but these actions should be weighed. If younger kids watch this movie, they might not understand the situation the family is in and might think that living in an apartment without paying for it is ok. I'll have to disclaimer myself here saying that I'm also not saying that if you're poor you have more liberty to steal and break the law, thats incorrect and shouldn't be encouraged. Several people through the movie are very kind to Chris's family and show him mercy (up to a point) I think this point is more important to stress, and I liked the way it was handled.

I also enjoyed that a church scene was included. Complete with a gospel choir and an audience clapping and crying. Chris is shown picking up his son, hugging him and having a spiritual moment. I don't know how religious the real man was (this was based on a true story), or how religious he was implied to be, I'm just happy this scene was in the movie.

This movie if it had to be classified, I would put in with the "inspirational movies." With that said, this movie is pretty depressing and very rough. If you can't stand watching movies like Meet the Parents because of all the awful things that happen one after another, the same thing might bug you here. Poverty and poor people are confronted a lot, this might make you uncomfortable, but raises some good questions for you to answer for yourself.
A moral film with good messages, its very professionally done, its kept at a slower pace, and doesn't start being positive until the near-end. Like I said before- If you are in a transition period in your life- starting a career or starting a family- then I'd more recommend this movie for you; as you would be able to relate a lot more.

You know that

..we have moved to a different century when instead of asking: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it-- Did it really happen?"

Its better to ask: "If a tree falls in a forest and none of the witnesses blog about it-- Did it really happen?"

What the Anime?

I talked about making this post back during the Mononoke review. I've been a little slow getting this up because I feel a little inadequate for the job. Before you finish the post, (if you are going to read it that is) know that I'm just an amateur film lover, and everything I write here is just my observations.

Anime or Japanamation is one of the most disliked mediums for an average American. There are a lot of things associated with Anime that make it very foreign. It doesn't buy into Hollywood very much, thats for sure. I could draw an analogy to director John Woo, who is also disliked. He has a very visual style with similar themes (birds) in many of his visuals. Because the average movie-goer is expecting one thing and gets John Woo instead- John Woo gets hated on. He is actually pretty good if you go in knowing what you're going to get. Anime can be like that. Here are 9 pictures of different animations. Click on them to make them bigger. Some of them are Anime, some of them are American. All of them are a little weird in their own right.


The quintessential cartoon that everyone goes to first to make fun of Anime (this is Pokemon if you didn't know). However its not popular without reason. Any trait you find common in anime you can find here- the proportional bodies, the extreme polar emotions, the blue hair, the mouth and eye sizes . . . As far as anime goes, this is one of the lowest quality.



I have no idea where this is from. The characters emotions is one of the defining traits. Instead of actions and reactions being emphasized (like in Disney or WB) the emotions are. Primarily happy and mad. Depression is pretty popular, as is shock. Emotions are relied on more heavily to tell the story, and develop the characters. Gimmicks like the squinty eyes, tear waterfalls are used by the low quality anime to quickly fill you in. The more serious anime has to do other things- but still relies on emotions.


You really gotta take a bigger look at this picture. Disney (I think) made this cartoon. There's a couple things you need to notice. Human proportions are thrown out the window. Everyone is drawn to make the visual impact and define the character's personality. You know who the jerk is, who the main character is, who the snobby one is etc. Now, look at the dukes mouth- this is the same size or bigger (propotionally) as any wide mouth in anime- the difference is that the mouth stays that big all the time, same with the eyes. Nobodies face or body is constructed like that- but this is what we are used to and call "cartoons"; Anime doesn't keep these rules, they live by different rules and are unfamiliar.


Ah, Batman and Robin. This is a step up from Gummi Bears. There is more thematics and morals, people are drawn more real (still incorrect proportions), color and shading are better, and the movement of characters is better.






This is from a TV show called Gundam Wing (one of the 7). Its higher quality than Pokemon, equatable with Batman and Robin. This one is steeped with rhetoric, mostly about the morality of war. Human proportions are maintained, but a little exaggerated for some people. You can tell by this picture that the face is much more solid than Disney cartoons, the eyes and ears are at the right spot for the most part. There's giant robots in this one that fly around in space in cool poses. There are cool battles, good bad guys, bad good guys, fuzzy lines and motivations- all of which define the medium.



