Tribute to Looney Tunes Voice Eric Bauza

Bauza was the voice of Looney Tunes characters

Last weekend I watched Coyote vs. Acme, an animation and live action film about Wile E. Coyote who sues Acme Corporation for selling him faulty products.

It was a fun movie, interesting premise to keep the adults interested. 

Then this morning on my social media feed, I saw there were tributes to a voice actor called Eric Bauza, who was the voice of Looney Tunes -- Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn... and it was he voicing those characters in Coyote vs Acme.

One of his last films was Coyote vs. Acme

Bauza, a Filipino-Canadian, died October 25 in Los Angeles of hypertensive heart disease. He was 46 years old.

When he was a child in Scarborough, Ontario, he would imitate the voice of the Looney Tunes characters and later when he was in high school he would do the announcements in voices from The Simpsons. He also drew cartoons and became an accomplished artist.

He went to Los Angeles and worked for Warner Bros. for 15 years with over 400 voice credits, and also won the first ever Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program for Looney Toons Cartoons.

Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang weren't the only cartoons Bauza worked on. He also did voicing for Ren & Stimpy, The Fairly OddParents, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, Dick Figures, and Breadwinners among others.

The animation world paid tribute to Bauza. 

Bauza loved watching cartoons as a child

In a statement to Variety, Chris DeFaria, who produced Coyote vs. Acme, said Bauza offered "absolutely tireless dedication" to his craft.

Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks Chairman Channing Dungey said in a statement that Bauza was a "unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world."

"In addition to his incredible talent, Eric was a treasured part of our animation family. Our hearts go out to his loved ones," Dungey continued.

Bauza was also good friends with Steve Gaskin, and together they started Retrokid, a line of nostalgic clothing and merchandise inspired by childhood television shows. 

"In 2019, Eric and I started Retrokid in my garage," wrote Gaskin on Instagram. "What started out as just a silly idea became something much bigger than either of us anticipated. We both poured everything into it while still trying to find time for our kids, our family's, and our regular jobs. 

"Eric was in LA and had already broken through many ceilings as a voice-actor. His commitment to his craft, dedication to honouring past, present, and future icons, and unrelenting drive to perfect every voice and impression; made him an unstoppable force. Yet, he remained humble, kind, generous, and always put everyone else's needs before his own."

What a big loss for the animation community and his friends and family.

VIFF -- Review: Iron Boy

Clichy draws from his childhood in his first feature, Iron Boy

Iron Boy (2026)

Iron Boy is a lovely, funny, endearing animation feature debut by Louis Clichy, who has worked at Pixar on Wall-E and Up, and has directed two Asterix animation films.

Making its North American premiere at TIFF and then Vancouver at VIFF, Iron Boy won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes last spring.

The family lives on a farm in France

It's about Christophe, a 10-year-old boy whose family has a farm, and he is keen to learn how to drive the tractor, but he starts leaning sideways, which causes an accident and he must wear a torturous metal back brace to hold his head up 24 hours a day, even while sleeping.

But Christophe discovers the beauty of the sounds the organ makes in the church, and thanks to an encouraging teacher, the boy shows talent in playing the magnificent instrument, which soon becomes his passion, much to the chagrin of his father who is desperately trying to make ends meet and resents his son's inability to physically help out on the farm.

The scenes are beautifully hand painted with watercolours that look simple, and yet convey so much emotion and nuance, that viewers can easily relate to Christophe and his coming-of-age story, the financial pressures on the family, and tensions in familial relationships.

Christophe is keen to drive the tractor

The scenes along with the dialogue are both funny and heartbreaking, and the audience couldn't help but cheer at the end of the film.

It turns out Iron Boy was inspired by Clichy's own childhood, as he grew up on a farm in the Beauce region in north-central France until he was 10 years old and wore a back brace. His son Gary is the voice of Christophe, while the other voices are from non-actors, giving it a more realistic effect.

In French, the name is Le Corset, not Iron Boy, but possibly to avoid any misinterpretations, the English title is different. Nevertheless, hopefully Iron Boy will have a greater release, as it has universal themes of growing up, finding one's passions and standing up for oneself.

Iron Boy

Directed by Louis Clichy

90 minutes

Review: Toy Story 5

The latest instalment of Toy Story introduces debate on screens

Yesterday I saw Toy Story 5 in the theatre with my two nephews. The last one I saw? The original one by Pixar, way back in 1995!

