Friday, July 16, 2010

Films Missing from the List

So what's missing from the list of most bizarre animated films?

There are plenty of obmissions that would have made it, some because I couldn't change the list, and others because I'll likely never be able to see them in their entirety.

There were a few Ralph Bakshi films that would probably have made it if I'd been able to see them sooner. Picha would certainly have gotten higher. Fimfarum 2 would have been added. I'd definitely be obliged to add both of the Genius Party films. Shooting near the top of the list would be Harry Smith's Heaven and Earth Magic. I'd probably have a place for Ladd Ehlinger's Flatland the Film. Klyuch, or the Key, is certainly bizarre enough to make the list. 1001 Nights, the film from Mushi Pro, would be on here as well. The Lost Letter would manage to squeak out a spot on the list.

A couple of films I omitted for being bizarre but not particularly good: Tamala 2010, We Are the Strange, Blood Tea and Red String, Book of the Dead

I'd been too hesitant to arrange for a copy of Heroic Times, so I might never get to see that film in its entirety. Kovasznai's Foam Bath will probably never be well known. Ra Path of the Sun God might make the list if I ever manage to track it down. Ubu and the Great Gidouille has a video copy floating around somewhere but I'll likely never see it, and Adam 2 is most likely lost. Larry Jordan's Sophie's Choice was pretty monotonous to me, and its cutout approach was too similar to Smith's for me to fully appreciate it. I suspect there's a few too many good apples from the same tree in that area of experimental and photo cutout animation. Go There, Don't know Where would get pretty high on the list I'd suspect, but I'm judging from still images. Jankovics might make it another time with Song of the Miraculous Hind.

I discovered Autumn while looking over Wikipedia. It might make the list, but it certainly depends heavily on dialogue, so I couldn't have scored it..


Here's one film with a really insane cult following. That's a little too crazy for me.



The Devil and Kaca lacks subtitles, but the plot seems pretty easy to follow in general. I'd say it has enough bizarre character to make the list.







Here's trailers to the Genius Party films, which are both for sale in Australia.




I won't forget Aachi and Ssipak which Brenan reminded me of in the previous topic.


I hadn't seen Fritz the Cat at the time and it is a criminal omission being such a prominent film.


So what other sorts of lists could be or have been made in a similar vein? Commercials? Short films? Music videos? Television series? Live action/animation combinations? A television series list would be difficult to create, but correspondingly very useful. A list of short films would be taxingly difficult, but very rewarding as it would certainly feature some strange work. I like a number of animated music videos, but they can quickly become too tacky and they're so dynamic that they become grating to watch after a while. And besides, making a bizarre music video is frankly a standard choice which takes away from much of the appeal.

Next time I might try out something wildly different and engage in a fantasy exercise. What animation mediums that you don't suspect exist would you like to see?

Here's what I'll do for this post. I'll leave it open for updates below for films you think ought to be mentioned and anything which I forgot.


And here are some films mentioned by Elchinodepelocrespo.

Resan Till Melonia


Strit og Stumme

Bennys badekar, which I'd mentioned previously but neglected to bring up here:


4 comments:

Elchinodepelocrespo said...

Hi,

you can find "Go There, Don't know Where" and "Heroic Times" at Surrealmoviez.

As for the "Ubu" film and "Adam II", I am afraid they are impossible to get.

Some bizarre films come to my mind: "Resan til mellonia", "Strit og Stumme" or "Benny badekar" are jsut some of them.

GW said...

Thanks for pointing those out. The Surreal Moviez site is down right now, but hopefully it will be back up soon. I should have brought up Bennys badekar as an example of a film that's slightly too short.

I didn't care for Strit og Stumme very much.
Resan til mellonia I'd need to see without subtitles to judge very effectively. I saw the film Out of an Old Man's Head, also from Ahlin and Danielsson, though without subtitles and thought it was a good film.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering what the film "Autumn" was - the video you embedded no longer works and google search keeps leading me to a Dragonlance film, which I am sure is not what you meant.

Otherwise, a great follow-up to your previous list. Nothing I hadn't heard of previously but still an intelligent & informed list.

I hope Jan Lenica gets a golden DVD treatment some day - would love to check out "Adam 2" and 'Ubu.'

GW said...

I'm guessing you're the same as the last Anonymous. I looked it up again and I found this forum with a torrent link in Russian. http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1731305
It disappeared from YouTube during the Russian Animation purge.

Ubu used to have a clip on YouTube but the channel that hosted it disappeared during that same time.