Last summer, this column raved about four different animators from
across the world whose times are about to come. One of them was the
iconoclastic yet traditional master Michel Ocelot (See: here).
This weekend, Ocelot’s master work, Azur and Asmar (2006),
will make its English dubbed debut at the New York International
Children’s Film Fest (NYICFF). While it has been at the NYICFF before,
this time there’s a major difference. After the Fest, the film is
getting national, admittedly limited distribution from the Weinstein
Company. From the sounds of things, much in the same way Hayao Miyazaki
got when the Weinstein’s ran Miramax and distributed his film Princess Mononoke with some help from Disney.
As stated before, Ocelot’s past features films—Kirikou & The Sorceress, Princes & Princesses and Kirikou & The Wild Beast--combined
his admiration of silhouette/stop-motion master Lotte Reiniger with a
brilliant color palette from both France and West Africa. He also
incorporated a love of the works of the artist post-Impressionist Henri
Rousseau.
With Azur, Ocelot has taken his personal style of
animation to a new level. He added a radically different type of
computer-enhanced animation to the film. The end result is the film now
incorporates the character designs of 14th Century artist Botticelli
(also called “quatrocento”), backgrounds as intricate as Renaissance
period Persian tapestry, and some incredibly delicate work that mixes
Peter Chung’s Reign: The Conqueror with Salvador Dali.
Azur & Asmar is a truly unique and overwhelming feast of the
eye that makes one glad that HD now exists. Scenes such as when Azur
first walks into his nanny’s home in North Africa, when he confronts
the Scarlet Lion or wanders by the reflection pool in Princess Chamsous
Sabah’s castle, one will sit there in absolute wonder. The only
comparison are the scenes Richard Hatch did complete himself in his
film The Cobbler and the Thief. The incredible intricacy of the backgrounds is of such quality and detail that it’s only rivaled by Howl’s bedroom in Howl’s Movie Castle.
Even more stunning, Ocelot did all the animation with only six additional people. His voice cast is larger.
To top it, the tale Azur & Asmar tells matches the
visuals in more ways than one could ever hope for. Initially set in
pre-Renaissance Andalusia, we are first introduced to the motherless
Azur (initially voiced by Leopold Benedict), so named because his eyes
are sapphire blue. Motherless, he is raised by a North African nanny
Jenane (Suzanna Nour) who has a son the same age as Azur, Asmar
(Frederick Benedict). When Azur reaches a certain age, his racist
father (Keith Wickham) decides it’s time for his boy to learn how to be
a royal. He isolates the boy from Asmar and Jenane, eventually kicking
them off his land and then telling the boy they were killed by wolves.
Before their banishment, Jenane told both boys the tale of the Djinn
Fairy. She’s entrapped in a crystal cage and can only be freed by a
handsome prince. The thing is, the prince must endure a number of
ordeals before he can free her. So, when Azur (Steven Kyman) does grow
up, rather than take over his father’s fiefdom, he sets off to free the
Djinn Fairy.
That’s when disaster strikes. Azur is swept off his boat in the middle
of the storm. He lands in North Africa, where the ugliness of what he
sees so appalls him he feigns being blind rather than witness this new
world. This is when he meets the beggar Crapoux (Nigel Lambert),
reunites with Jenane (now the wealthiest woman in the region) and she
finances his mission for the Djinn Fairy. The trick is, Asmar (Nigel
Pinkington), also quite grown up, never forgave being kicked out of
Europe. The two boys who once treated each other as brothers are now
the bitterest of rivals.
Yet the true beauty of the film is its subtle message about prejudice.
The real tale is how Azur’s father inspires hatred in both boys in one
form or another, and by only going through an ordeal together do they
finally “open their eyes” and overcome their wrong-headed biases. In a
press release, Ocelot claims to have learned this lesson when he was a
child and his parents, who were missionaries, taught in a small
palm-thatched school in West Africa.