Hmm, this looks anime, but is American... which is it? Its American, its just drawn really poorly, which creates its (very) unique style (and makes it annoying). The story is told with actions and reactions, not emotions, and plays off American ideals, there's no way it could be anime.





This is a frame from Princess Mononoke- one of the higher quality of Anime. Its so high, I would be careful calling it Anime. The humans are drawn to perfect proportion and move as a human would move, the actions are hardly exaggerated. This would be equatable to Sleeping Beauty -only more adultish- there are painted backgrounds with very good animations.

And we return again to the animation juggernaut. If you look at the image- Aladdin and Jasmine aren't drawn the way a human looks, the eyes are still to big, the head is too big, and they don't quite move correctly either, we accept this because this is our definition of what a cartoon is supposed to look like. There is one thing that everyone might not have noticed. Cartoon characters never change clothes. If Aladdin changed his clothes he would appear at first like a different character until he started speaking. Cartoon characters kind of have to keep their same costume for the audiences sake of identifying them. In anime, the characters change clothes quite often, but they never get a hair cut. The crazy hair is used to identify the character, thats why its a little crazy, and often looks the same from many different angels.


I don't have anything left to say. You come up with something, and write it here.










If any of my readers are more knowledgeable about these things than I, and I'm sure many of you are, I'd really really love it if you shot me a message telling me if I've got something wrong or whatever. To the rest of you- Just because DragonBallZ and Pokemon are so easy to disregard and make fun of, don't shut the door, I've found that most people who say they don't like any anime, actually like a lot of it.

film: 300

Jerman's rating: 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. Defcon 5. Movie for adults only (21 adults not the 18 type).

There is quite a bit of disturbing and questionable content. The violence is very graphic, but done in a cartoonish way. There is a lot of stabbing and beheading. There is a lot of breast shots too, and not just the quick shot, they get ample screen time, if that bothers you and you still want to watch the movie there are two scenes where you need to cover your eyes. Personally I didn't care for the sex scene one bit, it didn't leave much to the imagination- either what they were doing, or how they were doing it. Despite the content the film is surprisingly moral and teaches great things, and is almost devoid of bad messages.

Good messages include: Being honorable (virtuous) at all times in all circumstances, fighting for what is right- whether or not you can win, fighting for the children's future is what's important. Several references are made to submitting or bowing down to a figure. Xerxes can be a symbol of a lot of different things: tyranny, money, glory, power, many things in our society. This kneeling down is strongly discouraged and mocked (This is one of the greatest lines of the movie- "You...May you live forever"). Expressing to those you love that you love them- is briefly discussed. And one more I'll mention is how the hero stands against incorrect traditions and established practices of the society, he is guided by law and also by his own inner morals.

The few bad messages I could come up with include: excessive brutality and violence, and over glorification of the ruthless warrior soldier.

One of my favorite scenes shows just consequences and its great. The wife who offers her body is stung with regret at her compromised immorality and it has consequences. The jerk politician also gets returned to him what he dealt to others.

I have to talk for a minute about the camera work and color usage, which really set this film apart. The colors were, as a friend pointed out, "spartan." Usually the screen was monochromatic (tell me if I'm using this word incorrectly) going from white to black with either a cool blueish color in between (for gray) or a goldish color. There are a few rare times when there are three colors on the screen- its rare though. A lot of the camera work looked computer generated, but was variable speed emphasizing the battle and the Spartan's skill in combat. If you watch the movie you will enjoy the camera work and variable speed, it keeps you in the movie, and is an innovative technique which I could see being employed in future films as well.
Lastly, I have to tell you about the movie as a whole. Its a He-Man movie. The first half has both coming of age and sexuality. The second half has lots of buff guys, fighting against impossible odds, and saying really cool lines while talking to other groups. Its really just filled with lots of manly masculine things. The girl sitting next to me, who came with a date, didn't seem to like it much, but it seemed almost all the guys loved it. It is heavy on the violence, it does have sexuality (this is either good or bad for you), but it carries very good messages that are very applicable to here and now.

film: Princess Mononoke

Jerman's Rating: 3 steps forward, 0 steps back. (Yes, thats a 0, and very rare). Defcon 3 (Moderate). Early adolescence and up.

