Oceansize was created by Supinfocom Arles students Romain Jouandeau, Adrien Chartie, Gilles Mazières and Fabien Thareau in 2008. In the short, two oil-rig workers find themselves under attack by a large, viscous creature. This short gets a number of things right. There's a palpable tension throughout. Both the designs of the environment and their attention to detail within it (textures on the rig itself, particles floating in the water, lighting) bring you immediately into the world of these two oil workers. Of particular note are the well-framed shots in the action sequences. They help communicate the urgency of the oil workers' situation and are held just long enough to cover up some of the stiff character animation as the action builds to its climax. Good stuff. I'm going in for another viewing.
Beast Wars Transformers is one of those rare, near-perfect cartoons that pop up seemingly out of nowhere to become classics. It’s quite possibly one of the best shows of the 1990s, combining unexpectedly deep scripting with fun, nuanced animation that was cutting edge for its time. The characters feel real, their conflicts seem intimate, and everyone – from the leader, Optimus Primal, to the comic relief, Waspinator, sees significant character development.
The original Transformers series is as toy-driven as they come, existing only to sell toys. Consistent plot and character development are secondary to pushing the newest extension to the toyline. There was no general story arc or story line, and the self-contained episodes often contained such preposterous ideas as “Decepticons open a nightclub in order to control people’s minds”. Characters barely qualify as one-dimensional, with personality deriving solely from the voice cast.
Now, I ask, which version of the franchise is generally ignored these days, and which one spawned a pair of blockbusters that grossed about 5 skillion dollars?
Yeah, kinda sad isn’t it?
Let’s look at the original cartoon first. On a creative level, the original Transformers cartoon is not very good. The basic “robots in disguise” concept of the Autobots and Decepticons is terrific, the execution not so much. It’s charitable to call the animation quality “mediocre” – episodes are often filled with mistakes, and the clunky animation means the show barely moves. There’s a reason the Shout Factory featurette focused almost entirely on the voice cast, the saving grace of the show.
This, of course, is the nature of the beast. Transformers exists, like it or not, to sell toys. Consistent plot and character development is secondary to pushing the newest extension to the toyline. For proof, simply look at the story guide for the original cartoon: episodes are listed not by title or plot, but by the toy Hasbro wants to push. If an episode featured, say, the Dinobots, odds are it wasn’t because the writers felt the need to explore the characters, but because the toys are now on sale for $14.99 at Toys R Us. The cast would easily number in the dozens – Optimus and Megatron were literally controlling huge armies.
Now, I ask you: what transformers do you actually remember from the original show? Optimus Prime and Megatron probably popped in your head almost immediately. Starscream and Soundwave were probably next, because of their distinctive Cobra Commander and Harmonica voices respectively. Bumblebee probably fades into memory because of his distinctive alt mode (punch buggy yellow no punch back), and Arcee probably appears because she was, well, a girl.
After that… well, you probably don’t remember anyone else, don’t you? I remember the one that said “but PRAHME” a lot, and the one that sounded like Casey Kasem. But those are just random voices assigned to random vehicles. Even the ones I named don’t have much of a personality – Prime’s personality doesn’t go much beyond “leader”, Starscream’s personality doesn’t go much beyond “annoying whiner”. When you have to write everybody in, there’s no room to explore characters or build plots around their personalities.
So why does Beast Wars work?
Well, let’s start with the technology. Hasbro contracted with Mainframe Entertainment, the minds behind the now-classic Reboot, to produce a fully CG television show. While the visuals are now regularly surpassed by the modern video game consoles, the animation quality was very advanced and impressive for 1997.
However, there were limits. To keep costs reasonable, the rosters had to be limited, so the Maximals and Predacons featured much smaller rosters of about 7 characters each. When Hasbro wanted a new toy, other characters had to be de-emphasized to make room. The large cities of Generation 1 were gone, replaced by more desolate environments.
These technical limitations turned out to be the greatest asset Beast Wars had.
Instead of using these limitations as shortcuts, story editors Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio, as well as the Mainframe staff, used them as starting points. The desolate environment problem was solved with the decision to strand the characters on a largely uninhabited planet. New characters couldn’t pop up out of nowhere like in the original, so each new addition was accompanied by a detailed explanation and backstory.
