For Your Awareness: Chop Kick Panda (2011)

Knowing that I would being undertaking the kung fu marathon for a month I planned accordingly to include some more unusual films, and since I try to cover all aspects of cinema I knew that including an animated film was a necessity.  However, I also knew that I did not really want to watch Kung Fu Panda.  I am sure it is a fine film, but not one that I was particularly in a mood to engage with.  Fortunately, my dear friend over at the newly emerging Bull Moose Bravo blog, reminded me that Kung Fu Panda had a mockbuster equivalent known as Chop Kick Panda.  Given my penchant for the absurd I knew it was something that I would have to include in the marathon.  The mockbuster, is, of course, a film released by companies like Asylum to bank on the success of another big budget picture, a popular example being the release of Atlantic Rim to coincide with Pacific Rim.  These films are always low-budget, usually poorly produced and intended almost entirely to prey upon unsuspecting parents who are seeking to rent/buy a DVD for their children.  Admittedly, I could just as easily make a mistake between Transformers and Transmorphers if they were standing next to one another on a shelf.  The ethics in such releases are problematic, but it is also somewhat brilliant conceptually, because it is releasing to profit, without the illusion of anything else, and anything that can foreseeably stick it to the Hollywood big wigs, even if in the market of 99 cents rentals is great in my book.  The crazy thing about Chop Kick Panda though is that, for only being forty minutes of super minimal animation (not even bothering to use 3D), it manages to be a somewhat watchable work, with a decent enough message for the youth audience it is assumedly directed towards.  I am not suggesting that it is anything profound or even cinematically valuable, but merely arguing that it could have been so much less and still served the purposes of a mockbuster.  I hesitate to use the word earnest to describe such a work, but it is impossible not to see moments when the voice actors and sound editor are clearly having fun and enjoying the work.  To be fair, for a lot of the people involved it was likely their entry level job in the world of filmmaking and given the lax nature of the productions they were afforded considerably free reign, resulting in some moments of sound filmmaking, in the most unlikely of settings.

Chop Kick Panda is more than a turning a new leaf narrative, which is what I assume its influence Kung Fu Panda centers upon.  Sure the main character Zibo is a lovable loser to varying degrees in his hopes of being so "legendary that his legend is legendary," but he respects his job and obeys the rules of the dojo he works within.  Indeed, in this film it is entirely the acts of ill-willed bad guys who make Zibo even seem remotely lacking.  Indeed, Zibo's dream of becoming a kung fu master are neither unhealthy nor hindering those around making for a narrative of finding one's self that is positive.  This is, however, not the big surprise of the film, because Zibo is not a lone wolf character who is coming to his own in a individualistic sense.  In fact, Zibo has a son who looks up to him with adoration, finding his job as a janitor in a dojo to be not only respectable, but a point of pride amongst his somewhat more skeptical friends.  Chop Kick Panda is quite positive about the relationship it portrays, even going into detail about the loss of Zibo's wife and how it has led to the particular bonding between him and his son.  This sort of narrative is considerably rare within the children's film, particularly those that are animated.  It seems to be yet another benefit of this unusual form of alternative cinema, in its decidedly detached concern for producers intents.  In so much, as something like Chop Kick Panda exists solely to play against another release, it manages to put some considerable concern into what it is promoting narratively.  Aside from embracing non-traditional images of family, the film also uses language in a clever manner, which, probably by accident, manages to serve an educational role to the children who are listening.  Again the film does have a decidedly simple element about it, but this does not mean it is unwatchable.  I through unconventional means have come to find this mockbuster and I do not want to jump to conclusions until I have seen a few more in this "genre," but it seems that his might be just as revolutionary a style of alternative cinema as the orphan film or web-series.   Chop Kick Panda does not have to meet expectations, and in this it is also allowed to reconsider them.  I, much to my surprise, would defend this film adamantly.

Chop Kick Panda is available on DVD or streaming on Amazon Prime.  I would suggest giving it a look, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised at its genuine sentiment.

