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Yes finally we get to watch a movie in class! "Spirited Away" is one of my favourite animated films I've ever watched. "People who don't work will turn into pigs" Yes nice one!

People tend to think that such anime are only for kids. When the film was showing in the Preview Theatre, everyone is paying attention to it. The whole story doesn't have much twist to it but the love between Chihiro and Haku is SOOOOOOOOOOO sweet (of course the standard is suitable for kids as well) Characters are well-built as well. No Face is a good example. Everyone ignores him and doesn't allow him to step into the Bath House initially. No Face started to be mean by eating up the other characters when Chihiro ignores his affection. It reminds me of a spoilt kid who tries to do nasty things to attract his parents' attention. The story is set up in an unreal world but characters are linked to our lives.

Some other animation we have watched in class are from Canada and Russia. I realised that the Canadian ones are not really PG though. Nudity and violence are seen in "Special Delivery". As for the Russian Animation, I'm sorry to say that but it's boring. Maybe it's too "deep" for me to understand and I might need more time to appreciate such animation. Beautiful drawings with striking colors, but not my type of animation. And OHHHHH "The Cameranman's Revenge" is freaky HAHAHA! Omg how the hell do you animate dead bugs like seriously. I would say the director is EXTREMELY unique in his thinking and I respect him for that. I hate bugs like mad but I think it's brilliant of him to make use of dead bugs to create a film.

My favourite shot from "Spirited Away"

4

I think that Hanna-Barbera cartoons are not entertaining for me. I can't really stand cartoons without much actions because they looked stiff. I remembered liking The Flintstones characters but I don't really enjoy the cartoon as they are always talking all the time only. It's a wise choice to cut down the number of pictures they drew so that they can produce more cartoon series for the TV animation. However the dialogues in the cartoons aren't really interesting for me. I would prefer to see a 8 minutes cartoon with interesting content rather than 25 minutes cartoon with less movements + boring conversations.

Back to the animated films.. I find "Gerald McBoing-McBoing" very interesting. Exaggerated expressions could be seen (for example, stretched necks) It's simple but unique. As for "Rooty Toot Toot", I like the way the colors are used. The colors used for the main characters are different for the other characters and the background. For example in this, red is used for the main characters and orange is used for the other characters and the background. It is simple but interesting enough to catch my attention. The background is detailed.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is another animated film that catches my attention. It feels spooky throughout when I'm watching. We don't get to see the main character at all but narration could be heard. The whole film is dark and we get to see shadows most of the time. The way it is directed is from the point of the main character. I find it very abstract.

"Limited animation" style is a good way to cut costs and it proves that high-quality animated films (such as Gerald McBoing-McBoing) could be produced at the same time.

3

Seriously speaking, I still think that the history of Warner Brothers is rather complex for me. Hmm so basically.. Walt Disney is willing to fork out a huge amount of money to start on his animation film while Warner Brothers work on low budget animation films most of the time.

"Popeye the Sailorman" was not too bad though. But the part whereby Olive got tied to the train rail was crazy for me though. The bad guy Bluto always wanted Olive but why the hell did he tie Olive to the train rail?! He's a real psycho. However, I think that Popeye is a good influence. My mum used to say to me: "Eat vegetables and be as strong as Popeye!" This might be a good way to get children to eat vegetables if they love Popeye (but well I still hate veggies.....)

I've watched Betty Boop in the past and the short mini skirt all those doesn't really affect me much though. Maybe I was too young back then.. However Betty Boop in "Popeye the Sailor Man" gave me a shock though LOL. However I have to agree that cartoon characters such as Betty Boop might give people the impression of a "sex symbol" or whatever. "Red Hot Riding Hood" is a good example though. The wolf's eyes were popped out when the red hot riding hood was performing with skimpy clothings. It's not really a good influence for teenagers in my opinion. As I said, I was WAYYY too young to define what's a "sex symbol" when I was watching Betty Boop in the past, but now as I think back, my thinking might change if I watched it when I'm 10-12 years old.

"What's Opera, Doc?" is definitely my favourite cartoon. The part where Bugs Bunny and Fudd danced was hilarious (to me). I'm researching on this particular cartoon now and it's the first place in the 50 greatest cartoons of all times! I'm surprised that a number of excerpts are included in the cartoon. This shows that cartoon doesn't have to be stupid, lame and non-reasonable all the times.

And till now I still think that Warner Brothers history is complicated. At least I know that it consists of different animators with different styles.