Most Anticipated 2012 - Part 2

Back with the second installment of the Movie trailers! The first installment can be visited here. Of the twelve  movies listed there, six are out; four of which didn't disappoint at all! Not bad..... :) and two (is there a word for most anticipated of the most anticipated???) are coming up very very soon.... Yes I am talking about Brave and The Dark Knight Rises. It's going to be a good summer :)

Meanwhile.... here are a few more trailers for you to enjoy. Some are from the movies that I had mentioned in the previous post and some are new. Hope you enjoy them and may they pique your interest in the movies if you have not yet heard of them!

TO ROME WITH LOVE (previously NERO FIDDLED)

DJANGO UNCHAINED

THE GREAT GATSBY

LES MISRABLES

SKYFALL

COSMOPOLIS

FLIGHT

WRECK IT RALPH

ARGO

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

Happy watching! :)

The Secret World of Arrietty

I love the world of animation, be it tv series, short features or full length feature films. And who says that animated films or "cartoons" as they generically label them are for kids.....they are soooo mistaken and sadly are missing out o such great works of art. I agree, when you are first introduced to the world of animation, it is usually at a very young age and that too in the form of cartoons where animated characters are goofy and fun and cheeky and dumb and so it is easy to fall into the trap of belief that "cartoons" are meant only as a distraction for kids, to entertain them while moms and dads need their own time. Sure, there are cartoons that fall into that category, but do not underestimate the scope of the world of animation. There's a whole world of beautiful visual imagery and emotions and expressions that come alive by animation, the plus point being, you can create anything that your mind can imagine. Over the last many years I have grown up to see the art of animation evolve, but it is not necessary for one to use to latest technology to make an impact. No doubt, I am a big fan of the Pixar studios who, since their inception, have dished out one of the best animated features year after year. But, at the same time, there are others who also bring to us some great stories, not only in 3D computer animation but also in traditional animation, claymation, stop-motion etc.

Last week I watched the movie "The Secret World of Arrietty", a film by the Japanese animation and film studio "Studio Ghibli" written by Hayao Miyazaki and marking the debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi as a director.  Miyazaki is a great and acclaimed animator who has brought to us many wonderful and popular movies such as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo and many others. Like most of his movies, this one too has a strong female protagonist and follows the theme of courage, bravery, love, pacifism and "growing up". Arrietty, no taller than a teacup and 14 years old, is shown throughout the movie to be energetic, full of life, hope, optimism and courage. The story is based on an old novel called "The Borrowers" wherein these tiny people live there lives hidden from the eyes of human "beans" and borrow things that they need...mind you...not "want"...but "need" ... to survive...things they know will not be sorely missed by the "beans", like a sugar cube or a tissue paper or a discarded pin. Won't give away much of the plot here..... just a few outlines, like she lives with her father, a cautious level-headed borrower and her mother, a worrisome lady. She is young and bold and needs to know the ways of the world which is full of nosy human "beans", but she learns that not everyone is alike. The "beans" include a young boy Shawn who is ill and wants to be her friend, his kind aunt and a housekeeper Hara who's a busybody.

The hand-drawn animation is spectacular and full of rich colors and details, be it the lush garden landscape, or a miniature doll house or Arrietty's tiny bedroom. Its a beautiful and charming movie, but will make you feel the distress of the little people at the time of peril. It's a movie for everyone in the family. Watch it if you get a chance.

Most Anticipated 2012 - Part1

Ok ...... so 2 months of 2012 are already past. Most of January and February however has been really really busy for me so (a) I did not get to watch as many movies as I would have liked and (b) Most of those that I watched were either 2011 releases and oscar contenders or some old movies. The good thing is there weren't any "most anticipated" releases of this year in these months though I would not have minded seeing The Grey or Haywire.

March onward we see release of some movies that promise to be great. So will live up to their expectations, some may not. I am posting trailers of some movies that I am anticipating with high hopes (some much higher than others). But, then again, these are my choices which may very well be different from your. Take a look anyway :o)

JOHN CARTER

THE HUNGER GAMES

CHIMPANZEE

THE AVENGERS

PROMETHEUS

BRAVE

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

THE HOBBIT

THE BOURNE LEGACY

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN

ICE AGE CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Ok, so 12 trailers for you to watch and think about and look forward to :o)
Many others are announced to be released this year but the trailers are not out yet. Will put them up as soon as they are available. Meanwhile here's a list of them....you may send in your own suggestions if you wish.

