I had a wonderful, simple Christmas this year. And the few gifts I was given where all ones that will help me stay inspired and enthused for some time. Here are the highlights:
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (DVD): this movie is the first original film by the great animation director, Hayao Miyazaki. This is actually his second directorial work, but his first film that is all his own work. One of the best features is a documentary about the history of Studio Ghibli that tells the studios history up too Spirited Away. They explained that no one was willing to financially back Nausicaä, since it was not based on a successful comic. So Miyazaki did a comic that became a big success, and followed it up with his movie.
The film itself is very good, and a joy to watch. The American dubbing is fine, as with most of the recent DVD releases.
It is movie that should be in every animation fan/artist library.
- the Iron Giant, Special Edition: An excellent movie that I did not have in my collection. The extras included the director, Brad Bird (The Incredibles), talking about purposed scenes that did not make the cut. A few are fully animated in Pencil Test form while others are skillfully animated storyboards with some motion added in Adobe After Effects (a program I am big fan/user of.) It’s interesting to note that the character designs are very similar to the style of Bird’s CGI movie The Incredibles. Such great 2D animation (and 3D, the Giant is A CGI work rendered to look 2D) Another movie that should be in every animation fan/artist library.
- iPod Shuffle: Oh, the little music player from Apple Computer that makes me happy. So what if I can’t select the exact song to hear. Spontinaity is always better for an artist. Life should have its moments where we are out of controlled. I like how small and portable it is. It will be perfect for snippets of audio to inspire and delight he who listens.
ipod|nausicaa|Miyazaki|Iron Giant|Brad Bird|Christmas|New Years|Preasents|
