Web Season Review - The Ballad of Mary and Ernie - Season One

Well, I'm assuming the five episodes currently available constitute a first season...

It takes a big man to be a town Marshall, and Ernie is a BIG man. In fact, he's about our size, while all the town's inhabitants are the size of... well, small toys. Ernie takes his responsibilities seriously though and tries hard to fit in with the people in the town. Through various adventures he meets Mary, who is the same size as he is - but will he stay faithful to Nan, the woman he's engaged to though he can fit her in the palm of his hand? Nan is instantly jealous of the bigger woman and tries to set her up in various ways; Ernie also has to deal with the unending adoration of "The Kid", a juvenile who hero-worships Ernie no matter what. There’s also Blad Bart, a mad, bad, gun-tooting cowboy who’s out to get Marshall Ernie.  Oh, and at one point killer sheep... but I'll let you find out about them for yourself.

The Ballad of Mary and Ernie is relentlessly silly but James Lane as Marshal Ernie and Vanessa Celso as Mary Venezuala play it dead straight, and that’s really what makes it work. There’s no attempt at realism with the little people – they’re just plastic figurines – but they’re treated as if they’re real and, in some crazy way, you actually feel that they are. Robert Stadd directed and produced Mary and Earnie with some style; the image quality is very good, the micro-sized sets look great, and there are some very funny moments of visual comedy (I particularly like the horses – you’ll have to watch it to see what I mean). The sound quality, often the main failing in indie movie-making endeavours, is great.

In terms of the writing, there’s plenty of humour, though personally I think it would have been funnier if there had been more emphasis on the surreal and less innuendo. In terms of rating it would probably be 12A/PG-13 material – nothing terrible, just a little rude in places. There’s a real storyline running through the five episodes (each approximately 5 minutes in length); the episodes stand up well on their own merits but seeing them all in order is definitely a requirement. There’s a great sci-fi twist in the last episode; again James Lane and Vanessa Celso do an amazing job of keeping straight faces while coming out with the most ridiculous dialogue.

If you like your comedy slightly surreal and whimsical, you’ll definitely enjoy The Ballad of Mary and Ernie. I’m not a fan of Westerns myself, so I may have missed some satirical references, but the humour works well. The music (by Matthias Weber and Samuel Peters) deserves a special mention too – not only is it good, it adds immensely to the humour and atmosphere (especially the main theme). It’s definitely worth 25 minutes of your time to watch the five episodes.

Watch all the episodes at:


http://www.maryandernie.com/episodes.html

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Penelope's Revenge by Leon McPherson

Leon's someone I only know online and in all probability I'll only ever know him online - but he's a talented artist and has written about old SEGA Megadrive games on my Retro Gaming Blog, which makes him an all-round good egg.  Anyway, on Google Buzz recently he declared that he'd finished a school project and was happy enough for me to showcase his 60-second wonder on this blog, so here it is.  More of an idea than a short movie, nevertheless this is enough to convince me that Leon could be a star of the future... I may be wrong, but if I'm right... remember who said it first!

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

"The Ballad of Mary and Ernie"

I got an email about this a while ago, had a look, and really like the total madness of it all...

We've recently created a webisode, called "The Ballad of Mary and Ernie." It's about a full-sized sheriff in a miniature town. All of his friends are roughly 8" high, including the woman he's going to marry. Then he meets a full-sized woman....

“The Ballad of Mary and Ernie” is written, directed and produced by Robert Stadd. Director of SyFy’s “Alien Siege,” he has worked as a visual effects supervisor for several years, creating seamless images for Michael Mann’s past four films: “Public Enemies,” “Miami Vice,” “Collateral,” and “Ali.” In addition, he has produced or supervised the visual effects for “Redline,” “Galaxy Quest,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “Nutty Professor” (I & II), “The Mask,” “The Crow,” “Crimson Tide,” “My Fellow Americans,” “Liar Liar,” “Defending Your Life,” “Hot Shots!” etc. He has directed theater in Los Angeles, including work at Theater East, and the Santa Monica Playhouse.

