Free Pony Theory ~ Anime, Cartoon and process

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

A Scanner Darkly - 2006

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 film directed by Richard Linklater based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly monitored by intensive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. To give the film its distinct look, the movie was filmed digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope over the original footage.

After principal photography was finished, the film was transferred to Quicktime for a 15-month animation process: interpolated-rotoscoping. A Scanner Darkly was filmed digitally using the Panasonic AG-DVX100 and then animated with Rotoshop, a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston. Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, which was previously used in Linklater's film Waking Life. Linklater discussed the ideas and inspiration behind his use of rotoscoping in a UK documentary about him in 2004, linking it to his personal experiences of lucid dreaming. Rotoscoping in traditional cel animation originally involved tracing over film frame-by-frame. This is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoshop animation, however, makes use of vector keyframes, and interpolates the in-between frames automatically.[4]

The animation phase was a trying process for Linklater who said, "I know how to make a movie, but I don't really know how to handle the animation."[1] He had gone the animation route because he felt that there was very little animation targeted for adults.[1] Each minute of animation required 350 hours of work with 50 animators working full-time every day.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly_(film)

http://hotfilms.org/movies/rs-mu-...kly-2006-m-hd-x264-usk-25834.html

http://www.ddlhere.com/pc-format/...rkly-2006-hq-dvdrip-x264-usk.html

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Grave of the Fireflies - 1988

rave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka?) is a 1988 animated film written and directed by Isao Takahata .[1] This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work. It is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, intended as a personal apology to the author's own sister.

Some critics (most notably Roger Ebert) consider it to be one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made. Animation historian Ernest Rister compares the film to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and says, "it is the most profoundly human animated film I've ever seen."[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies

http://www.phimhongkong.com/f/showpost.php?p=594080&postcount=2

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Howl's Moving Castle - 2004

Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro?) is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel of the same name. Mamoru Hosoda, director of two seasons and one movie from the Digimon series, was originally selected to direct but abruptly left the project, leaving the then retired Miyazaki to take up the director's role.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle_(film)

http://www.phimhongkong.com/f/showpost.php?p=594084&postcount=3

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Renaissance - 2006

Renaissance is a 2006 animated cyberpunk/science fiction detective film by French director Christian Volckman. It was co-produced in France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg and released on 15 March 2006 in France and 28 July 2006 in the UK by Miramax Films. Renaissance features a rare visual style in which almost all images are exclusively black and white, with only occasional colour used for detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(film)

Plot Outline: In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a shadow over everything is the city's largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export -- youth and beauty. In this world of stark contrasts and rigid laws the populace is kept in line and accounted for

http://dvdmoviesforsell.blogspot.com/2008/01/renaissance.html

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Kanashimi no Belladonna - 1973

Belladonna (哀しみのベラドンナ, Kanashimi no Belladonna?, literally "Belladonna of Sadness," also known as "The Tragedy of Belladonna")[1] is an art house animation feature film produced in 1973 by Mushi Production. Directed and co-written by Eiichi Yamamoto and inspired by Jules Michelet's non-fiction book Satanism and Witchcraft, it is the third and final film in the Animerama trilogy and the only one to be neither written nor directed by Osamu Tezuka (he left Mushi Production during the film's early stages to concentrate on his comics[1] and his conceptual-stage contribution is uncredited). Belladonna is also of a more serious tone than the more comedic first two Animerama films. Its visuals consist mostly of still paintings panned across[1] and are strongly influenced by western art, particularly Aubrey Beardsley,[2] Gustav Klimt[1] and classic tarot illustrations.[3] The film was a commercial failure and contributed to Mushi Pro becoming bankrupt by the end of the year.[1]

It follows the story of Jeanne, a peasant woman who is raped which leads to her being accused of witchcraft, and is notable for its graphic and suggestively erotic, violent and psychedelic imagery. The film was released in Europe and Japan, but no official DVD with English subtitles exists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanashimi_no_Belladonna

