Saturday 11 June 2011

The development of animation

I'm sure most of you have seen such classic animated Disney movies as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio or Alice in Wonderland. As well as some of the more-recent-but-still-old ones like Lion King or Hercules. It seems most of the latest animated Disney releases use computer animated graphics, as opposed to being hand-drawn. I understand that things move on as technology develops, and computer animations are much less time consuming. But while some of the new movies are great, I can never appreciate them as much as the classics.


The beautifully hand rendered characters and especially the stunning backgrounds are just so amazing. It is definitely this appeal which draws me towards movies made by such companies as Studio Ghibli. They manage to continue the traditional art of animation in an increasingly technologically dominated market, and they are definitely successful in it. Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away is the 2nd highest-grossing film in Japanese history, not to mention all their other extremely successful animations.

So what do you think of the change in animated movies? Do you prefer computer generated or hand-drawn animations?

Thursday 9 June 2011

South Park: Is it ending?

I’ve heard countless comments about the latest season of South Park. Many people think it’s going downhill, and the latest episode seems to agree; everything’s gone shit. I have enjoyed this season enough to continue to watch it, but there’s no denying it’s not as good as it used to be. They’ve simply exhausted every crazy idea that they could think of. The oddly unfunny ending of the newest episode “You’re getting old” seems to hint towards the ending of South Park. I’m not sure how to feel about it. On one hand I absolutely love the show and can’t imagine it being absent from my life, having watched it for so many years. On the other hand, I don’t want to continue to see them make horrible episodes and ruin the popularity and success that this show has worked so hard for. As far as I know, no news has been released to confirm the ending of the show. So I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Do you think South Park is coming to a close? Do you think it should?


Quick Review - The Hangover Part 2



As with many sequels, I went into this movie not expecting much. I mean, won’t it just be the exact same thing? They get drunk, so some crazy stuff, then discover all about it the next day. Well… I was right; the plot is essentially the same thing. However, this didn’t seem to hinder the success of this movie, it was hilarious. They definitely knew they would be competing with the first one, so took the stunts to a whole new level. Unfortunately I can’t go into much detail without giving spoilers. Although I can tell you it is a lot more intense then the first one. But of course anyone who has seen the first movie must remember the infamous credit photos. For many people, these photos were actually half the incentive to see this movie. After seeing them myself, I’m surprised this movie didn’t pick up an R18 rating. ;) I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good blunder comedy, especially if you enjoyed the first one.