Waltz with Bashir (2008) (Israel)

Explicitly well built yet grimly presented with high contrast animation Waltz with Bashir is a documentary film from Israel. Though it is a documentary its surprisingly entertaining in an equal way to a feature film that builds a strong plot using speculation and reaches a point of realism at it’s peak. The horrifying reality about Waltz with Bashir is that its not fiction but it is the story of a dark event that took place in West Beirut, Lebanon in 1982 which later the world identified as the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Director Ari Folman is on a path of self-realization when he interviews several veterans from the period of the invasion of Lebanon. And this movie represents those interviews and the findings in a very creatively laid out animation based cinematography.  The style of animation it self looks unique and very original and when it mixes with the details of the story there is very thin line between reality and animated characters. As the story telling style is attractive and appealing the viewers are carried to a certain point when they are bombarded with a brief session of live news footage. It is surprisingly well made and the presentation of this certain event is built to last a lifetime in the memory.

Waltz with Bashir is not just another documentary about war and barbaric human behavior. It is something more that has the capacity to reach in to deep corners of the mind and haunts viewer for times to come. And when it comes to events like this being haunted is essential as nothing comes close to the true pain and suffering the real victims went through.

My score 4/5

Genre: Drama | Documentary | Biography | Animation

Director: Ari Folman

"Vals Im Bashir" (original title)

Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina (2007) Ratings: Genre 3.5/5 | Overall 2.5/5

Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina is the brilliant second installment of the Appleseed (2004). It’s a continuation to the futuristic plot surrounding human girl Deunan Knute and her Hybrid worrier boyfriend Brialeos Hecatombcales. This is a continue to the Appleseed (2004) story line by taking it further towards the future and brings in better animation and better actions sequences to life. 

This time Duenan and Brialeos team up with a Bioroid Tereus who is created using DNA of Brialeos. While this takes a toll on both Duenan and Brialeos emotions they keep it aside and fight a common terrorist who threatens to disturb the known life at the Utopian city of Olympus. When the world satellite networks falls on the hand of this high tech and visionary terrorist and humans and bioroids becomes his slaves Olympuse’s own force E.S.W.A.T struggles to save the city. 

There are clear improvements to the animation quality of this movie from its predecessor with more details and more clarity and bigger and better conceptual thinking involved. Even the machinery and the war craft itself has improved. There are few familiar characters continuing their appearance in their new CG form and both Duenan and Brialeos are in their full glory with better detailing. Same goes with action sequences as well. The first half hour of the movie maybe has too much of a dose of action but soon the story falls in to place and calm down a bit. 

Talking of the plot it is slightly less appealing than from its big brother. Maybe since the viewers are already familiar with the base of Appleseed and this movie is not delivering anything extraordinary or surprising. But there is good flow though it has noticeable plot holes and weak points. But the emotions between the two main characters are somewhat deeply revealed and their relationship evolves to a new stage. 

All in all Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina is a clear improvement to its predecessor and worth checking out. As this would be last known installment of the story and the latest installment after this is a prequel. 

Genre: Animation | Action | Sci Fi

Director: Shinji Aramaki

Appleseed (2004) Ratings: Genre 4/5 | Overall 3/5

This certain type of a futuristic sci fi animation is mostly scene from Japanese animation studios and most of them are literally mind blowing. They carry purely creative futuristic settings, technology, action and eye popping details to start with. Though most of the serious sci fi fans will despite the plots in most of them still they are the kind of movies that will keep you engaged for a long time if you are a fan. Appleseed (2004) is one of such wonderful animation movies from Japan and first one of its trilogy. And it’s based on the comic book by the creator of Ghost in the Shell (1995).

Appleseed follows the earth after the 3^rd world war which has almost wiped out the entire economic and social system as we know now. And the world is completely in ruins and several groups keep on fighting for their territories. The war is taken over by high tech machinery and only the bravest fighter’s fights in flesh in the front. And in a distant place a Utopian society exists in harmony with humans and human like half machines knows as bioroids. Worrier Deunan is bought in to this peaceful society from the action packed frontline to realize that her known to have disappeared boy friend Briareos also lives there and he is also a different kind of half machine half human right now. Deunan starts to wonder what purpose she can serve in this society when she soon realizes that the battle for mankind is far from over. 

