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Animated Films for Grown-Ups
Definition: animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although there are other methods.
Anyone who’s seen Princess Mononoke knows animated films can hold their own with their live-action counterparts. For those who still think cartoons are for kids, here are, for starters, has 6 reasons why you’re wrong.
Animal Farm (1954)
Holding the title of “first British animated feature film on general release,” this adaptation of George Orwell’s novel is not entirely faithful to the source text, but hews to the book’s central premise. It was (much) later revealed that the C.I.A. secretly funded the film in an effort to promulgate the anti-communism message. Fun fact!
You can watch the entire film on YouTube.
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Given the Gilliamesque animation and crazy-far-out setting in the trailer, you’d never guess that this movie won the 1973 Cannes Special Jury Prize. Set in the far future, the film depicts a world in which humans are kept as pets by an indifferent race of blue giants who apparently lack animal cruelty laws. The surreal imagery is paired with a trippy soundtrack for an experience that can be enjoyed with, or in place of, the mind-altering substance of your choice.
The Plague Dogs (1982)
Remember when your dad brought home the Watership Down VHS tape, thinking it was a charming film about rabbits for girls, and the next thing you remember is shrieking as bunnies were being devoured by hawks on television?! Ah yeah, good times. Why not make this a family tradition, by renting The Plague Dogs for your tots? It’s about puppies, and they love them Beethoven movies, so what could go wrong?
The film is based on novel by Richard Adams and, as he did with Watership Down, the author uses cuddly animals to explore complex ethical issues. In Plague Dogs, the topic under discussion is animal testing in the name of research. You will not be rooting for the researchers, let’s just say that.
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Set at the end of World War Two, this is a Japanese film. That’s probably all you need to know.
Having previously weathered The Road, I figured this one would be a cakewalk. Yeah, no. Dude. Not exactly the feel-good hit of the summer.
Spirited Away (2001)
If Princess Mononoke was the animated film that got me back on the lot, Spirited Away was the one that actually made the sale. It’s gorgeous and sophisticated and engrossing; it’s also, at times, frightening, disgusting, and bizarre enough to ensure months of nightmares about giant, ambulatory, obese turnips.
Both Mononoke and Spirited were written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who could have dominated this list were I not limiting myself to no more than one entry per creator. Be sure to catch his earlier My Neighbor Totoro and his later Howl’s Moving Castle
Waking Life (2001)
Writer/director Richard Linklater built his career on a series of films constructed almost entirely around dialogue: Slackers, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, and the like. Waking Life continues a trend in a novel way: combining an extended mediation on liminality with a style of animation (rotoscoping) that simulates the experience of lucid dreaming. The structure—or, rather, lack of structure—also approximates dreamwalking, as the protagonist shifts fluidly from one situation or conversation to another without the need for explicit transitions.
In 2006, Linklater again used rotoscoping to great effect in his film A Scanner Darkly, in which the animation style mimics the unreality and paranoia of substance abuse.
Both films deftly demonstrate that animation is not only a vibrant medium, but uniquely suited for tackling certain types of topics.
View the rest of Matthew Baldwin’s list here.
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How to Have a Lucid Dream – Wake up in a Dream – Part I
about 1 year ago - No comments
Lucid dreaming need not be elusive. Some simple techniques can make it possible for almost anyone.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming can be a very powerful experience for the dreamer. “You can be the absolute master of your dream world,” says MortalMist.com, a website and forum dedicated to lucid dreaming. “The very laws of nature can be bent and broken. No experience is beyond your reach, no feat too difficult or risky. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.”
Many people report wonderful experiences in the dream worlds they’ve created. For some, though, lucid dreaming remains elusive. But there is good news; becoming skilled at “waking up” in a dream may be easier than it seems. There are several techniques that can be used to enter the world of lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming requires three things:
- the ability to recall dreams,
- a technique, known as a reality check, to become aware of dreaming, and
- strategies to remain in the dream.
Tips for Recalling Dreams
Everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers his or her dreams. Sometimes even people who revel in dream recall go through periods where they can’t remember dreams. But that doesn’t mean lucid dreaming is lost to those who have trouble remembering dreams.
Dream recall is a skill that improves with practice. In fact, improved dream recall can happen readily, and all it requires is lying in bed, according to Ryan Dungan Hurd, editor of DreamStudies.org and a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
Hurd suggests that people use the Snooze Method for Dream Recall. The name of the method may seem strange, but most find that it’s a fairly easy way to remember dreams.
He explains that when people wake up, they usually change their body position almost immediately. “This actually dispels the body’s emotional traces of the last dream….And it’s totally over for remembering dreams once we start thinking about the day ahead.”
Hurd believes that memory traces are not just stored in the brain; he says they can be stored virtually anywhere in the body. The lungs, the belly, and the heart are among the largest of these body-cognition centers, and they process memory and emotion. He notes that people can use this same natural capacity of the body to help remember dreams, too.
So, to improve dream recall, remain in position upon waking; avoid moving into a new position. Then, actively attempt to recall the dream. If no images come, one may try focusing on any emotional residue that the dream may have left behind.
Once the dream is remembered, record it in a journal kept near the bed.
10 Great Sci-fi Novels That Have Been Banned – Part II
about 1 year ago - No comments
#7 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land is a pro-religion, anti-theist book about free love and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and was controversial even when it was published in 1962.
Fahrenheit 451
So naturally it was challenged as part of the curriculum of a summer “Science Academy” course in Texas.
#6 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
In a textbook example of “missing the point,” in 1981 Jackson County, Florida challenged the presence of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in its schools and libraries, claiming that the book was pro-communism, anti-Semitic, and had sexual references.
While that last one is certainly true, it still sounds like somebody only read the first twenty pages before doing their book report.
#5 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
In 1998, Fahrenheit 451 was removed from the curriculum in a Mississippi high school because a parent objected to the use of the phrase “god damn.”
Is it ironic if you suppress a book that condemns the suppression of print information?
#4 A Wrinkle In Time By Madeline L’Engle
A target that seems to be ripe for the ban hammer is any book that stands firmly on the line between children’s and adult fiction.
A Wrinkle in Time is the beginning of a four part series by Madeline L’Engle that tackles the the vastness of time and the universe, the nature of evil, and the dangers of blind belief. But, it’s got characters known as “witches” in it, so it was the 22nd most frequently challenged book of the 90′s.