Luckily you don't need to have seen Toy Story 2, 3 and 4 to know what's going on in the latest one, which has a very apt storyline that resonates with the debate on kids and screen times.

Bonnie is a girl who first appeared in Toy Story 3, inheriting the toys that now teenager Andy used to play with. In this latest instalment, Bonnie loves Jessie, the cowgirl with her trusty steed Bullseye.

Jessie (centre) tries to grapple with technology

However, Bonnie is shy and scared to make friends, mostly due to insecurity, as she still loves playing with toys.

Her parents worry and give her a tablet called Lilypad which makes Bonnie happy, but then she is soon addicted to the device, neglecting Jessie and the other toys.

Sound familiar? The scenes of seeing children and adults addicted to screens in every household, from tablets to phones and computers is so relatable and interesting to see it reflected through this feature animation.  

Through Lilypad the tablet, she can connect with other "friends" online, but Jessie believes the girl needs to connect with friends in real life and makes it her mission to make that happen.

Along the way Jessie meets some other low-tech toys that were quickly ditched. Conan O'Brien is funny as Smarty Pants, a first-generation tablet that supposedly helps kids potty train, and his buddies, a GPS called Atlas and digital camera named Snappy.

Meanwhile there is a subplot where a shipping box filled with a lot of the latest high-tech version of Buzz Lightyear get stranded on an island and they look to the sky to find "Star Command", and some how manage to meet up with the original Buzz.

Smarty Pants (left) voiced by Conan O'Brien

Lilypad is voiced by Greta Lee, while Joan Cusack reprises her role as Jessie, Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz. This time around Jessie is the star of the show, with a romantic sides story involving Buzz; Woody is just a supportive character this time, as are the rest of the toys.

How much longer can the Toy Story franchise keep going? 

If they can find more storylines like this one about screen addiction that are relevant, then yes. If not, it might actually be time for these toys to really end up in the garbage heap...

Toy Story 5

Written and directed by Andrew Stanton

102 minutes

Review: Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki and Jiji fly to a seaside town

Yesterday morning I watched the remastered 4K version of Kiki's Delivery Service at the Park Theatre. Sadly the cinema only had about 20 people, but the little girls who came had bows in the hair; one child even had her dad have a bow clipped to his head.

I hadn't watched this Hayao Miyazaki feature length animation before and purposely didn't research it much before I went to see it on the big screen.

It's about Kiki, a 13-year-old girl who must leave her parents for at least a year to complete her witch training. She gathers some belongings in a satchel along with her cat Jiji and they fly off on her broom at midnight with her parents' blessing.

Kiki finds a job working in a bakery

She finds a seaside town and tries to survive day-to-day and make new friends as she starts a delivery service.

What's wonderful about this film, based on a book by Eiko Kadono's 1985 novel, is that most of the main characters are women who readily welcome Kiki and support her in her endeavours. 

There's Osono, the owner of a bakery who gives Kiki and Jiji a room in exchange for work; Ursula, an artist who helps the young witch, who in turn inspires her painting; and an elderly woman who is grateful for Kiki's help around the house.

It's so refreshing to see female characters encouraging Kiki, while Tombo is a boy who takes an instant liking to her because she can fly on a boom stick, and he wants to know how she does it.

Kiki is a strong character, resourceful and kind. When she starts meeting her delivery customers she begins to see the personalities of the recipients, in particular ungrateful children, which sharply contrasts with how she was brought up. 

Tombo is interested in Kiki as a witch

Even though Tombo is from a privileged background, he is more impressed by her independence than her dowdy appearance, unlike his pretentious friends.

Jiji is a sarcastic cat, providing most of the humour in the film; it's as if he speaks what the audience is thinking at times.

We watched the English-dubbed version, which meant the voices were of Kirsten Dunst, Jeanane Garofalo, Phil Hartman, and Debbie Reynolds. The credits had a tribute to Hartman, who was tragically killed in 1998.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

102 minutes

Saturday Morning Cartoons in the Movie Theatre

I had to check this out!

This morning I went to Vancouver's Park Theatre, an independent movie theatre on Cambie Street to watch -- Saturday morning cartoons with cereal!

Really! It reminds me of when I was a kid, waking up early and rushing downstairs to turn on the television to watch cartoons with a bowl of cereal. Apparently many others in my generation did too.