Appleseed has simply jaw dropping quality animation. It will be the first thing that would grab the viewer from the throat and then the action kicks in. The animation is a mix of 3d and 2d graphics which gives a certain blended beauty. Though this type of action and animation is witnessed earlier Appleseed does it really well. The viewer gets to engulf in a deep and thoughtful plot which reveals with solid explanations to the technology and rational of its existence. If you’re watching a subtitled version this section can be a bit tiresome. (I have seeing both subtitled and English dubbed so I know this for a fact). Though the plot is not perfect it is quite good for a war based action sci fi and it’s entertaining enough. 

With limited character development and superficial plot Appleseed has the potential to fail. Yet I feel like it had done a good job in most legs though it is not perfect. As I have now seeing the trilogy in full I certainly admire it more. This is a good start. 

Directors : Shinji Aramaki , Steven Foster,  Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Original title: Appurushîdo

Genre: Sci Fi | Action | Animation

The Lego Movie (2014) Ratings Genre 4.5/5 | Overall 3.5/5

What do men crave for? Cars!! And what do small boys crave for? Legos! But the good thing is while there is an age for cars, Lego’s has none!!

When the first few scenes opened up I thought to myself “oh this looks very strange with all these cubes as characters with sharp corners and it’s definitely going to be boring”. But guess what? I was shamefully very wrong. The Lego movie was amazing. I repeat it’s AMAZING.

In the world of Lego land the evil president Lord Business is planning to destroy everyone. And a normal construction worker Emmet is selected to avoid it as per an ancient prophesy. But soon the Lego land realizes that this construction worker is not the chosen one. And he is challenged with proving that he is the right one for the job.

The Lego Movie is a fast phased and mesmerizingly colorful movie. In Lego land you will miss a lot if you blink. So for some it could be a bit tiresome to keeping up with the speed but once you get on board the speed train it’s a super fun ride. And surprises wait at every turn. And beware every line is funny! This has some super characters including good cop mixed bad cop voiced by Liam Neeson, Vitruvious voiced by Morgan Freeman and Batman voiced by Will Arnet. And that’s just a few of them. There is a bunch of superheroes, NBA players, Star Wars characters, Cowboys and so on which makes The Lego Movie an awesome mix of voice plays.

Coming to the eye candy animation the work done there is simply crazy. Though at the start it looks a bit weird the animators proves that animation potential is endless and anything is possible. The brilliant animation quality teamed with upbeat music tracks brings the true joy of the Lego land.

Big studio animations are becoming larger and larger by the year. Yet we seldom come across something ground breaking and mind blowing. The Lego Movie is one of such fantastic animation that definitely blows away the minds of the viewer. It’s insanely creative with super different animation quality and comes with a fantastic story and belly tickling humor. In my book this is the best animation of a different kind after Wreck it Ralph (2012).

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Fantasy

Directors : Phil Lord, Christopher Muller

The Wind Rises (2013) Genre: 4.5/5 Overall 4/5

For anyone who is familiar with the earlier works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli from Japan should not be needing an introduction to this movie. The Wind Rises is a long awaited anime from Miyazaki and just as expected it is a wonderful piece of cinema where Japanese animators have yet again proven that they cannot be compared to any other animators but themselves. The Wind Rises is special in its own ways and this time more than being entirely fictional the plot follows the biography of Jiro Horikoshi (1903–1982), designer of the Mitsubishi A5M and its successor, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero air crafts. Both the air crafts were known to have played a key role in the WW2 and a pride of Japanese warfare.

The story unfolds at the time of Jiro is a small boy having big dreams of flying. But due to his issues with eye sight he decides to design air crafts instead. And this big dreamer works nonstop towards achieving his goals. The story also follows his love life with a girl he devotedly fall in love with and their short yet beautiful love story. The combination of these two one mechanic and one emotional story lines strangely yet wonderfully has woven a memorable movie together. It’s indeed fantastic to witness how Miyazaki has put these two stories in to one and give them equal capacity without harming the essence of the whole movie.

Just as all Miyazaki movies The Wind Rises has lot of laughs, fantasies, love and then brief moments of sadness and tears. All of this is depicted through breathtaking cinematography created via paintings that at times makes your jaw drop. There is no doubt that Japanese anime artist are the best environmental painters in the world and each scene shows it over and over. I had to pause the movie so many times just to get my eyes full of those amazing details on the frames. This here my friends is pure art and you cannot escape its beauty.

Beautiful story line that has a perfect start, middle and ending combined with correct flow The Wind Rises is another unforgettable anime. It is a must watch for anime lovers.

"Kaze tachinu" (original title)

Genre: Animation | Biography | Drama

Director : Hayao Miyazaki

Frozen (2013) Rating 2.5/5

Animations have come a long way. Year by year we see spectacular works which beats one over the other and most of the time the viewers are struck with amusement and surprises. Being said that it’s sad to say that Frozen is not one of those animations though it’s coming from Disney an expert.

