I just watched the Japanese animated film, Summer Wars. I was interested in it largely because of strong word-of-mouth as well as the fact that it’s directed by Mamoru Hosoda. In 2006, Hosoda directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which in my opinion is one of the best animated films of all time. It’s also one of the best, most insightful time travel films I’ve ever seen. To say I was disappointed by Summer Wars would be an understatement. It’s quite bad as far as I’m concerned, and I fail to understand why it’s considered in any way good.
The animation and design are decent at best. The story is full of contrivances. The set-up of the film’s world is entirely illogical and displays a complete misunderstanding of how the Internet and modern technology operate. I’m convinced that if the animation style had been American and the film was released by Disney it would have been mostly crapped on for all these reasons. Instead, it’s seen as a cool, stylish animated film for “adults” from a country that actually respects the art of animation. Is it possible that we in North America simply cut foreign films like Summer Wars a bit too much slack? Click to read more.
Back again this week with some links. It was a little hard finding great blog posts this week, not because the writing was poor, but because I simply didn’t feel like linking tons of Oscar predictions. I love the Oscars as a game. I love predicting who will win and getting excited about it all. But I really don’t see it as important, and this year I haven’t felt motivated to even talk about the Oscars very much. Then again, I one Oscars-related post did manage to slip through. All the links are inside! 
I’m a fan of a light read. Books that feel like work are often rewarding, but being a movie buff makes me slightly impatient. Sometimes all I need is to sit back and devour a really simple-to-read book. I would never claim that 
Another two weeks have gone by. Yes, I forgot once again. When I did remember to put a list of links together I also realized I hadn’t collected enough good links. Well, in the extra time I’ve found some quality links. I’ve got stuff from all over the interwebs and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
This week I got to see a big screen presentation of the animated shorts nominated at the Oscars. Along with the five nominated films were four “highly commended” shorts, a welcome addition considering the five nominated shorts don’t even fill an hour of viewing. What I generally love about animated shorts is that they’re effectively silent films. Where live-action shorts generally try to be like small versions of the kinds of movies you might see at the art house, animated shorts tend to be conceived as a way of showing off skill in animation. That makes sense, of course, but the result is usually a total lack of dialogue, focusing on expression through character animation.
Such a disappointment. I’d heard this book pimped by so many cinephiles, including the guys on Filmspotting. How could it possibly not live up? 
Double Fine is the game developer behind great games like Psychonauts and Stacking. It’s also the brainchild of Tim Schafer, a former LucasArts employee who created Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, two of the very best games ever made. Now Tim has teamed up with Ron Gilbert, creator of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, to create a brand new point-and-click adventure game. They’re doing it small-scale, with a planned Fall 2012 release. I can’t wait.
Movies are amazing. Clearly. Objectively. Also amazing is learning about movies. I love it. The history of cinema is almost as fascinating as the movies themselves. Maybe even more interesting. Take for example, Apocalypse Now. I consider it the greatest film I’ve ever seen, and likely ever made. Yet the story behind the making of Apocalypse Now is perhaps crazier, more engaging and more entertaining than even the film itself. I’m a sucker for making-of docs and informative commentaries, but I also love documentaries with a wider focus.
