Category: Movies

Apparently Croatian animation company, Zagreb Film, has been busy over the past 40 years or so. According to the film’s opening they’ve “produced 600 animated films, winning more than 400 international awards” and coined a style known as “the Zagreb school.”

OK, being the ugly American I am, I had no idea any of this was going on. So, in an effort to broaden my knowledge of animation, and indeed the world, I added “The Best of Zagreb Film – Nudity Required” to my Netflix queue.

I felt so worldly when it arrived and I meant to dig in and see what this was all about. I mean, come on, it has the word “nudity” right in the title! How bad can it be?!

About two weeks later (I’m a busy guy, what can I say!) I’ve finally found the time sit down and really give this collection some time and attention and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Wow. This is some really weird stuff.

It’s not as if I was looking for Disney-esque animation with singing forest animals or anything, but this was outside even my broad expectations.

I’ll review each short individually, starting with:

“Way to Your Neighbor” by Nedeljko Dragic

This odd little film portrays a rotund character showering, applying deodorant and playing his genitalia like a bass before dressing in a tux and driving an X-8 tank out of his garage.

That’s the cartoon.

Apparently it’s very funny, but I don’t get it.

“Satiemania” by Zdenko Gasparovic

Set to the music of Erik Satie, this set of five odd vignettes includes 1) Lots of characters walking, 2) Panning over static images of various faces, 3) Reflections in the rain (the best of the five in my opinion), 4) A woman undressing and falling into bed, and 5) A lot of random violence and a male character with a penis for a head dancing.

I didn’t get this one either.

“Album” by Kresimir Zimonic

This was another surreal short revolving around a young woman perusing a photo album. Then a dog bites her and steals her pants and more weirdness ensues. There’s a lot of horse imagery that if I was smarter I’d probably remark “Aha!” to and smirk appreciatively.

I’m not that smart.

“Plop” by Zlatko Pavlinic

“Plop” chronicles the exploits of an overtly suave male and the woman he seduces at the local bar to come and clean his apartment. She gets her revenge, however, by sucking him into the vacuum, but in the ends finds she can’t get her love out of the carpeting.

The text at the beginning of the film describes this as “zany.” I found it odd at best.

“The Match” by Kresimir Zimonic

I’m going to review this look at soccer as a metaphor for war by simply listing the notes I typed while watching below:

Rock music

Space war

Smoking

Soccer players stretching

News report

Crowd

Weird images and jazz

Tiresome

Back to soccer

Woman and dragon

Knight comes to save her

More soccer

Space war again

Robot

Soccer players sure are smoking a lot

Avant garde jazz

Players are nude women, then not

French kissing

Space war yet again

Player takes part of other players leg – what the…

Roman gladiator

Chicken soup

Soccer with tanks

Man smoking then puking

Praying for this to end

Knight gets girl then kills her

Man burns up

More with the space war

Globe turning

Thank god it’s over

“Dream Doll” by Zlatko Grgic & Bob Godfrey

This cartoon is the classic boy meets blow-up sex doll story. Of course the doll is later raped by thugs prompting some sort of flying sex doll mass exodus that I can’t explain.

“Mouseferatu” by Darko Cesar

A takeoff on the Dracula legend, this time the vampire is a cute little mouse that uses kung fu to gain entry into his victim’s abode. Once inside he finds the sexy naked she-cat and bites her, only to find himself in a cage when dawn comes.

Really the only clever part of this piece is the title.

Well, that’s all of them. In general the animation was good, if a little too artsy for my tastes. The stories (where applicable) didn’t really resonate with me, but maybe the cultural and geographic divide was just a bit wide to connect.

It was pretty easy (fun too!) to make light of this stuff. Some of the visuals really lend themselves to mockery (at points I was reminded of the “Worker and Parasite” cartoon Krusty was forced to substitute for Itchy and Scratchy), but it’s not really entirely fair either.

I’m no animation expert, and I really don’t have any organized art training, so take my comments with a grain of salt. I have to believe that the “Zagreb school” has its fans, and that somewhere someone is watching this DVD and really digging it.

I draw gag cartoons for a living and I have to believe that, in general, the Zagreb crowd doesn’t think I’m a genius either. “The Best of Zagreb Film – Nudity Required” just sort of left me confused and annoyed. I can’t say I’m glad I saw this, but I’ve decided to co-opt Nietzsche’s idea and end with this thought – “That which does not entertain me, makes me stronger.”

Pixar has posted the teaser trailer for its 2005 offering, Cars.

There’s a laugh or two and a nice preview of what should be every little Nascar fan’s favorite DVD for years to come.