“The Ballad of Mary and Ernie” stars James Lane as Marshall Ernie. James has appeared in episodes of “24,” “NCIS,” “Everyone Hates Chris,” “The Unit,” “Without a Trace,” etc. Mary Venezuela is played by Vanessa Celso, who has appeared in the film “House Broken,” and the theater production “Hatful of Rain,” as well as the original web series “Road to the Altar.” Nan, the Kid and Blad Bart (the villain of episode 1) are voiced by Darcy Halsey, Catherine Reitman and Jesse Corti respectively. Darcy has appeared in “CSI,” “Scare Tactics,” and “Madison Heights,” Catherine was in “Knocked Up”, “My Super Ex Girlfriend” and “Thank You For Smoking.” Jesse Corti is a voice-over veteran of many years, he was the voice of LeFou in Walt Beauty and the Beast, as well as appearing on-camera in “All In,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Bringing Down the House,” “Gone in 60 Seconds,” etc.

Each episode runs approximately five minutes.

Here's the link to the website:

www.maryandernie.com

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

1st Annual Oklahoma Horror Film Festival

 Horror really isn't my film, but some of my readers might just be interested in this...

The 1st Annual Oklahoma Horror Film Festival is accepting entries of screenplays, films, and more.

More information and our submission form are available at our website:

http://www.oklahomahorrorfilmfest.com/submissions.

The festival will be held Labor Day Weekend (Sept 3-5) at the SpiritBank Event Center in Tulsa, OK. Lodging and restaurants are within walking distance of this location. The festival is competitive, with approximately 50-60 films screened and will host a variety of workshops and panels covering various aspects of the film industry and horror genre.

All winning entries will be reviewed for consideration for production and/or distribution. In addition, we' ll announce to thousands of industry professionals that you were a winner of our festival. In some cases, there will be a cash prize and/or a product/software bundle.

*Regular Deadline is June 5th, 2010. Final Submission Deadline is July 3rd, 2010*

All entries must fall into at least one of the following categories:

Horror, Supernatural, Monster, Sci-Fi, Crime, Thriller, Suspense, Cult, or Mental Illness.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

My Learned Friend (1943)

Will Hay's last film before ill health sadly stole him from the silver screen, My Learned Friend is an enjoyable comedy about former Barrister turned petty crook, William Fitch (Will Hay), who teams up with the failed Barrister who unsuccessfully tries to prosecute him, Claude Babbington (Claude Hulbert).  An old enemy of Fitch's turns up after doing a stretch in prison; Grimshaw (Mervyn Johns) plans to kill off everyone involved in putting him behind bars, saving Fitch, his defence lawyer at the time, for last.

Will all sorts of grisly murders going on the tone is a little darker than most Will Hay movies, but the light-hearted humour is often spot-on.  It's a bit of a shame that the opening sequence, a courtroom scene between Fitch and Babbington, sets the bar too high with its witty wordplay for the rest of the film to follow, but there are still plenty of genuine laughs here.  Will Hay is good, playing a slightly toned-down version of his usual nutty headmaster characters, while Claude Hulbert is brilliant as the hapless but lucky Babbington.  Mervyn Jones too is very good as the menacing and deranged psychopath Grimshaw.

Overall My Learned Friend is a very enjoyable comedy and, as his last movie appearance, a fitting tribute to Will Hay.  He also co-directed with Basil Dearden.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Slightly off-topic... The CSI Experience

Since this is currently in the Bullring shopping centre in Birmignham city centre, we thought we'd have a look.  It's quite interesting how they've done it - basically you have a crime scene (there are three but you're only supposed to look at one apparently, though the website had given me the impression that you could look at all three - maybe because we were there quite close to closing time that didn't work out?) and must use your powers of observation and lab equipment to piece together the clues.  However there are two main problems with the CSI Experience, at least for adults - it's far too expensive for what you get, and it's muhc, much too easy.  (The latter is partly explained by the fact that they expect kids quite a lot of the time, but they could have used a different casenotes sheet for adults that didn't make things quite so blindingly obvious...)

The final bit where you have to make your report to Grissom was well done, and the visual effects on the autopsy bit were impressive.  These highlights definitely weren't enough to make it worth £9.75 per person though.  When you get your certificate you can get it for £5 (£5!) there or have it emailed to you - mine still hasn't arrived in my inbox, not sure how long it's supposed to take.

