The Buzz: July 2006

Animated Features of 2006: Funny Animals and Assorted Strangeness

Hollywood's cycle of CGI comedies, headed by Pixar's Cars, is still going strong. Talking animals are the dominant theme: DreamWorks has Over the Hedge, Core has The Wild, Nickelodeon has Barnyard and Aardman has Flushed Away. And that's a partial listing. Some people are delighted to see the animated feature scene in full bloom; others are wishing the crop had more variety.

But scratch the surface and you'll find a number of more offbeat movies...

First of all there's A Scanner Darkly, a digitally rotoscoped science fiction film based - like Blade Runner - on a novel by Philip K. Dick.

Next is Christian Volckman's movie Renaissance, a futuristic thriller rendered in stark black and white. It has already been released in France, and will reach American cinemas in September - view the official site here. Also from Europe is the German/Danish part live action film Princess, the story of a priest who takes his deceased porn star sister's daughter under his wing, before trying to clear his sister's reputation by any means necessary. The movie has already been released in Denmark, but its site doesn't list any US release dates.

And perhaps the weirdest of the lot is the appropriately named We Are the Strange, an intriguing mixture of Japanese-style animation, stop motion in the tradition of cult British duo the Brothers Quay, and 8-bit video game graphics; the website, which contains a trailer, speaks for itself.

posted: Jul 23, 2006 by MonkeyFunk