Movie Review: Brave

My dad took me to see Brave yesterday, just like he took me to see The Little Mermaid in 1989, only this time he didn't fall asleep. I was a  little reluctant to share my true feelings about the movie, but then I remembered that I'm usually not one to go along with the crowd to avoid scrutiny (leg shaving exception), so bombs away!

In a nutshell, I enjoyed Brave well enough, but it wasn't all fantastic. It breaks my heart a little too, because I love Pixar and the level of quality they strive for.

Merida, voiced by Kelly MacDonaldImage via filmofilia.com.

On the surface Brave is about Merida, a highland princess who wants to control her own fate. Basically that means she doesn't want to be a bride who is given to the winner of some highland games, she wants to marry who she chooses and only when she's ready. (It certainly doesn't mean that she wants to travel or learn a trade or become a warrior or be an independent woman.) But really the movie is about a mother and daughter who don't understand each other and communicate poorly. It's pretty much the Freaky Friday plot. Even though they don't switch places, they find themselves in a magical situation that forces them to respect and understand each other's skill sets and viewpoints in order to break the spell.

The actual script held a few problems for me. There were some pacing problems, there were a couple of characters and plot points that felt as though they were added hastily in order to make it all work, and there was at least one major theme that was too loosely connected to truly make the impact that was desired or deserved. Additionally the humor was obvious, meaning it was at a much lower cleverness level than I'm accustomed to in a Pixar film. It was a real missed opportunity.

Merida's mum and dad, voiced by Billy Connelly and Emma Thompson. Image via filmofilia.com.

On the positive side, when all is said and done, I'm ecstatic that Merida and her mother are strong, clever female characters. There are no dewey eyes or fluttering abouts or talk of beauty, it's all about strength of character and solving problems and taking action.

The animation is completely fantastic, especially the hair, as I'm sure you are well aware from the preview, but there were also great things happening with the fabrics. Animated films are gaining more and more textures and depth, much to my delight.

The voice casting was fantastic. I love Billy Connelly's scratchy and somehow irreverent voice. (I just feel like he's going to say something naughty at any given moment.) Of course I was in hog heaven listening to all that Scottish dialect, but that doesn't really recommend the movie to anyone but me.

The final word is go and see it. You'll likely enjoy it enough, especially with checked expectations, and you can't really not see a Pixar film at this point anyway, right?

P.S. La Luna, the short that played before the movie, was adorably delightful.

Trailer Tuesday

Tuesdays will hence forth be known as Trailer Tuesdays. I will post at least one trailer for an upcoming movie that I'm looking forward to. If nothing is catching my eye, I will post a trailer for a previously released movie that I find delightful in some way.

Today I will break the ice with three trailers, which is probably excessive. I mean, I don't want to spoil you, but I do what I want.

First is Boy from Kiwi director Taika Waititi. Boy made its debut at Sundance 2010, but it's finally in limited release in the U.S. (since March 2) thanks to Kickstarter. (Waititi is totally charming in his pitch video.) I wish it were playing in my town.

Pixar's at it again with their new film Brave. I have a wee obsession with the Scottish dialect and even did a presentation on said dialect in college. I'm glad they actually have (some) Scottish people voicing the characters, like Kelly MacDonald and Billy Connolly. Plus, doesn't the main character's animated hair look AWESOME?! The whole film promisses to be visually stunning.

 And finally a movie brought to you by the makers of Coraline, a new claymation called ParaNorman. It looks charming and funny and a little dark: three things that appear in abundance in my movie tastes. Additionally I can't seem to get enough claymation.

Fabricating Fabric with Disney

My nephew is training to be a computer animator, and today he let me tag along to hear guest lecturer Mark McLaughlin talk about fabric simulation in animation. McLaughlin works for Disney, I believe as their principal software engineer in their animation studios. His specific work is seen in movies like The Princess and the Frog, Bolt, Tangled, and of course many more.

I was interested in attending this lecture for at least three reasons: 1) I like Disney, 2) I'm interested in fabric, and 3) I am often bothered by clothing representation in animation. The talk was, of course, very technical, but I gleaned a few new nuggets of knowledge and newfound awe and respect for computer animators.

Disney does a great job of researching to understand how both inanimate and animate objects look and work in real life. (Animation doesn't always work in real life ways, but life study helps animation work in believable ways.) They not only make it their business to study their subject in real life, but they also study their subject from other references like art and videos. For instance when animating the movie Tangled, the animators studied clothing as painted by Leighton, Waterhouse, and Dicksee; they had bolts of fabric on hand that they could handle and manipulate; and they made films of themselves and models moving in order to understand the relationship between fabric, the body, and movement. And that's just for the animation of only the clothing in the movie. (Side note: A lot of Disney DVDs will have extras that include animators talking about this kind of research.)

