Animated Thoughts: 2020 End of year wrap-up

2020 was a tough year for everyone. When the lockdown hit, my workload doubled. In addition to working from home at the forensics job, I had to record my lectures and teach the rest of my animation history class online. And if that wasn't enough, I found myself in the middle of a full website backup and migration that a Smudge Animation client needed as the features she used to operate her online education business were being discontinued in the latest server upgrade. Add to that, all the Flash animations I had created for her needed to be redone in a new format since the Flash Player was being decommissioned by Adobe. And if that wasn't enough, the new site solution was so good, so easy to implement and maintain AND integrate with her webstore that she didn't need me to manage her website anymore and that account closed.

I need to fold those clothes, Fuzzy...

On the good side, I was able to handle it all. On the bad side, it left me even more exhausted and burned out. 

As I watched friends and neighbors treating the lockdown as extra vacation time and free time with their families, all I could think of was "I wish I had the time to go outside and get a little exercise, or catch up on my reading, or binge watch a series on NetFlix, or work on that 'honey-do' list of things that needed to be fixed around the house." But whenever I started to feel a little resentful, I reminded myself that I still had a job and extra work coming in, thus eliminating a lot of the uncertainty that many others were experiencing. And as I'm pretty much a shut-in to begin with who has been preparing for a non-linearity event like this since Y2K, the lockdown was more of an annoyance than the life-altering experience that others were dealing with. If nothing else, life has taught me that a little gratitude paired up with a self-served slice of humble pie is always good at changing your moods for the better.

So, in that line of thought, here's a couple things that I was thankful for this year:

• The Toronto Animated Image Society workshops moved online so I was able to learn a couple new animation techniques from home: replacement animation and digital rotoscoping using Photoshop.
  
• During online Gen Con, I picked up a great deal on the three core rulebooks for Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Shortly thereafter, I discovered a vibrant online community of people who play D&D by themselves--with lots of rules for playing homebrew adventures, prepublished adventures, and adventures specifically written for solo play--and an online forum where we can all share our gaming experiences and war stories.
  
• The Ottawa International Animation Festival expanded their duration from four days to two weeks and the online service they used allowed us ample opportunity to watch screenings, panels, and retrospectives.
• Because of the lockdown, I was holding paychecks until the clients paid. Then it all came in over a two-week period late-Fall and I found myself flush with cash--just in time to have the roof completely replaced on my house. Within one day, it was done and all I had to do was write the check.
  
• My last cat, Fuzzy, passed away the week between Christmas and New Years. And she died the way I wanted her to: I was there with her to the very end, petting her, and telling her how good it was to have her in my life for the past twenty-two years.

Fuzzy, napping on her last day with us.

And with that somber note, my 2020 comes to a close with a lot of hope that no matter what mountains and valleys I may experience in 2021, I will persist. For as Grandma Wilson often said: "this too shall pass."

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Animated Reviews: Wolfwalkers

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see Wolfwalkers, the new film from Ireland's Cartoon Saloon.

 It's been a while since I've seen a movie in the theater--so long in fact that I don't even remember what the last one was... Weathering With You down in Ann Arbor, maybe? It was back in March I think, right before the lockdown. Anyways, about two Summers ago, I had saved up enough money to buy a nice larger-format-screen television with a speaker bar and hadn't gone to theaters much since then. 

Nowadays, the theater experience isn't one that I look forward to what with people talking on their phones (or to each other) and the high prices that theaters charge for tickets and concessions. But, there are some films worth braving the crowds for and they're usually films that GKIDS brings to the theaters, in this case through Fathom Events. So I went online and bought my ticket, then drove to the Celebration Cinema theater on a blustery Sunday afternoon. Turns out, out of all the people in my city, I was the only person who came to the theater that day to see this film. Their loss.

Some random thoughts I had while walking to my car afterwards:

• Eleven dollars for a bottle of water and a medium popcorn. Yeesh.
  
• While I liked the private screening experience, I do wish more people would come out for non-big-budget-Hollywood animated features like Wolfwalkers, The Red Turtle, Ernest and Celestine, and The Big Bad Fox and other Tales.
  
• During our screening, the directors introduced the film along with a short 'making of' video that showcased some of the talent working on the film. Was a really nice addition to the experience.
  
• I loved the lush backgrounds in this film as well as the shots where they made the whole city look like one of those European tapestries hanging in a museum.
• Liked the sketchy feel to the characters. It takes us back to the days when animation cel Xerography was introduced to the industry in Disney's short film Goliath II.
• This 'sketchy feel' did lead to some interesting shots where you could see the lines that outlined the heads of Mebh and Moll over their flowing red hair. It left me wondering if this was a stylistic choice or a digital ink-and-paint accident that made it into the film.
• The music in this film was beautiful, especially the "running with the wolves" song, and it really enhanced my enjoyment of the movie.

Loved the backgrounds in this film.

• The motion and body language that the animators chose for Mebh and Robyn revealed their internal characters brilliantly, and provided a very nice contrast between the two girls when they were on-scene together.
  
• By the end of the film, I wasn't certain who the filmmakers hated more: the English or Protestant Christianity. Seriously, I'm Irish and Scots on my father's side of the family and there were a number of scenes with dialogue and actions in this movie that left me feeling really uncomfortable.
  
• I think the downside of the incomplete education that we receive here in the States is that I went in not knowing a lot of the historical context of 1600's Kilkenny, so some of the characters' actions and reactions were difficult to process. Both Brendan and the Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea were more... broader in their appeal, a lot more approachable to an international audience.
  
• There were two cute "Easter egg" references to Cartoon Saloon's earlier films Brendan and the Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea that I caught, so keep your eyes and ears wide open or you'll miss them.
• The ending was kind of predictable, but it did leave you with a good feeling as you walked out of the theater. Had some nice messages on family and forgiveness.

If you look closely at Mebh's hair, you can see what I mean by the outline of her head.

All-in-all, this film is another solid performance for Cartoon Saloon and directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart as well as producers Nora Twomey, Paul Young, and Stéphan Roelants. And while I didn't like it as much as I did Brendan and the Secret of Kells, it was still an enjoyable film that showcases the massive animation talent that is working today in Ireland, Belgium, and France.

* images used from the GKIDS Presskit.

Animated Quotes: Walt Disney

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

~ Walt Disney