Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo)

A 1995 Japanese anime film directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo (Who died in 1998 of a ruptured aneurysm), Whisper of the Heart focuses on Shizuku Tsukishima, a young girl who struggles with what she wants to do in life, while it is obvious that she has a talent in writing, she is afraid in pursuing it… This would be the first Studio Ghibli film to be directed by someone other than Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, it would also sadly be Yoshifumi Kondo's first and last film.

"Take Me Home, Country Road" (That plays way too many times throughout this film…I mean I know that it is an important element to the story but still… EURGH) begins to play in the opening scene, where an overview of the town the main character lives in is shown (Which is a pretty basic premise to the opening of most films, an overview of the setting the story will mainly take place in), before she herself is shown making her way back home after buying some things from a drug store.

Considering that this is a Studio Ghibli animation, it is no surprise seeing the amazing amount of detail that was put into this film, I especially enjoyed the small details as always, such as the little gestures the characters did, how their bodies would move along with whatever they did (A secondary action of sorts), and most definitely their hands (I am still so afraid of animating proper hands…). 

Simple hand movements are definitely a lot harder to animate than one
actually realizes.

Perhaps this might seem simple if not for the glowing fire at the back and the sparks coming out from the lamp in front, but once I again I really love how carefully animated the character's hands are as he works away at the Baron, and of course the fact that the rest of his body also move along with his hands (The way his arms bend a little more as he twists and how his head leans slowly forward in concentration).

Aside from the character's shadow perfectly moving along with her own movements, the bright lightning used to present the feeling of a warm, sweltering summer was done fantastically in this film, many times I can't help but admire the stark, contrasting shadows that are created by the blinding sun's light, it is just so perfect…

And of course the objects are wonderfully animated too, such as the beautifully detailed grandfather clock in Mr Nishi's antique shop. As well as the flickering shadows cast by the warm lighting of a cozy little fireplace… 

Another lovely little detail is how these figurines' eyes sparkle in the fire's light.

Anyway back to that gorgeous grandfather clock...

I see what you did there… you might as well have engraved a portrait of 
Michael Keaton on there while you're at it.

I was however caught a little off guard since this one of few films from that studio where nothing particularly fantastical occurs (In reality that is, what goes on inside Shizuku's head doesn't count), and while this was not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it was written by him (Perhaps the only strange occurrence is the fact that that cat statue changes its pose each time it appears on screen)...

Left arm behind back while right one is in front.

Left arm has now moved to the front while the right one has moved
to the back.

Both arms are now in front and and right hand is holding onto both hat
and cane.

I don't think cat eyes are normally this creepy…
Oh well, at least he looks better in the spin-off.

It could be an error on the animator's part (Especially if different animators had worked on these scenes) but something tells me that there is more to it than that, especially when he plays a somewhat important supporting role in this film (And an even more important one in The Cat Returns).

Maybe Miyazaki had played a larger role when it came to these scenes...

While the romance was obviously one of the larger focus points of the film (Also honestly one of the most unrealistic portrayals of romance to me (Or maybe I'm just bitter, she's 14, and she already has two guys that are crushing on her, and wants already wants to ask for her hands in marriage… oh come on!)), I suppose what I remembered best about this film was Shizuku's own inner turmoil, she envies her peers for knowing what to do in life, and while she does indeed have some idea, the girl wounds up going through so much before finally coming to a conclusion on what it is that she wants in life, and obviously, discussions like these take place through the entirety of the film:

It's alright Shizuku, we all know what you are going through...

Not that I'm saying that there's not much fluffy-discreet-cutie-wootie (Yeurgh…) romancing (As if the first picture at the beginning of this post didn't give you that idea…) going on either between her and… some guy:

But the main purpose of watching this film was studying the animation that was done for these scenes, as kindly suggested by my lecturer, this would prove to be a great reference for me for when the time came to animating a certain scene in my Applied Animation… animation project (Which I should have done by now actually). I thought I was already insane for deciding to animate a band of musicians playing instruments (Hence why I decided to have an alternate scene in case it would turn out too difficult to animate)… and so I was fortunate for there to be an animated film like this (Maybe I could just switch out of the original musicians I design, and throw in a violinist) to refer to.

While I wish to keep their movements as simple as possible (To save time as always), I do feel that a little movements from their bodies might be necessary… with one character dancing to their music, it just might seem odd if they played their instruments so stiffly (They are after all suppose to enjoy themselves as well)… well let's just see how it goes.

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Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar system (Daft Punk and Toei Animation)

Alternatively titled Interstella 5555 or That Daft Punk Movie, Interstella 5555 is a Japanese-French animated adventure musical film that was originally released on May 28th, 2003. Being an animated visualization of French electronic music duo Daft Punk's album Discovery, the film has no dialogue and has very limited sound effects (Hence why I felt that this would be a good example to look up on due it's stronger focus on music instead of dialogue or realistic sound effects, it is not very often for opening or closing titles to have any sort of dialogue in them).

