ANIM223 – HISTORY OF ANIMATION – FALL 2019

Japanese anime is worldwide popular. It is great to learn about how they developed into such a style and enormous market during the class! I have grown up with watching so many anime in my whole life time. Sailor Moon, Black Jack, Eye shield 21… I love them so much as a kid and I would never miss any episode on TV! Videotape were my best friend when I was in kindergarten to early primary school days. When I get to primary 5, I started watching anime online. The very first animation I found on internet is called “K-on!!”, produced by KyoAni.

KyoAni is well known of their delicate style and character designs which is distinguish from other anime house. I reckon that the style change of KyoAni is definitely having a great impact on the art style of the Japanese anime! The stylistic choice they had made is the big round eyes and the chubby body shapes of teen girls to make the characters look much cuter and softer (if compare to other anime house). And these became KyoAni’s iconic style later on.

Most of their employees are female and that’s why most of their stylistic work looks poetic, romantic and feminine. Unfortunately, an arson attack happened in their 1st studio on 18th July, 2019 and 35 people were killed because of the fire. There were 162 employees before the disaster and now there were only 119 left. I was shocked by the news and prayed for them when it happens. Nonetheless, the boss and employees claim that they will work even harder on their work as a revenge on the criminal! What a noble and professional studio! Soon, they will have a new feature film on screen. Let’s support them by box office!

Hazel Wong

The week before last week, there were some great animators come to our classes and share us their films and experience in the industry. Although the style of the two animators from mainland China are totally not my cup of tea, I still feel thankful for their coming! I feel like their films have some more inspirations or meanings behind, but it is sad that we couldn’t dig a little deeper during the sharing.

The lecture about Hong Kong animation history is definitely the most educational and absorbable talk. Thanks for the lecturer! I missed the introduction of the lecture due to coming class late, but I could still catch up quickly and I felt like I learn a lot. It is too sad that Hong Kong doesn’t have a lot of local featured animation films. I think Hong Kong creators have a lot of potential due to our complex cultural environment. The pity thing is we don’t have enough investment in the industry. When I was very young, I love watching the local cartoon comedy, “My Life as McDull”. It was such a fun film that I had watched it so many times and I still remember some of the jokes.

I am going to transfer to Savannah in the next quarter. Despite dreaming to get a job in a big company, I imagine myself coming back to HK to live with my family and contribute the local animation market recently. However, my parent is planning to immigrant recently due to political and economic reasons. Life is so unpredictable!

Hazel Wong

When we study about Czech Animations, we had watched a film called The Hand (1965). The movie features a confrontation between an impotent clown and a strong Hand. The clown puppet is a sculpture-making maker who love making pot for his beloved flower. However, he was forced to make only Hand pieces. By threatening him, manipulating him and causing him trouble, the Hand tries to change his mind but the clown keep resisting him.

Ultimately, the hand locked him up. The clown collects awards and laurels from the Hand, but he gets depressed and wants to run. He’s taking the statue down and making a hole in the enclosure. He leaps out of the cage and runs away as the Hand chases. He throws away all his trophies and laurels as he races. He finally gets home and there he barricades himself. When the hand barricades himself in a closet, a pot drops on him with a rose.

I think the storytelling is really good. The animator created an intense atmosphere to make audience feel depressed and nervous with the clown. We can feel that the hand is powerful and creepy. It shows me how scary totalitarian can be. They are hypocritical to their people and they demand everyone. Recently, the Chinese government release a new blacklist about the theme of creation. They even banned school romance and many traditionally popular Chinese elements! You can see that creators in China are going to have a tough time. I really hope to see the mainland government can have some more democracy in my future lifetime.

Hazel Wong

In class 10, we watched many animations which is created by small puppet and toy and I enjoyed those animations very much. Puppet animation is such a big part of my childhood. When I was watching those animation which used toys and puppet as the characters , they remind me the old cartoon “Pingu” which is a super fun cartoon of a little penguin live with his friends and families that I watch all the time when I was young.

In the animations we watched in class, I really like the animations of Ladislas Starewich’s “ The Ant And The Grasshopper  (1911) ”. Although it is a black and white movie with no sound , the story is very fun and the characters is very cute. I love how the stage is setted , everything is like fairy tales. They also remind me the first project we did in this class, the red hearted sweet potato.

Lily Lai

In class 9, we studied the works of Mary Ellen Bute, Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Jules Engel. They works share one similarity that all of the works are very experimental . Compare to the general animation, some of them they don’t have a narrative story . The visual is the main object of their. The audience get the feeling from the visual  that the artist wanted to show instead of a story.

For  Mary Ellen Bute’s work “Spook sport (1940)”, this work is a very interesting. compare to the other animation from that age and the color and story is not that complicated and detailed. However,when I frist watch this animation. They remain me the motion graphic these days from those simple sharp and line as character with simple movement. However, I like those kind if animations because they very different from the animation generally we watch and create. Those works show that animations  can be more than just narrative story and the visual element can be the first thing that catch people eyes. 

Lily Lai

This week, we submitted our research paper and I wrote some analysis about feminist in Disney princess movies. But when I was planning about the theme, I had thought of the idea about writing a documentary of Shinkai Makoto and his latest two films, “Your Name” and “Weathering with You”. I will try to aviod spoliers!

I had watched “Your Name” at home online, and “Weathering with You” twice in the cinema for some reason. I had also read some film review from Taiwanese and Hong Kongers. These two movies are the most business-like animations in Shinkai Makoto’s work, especially for “Weathering with You”. And they both got a big hit and become phenomenal in terms of box office and online discussions. Other than that, they do both have some historical background which is talking about the concerns about natural disaster and psychic culture in Japan.

Honestly, I am not a real big fan of Shinkai Makoto. Years ago, when I watched some clips of his past work (forgot which one), I feel like that he had tried too hard to imitate Miyazaki Hayao. When everyone was shocked and screamed for the plot twist in “Your Name”, I am not that surprised at all since I had already read something similar in Japanese novels during middle school. Sometimes I feel like the teenagers have no reason to fall in love with each other in the films and I don’t really like that kind of depiction about romance.

However, the animations he made are still very amazing and he is an undeniably great animator. The beauty of some of the scenes and the atmospheres are just beyond description. His work had become more iconic in these years. I actually got goose bumps for the ending part in “Weathering with You”. By the way I really like songs by Radwimps since I was 13!

Hazel Wong