When Queen Elsa leaves her kingdom in eternal winter after she uses her magical abilities, her sister Anna is set to save the day. On her journey she is accompanied by a handsome peasant and a funny snowman.

Frozen is a musical animation which has ample number of tunes in it. However except for one or two the rest sound mundane and just jumps in and out of the movie without adding much value. The animation however is eye pleasing. Though most of the stuff looks white there are certain attractiveness given with vivid details.

Where the movie really let down the viewer is when it comes to the story and characters. It strongly starts as a movie surrounding peasants but quickly transform in to a castle where things starts to move slow and from a certain point it becomes very predictable. Same goes with the characters. Most of them turn out to be pretty plastic. The ones who are interesting in some way are not human. 

Despicable Me 2 (2013) Rating 3/5

The most adorable and the prominent change in this movie from its previous installment is the increased involvement of the Minions. And that indeed is a good decision made by the producers noticing how those short cute creatures has influenced the viewers right from the start. Talking about the movie as a whole it doesn’t let you down. The story is good and indeed the humor. Gru and the kids are again completely adorable. The beauty of the movie is totally in the awesome CG department which is commendable. Where many new animations movies struggle to make a mark this movie still holds its flags high. And I always thought that stealing the moon is a very cool idea.

Despicable Me 2 (2013) Rating 3/5

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

From what I saw 2012 was not a great year for animation movies. There has being quite a few good ones but most of them had this ‘being there done that’ feeling. But finally this one does the magic. By far this is one of the most creative ideas coming to life in an animation and could be the best of that sort in 2012. Maybe I feel that way because I have being a fan of computer games from its early stage and some of the characters and games in this are awaking memories. And for a fact the set of characters in this is truly creative and wonderfully crafted using computer magic. When it comes to the story it is a total satisfying one as well. It doesn't drag or become predictable. And right from the start is amusing to see how it rolls out. A very good job done by Disney crew that will be remembered for a long time, just like we remembered Toy Story.

 

මගේ හැඟීමට අනුව 2012 වසර පරිගණක සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටි වලට ඉතාමත්ම හොඳ වරක් නොවෙයි. බොහෝ චිත්‍රපටි කරලියට පැමිණියත් ඒවායේ යම් කිසි මින් පෙර දුටු හුරු බවක් තිබීම නිසාම ඒවා එතරම්ම ඉස්තරම් ගණයට අයත් නොවුනි. නමුත් අවසානයේදී මේ චිත්‍රපටිය ඒ සියල්ල අභිබවා විජාවක් මෙන්විමට සමත්ව තිබේ. මෙතෙක් කල් බිහි වුනු පරිගණක සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටි අතුරින් මෙය ඉතා අසමසම කතාවකින් හෙබි වන අතර 2012 වසරේ තිර ගත වුනු වඩාත්ම හොඳ සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටිය විය හැකිය. සමහරක් විට මා හට එසේ සිතෙන්නේ කුඩා කල සිටම පරිගණක ක්‍රීඩා වලට තිබුණු ඇල්ම නිසා විය හැකි අතර මෙහි එන චරිත සහ කතාව බොහෝ මතකයන් පුබුදුවන එකක් වෙයි. එම චරිත ඉතා නිර්මානශිලිව පරිගණක භාවිතයෙන් නිමවා ඇති අයුරූ ඇත්තෙන්ම සුන්දරය. එමන්ම මෙහි එන කතාවත් තෘප්තිමත් එකක්. එය කිසි සෙත් කම්මැලි හෝ දිවැසින් කිව හැක්කක් නොවී ස්ථාවරව ගලා යන්නේ ප්‍රේක්ෂකයා පුදුමයට පත් කරමින්. මින් පෙර තිර ගත වුනු Toy Story වැනි චිත්‍රපටි මෙන් මේ චිත්‍රපටියද නැවුම් අත්දැකීමක් වන අතර බොහෝ කලක් මතකයේ රැඳෙන්නක් වනු ඇත. ඩිස්නි සමාගමේ නිරමානශීලි සමුහයේ හොඳ නිෂ්පාදනයක්.

 

I rate this 3.5/5

 

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Animation

 

Synopsis: A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives. (IMDB)

 

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

2012 has seeing enough of animations coming from big studios about monsters. And this is the final of it. I must say it does have a really cool plot. Very creative and very well pulled off. And the humor is fantastic.