Perhaps most importantly, the character roster limitation meant that the characters could be fleshed out and explored. Optimus Primal is not simply the pefect leader his namesake was – he exploits loopholes, isn’t afraid to use crazy ideas, and will speak with his fists when necessary. The new Megatron is much more competent – he has an agenda, manipulates others, and seeks to restore Predacon glory. Cheetor, a young, naïve ingénue of Optimus Primal, essentially goes through puberty during the course of the series and emerges as a formidable warrior in his own right. Rattrap is shown as a streetwise, wisecracking rat who prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. Tarantulas takes Starscream’s role of schemer, but works on his plans in the shadows away from Megatron. Blackarachnia’s eventual defection from Predacon to Maximal is a major storyline of the latter half of the series.
And then there’s Dinobot, the series’ most remarkable character. It’s easy to classify him as a Predacon who becomes a Maximal and one of the good guys, but that’s not true. Dinobot clearly is only allied with the Maximals because he believes Megatron is insane, and retains a code of honor and a warrior mentality that is clearly Predacon in nature. He is constantly questioning this decision, is always fighting with his Maximal teammates. At one point, he defects back to the Predacon side before realizing his honor is more allied with the Maximal point of view.
Thanks to Forward and DiTillio, these characters not only emerge in three dimensions, but grow and change throughout the series’ run. All of the surviving characters are very different people in the last episode than they are in the first. I cannot say that about very many cartoons; even Batman, in B:TAS, is essentially the same character throughout, just a bit grumpier by the end.
The differences between the two series are clearly visible in their respective high points: the original animated movie and Beast Wars’ Code of Hero. Both feature the death of a major character; Optimus Prime in the movie and Dinobot in Beast Wars. Those events are, essentially, largely similar – both characters perish in an all-out, no holds barred struggle against their respective Megatrons, and get to enjoy a very drawn out death scene.
So why does Dinobot’s death move me, yet Prime’s death seems hollow?
While Dinobot was fully realized, Optimus Prime was never, ever developed beyond being a leader who spoke kind of like John Wayne. I care that Dinobot dies; I don’t really care what Optimus’ fate is. Furthermore, there’s a lot more at stake in Dinobot’s last stand: he defends humanity from an early extinction in a 1 vs. 7 battle, while Optimus simply fights Megatron to a stalemate. Dinobot’s death redeems him; Optimus’ demise says nothing about the character. And when they die, Optimus’ handing of the Matrix of Leadership to a previously unknown character elicits no emotional response. Dinobot’s Hamlet-inspired speech and the Maximals’ funeral gets me every single time.
That’s why Beast Wars works – I care about these characters. I’m invested into them. I can’t say that about the G1 cast. And even as the latest video games threaten to overwhelm the series’ visual quality, the characterization keeps luring me back to the series each time.
Robots in disguise gets you only so far. Strong characterization gets you the rest of the way.
The 82nd Academy Award nominations have been announced, with Disney/Pixar's Up getting a nod for Best Picture in addition to the expected Best Animated Feature nomination. I have to admit that as much as I liked the movie, I don't think it's the one I would have picked among Pixar's total output to get the nod for Best Picture. However, it was a pretty good if not great year for movies, it seems, and to paraphrase the parable about life on the African veldt, the Best Picture of the year only has to be better than all the other movies released in the same year, not the Best Picture ever.
In any event, I think the question of whether Up will become the first animated feature to win the Best Picture Oscar is moot once you look at its competition. The good news about animation being seated at the big kids' table is that it's another acknowledgment, however small, that animation is a serious medium capable of making great art and not just the kiddie stuff that a good portion of America (or at least a good portion of Hollywood) seems to think it is. The bad news is that this year's animated film has to stand toe-to-toe with the work of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, as well as with the very highly acclaimed The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, and Precious. This would be tough competition for any movie, regardless of medium, and to be honest I'd eliminate District 9 and Avatar as possible winners in this category as well. Science fiction and fantasy fare about as well as comedies in the Best Picture race, with barely a dozen movies from those genres getting nominated in the past 40 years and only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's winning in 2003.