Looking good guys!

At the very start of the film, the logo for Toei Animation is shown, as well as grainy footage of what looks like a press conference with Leiji Matsumoto and Daft Punk, where Matsumoto then states that musical collaboration such as this had always been a dream of his. It is unknown however whether this press conference actually took place as there is no original recording available anywhere of the entire conference...

… yup, that's it.

… there isn't necessarily a proper title sequence at the beginning (The title and studios involved are displayed very plainly in between the grainy footages as shown above, which probably makes the very beginning rather forgettable if it wasn't for the curious live recording..), from then on however where we are allowed to travel through a star gate sequence of sorts before a glowing outline of a guitar comes into view, shooting into the distance like a star before a ship appears… and sets course for the harmonious home planet of our main characters, which leads to this opening scene and perhaps one of the film's (Or album's) most well known songs:

The story focuses on the abduction and rescue of a blue skinned alien pop band (Also better known as the Crescendolls, a name given to them by the villain), being brainwashed to do the bidding of a power hungry human disguised as their manager, they are soon enough rescued by one of their own, who unfortunately gets fatally wounded during a dangerous escape from the villain, sadly dying soon after, the Crescendolls are on their own as they attempt to find a way back to their home planet.

While its art style might remind one of a typical 80s anime, it works surprisingly well with the songs. Considering the year it was released in, it has a very retro look to it (Though I have seen other french produced animations that are still using this style in the present).

Some criticism I do have about the art style (As lovely as it is) used is that the outlines of the characters during close ups are distractingly thick at times, and does take away from the decent animation quality, it might work for a graphic novel version (Which pretty much then loses the whole point of this film (Errm…)), but not here.

While I do like the character designs, I still felt that most of them just looked much too similar to one another in terms of their facial features and body structure, to me I only felt that there were only two design templates used for all of the characters, one would be the tall and considerably attractive characters, while the ones are these really out of place (Almost dwarfish) characters with simplified facial features. 

I actually felt that they were a little afraid in trying out more unique expressions for the characters (Particularly Stella, as much as I love her), in fear that they would look unattractive if they did so (With the exception of the more dwarfish looking characters, and I still think they could do a better job for them as well).

I did however find that the song syncing was pretty well done (Well it better be!), and when it seems like the characters are practically singing out the song that plays (Such as the beginning scene), the lip syncing is also done quite well (As well as the instrument syncing), the body language that goes with it is fantastic as well.

I was definitely one of many that fell victim to the emotional scenes that begin to take place halfway through the film, initially I had listened to Something About Us numerous times before watching this film… while the song alone had already drowned me in a sea of feels… apparently the scene that went with it was far worse than what I had prepared myself for (I thought Stella was just going to reject him! Not this!). And then there's Voyager... a bittersweet song that in a way signifies it's listeners to continue celebrating life and not mourn the loss of it.

HELP.

That's it, I'm done, I hate everything.

And that was what I found so particularly wonderful about this film, without the use of any dialogue whatsoever, Interstella 5555 was still able to evoke some pretty strong emotions.

I absolutely loved the colors that are used for this animation, from the very start to finish, the dreamy effect was definitely achieved (How is it possible that they were able to create a palette that seems both vibrant and soft? Stop making me contradict myself you beautiful film!), there was also however a sense of psychedelia added to it all (Though I am also well aware that they are simply trying to follow the color palettes seen and used in galaxy photos and art). Most of the time, despite how sad a scene might be, you still find yourself weirdly at peace while watching it.

And I can't possibly forget about how well choreographed each scene actually was (High Life was especially one of my favorites when it came to the film's more dynamic scenes), there were so many different camera angles and movements, compositions that they would use to prevent this from ever being a dull film (I mean if by some rare chance the music is not to your taste, at least you can still enjoy the beautifully designed scenes), the zoom ins, rotations 

The narrative progression and structure of the film is also quite interesting, seeing as the story doesn't actually end once the villain dies, or when the supposed protagonist himself is killed in action, no, it still carries on despite all of that. The film instead focuses on the entirety of the band's adventure from start to finish, even showing that despite the painful loss of Shep, they carry on to find a way back home as well as stop the villain that had caused all of this in the first place.

I believe that this is one of very few animations where the human race is actually portrayed in a more positive light, with the exception of the villain, the rest of the humans were more than happy to aid the Crescendolls in getting them back home upon their big reveal (When we all probably expected them to instead keep them captive and experiment on them, which has happened so often…). 

I actually felt that universal harmony was one of the central themes that was focused on in this film, the Crescendolls' race were shown to be an absolutely prosperous one (Their world a utopia of sorts) with music especially bringing them all closer together. It was a breath of fresh air that the humans were not so different…

...

… Did they just start some franchise in honor of them?

… YEURGH!

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