 

But Im not nearly satisfied about the animation. There is lot going in this but nothing seems to be like unique or out of the ordinary. The bottom line is it’s too many characters jumbled in to one and its not good as when Shrek did it. But all in all its a fun watch. Blah Bla Blah Blaaahhh

 

2012 වසර අමනුෂ්‍යයින් ගැන කියැවුණු විනෝදාත්මක සජීවිකරණ චිතපරි වලින් ගහන එකක්. මේ එහි අවසාන එකයි. මෙහි එන කතාවනම් ඉතා විනෝදජනක එක බව කිව යුතුයි. එය අද්විතීය එකක් වන අතර හොඳින් නිෂ්පාදනය වී තිබෙනවා. එමෙන්ම මේ ඇති තරම් හාස්‍යයද ගැබ් වී තිබෙනවා.

 

නමුත් පරිගණක සජීවිකරණය ඇතිනම් මා හට එතරම්ම සතුටක් දැනෙන්නේ නැහැ. මින් පෙර දැක පුරුදු ගතියක් සහ සිනමා ලොවට නැවුම් යමක් ඒ ඇති එක වුනු වගක් නොදැනෙය්. කොටින්ම කිවහොත් විශාල චරිත ගොඩක් එකට එක් කොට නිපදවුනත් ශ්‍රෙක් තරම් අපුරුවට එය කිරීමට මේ චිත්‍රපටිය අපොහොසත් බවයි මගේ හැඟීම. ඒ කෙසේ වෙතත් ඉතා විනෝදජනක චිත්‍රපටි අත්දැකීමක්.

 

I rate this 3/5

 

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Animation | Comdedy

 

Synopsis: Dracula, who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter.(IMDB)

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) (Japan/Japanese)

Nobody can do cartoons like the Japanese do. They have the drawing skills, style and stories that are purely nothing less than mesmerizing. This one is another such fantastic anime coming from Studio Ghibli the famous anime factory that bought number of great movies to light. And it has a magical story that connects mythical creatures and children which somewhat is a common factor for many Japanese anime I have witnessed. But each of them though the characters look alike or theme maybe the same are still very different from each other and simply lovable. This movie is wrapped upon Totoro a mystical creature who is a forest god that is chubby and cuddly reminds of a half teddy bear and a half rabbit and very very cute. And so does the children who are naughty, funny and a joy to see. Running with a good phase and one after another stunning scenes My Neighbor Totoro is a very nice anime that brings joy at heart.

 

ජපන්නුන්ට වගේ කාටුන් අඳින්න කාටවත්ම බැහැ. ඔවුන්ට චිත්‍ර ශිල්පිය හැකියාව, ශයිලිය සහ සිත වශී කරවන කතාන්තර නිතැතින්ම හිමිවුණු දායාද. “ටෝටොරෝ මගේ අසල්වැසියා” යන මේ චිත්‍රපටියත් එවැනි සුන්දර ඇනිමේ වර්ගයේ චිත්‍රපටියක්. එය අප වෙත ගෙන එන්නේ ප්‍රසිද්ධම ජපන් ඇනිමේ රුපාගාරය වන ගිබ්ලි වෙතින්. ඔවුන් විසින් මින් පෙර ගෙන එන ලද ඇනිමේ චිත්‍රපටි ඔබ ඕනෑ තරම් රස විඳ ඇතුවාට සැක නැහැ. ඒ ගොඩක් කතා මනංකල්පිත ප්‍රාණීන් සහ කුඩා දරුවන් මුලික කරගත් ඒවා. මෙයත් එවැනිම කතාවක් වුවත් එහි චරිත පෙනුමෙන් අනෙක් චිත්‍රපටි වල සිටින දරුවන්ට ගොඩක් සමාන වුවත් මේ චිත්‍රපටියටත් අනෙක් ඒවාට වගේම ඇලුම් නොකරම බැහැ. මේ කතාවේ ඉන්න ටෝටොරෝ බූල් බෝලයක් වගේ ලස්සන හාවෙක් සහ පුළුන් වලසෙක් මතකයට නංවන පෙනුමක් සහිත හුරතල් රුක් දෙවියෙක්. ඒ වගේම දරුවන්ද හුරතල්, දඟකාර, විනෝදකාමී අය. ඉතා හොඳ වේගයකින් සහ එකක් පසු පස එකක් දිග හැරෙන ලස්සනම ලස්සන චිත්‍ර පෙලකින් පිරි මේ චිත්‍රපටිය හදවතට සතුට දනවන එකක්.

