Alternate Animation - page 2

02-07-2008 11:03

With a gross of over £231 million it's one of the most successful Japanese anime movies of all time and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

Or you could always watch movies that are a little closer to home with Aardman Animations, the people behind the success of Wallace and Gromit.

Despite early success with the likes of A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers it wasn't until 2005 that they released their first feature length project Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

In true Wallace and Gromit style the film was the worldwide number one for three consecutive weeks and bagged creator Nick Park his fourth Oscar.

In the last couple of years French cinema has been gaining a foothold in the animation sector of the movie industry and enjoying major success.

In 2005 Belleville Rendez-Vous was released about an elderly woman who was searching for her grandson who was kidnapped during the Tour de France.

The film caught the attention of the Academy and it was nominated for best Animated Feature.

And this year they have enjoyed further success with the film Persepolis from Iranian filmmaker Marjan Satropi.

Shot in black and white the film is based on the graphic novels by Satropi which told of her oppressive childhood set to a backdrop of the Iranian Revolution.

Like Belleville Rendez-Vous before it the film was nominated in the animation category at the Oscars and was France's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film, but it was not nominated.

Also worth a look is anime pictures Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Steamboy and Vexille as well as A Scanner Darkly which used rotoscoping technology where director Richard Linklater filmed live actors before animating over them.

However if non of this tickles your fancy Kung Fun Panda is released 4th July

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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