Sadly, the CSI Experience is a rather underwhelming experience...

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Razzie Winners 2010...

...

Sorry, should have posted this ages ago...

WORST PICTURE
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen


WORST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock (All About Steve)





WORST ACTOR(S)
All Three Jonas Brothers (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience)

WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Sandra Bullock & Bradley Cooper (All About Steve)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sienna Miller (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Billy Ray Cyrus (Hannah Montana: The Movie)

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL (Combined Category for 2009)
Land of The Lost

WORST DIRECTOR
Michael Bay (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

WORST SCREENPLAY
Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen)

- SPECIAL 30TH RAZZIE-VERSARY AWARDZ -WORST PICTURE OF THE DECADE
Battlefield Earth

WORST ACTOR OF THE DECADE
Eddie Murphy

WORST ACTRESS OF THE DECADE
Paris Hilton

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Madeleine (1950)

Madeleine is a bit of a strange film, and viewed by many as one of the very few blots on director David Lean's record.  I found the first part of the film really dragged, and the forbidden romance between Madeleine (Ann Todd) and Emile (Ivan Densy) wasn't helped by both of them overacting rather terribly in their first few scenes together.  Add in an over-bearing father and a young man who wants to marry Madeleine, and you have a sequence of contrived scenes which don't make you care much about any of the characters.

After half of the film devoted to this dreary love drama, the mood changes and suddenly it becomes a bit of a murder mystery, with the guilt or not of Madeleine never being completely indicated (and the awful end scene has a narrator directly asking Madeleine whether she's guilty or not, at which she sort of smirks at the camera... ugh).  However the final quarter or so of the film, in the form of a courtroom drama, is really quite compelling and cleverly written.

The curious hotchpotch of film styles doesn't really work and the flat characters and performances, don't help, but for film buffs Madeleine may nevertheless be worth watching purely for the art direction, which is fantastic.  Purely as entertainment though... I'd probably give it a miss.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Movie Review - Hobson's Choice (1954)

Hobson's Choice is a great comedy directed by David Lean.  The story centres around Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton), a chauvinistic businessman who has been "looking after" his three daughters since the death of his wife.  Looking after, of course, means getting them to do all the work at his shoe shop without pay, expecting them to do all the housework and plan everything to his timetable, which is exclusively based around his visits to the local pub.  This is resulted in a rebellious attitude among his three daughters; however the younger two, Alice and Vicky (Daphne Anderson and Prunella Scales), are rather timid in their plans, while eldest daughter Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) is extremely head-strong, has a good business brain (and has basically run the business single-handedly for many years), and has a plan...

This plan involves asking (well, ordering) the young man who works as a shoemaker at her father's shop to marry her, and then going off to start their own business.  Many people scoff and oppose her, but she's determined to let nothing stop her.  Despite her draconian methods, eventually the unassuming young shoemaker (Willie Mossop, played brilliantly by John Mills) does come to love her, and it becomes clear that she does actually genuinely love him too.  Family relations remain extremely strained however, to the point that both her father and sisters threaten to boycott her wedding day.  As always, however, Maggie has a plan...

Hobson's Choice is beautifully filmed - the transitions from one scene to another are brilliantly done, and the movie has some good special effects for a movie of the time.  For the most part it's directed with great skill, combining comedy and drama to great effect; the pacing does strangely lag in a couple of places though.  There's some good dialogue too, but the main reason this movie is so enjoyable is down to the performances.  Charles Laughton is repulsive yet pitiable as the mindless bigot who just may have the heart of a good man lurking somewhere deep inside of him; Brenda De Banzie is brutally bossy yet compassionate when the situation calls for it; the supporting cast are good too.  John Mills is absolutely spectacular; not only is he completely believable as the man who's poorly educated and inexperienced in life but gifted when it comes to shoemaking, but his comic timing is absolutely spot on.

Also worthy of note is Malcolm Arnold's fun music score - or to be more precise, the way it complements the film and how events in the film are set to the music.  Brilliantly done.

