The first thing that comes to mind is Satoshi Kon's 2006 Paprika, I have blogged about this before, however thought I would mention it again as it was the first thing that sprang to mind when I got this brief. I have chosen to base my flash animation on Pylones gifts, which are quirky household items and more that have been personified to the point where it is not clear what they actually are. I decided to use this to my advantage and have the items as characters in a short animation, that way I could give them more of a "story" as such, as there is not really alot you can do with toasters and umbrellas in terms of a narrative. well you could if you have some sick animation skills, I seem to recall pixar or one of those companies actually made a short movie about a toaster, but that's them and this is me! someone who can barely use flash! Anyway back to paprika, It is Satoshi Kon's 4th movie following in the success of perfect blue, millenium actress and tokyo godfathers and Is based on an invention known as the DC mini in which a user can penetrate another's dream as a result of a revolutionary new form of psychotherapy. Paprika is the alter ego of a doctor atsuko chiba, created to provide dream therapy illegally to her patients. I can't really explain the film in any more detail as it just goes completely crazy and it takes a couple of watches to fully "get" it, but visually the film is stunning as with all his works, and has a focus on the delicacy of the human mind as with all his features including the spectacular series paranoia agent.
The music for the film is what stuck in my head above all else accompanied by the crazy dream like imagery, particularly the parade scene which although colorful and child-like in essence has an underlying horror type feel that seems to stick in your head. The scene show's inanimate objects and cultural icons along with musical instroment playing animals marching in a parade.
For a historical piece I have chosen to look at Jan Svanmajer's ALICE which scared the S***
Out of me when I saw it as a child! I'd never seen stop motion animation before and just that alone freaked
me out, the awkward and un-natural way in which the rabbit moved alongside his and other objects in the
films hideous appearance was enough to scare me half to death! well it can't have scared me that much
as I still watched the whole thing, I think it just freaked me out a bit and I watched it for curiosity more than
anything else, It was a big step from the usual disney and cuddley teddys that I had to see this grotesque
rabbit and old antique furniture and knick knacks, It was like nothing i had seen before and It made me feel
cold.
It still does, I can't stand it in truth, but I can now appreciate what he has done for the world of animation,
some of his works are amazing such as one I watched the other day called dimensions of dialogue, although
gross and not one bit visually pleasing I found it very creative and resourceful and found myself admiring
the sheer volume of thought and effort that must have to go into his works.
so here is a clip from Alice as my historical piece below:
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