You are so achingly beautiful – my eyes hurt from blinking in disbelief! For those with kids (or not) – See this masterwork from Cartoon Saloon by director Tomm Moore! If you are lucky enough to have it playing at a theater near you! Its playing at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland tonight! With pay what you want, and 20% being donated to local nonprofits, for a movie so gorgeous- you just can’t go wrong!
From Vox
“Hand-drawn animation increasingly seems like a dying art form — at least in the US. Here, studios like Pixar and Dreamworks make their films using computer-generated animation. And even if some of these films are among the best animated films of all time, there’s something sad about the loss of the handmade beauty and intimacy of the best two-dimensional animation.
Fortunately for fans of these films, they’re still being made in other corners of the world, and a studio named GKIDS (which stands for Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate) has been importing them to American shores and finding success on the arthouse circuit, as well as at the Oscars. The studio has quietly made inroads on the Best Animated Feature category, getting six nominations in less than a decade.
Two of those nominations have arrived this year, for The Tale of Princess Kaguya and the absolutely gorgeous Song of the Sea.
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Hey Aditi,
I read your post a while* ago and wondered where/ how I could watch this movie et voilà, I found it today at the public library. Can’t wait – thanks for writing about it here.
~Radhika 🙂
* = Firefox updates messed up the WP “Like” app….now fixed.
P.S: In the cool world of animation, “My neighbour Totoro” & “The secret world of Arietty” top the list of ‘for kids or kids at heart’ movies.
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Hi,
I am glad you found the movie! It is a bit scary in parts – so if you are watching it w a young child – be forewarned- but nothing too scary – my daughter is 4 – and she just said scary (and hid under a handy blanket a couple of times)
We had the good fortune of watching it in a theater twice- it was such a treat! We, too, just got the movie from the library and will be watching it (again!) this w/end. I LOVE studio Ghibli movies- we watch them often (again thanks to our public library) – i highly recommend “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”. It just made it to our library – may be its made it to yours, too. I have always thought of animation nothing short of magic! Hope you like the Song of the Sea as much as we did!
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It was magical and outstanding – loved the pure artwork and lighting used. Gosh, that you weren’t tempted to wax eloquent about it in this post, is clearly editorial restraint at its finest! 😉
[In The Graham Norton Show, Saoirse Ronan said: “My name rhymes with inertia!”]
Next stop? The Tale of Princess Kaguya – found it yest. at the library. 🙂
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So glad u loved it – i realized that the DVD has a treasure trove of bonus features that I have yet to finish watching – I watched the movie on DVD again – and each time I find new eye-popping, mind-bending details. Princess Kaguya is in some way the opposite of Song of the Sea in its execution – almost entirely done with charcoal,watercolors and a very restrained palette – but, gorgeous and moving, just the same. Enjoy!
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Another thumbs up for Princess Kaguya! You were right – the two are worlds apart and yet, share such genius.
Isao Takahata? Wow! The ‘making of’ part was touching and so intriguing to find out that all voice-overs were recorded before the animation. Your flip book post reminded me Studio G’s artists working on Princess K.
If you feel like it, watch “The Boxcar Children” (G) and “The legend of Sarila” (PG – voted as scary for kids, so, please check) – nothing like your recos. here but, beautiful animation.
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thanks for the suggestions. Will check them out. I also love My neighbor the Yamadas (v funny) and Grave of Fireflies (v sad) by Isao Takahata. Btw, there are a bunch of other Japanese animations i love – not all child friendly – have you seen Paprika and Millennium actress by Satoshi Kon? Hope u like them!
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I’ve been meaning to reply and……ah! Yamadas was simply adorable and hilarious! Millenium Actress was good in parts. I guess that kind of narrative has to be slow? I couldn’t find the other two. Thanks again!
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Yamadas is so sweetly disfunctional and relatable! didn’t do well at the box office – i hop eu can find Grave of Fireflies… it will change you forever!
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