I've developed quite a fondness for 1950's comedies, and Hobson's Choice is one of the best yet.  Despite a few scenes that lagged a little, there are some classic moments of pure comedy in this film and considering it's an old film set even earlier, the humour hasn't dated a bit.  (Though of course, some of the humour actually comes from how hopelessly dated some of the ideas and attitudes are.)


Other Information

Hobson's Choice won the BAFTA Award for Best Picture, with John Mills and Brenda De Banzie nominated as Best British Actor / Actress, while David Lean, Norman Spencer and Wynyard Browne were nominated for Best Screenplay.  It was also nominated for Best Film from Any Source.  David Lean won the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

The screenplay was adapted from Harold Brighouse's 1915 stage comedy.  Apparently the idea to do this came from Alexander Korda.

John Mills is said to have viewed this as one of his favourite films... he was very nearly not in it however, being an 11th hour casting decision; originally Robert Donat was intended to play the role.


Other Fifites' Comedies I'm fond of...

We're No Angels
The Horse's Mouth
Champagne for Caesar
Court Jester

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

That Uncertain Feeling (1941)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, That Uncertain Feeling is the story of a marriage in crisis - Jill Baker (Merle Oberon) is having difficulties with  her husband Larry (Melvyn Dougls), after reluctantly seeking the advice of Dr Vengard (Alan Mowbray), who right from the outset seems determined that her husband is the cause of all her problems.  At a later stage, having become convinced that the doctor is right, she meets fellow patient Alexander Sebastian (Burgess Meredith) and forms a friendship with him.  This turns into love - or so she thinks - and eventually her husband is forced to resort to unusual methods to win his wife back.

The Uncertain Feeling is often funny, thanks to some great dialogue early on, good situation comedy from Oberon and Douglas, and a believably eccentric performance from Meredith.  It falters a little towards the final third of the film, though it picks up again towards the very end.  Overall I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Lubitsch's later film A Royal Scandal, but it's an interesting variation of the battle-of-the-sexes idea and very entertaining.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

The Ghost Train (1941)

This Arthur Askey vehicle is little short of awful - just once or twice it manages to raise a smile, but Askey's character, entertainer Tommy Gander, is always annoying and almost never funny; his compatriots are a bunch of stock comedy characters with little likeability or humour. The plot involves a group of passengers stranded at a station said to be haunted... this movie rarely gets out of first gear, and sometimes it seems to be stuck in reverse.

There's an infinitely better Arthur Askey movie involving trains, and that's The Love Match  (which I was sure I'd mentioned before on this blog but I seem to be mistaken) - do yourself a real favour and watch that instead!

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Mutiny (1952)

This sea-faring tale tells the story of a daring plan to bring money privately loaned by French citizens to Americans fighting for independence from the British. The noble Captain Marhsall (Mark Stevens) is put in charge, but he needs the help of former British naval captain Ben Waldridge (Patrick Knowles) to do it - and Waldridge is used to being Captain, so there could be trouble... further fueled by Waldridge's gun crew led by "Hook" (Gene Evans), and Waldridge's lover Leslie (Angella Lansbury).

Full of derring-do, nautical terminology and tense double-crosses, this is a movie that maybe deserves to be remastered and re-released. The cinematography and overly dark scenes which are difficult to see properly let it down, but overall Mutiny is a very solid swashbuckler.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

500th Post! - Behave Yourself...

Since this is my 500th post on this blog, I wanted to do something a little different... and since I only found out tonight that IMDB have full movies to download or watch online (or at least link to places that do), and I watched one of them tonight, I thought I'd not only give a synopsis and opinion of it but also embed the code so you can actually watch it right here on this blog if you want.

Behave Yourself is a 1951 comedy directed by George Beck. Farley Granger and Shelly Winters star as Bill and Kate Denny, who live with Kate's mother - much to Bill's chagrin. When one day a mix-up leads to a dog following him home and being interpreted as an anniversary present, life gets much more complicated; the dog has been trained to lead some criminals to a secret stash, and there are many criminals around looking for this dog. It's a tale of mishaps and... well, more mishaps. Good performances, a top cast and some funny scenes make this well worth watching - it could have been funnier, but the scenes that work more than make up for those that don't.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

New TRON Legacy Trailer!

I know I'm sad... but I just can't put into words how much I'm looking forward to seeing this one!