(I gotta admit though, the characters really remind me of one of those Aardman Chevron commercials.)

Fellow Chicagoan Bonnie Hunt (yippee!), Paul Newman and Richard Petty lend their voices to the last of the Disney/Pixar films. Check out more details at IMDB.

I found it interesting that they’ve finally included A Bug’s Life in the “from the creators of” portion at the beginning (although it immediately precedes a bug being squashed on a windshield).

I think A Bug’s Life, like the Coen’s Hudsucker Proxy, is sort of the forgotten Pixar film and really deserves more accolades than it received.

Here’s wishing Lasseter and crew good luck (as though they need it) with Cars!

I have to admit, I was prepared to not like (OK, hate) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The commercials looked lame and centered on Sean Connery’s Schwarzeneggerian bon mots and special effects. Even the title, later acronymed to “LXG”, cried out poseur.

When Connery’s Alan Quartermain boasted “I’m waiting to be impressed” during the exposition I was sure I had my opening line for this review. Perhaps it was my low expectations, or maybe some unexpectedly decent filmmaking (or, to quote Grandpa Simpson, it was possibly “a little from column A, a little from column B”), but I kind of liked this movie.

Although it is based on comics deity Alan Moore’s book of the same name, the story is sort of screwy at points. And the plot hole involving (no pun intended) the Invisible Man’s disappearance was deeper than the Chunnel. But, having checked my disbelief at the door, I sat back on my old blue plaid sofa and enjoyed 110 minutes of goofy fun.

It is 1899 and a crazed mask-clad villain is wreaking havoc in Europe. Quartermain is asked by the English government to lead a group of odd heroes to save the day.

Odd indeed. Dorain Gray, The Invisible Man, Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Tom Sawyer all join forces to foil The Phantom’s plot.

It turns out in the end that The Phantom, later revealed as Holmes’ archenemy Dr. Moriarty, was the very person that had assembled the League for his own nefarious purposes.

Pretty standard superhero stuff, but the look of the film is really what elevates the material. The design of Nemo’s Nautilus is stunning. Every time it was on screen I found myself marveling at it. The costumes were wonderful too. I especially liked The Invisible Man’s somewhat pointy hat.

The special effects are also very nice. The Invisible Man’s face painting was a wonder, and the flashy jump cut transformations back and forth between Jekyll and Hyde were simple but elegantly effective.

Even some of the trite writing eventually appealed to me. Nemo’s first mate introduces himself to the group by asking them to “call me Ishmael.” How fun is that?!

I think perhaps this is one of the first movies I’ve seen wherein the art direction takes such a load off the rest of the film. And somehow that was enough for me.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen isn’t a great movie. It isn’t even a great superhero film. But as an excuse for filling the cracks of that old blue plaid sofa with more of Jiffy Pop’s slightly sweet kettle corn, it performs extraordinarily.

OK, I think we all knew Garfield was going to be a lame movie, and, thanks to years of fostering and meeting low comic expectations, Jim Davis delivered.

The story begins its gradual descent when Garfield’s owner, Jon (played with Guttenbergian blandness by Breckin Meyer) gets a dog thanks to veterinarian/love interest Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). A jealous Garfield (voiced by Bill Murray) kicks Odie out and the dog runs away only to be picked up by unscrupulous TV personality, Happy Chapman (Stephen Tobolowsky), who needs Odie’s dancing skills in order to secure a place on a national morning show.

No, seriously, that’s the plot. Bad TV guy steals boogie-ing dog.

You can imagine where it goes from there and, in an effort to consciously block the remainder of the movie out of my memory, I won’t divulge any more (except to say that Billy Joel must be preparing to roll over in his grave thanks to a certain musical number).

Even Murray’s Herculean vocal efforts can’t help this hairball. He gives it his not inconsiderable comedic all, but the material is so poor that even he can’t get Garfield’s fur flying. (And to think – he went from an Oscar nomination for Lost in Translation to this?! I’m starting a collection to help hire him a new agent.)

Surprisingly the animation on Garfield himself is actually quite good. There must be some cat owners at the computers because they captured a lot of housecat movements and poses I recognize from my own tubby felines.

And Hewitt, although basically a wooden performance, at least lends some serious eye candy to an otherwise wasted 82 minutes. (What kind of vet wears short skirts and tight, chest showcasing tops?! Answer – my favorite kind.)

So, if you’re like lots of animal dancing, poorly conceived childish humor, and lining Jim Davis’ pockets, by all means rent/buy Garfield. Otherwise, steer clear.