Today the theatre held its first "Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cartoon Party!" and I just had to check it out.

There were many cereals to choose

For this event tickets were a bit more expensive at $23 for adults, $15 for children, but it included as much cereal as you could eat with either milk or plant-based milk. We were encouraged to bring our own non-breakable bowl, otherwise they had compostable bowls and wooden spoons.

And there was an extensive selection of cereals: all the sugary ones were near the front of the table, like Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Oreo Puffs, Golden Grahams, Captain Crunch, Strawberry Toast Crunch, and Rice Krispies, while towards the end were the relatively healthier options like Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Chex.

Like most people, I poured a combination of these cereals into my bowl, added milk and sat down in the theatre and ate.

The programmer for the theatre introduced herself and explained this Saturday morning cartoon show was previously shown at the sister Rio Theatre several times, but this is the first time at the Park since being under new management (same as the Rio Theatre).

She explained that this was a "low stakes event" in that the lights would not be dimmed further so that people could see what they were eating, easily get up and get more cereal, take a break, and so on. She stressed it was a marathon, not a sprint.

The cartoons themselves are compiled by David Bertrand in Toronto, including the retro TV commercials, and then are distributed across the country to independent theatres. 

My combination of cereals with milk

We watched cartoons from Inspector Gadget, Charlie Brown, ThunderCats, Daffy Duck, Smurfs, Green Street Frogs, and a stop-motion animation about the California Raisins.

The storylines of some of these cartoons were so funny because bad guys would be caught so quickly and easily, or the bad guy would reveal their motivations as soon as they were arrested. 

Meanwhile the TV commercials were hilarious to watch so many decades later; it made you realise how naive or gullible they thought audiences were at the time. There was one ad about Crest toothpaste where a mother says she can't protect her child all the time because she has to go to work, but Crest can be with her daughter all day!

I didn't think I would sit through all three hours, but I pretty much sat through 2.5 hours easily! Some of the cartoons were almost 30 minutes long. I had forgotten how some could be long, like Inspector Gadget and Charlie Brown, while others, like Daffy Duck were short, and clips of Felix the Cat were only seconds long.

The theatre was barely one-quarter full, many aduilts and some families, but we were quite an enthusiastic crowd. Hopefully word of mouth will get more people to come next time. And yes I did get a sugar high from the cereal!

Some Well Deserved Oscar Wins

Borenstein (white suit) and Talankin with their Oscars

Happy with the results of the Academy Awards?

I did not watch the whole thing, but thrilled, ecstatic, excited that the films I did watch, won Oscars:

Jessie Buckley for Best Actress in Hamnet.

Buckley was the favourite to win

Her guttural scream in a pivotal point in the film was so primal and intense, viewers could not help but feel her immense pain of losing her child.

Buckley said in a podcast that after making the film, she was desperate to get pregnant! Now she has an eight-month old baby girl and in her acceptance speech said she loved being her mother.

"It's Mother's Day in the UK today, so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart. We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds," she said.

All The Empty Rooms for Best Documentary Short

It's a haunting documentary, seeing the empty bedrooms of children who were killed in school shootings. Not only is it commendable for journalist Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp to visit these grieving families, but also record these children's rooms to prove they existed, they were loved, they had lives with hopes and dreams.

Cazares was so brave to speak out on stage

When the filmmakers went up to accept the Oscar, one of the mothers, Gloria Cazares spoke on stage. Her daughter died in the Uvalde shooting in May 2022.

"My daughter, Jackie, was nine years old when she was killed in Uvalde. Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time," Cazares said.

"Jackie is more than just a headline. She is our light and our life. Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, it would be a different America."

Mr Nobody Against Putin for Best Documentary Feature

In accepting the golden statuette, co-director David Borenstein warned the audience what authoritarianism is.

"Mr Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country," he said. "And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.

Talankin (on floor) urged for wars to stop now

"When a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don't say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it -- we all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think."

He then introduced the star of the documentary, Pavel Talankin to speak through a Russian translator.

"For four years, we looked at the sky, for a shooting star to make an important wish. But there are countries where instead of stars they have shooting bombs and shooting drones. In the name of the future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now," said Talankin, who is now in exile in Europe.

Afterwards when Borenstein spoke to the media, he made another warning:

"One interesting thing about working with a team of Russians throughout this process has been my desire as an American to constantly compare the situation in America to Russia," he said.