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Interview with Christina Beard (creator of Marauder's Mistake)

Christina Beard works in the video game sector, mainly as an Art Director, but came to my notice also for a terrific short animated movie she'd made called Marauder's Mistake.  If you haven't seen it yet, check it out at the link below:

Marauder's Mistake - Short Animated Movie

Anyway, I loved the animated short and her style reminded me very much of a certain Hiyao Miyazaki (you may just have heard of him), so I decided to interview her - and indeed it does turn out that Miyazaki was one of the main influences on her animation.

You can find Chrstina's blog at http://yonyonderstudio.blogspot.com/

So, without further ado, here is Christina's interview...

1/ What first inspired you to make Marauder's Mistake?

The first inspiration was when I first listened to the music used in the piece (Danse Macabre). A friend of mine handed me an mp3 CD during my freshman year in college and the visual just came as I listened to it the first time, like a brilliant flash.

It's funny because the finished project is definitely nowhere near as detailed and crazy as I first time I envisioned it, but 3D animation is hard. Lots of work for just little old me, so i stuck with drawing everything instead for the characters.



2/ Have any particular directors / artists influenced your style?

Yes! My biggest influence is definitely Hayao Miyazaki. His stories and characters have touched me deeply as a visual artist and writer. Princess Mononoke was the movie that actually made me want to be an animator in the first place.

Second to Miyazaki would be Osama Tezuka's various manga. I also take a lot of influence from books. Neil Gaiman's writing and work is something I love, as well as Neal Stephenson and Emma Bull, and a host of non-fiction.

3/ How many people were there altogether in the team that made Marauder's Mistake?

The team consisted of, first, my good friends Holly Thorstad and Carl Fristad, they helped me a ton in the middle of production doing colouring and some 3D texturing, lighting and asset creation within Maya.

My friend Michael Ross did most of the modelling on the two large airships and the majority of the environments. He also was kind of the tech guy for the really stubborn cloth dynamics that existed on the sails, which broke a number of times throughout production.

I created all the animation, both 2D and 3D, with help from Holly to in-between two hand drawn scenes.

And during the process of production I had a bunch of really wonderful people help me with colouring frames in intermittent times throughout the two years it took to finish.

My friend Rebecca was by far the hardest working, and I thank her endlessly for her assistance, this thing probably wouldn't have gotten done for another six months if she hadn't worked her butt of colouring for it.

 
4/ How much work went into Marauder's Mistake during the 2 years it took to make?

I'd say well over two thousand hours of work. Probably more likely two thousand five hundred.

5/ Where did you get the idea for the storyline?

The characters in it exist in a science fiction book I'm writing, and I thought they might be kind of neat to tell a small part of their struggle as outlaws. They just popped up right away when I first listened to Danse Macabre.

6/ How difficult was it to match every action in the animation so precisely with the music?

It was a lot of work... I had to first chop down the music itself and splice it together to create a cut that was somewhat reasonable at five minutes. Then had to match the action of the storyboards into that with an animatic. I tweaked this for about a week getting the timing down and the music blended seamlessly.

I then had to put together what we animators call a 'dope sheet', which is basically a catalogue of the action going on in each and every second of the animation. I remember listening to snippets of the song over and over and over again as I tried to peg the exact frame I needed something to land on, otherwise the timing was off and I would have to go stretch or cute or redo something in the animatic.

Then keying out all the sequences. I was pretty much crunching numbers throughout all of production as I animated everything, double and triple checking my calculations.

7/ Any plans for a sequel?

I am most happy to say... most definitely not! Although if you're interested in the characters, they may appear in a graphic novel highlighting the full world and story about a decade from now.

 
8/ What is the best advice you could give anyone who wants to make their own movie (long or short, animated or live action)?

For your first piece, do something small, don't do an epic story. Also, work with a team and be open to other people’s opinions and critiques of your ideas and work, and let them influence you.

I think the thing I regret most about creating Marauder's Mistake is that I didn't have a big collaborative team to work with, and so the majority of the sweat and tears were only from me, which at times was really hard to swallow when I was in the middle of scrambling to finish it in time for a festival in Minnesota. Other people help your work not look so looming and crushing, and they're a support group to be with you when you go a little crazy from having to stare at a screen for ten hours a day.