This is a first for me, I didn't know they existed, but I've been siting here thinking of everything I can, and I still can't think of anything bad this film encourages or endorses. The main character, Ashitaka, is quite the moral upstanding young man. The lack of tainted messages, and the strong moral values is part of what draws me to Japanese and Chinese cinema. While I'm on that subject, let me tell you a little bit about Japanese animation, also known as Anime, and Japanamation.

I wanted to write this review, really for one reason. I had something in my mind that this movie shows better than anything else I've seen, I also see myself in the same situation. Beware, I'm not afraid of using spoilers. The story goes kind of like this. A young man, a prince, is sent off to the west from the far east. He meets several groups, but remains neutral. While being a good, moral person he helps people and meets more important people. He both understands them and what they are doing, sees the good in them and their causes, and becomes loyal to that group. The catch is that two of these groups are enemies of the worst nature, and in no way can be reconciled. For the rest of the movie Ashitaka helps both groups in his own way while not betraying either one, and tries and fails to reconcile them. Both groups were in the wrong, both were doing good. It would be pointless to assign blame after everything thats been done. In the end both groups learned their lessons and had their great losses.

I'm kind of in the same boat as Ashitaka. It is hard for me to understand why some groups are so filled with hate for each other, while I can identify with both groups. One moment I can sort of understand why they can't get along, in the next I'm yelling "Stop it! You morons!" In case you, dear reader, ever find yourself faced with two groups like this then I would suggest you watch this film. It is especially frustrating when the two groups have the same goals.

Hmm..this film still deserves for me to say a lot more about it; I'll try to keep it short. This film is unconventional by American standards. It's amazing too, because of its unconventionality, or despite it, I'm not sure. Its about Gods and Demons and men. This film also shows the law of harvest, all the characters get rewarded or punished as a result of their actions. There isn't really a bad guy in the film. Lady Eboshi could be mistaken for one, but with her building her city, giving jobs to the brothel girls from the cities and taking them in, as well as taking in the lepers and letting them contribute to the city. With her running the city so well and being moral in her own respect, there is really no way she could be the bad guy.

One way that this animation is different from American animations is that the characters are drawn much much closer to correct human proportions, also the way they move is more realistic and shows wonderful examples of what good animation looks like. The painted scenes are also amazing and beautiful.

The music is also good, I don't mean good in a technical sense as I said about the animation, because I have no clue about the technicality of music composition. But I love the music, sometimes its epic, sometimes its romantic, its a good soundtrack.

There is still a ton that I have left to say. I may possibly edit this post in the future.
Just from my own personal taste, this movie is among the best, 10 of 10, or 5 of 5, whatever your scale is, this is a great movie. As long as you are old enough to understand it (this isn't a kids movie if you haven't caught yet) I highly recommend it. You don't even have to read subtitles, its dubbed. But- you know your own tastes and you might not like it, still you should give Miyazaki a try.

film: Escape to Witch Mountain

I haven't done one of these in a while, and someone requested I do this movie, so here it is.

Jerman's Rating: 2 steps forward, 2 steps back. I don't really know age limits very well, but it is for young kids, as I'll explain later, maybe 4 and up. Defcon 2 for scary beginning credits and some scary situations and just because this movie is so so very weird.

Good things it teaches includes: Kidnapping children is bad, taking advantage of people is bad, especially against their will. It also threw in some stuff about being good people and treating strangers as family. Bad things it taught included using your talents to hurt people, encouraging people to play or fight dirty, and be mean. Nowhere in this movie (unlike other Disney movies) is there a good upstanding moral figure, he is simply absent from the film. It taught some things that weren't really bad, but probably shouldn't be taught. The little girl befriends a grizzly bear- not something you want your own little girl to imitate, also the kids befriend a pack of angry dogs just by turning around and talking with them- again, not something you want your kids to do. (There is also running away from the cops and beating up a sheriff thing.)