"But a lot of my Russian colleagues and friends always said, 'No, no, it's not the same situation. It's actually happening quicker in America than it's been happening in Russia,' Trump is moving a lot quicker than Putin in his early years."

The Girl Who Cried Pearls for Best Animation Short

Well deserved award for Szcerbowski and Lavis

This 17-minute film was absolutely stunning in terms of its fantastic story and execution. The story isn't so simple and makes viewers think about it afterwards.

Co-directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski make their acceptance speech short and sweet.

"We just really want to thank our amazing neighbourhood and the amazingly talented community of artists that we've had the superb luck to work with," Szczerbowski said. "Thank you to the fantastic city of Montreal. Thank you, Canada."

"Canada!" Lavis chimed in, as they raised their Oscars.

They gave a shoutout to composer Patrick Watson and actor Colm Feore who narrated the film.

Big congratulations to all the winners and nominees! 

Review: Hoppers

The animation feature topped the box office opening weekend

There was a lot of buzz that the animation feature Hoppers beat out The Bride!, making it Pixar's biggest opening weekend in a decade. 

Hoppers was screening at our neighbourhood theatre so we took two kids, aged 7 and 8 to watch this film -- in 3D. 

The 3D enhances the animation, but it isn't totally used to its advantage.

Mabel is an environmental activist in her teens

Nevertheless, the storyline is creative. Japanese-American Mabel Tanaka grows up to be an environmental activist influenced by her grandmother and promises to protect the glade that they used to appreciate together in the city of Beaverton.

But then the mayor, Jerry Generazzo has plans to destroy the natural habitat for animals in order to build a freeway and Mabel is desperate to stop him.

She asks for help from her biology professor Dr Samantha Fairfax, but then Mabel discovers they have developed technology that helps them communicate with animals.

Mabel uses it to try to convince them -- in particular beavers, as they are "nature's engineers" -- to move back to the glade, along with everyone else, but it's not as easy as she thinks.

The premise of the film, that Mabel can communicate with the animals is fun, creative and she also learns "pond rules" and the hierarchy of the animal kingdom. 

Dr Fairfax (left) is Mabel's biology professor

Some of the humour, both physical and the dialogue is funny, but not particularly laugh-out-loud hilarious, but enough to keep the audience interested in seeing what happens next.

Actor John Hamm makes for a sneaky mayor, and Bobby Moynihan is a funny beaver monarch named King George. I was surprised to see Meryl Streep voiced the Insect Queen, a short, but amusing cameo.

Apparently the Pixar animators enlisted the help of ecohydrologist Emily Fairfax who studies beavers and how they change landscapes by altering the flow of streams and rivers.

Hoppers has a strong environmental message, how to strike a balance between conservation and development, and how most humans view their role in the world as being at the top of the food chain.

Ecohydrologist Emily Fairfax

Oh and yes the animals are cute too, thanks to director Daniel Chong's passion for the project. Originally he had pitched a feature on penguins, but it was nixed because it's been done before already!

But then he discovered that beavers are "nature's engineers" and thought that was really cool and took six years to develop Hoppers.

Don't watch too many of the trailers because some of the gags get old really fast. Just go watch it in the theatre!

Hoppers

Written and directed by Daniel Chong

105 minutes

Review: Oscar-Nominated Animation Shorts

There are six nominees for the animation short category

Went back to the theatre this afternoon to watch the Oscar-nominated animation shorts. There were more people who came to watch, and the 83-minute length probably made it more palatable for them.

The Three Sisters by Konstantin Bronzit (14 mins)

An amusing story made funnier with sound effects about three sisters living on a remote island and then a big scruffy sailor comes to rent a home from them. 

Forevergreen by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears (13 mins)

A bear cub is friends with a tree in the forest, but once he has a taste of potato chips, he's hooked. It's a kind of fable, cute story about friendship and the importance of healthy eating.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (17 mins)

This stop-motion animation is impressive

This short is produced by the National Film Board of Canada, renowned for its filmmaking, particularly in animation. This tale is made in stop motion and the details are impressive. 

A desperately poor boy discovers that when the girl next door cries in her sleep, her tears become pearls. It's well-written script and told through the voice of actor Colm Feore.

Butterfly by Florence Miailhe (12 mins)

Representing France, this beautiful animation was painted in oil paint to create movement. The story is about the life of Jewish French swimmer Alfred Nakache, who was born in French Algiers in 1915. He was the top swimmer in North Africa in 1931, and was one of the pioneers of the butterfly stroke.

