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Jul. 25th, 2003 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyA polar bear in Brazil has turned purple, trapeze artists in Europe are required by EU laws to wear hard hats, and I'm getting paid for a comedy gig. Truly, my wee timorous beasties, the world oft gang agly.
I spent yesterday watching a Studio Ghibli anime called Ponpoko, about shapeshifting takubi (Japanese raccoons) trying to save their home. Scenes have kept coming back into my head ever since.
For one thing, the plot is very non-western. You could write the Disney version in your sleep: there's a villain, a plucky hero who goes on a couple quests, and the community rallies to work together as one to achieve their goals. Nuh-uh. Not Ghibli. Quests sometimes utterly fail, there's no one who's truly bad, and as things get worse the group fragments and tries five different things at once, with varying degrees of success.
For another thing, I can't think of a Furry in the world who wouldn't want to own this movie. C'mon, a film that has as one of its central conceits the idea that as their habitats were destroyed, some animals took on human form and made new lives in our society? A film where the main characters each have three forms, a four-legged naturalistic one, an anthropomorphic one, and a very 'cartoony' almost 2-D form (that looks a little like Heathcliff, more than anything else)?
Third: this whole story was like a World of Darkness: Werewolf plotline with all the characters played by Roger Rabbit. Seriously, it's like the writers went through a Werewolf rulebook and did a find/replace taking out 'Rage' and putting in 'Playfulness'. (And if that thought doesn't send a few GMs I know screaming into the night, I can't imagine what will). You've got battles, coups, devastation--and through it all the central tenet of the characters, their whimsy, still comes through. I don't know how the writers pulled it off.
Fourth, a quote: "Finally they decided to leave, so the Sensei's followers stretched out his privates, and when they were stretched to an amazing size, he transformed them into a marvelous boat for his followers to sail upon." DAMN. Just.....damn. That's one ride you won't be seeing at EuroDisney.
Ponpoko. Keep an eye out for it.
I spent yesterday watching a Studio Ghibli anime called Ponpoko, about shapeshifting takubi (Japanese raccoons) trying to save their home. Scenes have kept coming back into my head ever since.
For one thing, the plot is very non-western. You could write the Disney version in your sleep: there's a villain, a plucky hero who goes on a couple quests, and the community rallies to work together as one to achieve their goals. Nuh-uh. Not Ghibli. Quests sometimes utterly fail, there's no one who's truly bad, and as things get worse the group fragments and tries five different things at once, with varying degrees of success.
For another thing, I can't think of a Furry in the world who wouldn't want to own this movie. C'mon, a film that has as one of its central conceits the idea that as their habitats were destroyed, some animals took on human form and made new lives in our society? A film where the main characters each have three forms, a four-legged naturalistic one, an anthropomorphic one, and a very 'cartoony' almost 2-D form (that looks a little like Heathcliff, more than anything else)?
Third: this whole story was like a World of Darkness: Werewolf plotline with all the characters played by Roger Rabbit. Seriously, it's like the writers went through a Werewolf rulebook and did a find/replace taking out 'Rage' and putting in 'Playfulness'. (And if that thought doesn't send a few GMs I know screaming into the night, I can't imagine what will). You've got battles, coups, devastation--and through it all the central tenet of the characters, their whimsy, still comes through. I don't know how the writers pulled it off.
Fourth, a quote: "Finally they decided to leave, so the Sensei's followers stretched out his privates, and when they were stretched to an amazing size, he transformed them into a marvelous boat for his followers to sail upon." DAMN. Just.....damn. That's one ride you won't be seeing at EuroDisney.
Ponpoko. Keep an eye out for it.
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Date: 2003-07-25 08:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 11:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 09:11 am (UTC)Oh my gods.
Date: 2003-07-25 09:18 am (UTC)*twitch* *gibber* *straitjacket*
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Date: 2003-07-25 09:23 am (UTC)It is, indeed, a spiffy movie, particularly from the non-Disney perspective. But don't watch this movie when you're stressed out. Especially don't watch this movie after you've had a terrible day and you've just watched Totoro to cheer yourself up.
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Date: 2003-07-25 10:48 am (UTC)It is a strange and wonderful movie and although I have only seen it once, I have an extremely vivid memory of it. I think, also, that it may be the most depressing movie that Miyazaki has ever made, not excepting Grave of the Fireflies. (I have not seen the latter, but that is the opinion of a friend whose opinions of depressing things are often consistent with mine.) I will let you know what I think after I watch Grave of the Fireflies, though!
Very non-Western. Very few Westerners could make a movie about a battle doomed to failure with so little outright bathos.
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Date: 2003-07-25 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-25 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-26 06:24 am (UTC)From 1ish to 8ish.
Do I know where that is? No.
Do I know even vaguely when my performances are? Also, no.
Am I feeling a strange wooshing sensation as I fly by the seat of my pants? YES