“If I'm going to work on something for six years I have to believe in it,” the director recently told The Financial Times.
“I'm interested in the state of the planet, in relations between the
west and the Muslim world. I wanted to talk, too, about immigrants in
society, but in the Middle Ages with a changing of roles. So in my
fairy tale the 'dirty immigrant' is white, blond and with blue eyes. At
school it was totally peaceful, there was no bigotry. We were mixed
whites and blacks, there were Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, there
was even an Anglican church. I had no idea people could be prejudiced
about these things. Children can be very selfish and violent, but not
for special reasons such as racism.”
If you want to find out when the film will be coming to your town, keep an eye on the NYICFF’s web site, www.gkids.tv.
According to sources inside there, the national tour should start this
Winter. As for those of you in the NYC metropolitan area, now is your
time to see the film. It’s a true eye opener.
DISNEY TO WALK RUNWAY FOR LIFE
On October 11, celebrities took to the catwalk as they embarked on a
fashion extravaganza through Disney’s greatest animated films of all
time.
Chairs Robert Ellis and Terre Thomas and co-chairs Marlo and Tony
Thomas were joined by Haylie Duff, Hilary Duff, Jaime Pressly, Jennifer
Love Hewitt, Selena Gomez, Jon Hamm, Cybill Shepherd, Jason Alexander,
Daisy Fuentes, Jonny Lee Miller, Natasha Henstridge, Skeet Ulrich,
Jennifer Westfeldt, Victor Garber and many more as Disney and the
Hollywood community took a journey through Disney’s greatest animated
films of all time. Disney, in turn, used the event to promote their CG
animated movie Tinker Bell.. The funds generated are going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which got 100% of the proceeds. .
MANGA SIGNS UK DISTRIBUTION DEAL WITH FUNIMATION
Manga Entertainment UK has licensed the exclusive rights to market,
sell and distribute a number of new anime titles from FUNimation
Entertainment, the leading distributor of Japanese animation in North
America, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the two companies announced
today.
Among the FUNimation titles licensed to Manga Entertainment UK are Claymore,
Negima Season 2, Darker Than Black, Ghost Hunt, Jyu Oh Sei, Ouran High
School Host Club, Sasami, My Santa, Save Me Lollipop, Baldr Force EXE and xxxHOLiC with the first releases set for later this month and November.
"Our sales and marketing expertise, coupled with FUNimation’s strong
lineup of titles, convinced both companies that these could be some of
the best selling new franchises of 2009 in the UK," said Colin Lomax,
Managing Director, Anchor Bay Entertainment UK/Manga Entertainment, a
Starz Media company.
ASIFA HOSTING HAHN PANEL
ASIFA is hosting an educational panel featuring super-producer Don Hahn
this Monday, October 20 at Woodbury University. The panel will cover
Hahn’s soon-to-be published book, The Alchemy of Animation and include additional guest animators James Baxter, Mike Belzer and Nik Ranieri.
The address and time are: Fletcher Jones Foundation Auditorium,
Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510 and will
start at 7:00 p.m. For more information, contact ASIFA at alchemy@asifa-hollywood.com. RSVP’s must be in by October 17.
KILLER RABBITS ARE BACK
The Minisode Network announced it has acquired another brood of 30 Second Bunnies
shorts. The web-based award winning shorts are notorious for what they
make the crazed conies do in the process of parodying a film. This new
batch should be no exception as they will rip right in with a parody of
Saw.
Besides, what’s cuter than a furry bunny with a chain saw?
You can access these short via Sony Pictures’ Crackle.com; YouTube;
MySpace; Hulu; AOL; TidalTV; on mobile at Verizon Wireless’ V Cast
Video and SprintTV; and direct to Sony BRAVIA TVs via BRAVIA Internet
Video Link.
NEXT COLUMN: Speed McQuenn and Tow Mater’s back in a series of
interstitial shorts for the Disney Channel. Find out all about it next
Tuesday.