He represented France in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and came in fourth in the 4x200m relay with three of his countrymen, beating out the German team.

Forevergreen and Butterfly about Nachake

However, 1943, he and his wife Paule Elbaze and daughter Annie were arrested by the Gestapo and held in prison and an internment camp before they were sent to Auschwitz the following year; he was separated from his wife and daughter and never saw them again.

Nachake managed to survive because he was assigned to the camp infirmary where he received food rations. In January 1945 he was sent to the death march that ended at Buchenwald, where he was liberated by American troops in April 1945.

Director Miailhe made the animation about Nachake because her father knew him from the camps. It's a lovely tribute and viewers get a short, but concise biography of his life through images.

Retirement Plan by John Kelly (7 mins)

Ray imagines what his retirement will be like

Actor Domhnall Gleeson is trending at the moment, starring in Taylor Swift's latest music video, Opalite; they were both guests on The Graham Norton Show when Gleeson offhandedly suggested he would love to be in one of her music videos, and Swift's reaction has a look as if a light bulb went off in her head.

But in Retirement Plan he is the voice of Ray, a middle-aged bespectacled guy who fantasises about what he will do when he retires, like reply to every single email and read 30 years' worth of unread emails, organise his closet, get a dog and on and on which got chuckles from the audience. 

Eiru by Giovanna Ferrari (13 mins)

The main character Eiru is a Celtic red-head girl who is desperate to prove her courage, but the clan laughs her off. However, when the well runs dry, she is the only one small enough to go down to see where the water went. 

Review: Fantasia

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is just one of eight segments

Each month VIFF in Vancouver has its Pantheon series, featuring what they think are the greatest movies of all time. In addition to the showing is a film expert who gives some comments beforehand and there's some feedback afterwards from the audience.

Yesterday was the showing of Walt Disney's Fantasia. I watched it so long ago that I can't remember when, and thought it would be neat to watch it on the big screen. So did over 150 other people! The show was practically sold out on a rainy Sunday late morning.

Before the screening, Alla Gadassic, associate professor in Media History and Theory at Emily Carr gave a talk on the history of Fantasia, and explained how Disney poured a lot of money into the film and how it was such a risk for the studio, which lost money when it was first released in 1940.

The dancing Chinese mushrooms

She said nowadays we live in a very visual world, more than other senses, like sound. But in the 1910s and 20s people were thinking about how to represent sound visually. Gadassic showed a painting by the abstract Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, who is believed to have synesthesia, where people associate music with colours, or certain letters or numbers with colours. 

Around this time film was believed to be a way to represent sound visually and there were many experimental films at this time, showing sound waves, or shapes representing sounds. People like animator Oskar Fishinger believed that since music or sound didn't have historical or cultural context, neither should the visual representation of it, which is why simple shapes were believed to be a good way of doing this.

Disney probably saw Fishinger's work, and recruited him to work on Fantasia. However, they later had a falling out, as Fishinger felt his work was possibly too abstract for mass audiences and left the studio; he was never credited for his work on the first of eight segments of Fantasia, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

There are eight in total, each different from the others, which is why Gadassic suggests looking at Fantasia as an anthology. Disney himself chose the music, while different teams of animators worked on the segments and Gadassic says it was a group effort, where everyone collaborated. One theory is that Mickey Mouse was included because his popularity was flagging.

When a hippo and an alligator dance together

The eight segments are:

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: Live action of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski gradually fades into abstract patterns determined by the music.

The Nutcracker Suite: Various pieces were chosen, such as the Asian-looking mushrooms dancing in "Chinese Dance", beautiful fish frolicking in the sea in "Arabian Dance", and flowers and leaves blown by the wind in "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies".

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Mickey Mouse is is an apprentice told by the sorcerer to gather water to put in the cauldron, and tries to use magic to make his life easier...

The Rite of Spring: How life began on earth from protozoa to eventually dinosaurs and how they became extinct.

Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack: The master of ceremonies announces there's a 15-minute intermission to which we snicker. The film cuts back to the orchestra members returning to their seats and have an impromptu jazz jam session.

