Tengu Taiji: a lively and comical animated folk tale from an early Japanese pioneer
Noburu Ofuji aka Fuyo Koyamano, “Tengu Taiji” (1934) A very comical tale about a town besieged by tengu – dangerous goblin spirits with the characteristics of…
Animated Films
Ugokie kori no tatehiki: the battle between fox and racoon dog spirits given fast energy and wacky style
Ikuo Oishi, “Ugokie kori no tatehiki” (1933) Japanese animators in the 1930s sure loved the Max Fleischer style of animation and Ikuo Oishi was no different:…
Entotsuya Peroo: a little man’s adventures exposing the devastation and brutality of war
Yoshitsugu Tanaka, “Entotsuya Peroo” (1930) Known also as “Chimney Sweep Peroo”, this unusual animated film made in 1930 relies on silhouette or shadow animation to tell…
Danemon’s Monster Hunt at Shojoji: an early though not remarkable animated tale of a samurai’s adventure
Yoshitaro Kataoka, “Danemon’s Monster Hunt at Shojoji / Shojoji no tanuki-bayashi Dan Dan’emon” (1935) While looking for something else on Youtube, I found this uncaptioned short…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
A bombastic tale of quest, physical and spiritual, in “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification”
Teng Cheng, Li Wei, “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification” (2020) Inspired by the 16th-century Chinese novel by Xu Zhonglin, “The Investiture of the Gods”, itself based…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Tusalava: a unique animated classic inviting many interpretations
Len Lye, “Tusalava” (1929) It must have been astonishing enough when it was first released with its original piano music score by woefully under-rated Australian experimental…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Nullarbor: laconic little road movie on the need to work together
Alister Lockhart, Patrick Sarell, “Nullarbor” (2011) Across the longest stretch of straight road through the flat desert that is the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia is…
Azarkant: a good-looking sci-fi piece short on plot and character
Andrey Klimov, “Azarkant” (2013) Made as a proof-of-concept piece for a film, “Azarkant” understandably is short on plot and character to the extent that it plays…
British Films, North American Films
Invaders: a whimsical Christmas SF film provides some sobering food for thought about human social needs
Daniel Prince, “Invaders” (2018) Playing as a homage and parody of the 1980s film “Batteries Not Included” in which a bunch of tiny extraterrestrial cyborg spaceships…
French and French-language Films
Royal Madness: a fun cartoon on finding a new purpose in life
Mriganka Bhuyan, Romain Couderette, Eunbyeol Ko, Sean Lewis, Milan Salmona, Wenkai Wang, “Royal Madness” (2019) Not one of the better offerings from the 2019 Gobelins graduation…