WATERSHIP DOWN and other more mature animation

With animation all the rage, why hasn't Hollywood made more "grown up" animated films?


This reminded me.

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Updated On: 8/6/13 at 11:20 AM

I love the book so much that there was never any hope of me enjoying the film.

Animation for adults rarely does well though. There was a lot of it back in the 70s (mostly fantasy films) with Ralph Bakshi movies, Heavy Metal, Fire and Ice, Wizards, etc.

Does South Park Bigger, Longer, Uncut count?

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Updated On: 8/6/13 at 11:28 AM

Watership Down is one of my favorite books.....man, did I cry at the end the first time I read it.

The Secret of NIMH definitely added a much darker tone than was present in the book. There really isn't much of a villain in the book. By keeping Jenner present in the movie and turning him into a villain plotting to overthrow Nicodemus it added to the story immensely.

You certainly never got this sort of imagery just reading the book.

The Secret of NIMH is one of my all time favorite movies--and has an amazing score. It's too bad Don Bluth never really rose to the occasion again.

From the same era I *love* The Last Unicorn. It completely removes the novel's metafiction element, but still works (probably because Beagle did the screenplay himself.) It's weirdly melancholy for a movie that I saw so many times as a small kid, but really haunting due to that factor. A gorgeous Jimmy Webb score (OK, the America sung songs are kinda dated) and great voice work and gorgeous design despite cheap animation (it was farmed out to the studio that actually became Studio Ghibli.) Mia Farrow should never, ever, sing again, though (or Jeff Bridges for that matter.)

Fans of Watership Down should watch The Plague Dogs--based on a novel by the same author and done by the same studio. It was a huge flop and I believe killed the studio, but is heart wrenching. It ranks up with Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies as the saddest movie I've ever seen--those are the only two movies I think that I can't watch without just breaking out in full on tears at the end, even if they are both animated (or maybe because of that fact?) Here's the trailer, but the entire movie is on youtube right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUDzklWlvho

THE PLAGUE DOGS has the interesting distinction of being one of the few novel-to-film adaptations that eschewed the book's happy ending for the genuinely soul crushing ending that is in the film.

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I haven't seen it in years, but I remember loving this hilarious film TWICE UPON A TIME, which was actually produced by George Lucas. Hardly anyone has seen this.

Neat cel animation, pre-SOUTH PARK, only beautiful.

TWICE UPON A TIME (1983)

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Updated On: 8/6/13 at 03:18 PM

Now I want to read the novel--I had no idea, and just assumed it must have been really faithful. (I have read Watership Down, but it's been a really long time.) I remember when I rented it as a young teen--my twin sister was really sick and so I went to the video store to get videos to watch with her, and I had read about it before but only really knew it was about dogs. We were both crying desperately at the end, and she basically never let me rent another movie again (though we both did really like the film.) It's just heartbreaking--and brilliantly done. Though not directly related, that was right around the time I became a vegetarian...

Re Secret of NIMH, the movie is darker in many ways but, while I think it's a really genuinely great film, I do think adding the magic and deus ex machine element with the talisman that isn't in the novel at all, is a weakness and takes away ever so slightly from the strength of Mrs Frisby/Brisby. (Only recently did I read about Elizabeth Hartman, who voiced the character, and her suicide a few years after the film. I admit I don't know much of her live action work, though I think she had a good career, but her voice work is such a part of my childhood--very sad.)

Oh good calls, Roscoe.

Bashir was an incredible achievement.

Also, there was Waking Life.

Btw, they've been trying to get the remake of Heavy Metal (although I imagine it really be sequel with new segments) going for years.

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Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke is a masterpiece. Unbelievably gorgeous.

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Absolutely agreed. KAD, I know you like Studio Ghibli films, but have you seen Nausicaa? It works in some ways as a prequel to Mononoke-hime, despite the change of eras (Miyazaki continued Nausicaa as a manga for years, and much of Mononoke is based on the later chapters.)

I really wish something would happen to the rights to Only Yesterday, from Miyazaki's partner at Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata. He directed Grave of the Fireflies which was bought by an American studio back in the 90s, but Only Yesterday fell into the Disney deal the studio did. Unfortunately, Disney didn't know how to deal with an animated drama that dealt with a 30 year old woman trying to come to terms with her past while making a decision about her future-so has yet to have an official North American release. It's a gorgeous film, and actually made me like the song "The Rose." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYm7IT_K5eo

And there's Linklater's film of A SCANNER DARKLY, which proves that even rotoscoped Keanu Reeves is unwatchable. Fortunately there's the joy of Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. performing Phillip K. Dick's dialogue to make up for the void where a lead actor should be.

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You could try PERFECT BLUE, which Darren Aronofsky ripped off shamelessly for BLACK SWAN.

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