A giant devil in Night on Bald Mountain

The Pastoral Symphony: A romantic scene of centaurs and "centaurettes" complete with cupids and fauns. Interestingly the female centaurs don't have their breasts defined which somehow escaped the censors, though they do wear revealing organic tops, covering their chests with leaves and flowers. Bacchus is super drunk, and they are all caught in a big thunderstorm created by Zeus above.

Dance of the Hours: A strange scenario of dancing ostriches, hippos and alligators.

Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria: A giant devil summons spirits and ghosts to dance for him (and there are brief shots of bared breasts) until dawn breaks and robed monks are carrying lights through the forest as Ave Maria is sung.

Gassadic also explained that a large number of women worked on Fantasia. They not only painted all the cells by hand, but a handful of them were the lead designers of some of the segments. She said Disney was a good manager, they didn't just work on Fantasia, but also Dumbo and Pinocchio, hence the dancing elephants and pastoral scenes, having already experimented with drawing and painting them in Fantasia.

Fascinating to get the context of the film before watching it to have a greater appreciation and understanding of the anthology. No wonder it felt so disparate before!

Tremors this Morning and Post-Oscars Thoughts

A 4.1 magnitude quake shook just after 5am

For some reason I woke up at around 4.40am and could not get back to sleep. At 5.02am I heard a muffled deep thump and felt some shaking! Another earthquake that was measured at 4.1 on the Richter scale, 42km east of Sidney, BC.

Again I was annoyed to find there was no public alert about it, but that's because it was below magnitude 5.0. So I turned to social media posting about my experience and others replied they had felt it too. 

Needless to say I couldn't really get back to sleep after that!

Anora swept five awards last night

Last night I caught the last part of the Oscars to see Adrien Brody win Best Actor for The Brutalist, and watch Anora sweep for Best Director, Sean Baker, Mikey Madison for Best Actress, and Best Picture.

Anora is about an exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, and when his parents find out, they are outraged to say the least.

Baker's wife, Vancouverite Samantha Quan had a great quote of the evening: "We made this film with very little money but all of our hearts," she said. "To all of the dreamers and the young filmmakers out there: tell the stories you want to tell. Tell the stories that move you. I promise you, you will never regret it."

It seems like indie films got big recognition by the Academy this year, not just Anora, but also the Best Documentary Feature No Other Land, which barely had any distribution in the United States because it was about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before October 7, and Best Animated Feature, Flow, made in Latvia.

Flow features various animals on a boat

Flow was the only film I'd seen of all the Oscar contenders! But was very pleased to see this one win, beating out Disney's Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot, Memoir of a Snail, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

The Latvian animation is universal -- there's no dialogue except for the animals making their meows, barks and chirps. The story, about a group of animals surviving a post-apocalyptic world on a boat is beautifully told with a lot of imagination with a touch of humour, making it fantastic viewing for all ages.

"We are all on the same boat and we must find ways to overcome our differences and work together," said Flow director Gints Zilbalodis.

Indeed. 

VIFF Review: Flow

The wordless animated film features a black cat

What happens to the animals when a tsunami hits their environment? That's what the animated film Flow finds out in a co-production by Latvia, France and Belgium. There is no dialogue in the 84-minute film, though the animators take a bit of liberty with the animals' abilities.

Viewers first meet a cute black cat in what looks like a forested area, but after being chased by a pack of dogs, there is a herd of deer trying to outrun a massive flood of water that the cat gets caught up in.

The animals navigate flooded areas by boat

The feline encounters a boat and meets a capybara, a secretary bird, a lemur and a labrador, one of the dogs earlier. Together this rag-tag group, but in particular the cat realises through the challenges they encounter that they need each other to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

The film is gorgeous -- some scenes look very real with the reflection of the water and the abandoned buildings, while the animals look slightly cartoonish, but that only makes them more endearing. There are several amusing points in the movie to lighten the mood and change the pace, but overall it moves along and isn't a drag.

It's interesting there are no humans in the movie, though there are many things they have left behind, like buildings and statues that have outlived them; the animals seems to adapt quite well to these places.

One of the animals the cat meets is a capybara

Hope to see Flow in wide release and curious to see how children in particular think of the film.

Flow

Directed by Gints Zilbalodis

84 minutes

2024

Review: They Shot the Piano Player

The documentary delves into what happened to Tenorio

This afternoon I watched an animated documentary called They Shot the Piano Player directed by Fernando Trueba, who co-wrote the script with Javier Mariscal at VIFF. 

