Tag: Animation

Top Scares from Fantasia’s Things That Go Bump in The East 2019 Shorts Program

We offer our top picks on which of Fantasia Festival’s “Things That Go Bump In The East” Shorts Program are must sees.

Fantasia Film Festival Basic Logo
Runs: July 11 – August 1st Montreal, Quebec

This year, Fantasia Festival‘s “Things That Go Bump In The East” Shorts Program offers an eclectic mix of animated works which I’m savoring like fine wine. This year featured eleven works and plenty are from the Tokyo University of the Arts. Some of these will no doubt screen at other film festivals. We can find a few online, like Shishigari (a wonderful tale of survival with elements of Mononoke Hime tossed in) and the others–they are worth seeking to get your scream on.

Various cinematic and illustration styles are used to deliver the goosebumps. In what makes these films unique is in how the animators push the envelope not only in how 2D Digital Animation can tell the story but also with how Asian filmmakers are defining an age old genre.

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The NFB and National Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous
(To Wake Up the Nakota Language by Louise BigEagle. Photo: © Taryn Snell/NFB)

For National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is marking the second anniversary of the launch of its Indigenous Action Plan with a slate of 40 Indigenous-led works in development, production or recent release—while delivering on a commitment to devote a minimum of 15% of its production spending on Indigenous works, one year ahead of schedule.

The NFB’s Indigenous Action Plan is a response to the TRC’s calls to action and systemic inequities in Canada’s screen sector facing Indigenous creators. The plan was drafted in collaboration with an Indigenous advisory group and contains 33 commitments in four main areas: organizational transformation, industry leadership, production, and distribution. In its plan include advances in community engagement, online accessibility, educational resources, and hiring, as well as adopting new industry protocols for working with Indigenous creators and content.

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Is Garmadon the Oni One in Season 10 of LEGO Ninjago?

IndigenousBy Ed Sum

(The Vintage Tempest)

It’s an end of an era for LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu Videos. March of the Oni, the latest season, is essentially a movie split into four episodes. It brings the Oni arc (which started in Sons of, season eight) to an end. In what keeps me coming back, despite a retcon of this villain is in how the good guys value brotherhood above all else. Bad guys rarely give their fellow warriors their due and, as a result, consistently fail in a fight.

Jay, Zane, Nya, Cole, and Lloyd have seen how brothers can turn upon brothers in season four, Tournament of the Elements. With season six, Skybound, the pirates whom the Djinn Nadakhan enslaved were not truly honour bound. Even the serpents, skeletons and ghosts they faced had snide remarks amongst the ranks. Even when Lloyd was trying to do bad things, the Serpentine clan recognised problems and did little because of a misfired attempt by the leader to hypnotise the tyke.

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[Victoria Film Festival ’15] Examining the Folklore behind Song of the Sea

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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11am Feb 9
The Vic Theatre
Victoria, BC

3pm Feb 14
Star Cinema
Sidney, BC

With only a trailer to go by, this animation by the production house Cartoon Saloon, who produced Secret of Kells, will go far. It’s a guaranteed winner for its cultural aesthetic and expansion of a traditional mythic tradition about the Selkie, supernatural creatures found in Irish and Scottish folklore. They can transform from seal to human and vice versa. These beings are well-known to those living in the Orkney Islands, and their proliferation into Celtic popular culture can be found in many a piece of literature or found featured in a play.

On an island located west of Canada, there’s some Scottish tradition to be found. Some audiences may have been introduced to the lore about the Selkie during last year’s Victoria Fringe Festival by Voice Box Theatre Company’s low-budget Cirque du Soleil style performance, “Selkie Tales.” To have a follow-up of sorts as part of this year’s Victoria Film Festival’s Family Day Program is a blessing of the faeries.

To understand what these supernatural sea-faring folk are about means delving into what little documentation there is. In the surviving folklore, there is no agreement as to how often the selkie-folk were able to carry out the transformation. Some tales say it was once a year, usually Midsummer’s Eve, while others state it could be “every ninth night” or “every seventh stream.” (1)

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Legend of Korra: Book 4 Trailer Revealed!

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Legend of Korra

Avatar: The Legend of Korra will be seen on Nick.com beginning October 3, and the trailer indicates series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are not holding back in deciding the fate of the world. That’s going to be a week away and to see what will happen next looks like this final chapter picks up days after the events from the last season. With the Air Nation swiftly back in full swing, they have a lot more to deal with as the world gets ready for another war. This time, the Earth Nation is the antagonist.

The future is looking grim as Korra embarks on a new quest. She may well be looking to mend the lacerations that has severed her from accessing her past, to speak with the avatars from long ago. The symbolic cutting of her hair indicates that. And in who she finds in her travels certainly makes this coming season perhaps just as equally exciting. Lord Zuko is back and so is another character from this series’ past as the last moments of this trailer indicates:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCEFMY4TWGw?rel=0%5D