Waterhouse

Dicksee

Leighton

When I watch movies I often spend a lot of energy looking at costumes, and apparently this doesn't change when I watch animation, which I didn't fully realize until I was in McLaughlin's lecture. I was mentally demanding that not only should the fabric move correctly, but it should also take into account how the movement changes when there are seams, embroidery, buttons, or other embellishment or details. As a small example, in Tangled, the bodice looks and moves like a lycra morph suit. It does not look, fit, or move like a real boned bodice would. (Yeah, I can see my crazy showing, too.)

But here's the thing, a computer animator has to take so much into account that it is no wonder that they try to make things as simplified as possible. We're talking maths, physics, and computer science, people. McLaughlin used lots of phrases like mass/spring system, triangle meshes, constraint forces, new velocity, etc., to detail the considerations used in simulation animation. I think I understood some of it on very a basic level, like how gravity and the physical properties of the fabric have to be included in the simulation programming.

And after they get all that worked out for the model of the character, the game changes when the character actually moves and "collides" (comes in contact or in proximity) with other things. For instance, fabric simulation programming can become "stuck" to another bit of programming, which causes all sorts of wardrobe malfunctions or erratic movements in the fabric. (I may or may not have seen a bit of screwy animation that ended up being a Rapunzel crotch-shot as her skirts jumped and bunched up to her waist after sticking to some other programming.)

To prevent some of this type of sticking, they often program in a buffer (with cute names like "collision mittens") between the character and the object. In other words, after meshing and layering and programming so the character looks right, they have to program whole other layers to try and prevent the fabric simulation programming from interacting with other programming in undesirable ways while still reacting to the environment in desirable ways. And sometimes even that doesn't work, so they either have to animate things more rigidly (less realistically), or move things point by point to get them where they need to go, which takes much more time.

At some point I realized that this was just the problems that occurred in relation to the fabric alone, not to mention all the other aspects and pieces in the film. No wonder it takes YEARS to animate a movie. Animation is a patient job on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly level. From now on I will be more forgiving to the animators and to the look and movement of fabric in animation.

Maybe.

The Secret World of Arrietty, Hayao Miyazaki, and Ghibli Studios

Have you ever heard of Hayao Miyazaki or Ghibli Studios? Well, let me give you the dirt, because believe me, you'll want to know. Ghibli Studios was co-founded by an adorable and hugely imaginative Japanese man named Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki and Ghibli create traditionally animated movies that are beautiful in visuals and in content. Most people I talk to have at least heard about his Academy Award winning movie, Spirited Away, but they are unaware of the rest of his delightful filmography.

Hayao Miyazaki, adorable animator.

My first Miyazaki was My Neighbor Totoro, and I was immediately hooked. It's about a little girl who is dealing with a new house and the emotional strain of a mother who is in the hospital, but she finds distraction and comfort with Totoro, a big creature that lives in the forrest.

My Neighbor Totoro

Luckily my sister had already started collecting Miyazaki films, so in quick succession I watched Castle in the Sky, The Cat Returns, and Kiki's Delivery Service. Over the years Miyazaki films have become more popular in America, which led to celebrities lending their voices to the American releases (Billy Crystal, Christian Bale, Tina Fey, Kirsten Dunst, Anna Paquin, Cary Elwes, to name a few), and a partnership with Disney for distribution.

All of the Miyazaki movies I have seen are full of whimsey and charm. They are not typically action-packed, but the animation is a detailed visual feast, and Miyazaki often deals with complex emotions and situations as seen from the viewpoint of a child. Basically they are the "art films" of animation.

Tonight I saw The Secret World of Arrietty, Studio Ghibli's newest release, and it stayed true to Miyazaki's general filmography. (Miyazaki usually writes and directs his movies, but he only wrote the script for Arrietty.) Arrietty is based on The Borrowers books by British author Mary Norton. The Borrowers are tiny people that live in the nooks and crannies of the houses of regular-sized people, or "human beans." They "borrow" things the Beans won't miss, like lumps of sugar or a piece of tissue. But if Borrowers are seen by a Bean, they must pack up and move, because the Beans become too curious and always end up destroying the Borrowers. The movie was whimsical, adventurous, and thoughtful, with great character arcs. It also includes the voices of Carol Burnett, Amy Poehler, and Will Arnett. (And yes, Poehler and Arnett voice a married couple!) I highly recommend this movie, and I hope you will enjoy Miyazaki as much as I have.

P.S. If you like the movie Dune, watch Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I coincidentally watched those two movies in the same week, and the plot and style of each film is funnily similar.