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (probably Dec)
Steven Spielberg's  Lincoln
Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby (Dec again)
Sam Mendes' Skyfall ...the next Bond movie (Nov release)
Woody Allen's Nero Fiddled (June maybe)
Ang Lee's Life of Pi (Dec again)
Ben Affleck's Argo (probably Sept)
Andrew Domink's Cogan's Trade (Sept release)
Tom Tykwer and The Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas (probably Oct)
David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis
Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master
Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity (Nov release)

Wow....promises to be a good year!!!
Maybe there'll be a few more surprises and something unexpectedly exciting will come up and join the list!

Keep an eye out for the next part in the series (trailers). Till then...happy watching!!

Oscars 2011

The blog is new, and I am lazy......very lazy.....and so this post comes 2 days after the Oscars have been announced!
So instead of predicting winners, scrutinizing nominees and talking about what was IMO sorely left out of the race, let this be just a mandatory Oscar post. I promise to follow it up with other posts about the great, wonderful movies of 2011 which I watched and why I would recommend them to you.

A list of all nominees can be seen here. The Oscars go to ......

BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: Hugo or The Descendants

ACTOR in Leading Role: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: Frankly speaking...all were great!

ACTRESS in Leading Role: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: As is the case with actors.....I think every person nominated has done a great job. Problem is, I would have had perhaps 3 more nominees!!! A very very strong year for female performances. More of that coming up in the subsequent posts.

ACTOR and ACTRESS in Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Octavia Spencer (The Help)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango

Loved this win. Though have not seen all nominees, I loved this movie so much when I saw it that I instantly wanted it to win. Have heard great things about the other nominee Chico and Rita too. Need to catch them asap.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: A Separation

This was the only film that I have seen in this category and loved it so much that I was totally thrilled by the win and would have been heartbroken to see it lose out to any other. Left to me, I would probably have nominated it in all categories including best picture, best director, best actor, actress etc. Was glad to see a nomination in the screenplay, but lost out on it :( Read a blogpost on it here and here. 

BEST SHORT FILM (Live action and Animated): The Shore, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore repectively.

BEST SCREENPLAY (Original and Adapted): Midnight in Paris, The Descendants

Though A separation was a strong competitor, I am quite happy the Midnight in Paris won. Its an adorable movie (will talk about it soon in an upcoming post).

Others were technical awards, am glad Hugo bagged five of them, but also unhappy for many great movies that missed out.

So let the movie post marathon begin......

Gattu

The recently concluded Berlin Film festival had a section for films meant for children. It gave the "Special mention" award to India's entry GATTU.

Thanks to the new emerging Indian film making from low-key directors we do occasionally get to see brilliance on screen. Sadly, not a lot of it is well publicized and widely distributed because a) the audience is selected and b) it means high cost and low revenue. What a shame!

Let up hope that it does have a wide release in the near future and I hope to catch it then, or maybe in some film festival nearby.

"The sky is full of kites and none flies as high or fast as Kali. In order to beat the black kite, Gattu has to reach for the sky."

Watch the adorable trailer here:

For the love of Books and Movies

My hubby and I are huge movie buffs. By huge I mean HUUUGEEE! :)  We love watching movies, discussing them, reading trivia about them and also spreading the word about what we enjoyed.

With Oscars 2012 just around the corner we were lucky that this week in St.Louis they were showing all the nominated Short films in both the animated category as well as in live-action. For me, it was the first time that I had an opportunity to watch these movies on big-screen. Back in India, you have to rely either on the pirated discs sold or watch them illegally online. The charm of the big screen and the enthusiasm of watching the first screenings of these shorts made me doubly excited.

Short films are a different experience than a full fledged movie. Ranging from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, they represent a whole story or an idea and need to be convincing and touching within the short time span. All of them were awesome, some were simply great!

I found one of them online and am putting a link here for you to see. The title of this animated short film is "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore".
According to the writer and director William Joyce, it is a story " inspired in equal measures by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books". It is a "poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story". And I totally agree with it.

I hope you get to see the short films somewhere. If they are playing somewhere near you, or will play in the near future, don't miss the opportunity to watch them.

Update 26th Feb 2012: TFFBoMML won the best animated short Oscar.... yayy!!