Animation is Cinema

Thanks for joining us for the third edition of the Peril Dispatch, and with the London Film Festival right around the corner (4th-15th of October) what better time to celebrate animation as cinema! Unsurprisingly this years festival hosts previews of upcoming big hitters, from Aardman 's 'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget' and Lupus Films ('Ethel and Ernest') adaptation of 'Kensuke’s Kingdom’. Alongside these are the ‘Animated Shorts For Younger Audiences’ programme, the Cameroonian feature ’The Sacred Cave’, the Jeff Goldblum narrated ’They Shot the Piano Player’ and the Annecy award winning, dialogue free graphic novel adaptation ‘Robot Dreams’.

It was absolutely no surprise at all that the hottest animated ticket was ’The Boy and the Heron’, the return of Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki.?After selling out both London Film Festival screenings in a matter of minutes, we are delighted that the UK distributors of 'The Boy and the Heron’?have?confirmed that it’ll be hitting UK screens by the end of this year.?

After the continued success of the mind-blowing Royal Shakespeare Company/Joe Hisaishi production of 'My Neighbour Totoro', and the excitement over the upcoming 'Spirited Away' production that's coming to London's Coliseum in 2024, there's no better time to binge on Miyazaki. Add to the mix that?'My Neighbour?Totoro’?(=72nd) and 'Spirited Away’ (=75th) were the only two animated films to cracked the prestigious Sight and Sound 100 Greatest Films of All Time Critics poll.?Regarding that 2022 poll, the top ten combined Directors and Critics list is very telling in what may be deemed worthy or canon in terms of?animation, and how far?animated work still have to come to join the same conversations being had about live action films. Ghibli?dominates the top four with three films by?Miyazaki, there’s three Walt Disney Animation Studios works, with ‘Bambi’ and ’Toy Story’ just outside the top ten, and studio favourite ‘It’s Such A Beautiful Day’ just about sneaking into the ten.???

1. Spirited Away (42 votes)?

2. My Neighbour Totoro (40 votes)?

3. Grave of the Fireflies (16 votes)?

4.?Princess Mononoke (15 votes)?

5.?The Adventures of Prince Achmed (11 votes)?

6. Akira (9 votes)?

=7. Fantasia (8 votes)

=7. Persepolis (8 votes)

=7. Duck Amuck (8 votes)

=7 It’s Such A Beautiful Day (8 votes)

=7. Pinocchio (8 votes)?

The full list of every?animated film voted for is available via Letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/samsummers/list/every-animated-film-in-the-sight-sound-2022/). It’s worth noting that everything from?‘Aladdin’ at?#60 onwards received just one vote, though it is truly?wonderful to see recent shorts like?‘Hi Stranger’ and ’The External World’ in amongst that collection (154 films chosen. And still no?‘STALKER'. How come, Chief Willoughby?)?

On the subject of STALKER, one recent highlight from our short films run at festivals around the world was seeing it placed alongside feature films, and to be considered an equal to those works in how the festivals found an audience and promoted themselves. It was an absolute delight to see clips from ‘STALKER' feature in Brighton's always wonderful Cinecity promotion, featuring in the 2021 festival trailer alongside Oscar winning ‘Drive My Car’, Celina Sciamma’s ‘Petite Maman’ and the Noomi Rapace staring ‘Lamb’.?

We’ve been spoilt for choice with a range of strong animated family features this year. From the huge creative and financial success of 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' and the huge financial success of?'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'. ‘Nimona’?doing really well on Netflix ,?and getting to see Sight & Sound cover feature?’Suzume’ playing outside of the big cities (hello and thanks to Worthing Theatres and Museum Connaught Cinema). Pixar Animation Studios ‘Elemental’?reminded the industry of the success of a sustained cinema run, and most recently 'TMNT: Mutant Mayhem’, which our producer Sam saw with his ten year old. They really enjoyed just how teenage this version of the TMNT was, from the slang to the slightly relentless pop culture references. It also features a refreshingly grimy NYC. It’s not going for 70s/80s 'News From Home' or 'After Hours’ vibes, but it's enjoyably filthy and mucky above ground.?We at Peril knew we’d enjoy the animation style and character designs, and this interview with Director Jeff Rowe and Production Designer Yashar Kassai (https://letterboxd.com/journal/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-mayhem-jeff-rowe-yashar-kassai-interview/)?is full of wonderful insight, such as influences like the superb Tokyo Drifter (1966), including this fantastic quote:

“We had a day where, instead of doing an art review, everyone brought in their high school drawings,” says Rowe. “When you’re a teenager, you draw a hand and you’re like, ‘I’m going to draw the thumbnail and I’m going to draw every wrinkle and I’m going to shade it.’ Then it’s horribly misshapen and doesn’t look right, but you cared so much about it.”

Finally, we are huge fans of Charlie Kaufman here at Peril, so when DreamWorks Animation revealed at this years Annecy that upcoming Netflix feature film ‘Orion And The Dark’, based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, has been written by Kaufman we got pretty excited.?It’s thrilling to have some new Kaufman work incoming, and even more so to see how his writing translates to a children’s story (‘Anomalisa' was most definitely not one for the family). Kaufman was a consultant on the screenplay for 'Kung Fu Panda 2', so this isn’t completely new territory, but at present it seems like he’s the sole writer on Orion.?We only have a few stills to go on currently, but after his barnstorming speech at the WGAs awards pre the writers strike in March (“The world is beautiful. The world is impossibly complicated. And we have the opportunity to explore that. If we give that up for the carrot, then we might as well be the executives.”), we absolutely can not wait to see what he brings to this project.?

Thanks so much for reading, and please do follow the Peril Dispatch for more insights, experiences, thoughts and behind the scenes treats, on all things?ranging from animation, 2d, character, health, wellbeing, and beyond. Goodbye for now, or...