Originally Posted By mawnck Paging jdub . . . "Paprika" opens Monday! Yes, that's Monday. I called 'em and confirmed it. The Laemmle Grand 4 Plex at 345 S. Figueroa St. in downtown LA. The one and only showtime is 10 AM. I assume it will run through next Sunday, as it has to play for one week to qualify. Their schedule is only up through Tuesday, though, so keep an eye on Fandango.com -- that's where I found it. It's not listed on the official Laemmle website. For those joining us late, this is one of the Oscar Hopefuls That Nobody Has Seen, and it actually has a decent shot at getting nominated, if it's as good as Satoshi Kon's other three flicks (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers). I do not know if it will be in Japanese with subtitles, or dubbed in English. In other news, pencil in Happy Feet as a near-certain nominee. VERY impressive. Might even win. Metacritic has it at 77, three notches higher than former leader Flushed Away. This is turning into a real horserace.
Originally Posted By jdub mawnck, thanks for the page--I was rushing to the white courtesy phone like OJ back in the day! Unfortunately, I am apparently most egregiously outta luck--apparently no screens showing it in the SF Bay Area. Hmm, maybe AFTER the awards. What month is that?
Originally Posted By mawnck Last I heard, the national release was going to be in March. It will not be showing this week anywhere other than that one theater in LA. I can pretty much promise you that.
Originally Posted By jdub If you go, could you make a recording for us & post it online? Otherwise, I'll just check out ebay...thanks!
Originally Posted By mawnck I'll see if the projectionist will sell me the print. You want Arthur and the Invisibles as well?
Originally Posted By jdub Mmm, thanks, but I'd really like something hand-recorded--so that I can get the "bonus feature" of hearing the conversations of the people around you!
Originally Posted By mawnck People around me? You've never been to one of these qualifying screenings, have you.
Originally Posted By mawnck Sigh. All right, you can scratch Paprika off the list. It's not that it's bad -- it's reasonably entertaining for the most part -- but it's several notches below Satoshi Kon's past efforts. Apparently he's not nearly as adept at Sci-Fi as he is at psychodrama and/or neo-Capra. Some spectacular hand-drawn visuals, and Kon's usual mind-blowing blur of fantasy and reality, but there are far too many tiresome standing-around-discussing-the-technology-and-its-philosophical-implications scenes. WHY do the Japanese insist on doing that? Too many major characters, too, and most of them rather lacking in personality. That's a major change from his past flicks. What the heck happened? My favorite part: the semi-subtle Miyazaki and Disney shout-outs in one of the dream sections. Great fun. It has not been dubbed into English. The print was subtitled, not always legibly. Even though it was a seedy little poop of a theater in the basement of a Marriott (honest!), and there has been NO promotion of this run (it wasn't even listed on the marquis or the box-office signage), there were still about 40 people in the audience this morning, most of whom seemed to like it more than I did. The movie's good, just not swell. Your last chance to catch it is tomorrow (Sunday) at 10 AM. Next up: Arthur and the Invisibles.
Originally Posted By ToonKirby "Happy Feet" has received a great response from the public, so I expect that to be at least in the top 3. If it wins, it will be the first non-Disney, non-DreamWorks release to do so.
Originally Posted By jdub I think a "Happy Feet" win would be another great victory for Style Over Substance. For all the swell music & interesting (though thoroughly uneven) rendering, this star-studded, hyper-hyped, over-Robin-Williams'd computoon packs a pat, tired, all-too-common-to-kiddieme plot.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I think a "Happy Feet" win would be another great victory for Style Over Substance. << And a Cars win will be a victory for sloppy plotting in service of a preachy message. And a Flushed Away win will be a victory for hyperkinetic action and crotch hits. And a Monster House win will be a victory for the world's most boring horror movie. Nobody hit one out of the ballpark this year. The way I see it, it's Cars, Flushed, Feet, Hedge, and one-of-the-others (probably Scanner or House), with the winner being a toss-up between Cars and Feet. I'd give it to Flushed, but don't nobody never listen to me.
Originally Posted By jdub The points you make back up my opinion that a category shouldn't necessarily be filled every year. I'm not of the opinion that a mediocre film should get a coveted golden statuette by default--merely because "everybody else s-cked more."
Originally Posted By mawnck Ah, but I disagree. "Nice to be nominated" aside, it is, by definition, a contest. Contests get winners even if all the entrants suck. And about a third of the nominees this year clearly didn't suck. They just aren't quite up to the standards set by past years. The rules for this category have a mechanism whereby the category goes away if the nominating committee feels that all the eligible flicks truly are too lousy to compete. Won't happen this year. We'll get our 5 nominees, unless the Weinstiens go Chapter 7 between now and December 15th.
Originally Posted By mawnck The Annie Nominees, as reported by cartoonbrew: Cars Happy Feet Monster House Open Season Over the Hedge Whoa. Something got . . . wait for it . . . flushed away!
Originally Posted By mawnck FYI . . . Arthur and the Invisibles is now playing at that cruddy little theater in the Beverly Center. Nowhere else, so don't bother checking local listings. Having opened Friday, it is eligible for the Oscar - just barely.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I really enjoyed 'Monster House' -- thought it was a real gem. Caught me by surprise. Fun and funny, without being smug and smart-alecky. Kind of in the same league as 'Family Dog' from 20 years ago, on 'Amazing Stories.' 'Cars' is terribly over-rated -- it's downright boring, in fact. The whole NASCAR thing just left me cold. 'Over the Hedge' was okay -- I'm getting tired of the cute animals with celebrity voices. [see: Open Season] 'Happy Feet' just looks like a drag to me. Robin Williams has become a cliche as a voice-over actor for animated movies. Him and Eddie Murphy. Dear companies producing animation -- could you please produce something different in the coming years? The smug, celebrity voiced movies with silly looking animals voiced by celebrities and those weird eyeballs and anachronisms and slap-stick comedy are getting boring. Thanks guys.
Originally Posted By jdub >>Dear companies producing animation -- could you please produce something different in the coming years? The smug, celebrity voiced movies with silly looking animals voiced by celebrities and those weird eyeballs and anachronisms and slap-stick comedy are getting boring<< YES, Yes, thank you! And--"GETTING" boring? I am so sick of interchangeable, rude, digitally-created animals doing the same interchangeable, rude, digitally-created things. And a big, wet PHBBBBBBBT to "celebrity" voices. Filmmakers, do some creative work yourselves, & stop attempting to rely on characters being breathed to life by big names just reapeating the cliches for which they are already known.
Originally Posted By TheRedhead I think the best animated film this year was A SCANNER DARKLY. I thought it was incredible. MONSTER HOUSE is great too. It had a weird sense of humor, and it wasn't afraid to be scary. It felt fresh, unlike CARS.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I really enjoyed 'Monster House' -- thought it was a real gem. Caught me by surprise. Fun and funny, without being smug and smart-alecky. Kind of in the same league as 'Family Dog' from 20 years ago, on 'Amazing Stories.'<< I totally agree. I thought it was very engaging, and I didn't know exactly where it might be going next. I thought the voicework was exceptional, too. Some name actors but not a distraction -- the voices of the two boys and the babysitter in particular were very believable and natural. I loved Cars but Monster House is right up there, too.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Happy Feet was aweful, violant, not imaginative, and scared the crap out of my 3 year old.
