Snow White

..three dimensional look.
For those who didn’t do basic film studies a cel is a sheet of transparent
cellulose acetate that it can be laid over other cels or a painted background,
then photographed. The cels change subtly with each image so that the images
flow almost naturally when projected at twenty-four frames per second.
Until the advent of sufficient computing power all cartoons were hand made.
The more cels the more expensive the film as every cel, and resultant frame,
was hand drawn. Twenty-four frames per second results in a lot of art work in
an eight-four minute feature like Snow White. Over one hundred and
twenty thousand according to my calculator.
And it hold up quite well, especially the backgrounds which are often exquisite.
All this despite a Snow White that sounds like she has been at the helium balloon
and had an overwhelming desire to be a house cleaner.. The seven dwarfs are
a cross between a Dickensian and Freudian view of the physically and mentally
handicapped. Dopey bears an endearing resemblance to Liberal parliamentarian,
Tony Abbott. Character development is somewhat rudimentary and the original
Grimm’s Fairy tale is simplified, but it is a majestic realisation.
There are some great sight gags and it has some good water and rain backgrounds
and foregrounds, which I have always believed are the animators right of passage
and obligatory to include in any animated feature.
But it made me wonder why cartoons and animations figures so largely in my list
of favourite films. Partially I know it is I had a vaguely artistic background
and also because there is nothing in an animation that wasn’t put there
deliberately. However I believe that there are far greater flights of the imagination
than are achievable in animation than any other way on film.
Somehow CGI, good as it gets currently, never creates the submersion into imagination
that great animation can achieve.
Despite the caterwauling of a few straggling remnants of the Fabian Society
that claim to know what’s best for us, I suspect that most people love
at least one cartoon series, be it George of the Jungle or Roadrunner.
Not that these should be compared to the greats of animation, but there is an
acceptance of the primitive humanity and violence common to Punch and Judy.
And yes Virginia, cartoon violence is just cartoon violence.
So here is an abridged list of animation favourites based on the quality of
the art work. .

Top of my list still goes to Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese classic
where cel animation meets Photoshop, cyberpunk and the graphic novel. Simultaneously
sublimely sexy, violent and silly it reinforced the introduction of Manga/Anime
into the west. The graphics and music are sublime, the titles were lifted
by the Wachowski brothers for The Matrix and the water and rain probably
haven’t been bettered.
After that I have to rate the first half of Wall-E, showing what
you can do with an essentially silent film that somehow evokes Buster Keaton
with infinitely imagined textures and angles.
Pixar are the heirs to Walt Disney and the depth and intelligence of their
movies goes from strength to strength. Though with curious flaws.
Up is a magical film, bravely touching on death, aging and the failure
of dreams to be realised , requisitely frightening and funny, yet looking
back I am still trying to work out why I don’t want to see it again.
The art work is ridiculously good but some of the characters have that ‘this
is almost as big a mistake as Jar Jar Binks in the ‘Star Wars Episode
I: The Phantom Menace’. Namely, Kevin, the colourful flightless bird
–‘ Oh My God he’s a Girl’ And the bulbous treatment
of Russell the Wilderness Explorer is reminiscent of why I disliked the second
half of Wall-E and has that irritating avoidance/acceptance attitude that
Americans have about the obese.
The next two are obvious though perhaps not in the order I put them. Porco
Rosso and Spirited Away both by the written and directed by
Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. Spirited
Away that became Japan’s highest grossing film.
Both, like Snow White, are cel animations, therefore hand drawn and
hand painted. And whilst I admire the complex imagination that melds Japanese
animist folklore, ghost and spirits into a seamless stunning totality in Spirited
Away, I find that I have watched Porco Rosso more. And while
the water effects are great, translucency, ripples and underwater shapes and
textures are masterfully handled there is also a lyricism and medieval rambunctiousness.

And it has a pig as a hero, admittedly a human who has been transformed into
a pig, but a pig who fights fascism, aerial piracy and saves school girls
from a fate worse than death.
I don’t think it is a better film than Spirited Away by any
stretch but is easier to handle after ten hours in the office. Sometimes that
is all one can ask for.