It's morning, feeling kind of grumpy for being woken up at 7 by having the house phone ringing. Think what really put me in a foul mood was that when I managed to answer the phone, what was on the other end? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well I have a fresh pot of coffee so the morning is getting better as I try to relax a little before tonight's artist reception at the gallery. We're expecting at least 160 people/per hour to show up during the 4 hours of the reception mainly due to the fact that we are showing the works of 42 sculptors for this show.
So while I'm wandering the net sipping coffee (side note I seriously need to get some more because my tin is nearly empty), I came across this video clip:
A wonderful song in it's own right, originally sung by Lil Green then Peggy Lee in the early 1940s, I find myself appreciating Who Framed Roger Rabbit more and more over the years. Why? Compared to other animation/live action movies, the fluidness of the acting and action between the real and the animation is much natural feeling which in itself is amazing when you keep in mind that the movie was created back in 1988. I think it's the attention to detail such as shading, the movement of clothes and objects that makes me appreciate the movie.
In comparison, Cool World (1992) really is lacking the continuity (not sure if that's the word I'm looking for. Need to drink more coffee) that WFRR has. To me it really seems to be trying to cash in on WFRR's popularity and is lacking a lot of elements. When human characters interact with the animated characters, it seems forced and not even really believable. The acting isn't that bad but the fact that I can tell where actors are on a green screen and it just drives me mad. This is especially noticeable when Jack falls face first into the floor of the night club when he first appears in Cool World. The shadows other then his own is nearly non-existent and the lighting is honestly too bright for a night club. Looking at the animation itself, it's well done in it's attempt to show the various styles up to that point in history which makes sense since Cool World is supposed to have been around for a long time but something about the female characters seemed familiar. It took me a moment to realize that their art style is very similar to that in Wizards (1977).
Have a feeling that I'm probably going to make several people upset on this but keep in mind, if you will, that this is just my opinion; but as far as the three movies, I will always be a fan of WFRR and Wizards. There's just little things about Cool World that bugs me. Perhaps in the future I will watch it again but it will be difficult to not compare it to other films.
EDIT: One of my friends pointed out that Space Jam (1996) wasn't on my list of live action/animated films, to which I apologize about. I have to agree that this particular movie is wonderful, not because of the actors and guest camios that the film had incorporated but the fact that they seemed to fix all of the problems that Cool World had. It was as if those producing it looked at Cool World and WFRR, looked at each other and went "Where the hell did we screw up and how do we fix this?" which is fantastic. Yes there are still a little bit of problems with the green screen but it's not as noticeable and in your face as Cool World. Animation itself is well done and they take in consideration shading of the animated characters with the lighting of their environment.
Some people may end up pointing out that WFRR and Space Jam can't be compared to Cool World because most of the first 2 films were taking place in the real world while Cool World was mostly in the animated world . No.. all three had elements in the real world and the animated world. The difference between the movies is that WFRR and Space Jam (when characters real and animated) are in the animated world, shadowing is still believable and works with all of the elements together while Cool World is lacking this which is sadly obvious in scenes involving real characters interacting with their animated counter parts.
Now it may seem that I'm saying that Cool World is a horrible movie, which I would like to say no I'm not. By itself, the movie has a lot of potential and a fairly decent story line but unfortunately the problems that it has makes it seem rushed and is holding it back. In all honesty, due to the fact that it seems to have things that weren't done it almost feels like it was a low budget production. This in itself is a bit depressing because there are several low budget productions that I actually quite enjoy such as The Princess Bride (1987), Robin Hood - Men in Tights (1993), and Van Hellsing (2004).
No comments:
Post a Comment