The NFB Ho Ho Holidays channel is back with more goodies than ever: seasonal classics, recent works and family favourites. It’s a good mix of live-action and animated material. There’s 53 films in all that you can watch for free!
This year, this company is offering up a few pieces of line art for anyone to colour up! I encourage folks to to print out the drawings and once painted up with your favourite markers, take a quick picture on a smartphone and post it online on Facebook or Twitter to share (with the hashtag #NFB.)
This documentary is engaging. Director Julien Faraut mixes up the old (archival footage) with the new (interviews) and blends it with the anime, Attack No. 1.
By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
The Cinematheque 1131 Howe Street Vancouver BC
Sept 16-19, 22 (please check link for showtimes) Playing online: September 16–29
The Witches of the Orientis a deceptive title. Unless you are reading the plot teaser, you won’t know this sports film is about the triumphs of the 1964 Japanese Olympic volleyball team. These ladies who are still living today fondly recall their glory days, their training, and how they feel (past and present) about their achievement. Most of them were workers at a textile factory in Kaizuka, Japan, and in some ways, the title is about the magical connection they’ve formed during their training to aim for the top, Gunbuster style. Though this anime is about giant robots and excelling in the battlefield, the title is inspired from older sports cartoons. The aesthetic of a getting a group of ladies fully trained by a determined coach shows why the narrative is familiar. The real life Olympic team had to deal with the demanding Hirofumi Daimatsu.
Technically, their competitors saw them as Oriental Witches. Instead of taking it as a derogatory statement, the Japanese team took it as a term of endearment. They weren’t upset either. I suspect they were fussing over how they’ve stayed true to themselves. As they toured the world in exhibition matches, we can see why they are a finely tuned and fierce team on the volleyball field.
For more information, please visit the official website.
Coming to PVOD in Canada Rent it at home July 2!
Not everyone will have seen Peter Rabbit 2. This film may have hopped, skipped or jumped past certain theatres and purists (those who know the source material by Beatrix Potter) are more likely to pass this film series up than try to watch. I enjoy this modern update as it introduces him to a new generation where he’s not quite as rascally as Bugs Bunny and nor is he a Winnie the Pooh.
Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) is more or less considered this bunny’s (voiced by James Corden) handler. This film picks up from where the last left off. He married Bea (Rose Byrne) and she proves Pete is “marketable.” Her children’s books about the rabbit are popular enough to get the attention of a huge publisher. She’s being courted to sell the rights so that the bigwigs can send the bunny to places akin to how a certain beagle has become huge for Apple TV. This other series no longer has the same quality as Charles Schultz‘s works.
Let’s face it, Tom the Cat can’t catch Jerry the Mouse no matter how hard he tries. Over the decades, these miscreants of their animal genus should be ashamed of themselves. Not even their own kin look kindly at them. Well, maybe the rodent might fare better. The two are rivals. The early cartoons are often about one trying to annoy or outsmart the other.
Their antics can’t carry a movie, and the shorts from long ago are far more effective than any feature length attempts. Those pieces are essentially Mack Sennett slapstick comedies, and the reason we love to watch them is that observing others beat up on one another is therapeutic.
Life is not a bed of roses either. The star is Kayla Forester (Chloë Grace Moretz), out of work and needing a new job. She’s certainly a smooth operator and fibs her way into a hotel management position, and pretty soon these cartoon characters get involved.
My guess is that we have too many similar movies where realizing Bubblegum Crisis is just not not viable
By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
The time is right for a Bubblegum Crisis live-action film. The digital special effects needed to pull off such a tale is at a state where people in power armour suits look believable and the robots they are supposed to fight–cyborgs (known as Boomers in the lore)–can look terrifyingly real. Alita: Battle Angel is the perfect example. But where is it?
Since the early part of this decade, nothing has materialized. IGN’s article stated, “Production houses from Singapore, Japan, Australia, Canada, China and the UK will work together on the $30m movie, with a 2012 release planned.” Many years have passed since then, and perhaps the reason nothing has happened is that either the technology is not quite there or they could not find the right performers to play the seminal characters of Sylia Stingray, Priss Asagiri, Linna Yamazaki, and Nene Romanova.
The NFB Ho Ho Holidays channel is back with more goodies than ever: seasonal classics, recent works and family favourites. It’s a good mix of live-action and animated material. There’s 53 films in all that you can watch for free!
By Ed Sum
Ed Sum 
