Howl's Moving Castle

Howls moving castle trailer

This is my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, as with all Ghibli movies, it is a visual masterpiece,  and the designs are so incredibly intricate that only Miyazaki could have directed such a film. The movie follows a woman cursed by a wicked witch, the curse causes her to be turned into an old lady.

This film is inspired by a Welsh fairy tale, and is a masterpiece of a movie. It is constantly inspiring, with visuals which could easily belong to any live action film.  This movie, although an eastern animation, has so much movement and life to everything. Eastern animations are often accused of having no movement to them, this and most Ghibli movies, prove this to be wrong, as there is constant life to everything in it, and you really feel that this could be a real world. Some of the visuals and world remind me of a somewhat English setting, which really fits with the theme and original source material. It actually somewhat reminds me of Ethel and Earnest in it's setting, only it is directed much better, and the sense of scale is constantly there. Having gone to the Studio Ghibli museum, I am well aware of how much detail went in to the castle itself, as Miyazaki designed every small detail himself.

It is amazing as well as to how much life there is to the castle itself, and it is great to see how much emotion they managed to pack in to a walking house, when it easily could have been a static design. 

Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia)

I told myself I wouldn't write about anime for my PPP blogs, but this show is too good to ignore. Often anime nowadays is completely uninspired and rehashed as well as being cliche, but this anime is incredibly fresh and hooks you from episode 1. I think it is this way because of the likeable character's as well as the interesting world which has been created for it. Midoriya (Deku) is a character which is very relatable, even though it isa completely unrealistic concept, his emotion is constantly on screen, and you really feel the hard work he puts into everything.

I feel like this is such a successful anime because it feels very much like an old school anime, unlike a newer style uninspired anime. The anime is so over saturated now that it comes as an amazing surprise when something like this comes a long and really connects with the viewer.

Avatar : The Last Airbender

I have only recently started watching this show, and I am hooked and have almost finished it. So I wanted to make a post about it because of how much I am enjoying this show. Often as a child I over looked this show, because it never interested me, and as an ignorant kid, I assumed it was just a western Dragon Ball rip off to cash in on Dragon Ball's success. However what I can say, is that is completely wrong. This show is original, and full of great writing, amazing character development, and inspiring world building.

It is not often you get a show aimed at kids with so much attention to detail, to a point which it has created a large fanbase online. The animation is also top notch, it is obvious that a lot of love, care and attention which has been put into it which makes it incredibly fun to watch and makes for an experience. It takes a lot for me to really get into a show, but this one had me hooked pretty quickly. Even the voice cast do their absolute best to portray their character's to an incredibly high level. It is incredibly easy to get bad child voice actors, but these ones do their jobs incredibly well.

Injustice 2

Injustice 2 Trailer

I wanted to make this post purely to talk about Injustice 2's amazing facial animations. It takes a lot for a video game's faces to be completely believable. And Injustice 2's, are the best I have ever seen from a game. Especially with Mass Effect Andromeda coming out recently and showing everyone just how awful facial animations can be, this game tops anything and raises the bar significantly. With this being a fighting game, it would be all too easy to put more effect into the fight animation and leave out the facial animations, but they did not, they put them in to such a high quality that you really believe that these could be a real person's emotions.

I am not very far into the game yet, but the thing about these games is that they are very story driven, so telling a story and also having good fight's is a significant part of the game, and the facial animations and the emotions shown, really add to this, and make a believable story where you can feel for every character.

Guardians Of the Galaxy 2

Recently, Guardians of the Galaxy vol2 came out, and all the reviews I have seen, have given it never ending praise. And I have to say, it was disappointing to say the least. This movie was lazy. Of course with any Marvel movie it was visually incredible, but it is obvious 5 minutes in, that all the charm from the first movie is gone.

The first movie was full of interesting character development, intriguing world building, with a few hard hitting jokes in there. However, none of that was present in the 2nd volume, the jokes in this one often took over the story and character development, to a point in which no character felt like they should, because they were all trying to be the comic relief. There was also no world building in this one, as the story takes place on just 2 planets, and there is a good hour where nothing really happens, and the movie becomes full of cringeworthy jokes and stale storytelling which is pretty much non existent. This movie really rode the marvel bandwagon and is mediocre at best. I really don't understand the reviews saying this film is a master piece, people really seem to be settling for mediocrity.

The Art of set Making

Godzilla Sets 

There is a true art to making giant monster's look big when in reality they are just men in rubber suits. And i think a lot of this has to do with the design of the sets and making them believable. Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects master at Toho Cinema Japan, did this with a style that no one else could match. Tsuburaya is the mastermind behind the special effects in all the original Godzilla films, and making believable miniature sets for the monster to actually destroy, creating a sense of realism which really drives the film to be such a masterpiece. 

Making these large scale sets saved costs for the studio as they couldnt use stop motion. Therefore it made sense to make these sets so that the film looked good. because of the dark tone of the movie, and a somewhat realistic feel they were going for, the sets had to be top notch in order for the movie's message to come across without being cheesy. And it carries this out spectacularly. Tsuburaya was famous in Toho Studios because of his work on Tora! Tora! Tora!, a film depicting the events of pearl harbour. this film also used sets, which were so believable, that the American Government asked for the film to be destroyed, thinking it was real footage of the event. 

Even in the 1998 butchering of the Godzilla franchise, used some miniature sets becuase they can be made cheaper than an all cgi set, and it always looks bette when something is actually infront of the camera, because of the lighting and the general feel of the sets. 

Gumball Anime Fight

Gumball Anime Fight

During the Amazing World of Gumball, there is a segment which includes an anime style fight, and this fight was animated by Studio 4c, a well known Japanese studio by Einko tanaka, the line producer on the Ghibli Film "My Neighbour Totoro".

For a list of their works see: http://studio4c.co.jp/works/en/

I really wanted to talk about this fight, not because it is in Gumball, but because of how well animated it is. The fight flows really well, and works really well in the style of Gumball. It is important to note too, that even the backgrounds are drawn, but they do not feel like it because of how well done they are. I love the juxta position and humour behind this fight. This fight has inspired me to try and direct my own fight scene done with my own characters. I feel like this also shows that anime is not all static imagery, and it is capable of constantly moving and showing how well it can be pulled off in this style. There is definitely a negative stigmatism behind this type of thing, so I am glad that a Western Show like gumball has shown everyone what it is capable of really being.

One thing that I admire, is the use of colour in this fight, and also the use of shadow. All of this really add to the style of everything and really enhance the fight, even though it is so quick, the shadows and light are always there and follow the light source really well, which it would be easy to leave out, but it adds a lot of detail to the already hilarious juxtaposition of style between this segment and the regular show.