Deprived Of Lessons, I Decided To Run Away: Fantastic Planet (1973)

Some amazing films I come to the way of multiple suggestions from prolific and reliable sources, whether they be dear friends or noted critics.  Other wonderful experiences with films come from picking up a previously unknown film as part of a package or at a flea market both that probably lifted their merchandise from questionable sources to begin with.  I am fond of the results that come from both of these avenues of discover, however, there is a third set of discoveries that seem to be my personal favorite, those being the movies that I unearth during occasional bouts of insomnia or a general inability to sleep.  Usually hoping to find something with an ambiance or simplicity that will lull me into drowsiness and eventually sleep, I end up finding works whose surreal leanings and captivating narratives challenge my pseudo sleep state to its very core.  In the past movies of this vein have included the surprisingly poignant look at mental illness and online gaming through Ben-X, or jarringly, yet critically realized experimental films like Damned If You Don't.  Last night I found myself facing the rare moment of lethargic awareness and was hesitant to commit to anything lengthy and decided that the cult classic French animated film Fantastic Planet would serve as my point of viewing, because I assumed that it would be easily paused should my weariness overcome me, however, I realized almost seconds into the film, with a shrill opening and freaky aesthetic, that Rene Laloux's animated statement on the nature of human existence, would be stealing the next hour of my possible sleep and I was completely fine with that outcome.  Fantastic Planet, is as its name suggests very fantastical.  In the animation style made known by Terry Gilliam and famous by The Beatles Yellow Submarine, Fantastic Planet takes on a bizarre quality, full of humanoid figures whose blank stares and robotic movements both captivating and disconcerting.  The visuals alone could have been enough for me to completely embrace this work, but the fact that it makes very focused and astute statements about the existential being only add to its importance.  Honestly, I am surprised that I did not find myself completely haunted by nightmares when the film finally, and abruptly ended, its exhaustive nature proving the perfect dose to my quest for rest that happened immediately.

Forbidden Planet begins with the frantic fleeing of an unnamed woman who darts back and forth with her child in hand as objects inexplicably fall from the sky blocking her path of escape, suddenly and very intensely blue fingers and hands begin flying towards her, eventually grabbing her and lifting her into the air and immediately dropping her.  The pressure of the fall causing the woman to die as her young child looks on in a state of confusion.  The blue beings are known as Traags and tower over the small humanoid creature that they refer to as Oms, and aside from existing in a tribe-like state, the Oms are primarily seen as playthings for the Traag children, who are not yet capable of existing in a state of constant meditation like the adults.  One young Traag named Tiva decides to save the small child of the recently deceased woman Om, naming him Terr and teaching him the ways and world of the Traags.  Terr, realizing the wealth of knowledge in front of him, laps up everything that Tiva has to teach, in the process becoming a sentient creature aware of the relationship he possesses as a creature in relation to the Traags.  This leads to Terr fleeing in fear of his ultimate demise, bringing along with him a device used by the Traags in the hope that he can share the knowledge with other Om tribes living on the outskirts of the Traag fortress.  Now possessing the information most dear to the Traags the Oms mount a revolt, led by Terr that results in the first death of a Traag at the hands of Oms.  The Traags baffled by such a possible occurrence, up their "extermination" of the Oms in a stroke of genocide by poison gas.  Terr and a handful of other Oms escape the ordeal.  Eventually, with his expansive knowledge of Traag culture, Terr is able to take control of one of their devices, a laser that interferes in the Traags copulation thus breaking their hereditary line.  The Traags are forced then to acknowledge the presence of the Oms as something far more than playthings, but as a group equal to them in power and resilience, despite their relatively diminutive stature.  The film ends with a suggestion that the feuding between both groups has ended and that a peaceful coexistence has emerged between the Traags and Oms, one that is assumedly to last forever.

Fantastic Planet is one of those films whose true meaning, like its animation style is something familiar and identifiable, yet terribly intangible and clearly a simulacra of what a viewer would assume to be reality.  Leave it to a French animator to create such a film.  However, in its seemingly impossible nature, one can grasp multiple possibilities, ranging from realized statements on colonization and French guilt, to far reach introspective considerations on metaphysical identity as it relates to an insurmountable and endless universe.  I realize that to attack this film from any direction is to ultimately rely on reading specific moments or interactions and to invariably ignore others, but it is truly rare for a piece of film theory or criticism to appropriate every single frame and interaction into the larger theory.  As such, I want to touch upon the highly existential nature of this work, one that posits a world so left up to contingency, chance and an impossible control over things as to suggest that they are part of a game in which the Oms, an appropriate allusion to Hommes, the French term for humans.  I have talked about game theory in the past on the blog as it relates to a work like The Cooler, wherein the casino setting doubles as a metaphor for a person being subject to contingency and chance, even in the most seemingly assured of situations.  In Fantastic Planet this notion that a human is subjected to some game played by an unseen force, is placed in the metaphorical hands of the Traags who literally use Oms as their playthings.  Of course, the question then becomes what meaning arises from Terr's discovery of the cogs at work.  This is either a moment where he submits to the existential understanding that all is meaningless, aside from what he deems his own, in his case a quest for knowledge.  Another possibility is that the film is intended to depict a push toward enlightenment after being stuck in an existential malaise, in this the dreary and haunting presence of the Traags double as that constant woe resulting from meaninglessness.  Indeed, it is probably appropriate to read the work as a work about achieving enlightenment, at least in this case it makes the quite out of nowhere ending highly positive.