It takes a lot of tenacity and a little bit of obsessive compulsive disorder I think to be a filmmaker or animator. It's a medium that is not for the impatience!

Thanks Christina for the interview, and if you change your mind about the sequel, just give me a shout... :-D

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Oscar Winners 2010

Best Picture

The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro

(In the poll on this blog, my readers voted for Avatar (39%) followed by The Hurt Locker (24%).  Only A Single Man failed to get a single vote.)

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

Actress in a Supporting Role

Mo'Nique - Precious

Animated Feature Film

Up - Pete Docter

Art Direction

Avatar - Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)

Cinematography

Avatar - Mauro Fiore

Costume Design

The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell

Directing

The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary Feature

The Cove - Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens

Documentary Short

Music by Prudence - Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

Film Editing

The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Foreign Language Film

The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) - Argentina - Directed by Juan José Campanella

Makeup

Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow


Music (Original Score)

Up - Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

Crazy Heart - "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)"
Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin

Short Film (Live Action)

The New Tenants - Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing

The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

Visual Effects

Avatar- Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Hurt Locker - Written by Mark Boal

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Ulysses 31

I've had a couple of conversations with people recently about this classic 80's cartoon, still fondly remembered by many people.  The thing is... someone on YouTube has uploaded every single episode (each in 3 parts).  Weird combination of sci-fi and Greek mythology, but it's great (and the feeling of nostalgia is almost overwhelming!).

Oh dear... I feel I'm about to watch all 26 episodes, possibly much to the amusement of my wife (but hey, she still likes Gummy Bears so she can't say much, can she??!)

Here's the profile with all the episodes...

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Scene It

I had the first proper game of movie quiz "Scene It" today. Good game - a combination of board game and DVD-based questions. The fact that I won had absolutely nothing to do with how much I enjoyed it (honestly!). I think it's probably better as a team-based game than individuals, anyway.

I must dust off Scene It: Pirates of the Caribbean one day - bought it ages ago but have only briefly looked at it.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Marauder's Mistake - Short Animated Movie

By pure chance I stumbled today on this wonderful short animated movie by Christina Beard and associates.  It's set to some classical music that I know very well (yet still can't remember the name of!  Duh...), and is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn animation.  There's no voice acting but it isn't needed, the action blends perfectly with the music and it's easy to follow what's happening.  It reminds me a little of some of Miyazaki's work (and can't think of much higher praise than that to give Christina's work!).

You can find Chrstina's blog at http://yonyonderstudio.blogspot.com/

Anyway enough of my waffling, watch it below:


Marauder's Mistake from Christina Beard on Vimeo.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Forever and a Day (1943)

Forever and a Day is a bit of a film oddity - virtually everyone in Hollywood who was British, or had a British heritage, got together to make it. This resulted in a huge ensemble cast, a myriad writers and several directors.

I hadn't heard of most of the cast and crew to be honest, though Nigel Bruce (Dr Watson in the Sherlock Holmes movies of the 1940s) was instantly recognisable. The story is based around a house in England, and two families whose lives were forever entwined around it. Starting off in the wartime with a brash young American (in British movies of that time, young Americans are invariably rash!) wanting to buy the house from a young woman whose heart is full of memories, the story then takes us right back to the early 19th century, the building of the house and the Battle of Trafalgar. We then step forward in time, with the two families forever locked in an alternating love-hate relationship, until we get back to the Second World War. We meet many characters along the way, some memorable, some not quite so much.

Most of the film is rather light-hearted and there are several lovely moments of comedy, though even at its lightest the film plunges into sorrow without warning from time to time.   Apart from the stiff upper lip British motif, there's quite a strong feminist theme to it, a subject that's handled with gentle humour. throughout  Forever and a Day is thoroughly entertaining, does lose its way a bit at the end with the patriotic message taking over from storyline and characterisation a little, but overall a very enjoyable and sometimes very moving film. If you like forties' movies in general, you'll definitely want to see this one. It's quite difficult to get hold of, but worth the effort.

(Incidentally, the DVD cover photo is rather strange, but once you've seen the movie you'll realise that there's a very good reason for it!)

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog