June 14, 2010
How to Train Your Dragon (USA, 2010)
Despite getting on the proven dragon-flying bandwagon, How to Train Your Dragon is a fascinating animation. We have already seen this theme a dozen times from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to Avatar, yet the film has a good story, a well developed boy-pet and boy-father, even a boy-girl relationship. What steals the show, however, is the imaginatively created flying dragons, which do not seem to get old.
On an island inhabited by Vikings (the adults speak with a Scottish and the children with an American accents, for some reason), dragons have been stealing sheep for years, and killing a dragon represents the rite of passage. Hiccup, the chief’s son and the boy everyone makes fun of, befriends a Night Fury, the fiercest type of dragon no one has ever seen. A cross between Disney’s Stitch and a cuddly cat, this dragon proves to be a faithful pet as much as a fierce fighter. He teams up with the Vikings and a few other selected, domesticated dragons to kill the beast.
After a slow start, the story becomes exciting and free of unnecessary details. Animation is similar to Dreamworks latest projects, but unlike Monsters vs. Aliens it does not try too much to be funny, and it never becomes absurd. How to Train Your Dragon stays focused on the main character who tries to fit into his tribe and reconcile his love toward his pet, Toothless, and the incontestable Viking tradition. The motley variety of dragons, some resembling snakes and some giant bumble bees, contribute to the overall success of this animated joy ride. After Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek series, this is definitely the most memorable Dreamworks production so far.
V. Karaulac
March 16, 2010
PONYO (Japan, 2008)
In his last feature, the celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki seems to have sifted through all the elements of his previous works and come up with the best, condensed result. In another display of perfect character animation and music, Ponyo celebrates courage, perseverance and, above all, love.
Ponyo is the name of a little gold fish with a human face, the daughter of a magician and the “sea goddess of mercy”, who falls in love with a five-year old boy, Sosuke. In order to turn into a girl and find him again, she has to confront her powerful father and his menacing waves. And in order to help Ponyo and restore the distorted balance of nature, the boy has to make an emotional commitment.
In this beautiful animated film, Miyazaki has shortened his trademark elongated introduction, which in Totoro, for example, takes up the first third of the film. He has also decreased the number of characters and taken out scenes in the finale that are not crucial for the plot (the only such scene here may be the encounter with the young couple with a baby). Ponyo is just as imaginative as Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away, but it is shorter and, therefore, more adapted to the children’s attention span. Has Miyazaki started catering to the Disney-trained, ADD-prone western viewer? He has produced a children’s movie with an almost perfect structure, but he has not eliminated any of the elements that make his creations such a refreshment in the American-saturated market full of 90-minute attention-grabbing roller coasters. Ponyo is quiet, balanced, sentimental, humorous and, most importantly, it leaves the viewers — young and old — with a feeling of peace and inspiration.
Veselin J. Karaulac
January 19, 2010
Kyungduk-Kim
The Heroes
Sculptures
Sohan and Jinran
In 2003, the South Korean Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) gave funds to Graduate School of Digital Design at KungSung University in Busan for an international research project. For the next 5 years, on average two foreign professors were invited to teach and participate in joint research projects devised and submitted by Korean professors. Dev Ross and Ann Greer from USA were the first and Mileta Postic from Serbia the last to take part. In the fall of 2003, a 33-year-old professor from Seoul – Sukho Lee was invited to teach and to conduct such a project. This particular one was called Twelve Guardians. The end product, finished in the spring of 2005, was a pilot for a mini 3D animated series – a two-minute demo story, design and animation developed by professors and student at the department. 12 Guardians was one of 3 similar projects. The way this one stood out was that a part-time lecturer in Concept Drawing of exceptional quality was hired by Sukho Lee to complete the character design for the animation. He was considered one of the top 5 talents in the country’s industry who has done free-lance design for companies. One of the better known films for which he created the characters is “Peku” – the white traditional dog from the south who is smart and loyal. His name was Kyungduk Kim.
- Sukho-Lee
Th planning began in August 2003, the making took most of the 2004, (when Lee Sukho was permanently hired as a professor of 3D animation) and the second pilot was made in the first few months of 2005. Kyungduk Kim was Sukho’s Lee friend from college and three years his senior. This unique character designer suffered from Alycin allergy so he could not eat fruits and vegetables, only rice and meat. He had splitting headaches two or three times a week and developed a tumor in his brain from which he died in 2007, aged 40. 12 Guardians is one of his last masterpieces. After he made the design, and another award winning female artist designed the backgrounds, Sukho Lee trained students to model, texture animate and render the scenes. He decided to style the images in oriental brush strokes and Korean ancient costume drama character references. The textures and shadows were made in far eastern visual style and anime-like aesthetics. The models and backgrounds were built in subdivided polygons in 3D Studio Max computer program. In Sukho Lee’s office in the engineering building at KyungSung University, 8 computers were crammed in for the production purposes. The characters and the final animation were rendered in Final Toon mode with its own materials of the Final render plug-in. The whole project was later published in the Journal of Digital Design of the Korean Digital Design Society.
Synopsis of the first episode:
Sohan is living with his father in a cabin in the hills. He leaves the house for a while, and assassins of the Dark Cabal make a surprise attack. At the same time, Sohan meets a girl, Jiran, who sits on a path and picks flowers. He is attracted to the cold but beautiful Jiran. Suddenly, the Octagon (Nashin and Nagang) arrive to the cabin, they find the cabin was attacked and then trace Sohan’s location borrowing Mooan’s mental power. At the moment assassins of the Dark Cabal are about to attack Sohan, the Octagon appears and saves Sohan. They tell him a full account of the story. All of them leave for a cave where the orb of the guardiantiger, mother’s heritage, is hidden. Baekpoong stays in a branch of the Dark cabal and makes Jiran dress a Black shaman’s costume and rid in a sedan chair and trace the Octagon. The Octagon comes to the cave. Sohan and Nashin enter, the rest of Octagon guard is in front of the cave. Dark cabal, who has arrived, starts attacking, lead by Spider Yacha made by Jiran. His powers put the Octagon in danger. On account of finding the orb and summoning the Guardian, Sohan bites off the Spider Yacha. At the moment, Jiran’s palanquin is broken and she faints. He is confused, recognizing the beautiful girl is the one who summoned the Spider Yacha. Baekpoong disappears with Jiran. Sohan is staring at a bunch of flowers on the spot of Jiran’s disappearance.