Key Scene:  People who have read many of my blog posts know I am a sucker for openings that immediately establish the mood and precedent for a film.  Fantastic Planet very much has such an opening and I promise you it will yank you into its world quickly.

Relatively cheap DVD's are available for this film, but since I intend to go region free with my bluray player in the upcoming months, I intend to get the French bluray that is available.  Should you be in that market, I would suggest doing the same.

Experiments In Film: Paperman (2012)

So I know that this will more than likely go down as my least experimental film within this little aside on my blog, but I could not pass up an opportunity to elaborate on it after it won an Oscar last night, and since I have failed to see Argo I figured this would be far more appropriate.  Last night, however, was not the point in time with which I became familiar with this cinematic wonder.  Instead, I first saw it as an introduction to Wreck-It Ralph, which I enjoyed but fails to hold the narrative sway of this animated short, despite having plenty more space and time to work with.  Paperman, while at first glance does not appear to be experimental, at least in comparison to what is normally mentioned within this context, one has to consider that it is very much that since it is from Disney, a company not entirely known for experimentation, aside of course from the free reign given to Tim Burton.  Paperman, much like my favorite Pixar film, Wall-E, focuses on everything wrong with conforming to standards and fearing new experiences.  It takes the melodramatic and uses it such a welcome way, embracing both the power of silence and necessity of sound all swelling into an invested moment that will have you sitting up right in curiosity.  In a bold choice of only using black and white, director John Kahrs assures no confusion about the very clear statement existing within his film, and is sure to cement his place as a premier Pixar staple in years to come, which is more than welcome on my part, because I doubt the necessity of another Cars film.  Yet even for being in black and white, the short questions the factuality of life and exists in a realm of magical realism by its closing, reminding viewers that in the insanity of existence, sometimes love and human connection still occurs if the "forces that be" will it to do so.

The film is quite simple and lacks any sort of deception as to what it is about, viewers are shown a young man and a young woman who share a brief connection, when the young man's paper flies into her face, leaving some of her lipstick on the page in the process.  The two laugh, but nothing comes of it, instead; they go along with their lives.  Yet, when the man sees the woman in an interview in the building across from where he works, he attempts to get her attention by flying paper airplanes across the gap, much to the disgust of his fellow employees and supervisor.  When this fails and he is faced with a daunting task of more papers, he throws out convention and chases for the girl through the busy streets, and just when he thinks he has lost her, the hundreds of plains that fell to the ground begin guiding him towards her, at the same time when the girl stops to smell some flowers she sees the paper, with her lipstick on it, a coincidence to eeire to ignore.  The two then return to their original location, still in silence the credits roll and they are shown engaging in a cup of coffee at a diner, and one can only assume a great future.  Again, this is all animated in black and white, with the exception of the girls red lips and the lipstick mark, and aside from an absolutely wonderful composition from Christophe Beck is visually simple.  The story, however, is delivered with such assuredness and precision that it absolutely moves a person upon viewing.  I know it is a minor category as far as Oscars go, yet it is one of the outright correct decisions made last night and I can only imagine what kind of work we will see from Kahrs in the future, if this is anything, I would be willing to bank some possibilities on an animation revolution.  Also I am rather certain it is at the very least an indirect homage to The Red Balloon.

To find out more about John Kahrs, or to watch Paperman click either of the images below.

This Guy Took My Teddy Bear!: Ted (2012)

I remember distinctly a divide as far as reactions were concerned upon the discovery that Seth MacFarlane would be making his directorial debut in something not directly tied to the Family Guy franchise.  One side heralded it as a much needed movement towards the mainstream, although to be fair it is quite impossible to find an individual who has not watch an episode, let along entire seasons of one of the most prolific comedies of the past decade.  The other divide seemed content on dismissing it entirely referring to it as a cheap attempt by the director to cash in on his name and its ties to Family Guy while also engaging in his own filmic desires.  I am somewhat ashamed to admit that for a brief time I certainly fell into the latter category, having found myself growing away from Family Guy over the years and assumed Ted to simply not be for my palette.  However, I managed to catch up with MacFarlane when he hosted the season premier of Saturday Night Live and was completely enamored with the earnestness and vivacity placed into his skits and presence, furthermore, I was reminded that he is truly one of the greater comedic minds of the last decade, both in delivery and in accessibility.  While I have found myself attempting to rediscover Family Guy, at this point with little success, I did find Ted to be much, much more than I anticipated.  While I am one of the growing number of fans supporting the work of Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller as far as over-the-top absurdist comedy is concerned, I find myself watching the work of Harold Ramis and John Landis and wondering where the deceptively simple, normal guy in an unusual situation comedy went.  Thankfully, Ted has shown me that in the hands of Seth MacFarlane this type of comedy is certainly possible and, while he has a ways to go before getting to his level of perfection, MacFarlane is certifiably the closest thing American moviegoers have to a Harold Ramis...aside of course from the still living Harold Ramis, although to be fair it has been sometime since the comedic auteur has offered anything of notoriety.  Ted is far from a perfect film, but it easily falls on the side of being good and shows promise for a successful future for the still young MacFarlane.