However the film starts off with a made-up journalist by the name of Jeff Harris (voiced by Jeff Goldblum), who has a book deal to write about the bossa nova wave in the late 1950s and 1960s that influenced the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Stan Getz and Frank Sinatra.

Harris is conjured up by the the director as a vehicle to find out more about what happened to Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenorio Junior, who was very much a real person. While he was not very famous, Tenorio was well liked by his fellow musicians, which is reiterated over and over in the film.

Harris is a made-up writer into bossa nova

But when he was visiting Argentina in March1976, he went out to get medicine and sandwiches in the middle of the night and then disappeared and no one knew what happened to him. And so They Shot the Piano Player is an attempt to figure out where he went.

The animation makes the story come alive with the vibrant colours and of course the catchy music that was revolutionary at the time. Trueba conducted numerous interviews that were filmed and then animated, which kind of begs the question, why?

It would be understandable to go back in time by animating them, but was there a need to animate actual people giving their side of the story in the present day? A mix of live action and animation might have been a better way to go -- it just seemed superfluous to animate the interview subjects, and see their true facial expressions, though some includes Harris in the scenes, others don't.

Nevertheless, the story is fascinating in itself to keep viewers interested in finding out what happened to Tenorio.

While he had a wife named Carmen and five children, he also was in love with a woman named Malena -- who he was with the night he disappeared. Harris points out that Carmen did not have a chance to confront Tenorio or divorce him regarding the extramarital affair, but probably worse, because he was not found, Tenorio was not declared dead, Carmen was not a widow and could not access her husband's pension.

Actual interview subjects animated in the film

The film gets darker when the documentary interviews a journalist who wrote about Operation Condor, where the United States was involved in propping up dictatorships in several South American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and how Tenorio was nabbed despite not being known to be politically active.

They Shot the Piano Player ends somewhat abruptly, with Harris hoping that his "book" will allow Tenorio to remain in people's memories, that he was not forgotten.

We appreciate the effort that went into making this animated documentary, but wonder maybe some parts could have been streamlined. Harris goes to Rio de Janeiro at first to write about bossa nova, and then because he becomes obsessed with Tenorio, the subject of his book changes... couldn't it have just have been about Harris writing the Tenorio book all along?

It still would have covered the music scene at the time, but through Tenorio's life, or perhaps there wasn't enough information about him? Also his voice is never heard throughout the film, so while he is seen in the film, he is not heard which is kind of ironic.

Despite it going into tangents, They Shot the Piano Player is still a marvel to watch, transporting viewers to a bright and glorious time that sadly turned dark and tragic...

They Shot the Piano Player

2023

104 minutes

Directed by Fernando Trueba

Written by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

Review: Island in Between

Chiang examines his relationship with his homeland

The Oscar nominations are out today and there were the usual suspects with Oppenheimer garnering 13 nominations, Poor Things with 11, and Killers of the Flower Moon, 10.

I have a soft spot for The Holdovers, with Paul Giamatti for Best Actor and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress. 

Another is the Hayao Miyazaki full-length animated feature The Boy and the Heron, a science-fiction tale about life and death, and the choices you make in life.

Chiang moved back to Taipei

Barbie is a tough one... there was outrage from Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling that director Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie were not nominated. It's a tough call. The film made US$1 billion at the box office, but is it Oscar worthy?

I did not see any of the nominated full-length documentaries, but in the short docs I just watched Island in Between. It's about Kinmen, an island that is between China and Taiwan.

Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang presents a historical but also personal look at Kinmen. After the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan after their defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1949, they used Kinmen as a buffer, a first line of defense, and men who did military service, like Chiang's father, were posted there. 

Chiang also talks about how his family immigrated to the United States, but then a few years ago, during the pandemic, he moved back to Taipei, Taiwan to be closer to his parents. In the film it seems like he is also trying to figure out his relationship with not only Taiwan but also Kinmen, what he is doing there and what the future holds.

While there is mention of the cross-strait tensions, Island in Between also shows the slow pace of Kinmen, from people buying food from outdoor stalls to two women chatting in a salon about how the pandemic has made it difficult to go back to China.

He looks at Kinmen and its role in Taiwan

Chiang also goes beyond the China (bad), Taiwan (good) storyline, that the lines between them were blurred when Taiwanese could visit China and vice versa. 

He talks about how he feels like a child caught between a three-way custody battle between the US, China and Taiwan that Chiang describes as "hostile, co-dependent, manipulative". "They all think they know what's best for me. They don't care what I want," he says.