The camera work and editing is old style and confusing if you've grown up on more recent films. To us, it would appear amateur. The music is great though. Not Danny Elfman great, but more this is so freaking weird great. It has this theme that is really entertaining.

I also have to mention one film making rule. Its very established and makes a huge gap between the good films that follow it, and the not-good-at-all films that don't. It is this: Instead of telling it- show it, but implying it is better. Now that I've told you that, there are a few circumstances in which you are allowed to break this rule:

• You are George Lucas and think you transcend all rules
• You are making a kids movie
• You made a movie before this rule was set and established

This movie meets the last two circumstances, so its allowed to break the rule, but it does break the rule. Everybody walks around announcing what they are thinking and about to do, I laughed at it. Kids sometimes need characters to announce things like that.
I would recommend seeing it if you have nothing else to watch or are in a weird mood and its free to watch. It tells a story that kids are likely to want to watch and would enjoy, but the kids of today might get kind of confused by it. It does tell a story they would like, but it tells it in a way they might not be familiar with. I would love to show it to some kids as an experiment and see if they understand everything or not.

Principles of Animation

I promised myself I'd post this. I've been developing some lesson plans to teach all of these, or at least some of them really well. These 12(11) principles are what separate animation from film or reality and are what separates good and bad animation.

1. Squash and Stretch. In order to make something move fast is has to cover a lot of distance on the screen, but in order for your brain to connect all the dots, its nice to have the object overlap on consecutive frames. If you stretch out the ball when it goes the fastest, it looks better. When it hits something, that something hits back making it deform. Unless it is totally rigid (ceramic, etc) it has to deform.
2. EaseIn/SlowIn, EaseOut/SlowOut. Nothing looks as unnatural as a thing that accelerates and decelerates instantly. The spacing works the same way gravity does.
3. Timing. Animation is done with keyframes- the important poses drawn by important people, and then the in-betweens drawn by less-important people. By altering the number of inbetweens and pose holds you can change the action a lot. You can make something happy or depressed or sad, heavy or light, victorious or defeated.
4. Arcs. Everything moves in arcs. If you don't believe me- look to your right, then look to your left. Your probably didn't notice, but in the middle of the look your face is slightly pointing down and at the extremes your face is slightly pointing up. Everything moves in arcs. The only time something moves linear is when its mechanical.
5. Followthrough and Overlapping. Along with Easing, when something stops not all of it stops at the same time, the torso may stop, but the arms don't and will swing a little. When you start your body will move forward, but your hair and cape (if you have one) won't, they'll move late.
   
6. Anticipation. This goes with timing. You have to spent just the right amount of time on the anticipation, on the action, and the reaction (the action is actually very short compared to the anticipation). If the anticipation is weak or too short the audience isn't going to understand the action and will be confused. Anticipation is the windup before any and all actions.
   
7. Exaggeration. This is the heart of animation. Everything is exaggerated way beyond real limits and constraints. This makes it eye-catching. Your need to exaggerate poses, emotion, actions, anticipation (especially), and character.
8. Secondary Action. There is always a dominant action going on, besides that there are other tweens that make static things move, like the arm swing during the walk, like eye blinking, or anything else that is peripheral motion. Its important not to let the secondary action distract at all from the main important action.
   
9. Staging. This isn't that hard. You show the character from the angle that makes sense. Use the silhouette technique to make sure your animations are making sense without the detail, the silhouette alone should look good and portray the mood and action.
   
10. Personality. This defines everything about how a character should move. This isn't so much a means or a technique, but and ends and a result. If you do everything right, your character should be alive and looks like he is moving on his own accord.
11. There are other things to learn, but I wouldn't put them in with the principles. Everything has and must keep a shape or form (muscle and bone structure), the weight of everything must be apparent, and should be shown in the way it moves. Simplification is a good thing. Miyazaki films have a lot of detail, and it sometimes distracts or is harder to keep it looking natural.

There are the 11 steps. In case you have 11 fingers there is one principle for each finger. If you have 10 then you'll just have to remember the last one. These principles are used by standard in hand drawn animation, but sadly has been largely disregarded in most Flash movies (including by me). I'm posting this to get more people (including me) to use these principles more, so we can stop watching the crappy flash that doesn't look right.