Ted begins with the story of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) who has always been a slightly awkward person, so much so that he found considerable difficulties making friends as a child.  As such, when he receives a talking teddy bear from his parents for one Christmas, he makes a wish that it would come to life and be his friend forever.  Luckily for John, his wish is granted as a miracle of sorts and he awakes to his bear named Ted (Seth MacFarlane) talking and moving around.  Once verifying that he is not imagining it, John shares his new friend with the world. allowing to become an overnight sensation, which of course comes with its own set of problems leading to run-ins with law enforcement and a fall from popularity, although all along the way he makes sure to stay a dear friend to John.  Fast forward a few decades and John finds himself in a dead-end job, preferring to get high with Ted on a daily basis, as opposed to securing a promising future for himself and his girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis).  Giving him an ultimatum, John is forced to choose a future with Lori over a comforting present with Ted, causing the disheartened bear to move out on his own and take up a job at a local grocery store, eventually creating his own relationship with an employee.  Yet, certain elements of his past are harder to shake and John continues to sneak away from work and events with Lori to hang out with Ted, leading to an accident in which Lori demands that John move out, much to the delight of Lori's asshole boss Rex (Joel McHale) who has been eyeing Lori for sometime.  John goes out of his way to win Lori back, partially from his own will, but also because Ted promises Lori that he will remove himself entirely from the couple's life if she gives John one more shot.  In the process of agreeing to this, Ted is kidnapped by a psychotic admirer and his son who has an apparent penchant for destructive behavior, leading to Ted reaching out to John despite his previous promise.  Lori in a moment of instantaneous understanding and compassion agrees to help John find Ted, leading to a crazy traversing of Fenway Park.  They eventually save Ted, although he is torn in half in the process, leading to a hopeful repair and a wish from somebody besides John for Ted return.  The film ends on a happy note as Ted returns comfortably back into John's life, while John is also able to mature and marry Lori in the process.

Buried deep beneath the profusely graphic excrement humor and jokes about old people being anti-semetic lies a very real commentary on the troubles of growing old and embracing adulthood that seem all too relevant to Seth MacFarlane, a comedian who is often criticized for being immature almost entirely as a result of his attachment to Family Guy, although I learned during Barbara Walter's "Most Fascinating People of 2012" that he began the show at 26, making him the youngest executive producer on a primetime show ever, a notable accomplishment for a person who is allegedly childish. Of course, Ted makes it very clear that there is a line to be drawn as to what is acceptable for a thirty year old man to be doing with his life and getting high, while making just over minimum wage at a rental car dealership is certainly not one of them, not to mention a problematic fear of thunderstorms that can only be placated by a talking bear.  Of course, in MacFarlane's infinite wisdom a complete disavowal of all these thing is not correct either, for a little light indulgence now and then along with a healthy attachment to one's childhood nostalgia can be a productive thing.  In fact, the narrative makes it rather clear what an unhealthy attachment to the past looks like via Ted's kidnapper who is a single dad who has allowed his son to become hyper-violent while living in his own grand delusion that allows him to dance to eighties mall pop music.  It is a very sound philosophical statement that exists within Ted one that reminds viewers of the very real responsibilities they must deal with on a daily basis, whether it be self-advancement or caring for the ones you love, while also not become so wound up with assuring everyones happiness that you ignore your own mental well being.  It also does not hurt that this film invests heavily in the possibilities of wishing for the unlikely.  A quick glance at MacFarlane's own struggles to get Family Guy on the air proves his own believe in having high ambitions.  Again the film is simple in its narrative, but it is in this muted approached to narrative that I hope MacFarlane is able to find comedic perfection.

Key Scene:  The party scene is pretty good and made all the funnier by some very self-referential humor on the part of MacFarlane.

This is a solid rental film and well worth checking out as it was easily one of the best comedies of last year.