Adventures in Plymptoons!
2011, USA - by Alexia Anastasio
Adventures in Plymptoons! is a documentary film about Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton. This is a portrait piece that includes interviews with family, friends, colleagues, critics, and fans. A native of Portland, Oregon, Plympton lived what he refers to as a “Huck Finn” type of childhood on the Clackamas River. Portland’s frequent rainy days led Plympton to spend hours indoors drawing. He would also watch television and make his siblings laugh by providing his own commentary. After graduating from Portland State College with a degree in Art, Plympton took himself and his dreams to New York City. There, he worked as an illustrator and had his art featured in publications such as «The New Yorker», «Hustler», «Penthouse» and «Playboy». Adventures in Plymptoons! features interviews with many of Plympton’s collaborators, such as Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob); the directors David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie), Terry Gilliam (Brazil) and Lloyd Kaufman (Tromeo&Juliet); the actors Keith Carradine and Matthew Modine, Martha Plympton (the good wife), Ed Begley, Jr., Peter Jason, Moby and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Chico & Rita
2010, Spain/UK - Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
Filled with jazz and love, this film depicts the lives of a gifted songwriter and beautiful singer chase their dreams from Havana in 1948 to New York and Las Vegas. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams and Rita is a gorgeous singer with an extraordinary voice. The desire for music and romance unites them; they make fine music and admirable love, while bringing heartache and torment. But the success separates them: Rita becomes a celebrity in New York without Chico, which has a most unlucky fate. Set against the backdrop of the Castro revolution that will radically change Cuba. Chico y Rita beautifully re-crafts the rich pre-Castro Cuban culture using the story of two star-crossed lovers. The evocative soundtrack, that sets the tone and pace of the film, features songs by Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, the almodovarian singer Estrella Morente and the Cuban composer Bebo Valdés, 90 years old, who gives life to Chico’s artistic inspiration. Tono Errando, audio-visual supervisor realized this film together with his brother, artist Javier Mariscal and the master of Spanish cinema and Oscar winner Fernando Trueba.
Chronicle
2012, USA/UK - by Josh Trank
This is as real as it gets. Andrew, Matt, and Steve are recognizable teens, each with a distinctive personality and each facing relatable challenges that come with being in high school, forming new friendships, and exploring new facets of their ever-changing lives. They’re imperfect, awkward, and a little reckless. They could be you. Like so many of us, they’re obsessed with chronicling their lives, however mundane – or in their case, however extraordinary. For Andrew, Matt and Steve have stumbled upon something beyond their – or anyone’s – understanding. Their discovery leads them to acquire powerful telekinetic abilities; in graphic novel parlance, they have superpowers. They’re now capable of, well, almost anything. They can move objects just by thinking about them, crush cars through force of will. They learn to fly…the ultimate wish fulfillment. Then things get dark. What would you do if it happened to you? What would you be capable of?
The Dark Side of the Sun
2011, Italy - by Carlo Shalom Hintermann
The sun is a mortal enemy for a few children. A rare disease, Xeroderma Pigmentosum, obliges them to live isolated, far from the daily world of their peers. This doesn’t happen at Camp Sundown though, a summer camp based in New York State, created by the imagination and tenacity of their parents, that gathers patients from all over the world. In this place, a capsized universe comes alive, overflowing with enchantment. The life of this small nocturnal community is entwined
in the dreams that come to life with the animation, conceived by the children themselves. Parents and children identify themselves in one desire: living their life fully, despite the disease.
From Up on Poppy Hill
2011, Kokuriko-zaka kara, Japan - by Goro Miyazaki
Set in Yokohama in the year 1963, From Up On Poppy Hill is a love story whose main characters are the high school students who were to become the first generation of a new Japan. As the country begins to pick itself up from the devastation of the Second World War, the new generation struggles with moving forward into a prosperous future while trying not to lose the things from the past that make them who they are. The film’s rich and vibrant animation captures the entrancing
beauty of the Yokohama harbour setting and lush surrounding hillsides and, with a soundtrack that draws from the finest music of the time, perfectly captures the thrills of young romance and the hope of a new dawn.
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
2012, USA - by Chris Renaud
From Dr. Seuss’ imagination comes Dr. Seuss The Lorax, a 3D-CG adaptation of the classic tale of a forest guardian who shares the enduring power of hope. The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for a real Truffula Tree, the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To get it he must find the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming character who fights to protect his world.
Naki: on the Monster Island
(Giappone, 2011) di Takashi Yamazaki e Ryuichi Yagi
Dopo aver diretto live action di successo come Always: Sunset on 3rd St. e Space Battleship Yamato, il regista Takashi Yamazaki esordisce nell’animazione in CG con Naki: on the Monster Island (aka Friends), una tenera storia di amicizia ambientata in un Giappone primitivo, ancora popolato dai buffi mostri dell’antico folklore.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
(2012, USA/UK - by Peter Lord
In The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas. With a rag-tag crew at his side, and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy and Cutlass Liz to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award. It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist, but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!
The Sorcerer and the White Snake
2011, China/Hong Kong - by Tony Ching Siu-tung
According to legend, there lived a horde of goblins and monsters in the depths of the primeval forest. Among these evil spirits were two snakes, one white and one green, loitering in the mountains, leading a carefree life. One day, a young herbalist Xu Xian came to the mountains and accidentally fell into a lake. White Snake, in the incarnation of a beautiful lady, the form she acquired after a thousand years of practice and cultivation, came to his rescue. White Snake’s passion for this young man could not be contained, and with the help of Green Snake, she ventured into the human world and got married to Xu Xian.