Avatar also happens to sit right in the crux of a few different issues I've been grappling with for the News. As our readers will have noticed, the headlines Avatar has been grabbing in the mainstream press are not reflected on our News Ticker. Like King Kong, the later Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and modern video games in general, I think Avatar uses similar techniques to more traditionally animated features, but that doesn't make it an animated movie in my view. At best, I'd call Avatar a hybrid film (at least from the clips I've seen -- I have not watched the movie and judging by the movie's phenomenal box office success, I may be the only person who was never that interested in it). I don't think many people would call Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Mary Poppins "animated" movies, either, despite their heavy reliance on animation. In this, I'm afraid I break with our friends over at Cartoon Brew, who are congratulating Avatar for being the second animated movie in the Best Picture race. In any event, Avatar director James Cameron himself insists that Avatar is not animation, with an attitude that I think is merely another variation on the, "Cartoons are just for kids" mentality, so I'm happy to lock him out of the clubhouse. He will just have to find solace from my peevish snit in the billions of dollars he's made on the movie so far.
The second issue that Avatar brings up relates to the lack of recognition of actors in animation. Cameron himself has complained over perceived snubs at the acting of his Avatar performers in the SAG awards, and the movie's acting was bypassed by year's Oscars as well. I would point out the notable absence of acting award
nominations for Cameron's films in general and humbly suggest that
perhaps the technology is not to blame for the snubbing of the acting in Avatar, but he can gripe much more loudly about a point that animation fans have felt for some time: voice actors are routinely treated as second-class citizens to their on-camera equivalents. The shoddy treatment of the cast of Space Jam at the movie's premiere is a visible example, as is Cameron's own brusque dismissal of Meryl Streep's performance in Fantastic Mr. Fox. There is also the issue that the animators themselves are as responsible for the "acting" of a character as the voice actors, which begs the question of who exactly should get the credit for a particularly good performance. I would like to see wider recognition of a good performance in animation, but I must admit I don't really know how to get there. However, such nuances are probably well beyond the Academy members, and this is why we have the Annie Awards anyway.
I don't have any serious complaints about the nominees for Best Animated Feature. I think it was a very good year for animated movies in general, and I think swapping in a different movie released last year would shortchange one of the other nominees. I can say little or nothing meaningful about the Best Animated Short category.
In any event, no ruminations on the Oscars would be complete without predictions, although I openly admit mine are blissfully unencumbered by any biases that might arise from actually seeing many of the movies nominated. But hey, I'm just a guy on the Internet exercising his right to spout off about things he knows nothing about. As I mentioned, I don't think Up has even a long-shot chance at winning the Best Picture Oscar. Unfortunately, it will probably have to settle for the honor of being nominated, because I also suspect that Fantastic Mr. Fox will be the winner for the Best Animated Feature due to the Academy's general adoration for the works of Wes Anderson. It would be something of a shame if Pete Docter walked away from the ceremonies empty-handed, especially since I still believe he was robbed of an Oscar in 2003, but it looks like it might happen again this year. At least he won't be losing out to such a vastly inferior movie like Shrek. I don't hold out hope that the Academy will recognize the movie in the Best Original Screenplay category. This marks the 6th time an animated movie has been nominated for a writing Oscar (the other 5 being Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and WALL-E; the number goes to 6 if you want to call Mary Poppins animated), but none of them have ever won and again, Up faces some very stiff competition.
In any event, I would still like to congratulate all the nominees and wish them the best of luck. We'll see you all on Oscar night.
Inka Bola starts on the tallest structure of a Mayan city where a guard half-heartedly watches over a mischievous toddler who enjoys throwing fruit at his head. After taking a tumble from his throne in a moment of rebellion, the boy is kidnapped by a giant bird and the guard must give chase. The short comes from Gobelins and was created by the team of De Mélody Cisinski, Jacques Jarcyzk, Vincent Garcia, Floriane Marchix, Gwénolé Oul'Chen and Patrick Pujalte. Floriane Marchix's blog has some nice behind the scenes art available.
This is a pretty impressive short. It has fantastic style about it. The shots are great. The animation is dynamic and the short itself has a few genuinely funny moments. I think you'll really enjoy it. Take a look.
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