 

I rate this 3/5

 

-Priyantha Bandara

 

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Anime | Fantasy

 

Synopsis: When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby.(IMDB)

Frankenweenie (2012)

This is a very creative and a unique plot coming from Tim Burten again. You know the eerie looking characters and the horrific plot in his movies are his style. And to add to that this time it’s coming in black and white which is an ideal choice for this movie. Frankenweenie has a perfect combination of humor and thrill that makes a good movie that can be enjoyed by fans of all ages.

 

ටීම් බර්ටන් ගෙන එන තවත් නිර්මානාත්මක සහ වෙනස් තේමාවක් රැගත් චිත්‍රපටියක් මෙය. ඔබ දන්නවා ඔහුගේ චිත්‍රපටි වල සිටින අද්භූත පෙනුමැති චරිත සහ භය උපදවන කතාවන් ඔහුගේ නිර්මාණ ශයිලිය බව. ඒවගේම ඒ ශය්ලිය තවත් තීව්ර කරමින් මෙවර මෙය ඉදිරිපත් වන්නේ කළු සුදු වර්ණයෙන්. ෆරැන්කන්විනී හාස්‍යය සහ ත්‍රාසය අතර හොඳින් සමබර වුනු වයස් භේදයකින් තොරව රස විඳිය හැකි චිත්‍රපටියක්.

 

තම මිය ගිය බලු සුරතලා වන ෆ්රැන්කිට නැවත වරක් පන දෙන වික්ටර් හට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවන අනපේක්ෂිත ප්‍රශ්න ගොඩක් මෙහි කතාවට මුල් වෙයි.

 

I rate this 2.5/5

 

-Priyantha Bandara

 

Frankenweenie (2012)

Animation

 

Synopsis: Young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences.(IMDB)

 

Paranorman (2012)

To start with this one is not the usual sweet animation. It is eerie, scary and bit yucky. So it’s different. Seldom have we seen animations of this sort. There is lot of screaming, falling body parts and floating ghosts. But don’t get too alarmed. It’s not that gory. When it comes to plot it’s not the greatest one ever made but its good enough to keep the movie going. There are enough humor and bunch of cool characters that fits in well (including dead people). Overall it cannot compete much with the big animations out there. But production and direction wise is it something to see. The stop motion animation is simply superb. Maybe the best ever made (Or maybe I have not seeing the best so far).

 

(From this point onward it's translation in Sinhala language)

 

මෙය නිතර දැක පුරුදු සුන්දර තේමාවක් රැගත් සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටියක් නම් නොවෙය්. එය බියකරු, ත්‍රාසය පිරි එමෙන්ම තරමක් හිරිකිත එකක්. එහි ඇති තරම් මර ලතෝනි, කඩා හැලෙන ශරීර කොටස් සහ පාවෙන හොල්මන් තිබෙය්. නමුත් බිය නොවන්න. ඒවා හුදෙක් විනෝදජනක ඒවා මිසක බිහිසුණු ඒවා නොවේ. මේ කතාව අතිශය වෙනස් එකක් නොවුනත් චිත්‍රපටිය සමබරව ගෙන යාමට එය සමත්. මෙහි රසවත් චරිත ගොඩක් සහ හාස්‍යය අන්තර්ගතය් (හොල්මන් ඇතුළුව). සමස්තයක් වශයෙන් ගත් කල නිතර දකින සජීවිකරණ චිත්‍රපටි වලට අභියෝගයක් වීමට නොහැකි බව පෙනුනත් මෙහි සජීවිකරණ උත්සාහයනම් ඉතා හොඳයි. එමෙන්ම නිෂ්පාදන අගයද හොඳ බව කිව යුතුය්.

 

කතාව ගෙතෙන්නෙ මළවුන් සමග සුහද කතා බහේ දීමට සහජ හැකියාවක් ඇති කුඩා දරුවෙක් තම නගරයට ඇතිවන ප්‍රේත උවදුරක් දුරු කරලීමට උත්සාහ කරන ආකාරයයි. නගරයේ සියල්ලෝම මේ දරුවා දෙස දක්වන්නේ දැඩි අකමැත්තක් වුවත් අවසානයේදී ඔවුනට ඔහුගේ පිහිට අත්‍යාවශ්‍යය වනවා.

 

I rate this 3/5

-Priyantha Bandara

 

Paranorman (2012)

Animation| Adventure| Comedy

 

Synopsis: A misunderstood boy takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse. (IMDB)