Plot Summary: The beautiful peasant woman Jeanne is raped by a demonif overlord on her wedding night. Spurned by her husband, she has no outlet for her awakened libido, which develops to give her powers of witchcraft. Experimental watercolor animation style based on Medieval European witchcraft legends and illustrations. (animenewsnetwork)

http://www.phimhongkong.com/f/showpost.php?p=620214&postcount=53

use this for english subtitles (change file name and add .srt
http://subs.nu/english/subtitles/...Belladonna-Belladonna-of-Sadness/

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

The Singing Teacher

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - 2001

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, known in Japan as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (劇場版カウボーイビバップ天国の扉, Gekijōban Kaubōi Bibappu: Tengoku no Tobira?), is a 2001 animated film directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. The screenplay was written by Keiko Nobumoto, based on the Cowboy Bebop television series created by Sunrise. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the original TV series. The plot centers on Spike Spiegel and his crew as they find a criminal who is planning to release a virus on Mars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowb...op,_Knockin%27_on_Heaven%27s_Door

Creation and conception

Shinichirō Watanabe, creator of the Cowboy Bebop series, said in an interview he aimed to use "more difficult technical effects" available for the film to create a "live-action look" that would permeate throughout the animated film.[2] When asked what the audience should "watch out for" in the film, Watanabe responded by saying that one should not just pay attention to "images," since the creators "pushed [themselves]" on the story, the facial expressions, and "everything". In addition Watanabe said that he "kept the whole "Bebop Flavor" in mind" and that some viewers would not perceive the film as being distinct from the television series.[2]

Watanabe chose to use an "Arabesque" atmosphere, which was described by an interviewer as permeating "everywhere from the images to the music," saying that the Arab world was "alien" to him and that it "wasn't used much" in the television series. He said that he ultimately created the film "using the inspiration I got while I was in Morocco" to gain inspiration, adding that he would not have used the material in his film if he did not like what he saw.[2]

http://mag.awn.com/?article_no=1666&ltype=pageone

The studio press kit for the American-retitled Cowboy Bebop: The Movie English-dubbed theatrical feature (featuring the same popular voice cast as the TV series) says that it made "its world premiere at the Big Apple Anime Fest 2002 (BAAF) in New York City [on Labor Day weekend]." But its original Japanese release was on September 1, 2001. (It was in Japan's top 15 box office for five weeks. In July 2002 it won the SPJA Industry Award, presented at Anime Expo in Long Beach, California, in the 2001 Best Japanese Anime Theatrical Release category.) This is significant because, if it had been delayed for just a few weeks, it would have looked like a blatant and unimaginative imitation of the 9/11/01 NYC terrorism combined with its follow-ups. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie features a deadly terrorist threat involving massive explosions and what appears to be the release of an unknown bioplague that kills thousands in a cityscape that is practically rotoscoped from NYC. The suspects include a mysterious Rachid in an Arabic district. At the same time that the largest reward in history is offered for the terrorists (which attracts our Bebop gang), the authorities (both government and some powerful corporate villains) react with authoritarian force against all possible suspects. There are ominous implications that any bounty hunters who do actually find the terrorists may not be rewarded but "disappeared" for Knowing Too Much. One wonders whether a reason for the delay in the movie's general release since its film festival premiere last August has been that it was still too close to the 9/11/01 attacks.

Cowboy Bebop - The Movie

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HRCWVH37
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IFOKTOC2

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime

Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime
University Of Minnesota Press | 2007 | ISBN: 0816649731 | Pages: 288 | PDF | 3.08 MB

Since the end of the Second World War—and particularly over the last decade—Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual—from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s—while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan.

Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan’s national and political identity, and its unique fan culture.

Covering a remarkable range of texts—from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyûsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy—this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre.

http://uploading.com/files/J1RIDWKU/c24.rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/182307789/c24.rar

Excellent critical selection of essays on anime and manga with a chapter by Susan Napier. Great research material, thank you for the upload and please more of the same kind. Much appreciate your work.

Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 1088

Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation