Animation Thoughts

Aside from noticing that both dvd's supplied in class were American Independent Film, i only watched the one but took good notes on what i saw.

Non-likes:

1. Bill Plympton's "Faces" was not a favorite of mine. i failed to find any conflict aside from getting a slight headache from trying to understand why sonmeone's face would contort like he had it do all to some musical score that added nothing to the animation. Even though i found the animation to be fluid and well done, i did not enjoy the story. The non-existant story i might add. The only thing i found interesting was the consistancy and the ideas presented by the animator about how wrinkles and orafices could distort the human face. if there were some othe ropint to the animation, i did not find the desire to dig deeper than i have done.

2. Garbage in Garbage Out:
Arg. A complete idiocy. Even though it had some cyclic humanity to it, i did not enjoy it. i think it is because the climax and conflict are conflicting with one another. The climax being the "animator" throwing away the godzilla-esque animation and conflict being the godzilla animation eating all the other animations for no aparent reason. i feel it being nonsensical. If there were another reason behind the animation, i suppose a brief artist's blurb would help put my mind on the right track. the animation was well done on the other hand, i did enjoy the appearance of the animation and the motion captured therein, but the story and relation to personal experiences were greatly lacking for me. just not my cup of tea.

3. 25 ways to quit smoking
I really enjoyed the idea behind this animation. albeit there being no story or conflict or resolution the list of "25 ways to quit" were quite enjoyable. Unsuccessful to say the least as far as plot goes, but successful as a good idea for an animation.

Good:
1.Snookles: Juliet Strout
I thought this was a well thought and well done animation. It had a clear resolution and plot. I thought the idea behind an innocent looking baby dragon trying to befriend a song bird to learn how to sing was a pretty good idea. there are inherit flaws that shoudl be inferred at the introduction of the character, ie: fire breathing, meat eating, angry, etc... But being a baby dragon the audience tends to forget about that. As the dragon starts to sing like the song bird, it scorches the bird and tries to hide the chared remains in the tree. It is a pretty good story that is easily relatable to mankind.

2. One of Those Days: Bill Plympton
I have seen this animation before several times, and enjoy it every time. The conflict, climax, and resolution are quite clear, especially as the title resonates through the mind as the character goes through "one of those days". It is like a day where everything goes bad, a very good idea behind the animation. A very relatable story to every american who deals with everyday life. It is amusing how the animator ties everything together and twists it someway to make it the worst thing possible. Poor guy.

3. The Diner: Graham Wilson
Not a very enjoyable animation, it was quite creepy actually. I thought the animation was very well done with craftsmanship and technique. Throughout the animation, i almost had an inkling to knock some sense into the short main character. The setup of the story wasnt very clear until the end when the truck ate the old diner and replaced it with mechanical monsters rather than organic biological ones. Although i did not completely understand why the easily spooked character went in the diner in the first place when it was obvious he was very very jumpy and scared of almost everything that moves; it did add a sense of tension that wouldnt have been evident if the confident secondary character entered the diner.