His reflections about Taiwan and himself aren't just a single voice -- his observations and questions on what will happen next is on the minds of all Taiwanese especially following the recent presidential election. 

Watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/4kutvp8v

Review: Princess Kaguya

A delightful hand-drawn animated film based on a folktale

On the weekend I watched my final Studio Ghibli movie of the year, Princess Kaguya, recommended by my friend YTSL, who prefers it over The Wind Rises.

Princess Kaguya was co-written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a Japanese folktale.

It's about an elderly bamboo cutter who is in the forest and finds a glowing bamboo shoot. Intrigued he comes closer and discovers a miniature girl and scoops her up, believing she is a sign from heaven. He excitedly shows his wife and suddenly the girl is the size of a newborn baby. The childless couple believe she is a princess and calls her that, and in months she quickly grows into a toddler, child and then teenager.

An elderly man discovers a princess in the forest

While the girl loves being in the rural area hanging out with boys, her elderly father has other plans. He has managed to collect a lot of gold that he found in bamboo he has cut in the forest and decides to build a home for her in the city where she can be trained to be a proper lady, now known as Princess Kaguya.

Word of her beauty perks the ears of five suitors who try to woo her through a screen by professing their love to her with metaphors of exotic things that don't exist, to which she cleverly demands they must bring these items to her.

The characters in Princess Kaguya are drawn with quality of a drawing, as if pencil or charcoal strokes, and yet viewers are gently enticed into the story, which has numerous touches of humour which keep things light and fun to watch, in particular the training she goes through, and the suitors who try to win her love.

Even more interesting is the feminist quality of Princess Kaguya -- she has an independent streak and thinks for herself, but this clashes against what Japanese society and tradition expects of her -- to be demure, accept her fate and follow the life cycle of a woman. It is ironic she has the power to decide who can marry her but she cannot choose to return to her simple life.

Five suitors try to win the princess' love

Her father seems obsessed with having his daughter married off to one of these suitors, and neglects what she really wants, whereas her mother only towards the end has clued into the young woman's desire to return to their home.

At times throughout the film, there are scenes that play out that later turn out to be dreams, and so viewers may wonder what is real and what is imagined. 

In the end, is there a lesson in the end? Men should be more attentive to women's needs? Fathers should listen to their daughters? Or is it just a folktale to enjoy?

It's an interesting insight into Japanese culture, though sadly its society has not progressed fast enough to value women today. Princess Kaguya was definitely ahead of her time.

Princess Kaguya

Directed by Isao Takahata

Written by Isao Takahata and Riko Sakaguchi

137 minutes

 

Review: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Ginger and Rocky are back... with a daughter called Molly

The other day I watched the sequel to Chicken Run -- Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Hard to believe the original was made 23 years ago! Aardman Animations is famous for making claymation stop-motion animation that's painstaking to make, but as a viewer, so much fun to watch. 

If you remember Chicken Run, the chickens bust out of the hen house when they realise chickens are being killed by Mrs Tweedy to make chicken pies. The chickens then settle in a place far away from farms and people.

Stop-motion animation is painstaking to make

In the sequel, the leader of the flock, Ginger, gets together with Rocky the Rooster and they have a baby chick called Molly, and becomes much like her mother.

But the chickens soon discover some development is afoot near where they live and Molly sees trucks going to a special place she wants to check out, but her mother doesn't want her to leave...

Dawn of the Nugget starts with a quick refresher for viewers who may not have remembered Chicken Run, and then fast-forwards to the present. All the old characters are still there, like Babs the bird who is sweet but clueless, Mac a Scottish chicken with some smarts, Fowler, the elderly rooster who constantly talks about his Royal Air Force days, and the two rats, Nick and Fetcher who help the chickens.

Part of the storyline involves some other chickens living in a utopia, which immediately reminded me of Barbie! What a strange coincidence, which in a way made it more amusing. 

This utopia scene looked familiar to Barbie

Nevertheless the action scenes were quite clever and unexpected, while the humour was a bit muted, but funny towards the end.

Mel Gibson wasn't called back to reprise his role, and was replaced by Rocky, while Julia Sawalha didn't return as Ginger either and instead Thandiwe Newton took on the role. 

People who watch Netflix will be able to see Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget on December 15 onwards. Good family fun for 98 minutes.