Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Toys in the Attic [Blu-ray]



Interesting, unique, a little scary for the younger crowd i.e. not Toy Storyesque
This film is actually a recycling of a 2009 Czech Republic film. I saw it when abroad and while it is a distinctive and visually appealing stop-motion film, some of the characters are quite scary/disturbing, especially the cigar toting vile bust/statue known as "Head." Head leads the evil "side" of the attic against the peace loving "side" of the attic. A rag-tag group from the peace loving side must overcome the evil Head and rescue a kidnaped antique doll. The voice casting is great, lots of big names and the stop-motion filming is artistic, however, the dark edge of the film may steer this towards the tweens and up (maybe 8-10 and up?). If you're not sure, you might want to preview it before the kids get a chance to see it. Other than the caution for the scary factor, definitely worth viewing artsy imaginative work.

Awesome!
I mean really, I stand in awe.

I didn't know, at first, that this was by Jiri (pronounced kind of like "Year-zhee") Barta. That would have sold me right then, since Czech animators and Barta in particular display senses of the macabre, joyous, heroic, delicate, and mysterious all at once. (Since so many of them worked, or tried to, during the Soviet oppression, that seems rather natural.)

This, like any brilliant work of art, works at many levels. Physically the puppets and objects combine Svankamjer's sensibilities with Joseph Cornell's supply closet. In image creation, Barta melds live action with flip-books (or something close), stop animation, overdrawing, and I don't know what-all in computer animation and postproduction. The stop-animated puppets, however, embody unique personalities in their materials, structure, and articulation, even before you hear them sspeak,

Skipping ahead, I have to applaud the English language rendering. Taken in itself,...

toys in the attic
these toys looked after each other with great care! thats what made me enjoy all the adventures of each toy! great show!

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