Homework (due next class):
49 Comments
Gordon Hu
9/27/2018 03:07:42 pm
I am a big fan of Mad Max: Fury Road. I watched Mad Max before Rango, and at first, I thought the latter was ripping off the former. However, I soon discovered that Rango actually came out in 2011, a few years before Mad Max. Regardless, there were many similarities between the two films, particularly the chase sequence where Rango/Max and Beans/Furiosa are trying to protect the water jug/War Machine. Another scene that was quite similar was when the Mayor lifted up the circular thingy during the noon water ritual; in Mad Max, the emperor also manipulates his denizens by controlling the flow of the water. He also is "the bad guy" and hold up a circular object, in his case a steering wheel.
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Turese Anderson
9/28/2018 12:55:51 am
I watched Rango too, and I enjoyed it, but reading your comment makes me think it's just because I haven't watched enough movies of that genre to get sick of them yet. I recognized at least some of the cliches, but reading your plot summary of Mad Max in comparison made me realize that the movie just might not have been as fun and quirky and original as I had first thought.
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Stacy Fernandes
9/29/2018 11:43:46 pm
I think your comparison of Rango and Mad Max: Fury Road is interesting. I never thought about Mad Max: Fury Road being similar but after reading your comment, I can see the resemblance. Your post made me think about another film that is also a little similar, its called Waterworld. I think that the film was funny, though the characters could have been created better.
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Turese Anderson
9/28/2018 12:51:11 am
To be honest, I really didn't want to watch Rango. I couldn't get the Loving Vincent website to work, I couldn't find any other mirrors, and I couldn't convince myself to spend the money to rent the movie, so I settled for Rango, expecting to hate it based off of my memories of watching the first 15 minutes on Netflix on years ago and getting bored enough to turn it off.
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Gordon Hu
9/29/2018 03:09:50 am
I'm sorry to hear you had so much difficulty trying to watch Loving Vincent. After reading your response about Rango, I realize I might have been too much of a negative Nancy. I liked the character design of Rattlesnake Jake and the toad villager as well. Rattlesnake Jake was particularly effective as an intimidating villain, and I LOVED how his rattle was a machine gun. That was pretty dang cool.
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Luc Pogue
10/2/2018 05:56:22 pm
I also watched Rango, and am interested by your comments. I actually thought the art style was the most interesting part of it-- overall I really liked the character design, I think its 'ugliness' contributed heavily to the 'tough ol' West' vibe. Although, I do agree that Beans' character left much to be desired. Her moments of freezing up bothered me, and was never really addressed (and didn't seem to have a point? Other than she couldn't see where the water was dumped or something?). I also didn't love her character design, it kind of reminded me of like early 2000s Dreamworks movies like Antz or Shark Tale. Most of the other characters, however, I thought had nice designs (especially Rango himself).
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Cassiel Chadwick
9/29/2018 06:02:50 pm
I watched Loving Vincent - and the title's apt. The film is a memorial to Vincent Van Gogh: his life, his work, and the people surrounding him. So much care and attention in every frame. The team's passion speaks for itself.
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Oreste Turchetti
10/1/2018 11:50:22 am
I was surprised when they turned his death into a mystery, but it really worked well with the story. I started questioning what I knew about Van Gogh's death as the plot went on.
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Stacy Fernandes
9/29/2018 11:35:16 pm
Film: Rango
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Abigail Magat
10/1/2018 03:33:43 pm
Rango was dope, but I also did realize that the storyline and character development revolved a lot around him. I would've liked to see Bean grow and have more of a strong presence as well along with more townspeople. I just felt like it was a movie all about how Rango develops as the protagonist, making some of the people super irrelevant in the storyline.
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Riley Robinson
10/2/2018 05:40:38 pm
I agree with you that the film contains many of the western stereotypes, and I think it does a decent job of getting at the essence of these forms. In terms of the characters, your point is not something that I fully acknowledged, but after reading your post and thinking back, I definitely agree that it would have been better to see some of the other characters, such as beans, play a more substantial role/develop more. Ultimately, I think including more of the peripheral characters more directly in the action would have contributed to a fuller narrative experience.
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Oreste Turchetti
10/1/2018 12:06:05 am
I watched Loving Vincent for this response.
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Ryan Askew
10/1/2018 02:19:36 pm
I agree that the art/animation style employed here did not once feel gimmicky, as the similar effect used for the two films I mentioned in my post did at times, which was wonderful. However, while the story was also quite sad and beautiful, I do agree with Cassiel that it could have benefited from a lengthier run-time to provide a more fulfilling conclusion. As it stands, the ending seemed somewhat abrupt and rushed, in my opinion, almost as if the writers opted to use the quote from Van Gogh's letter as an easier way to end the story than with a clear opportunity for more character development.
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Javier Arias-Romero
10/2/2018 12:33:06 am
I relate to having difficulty with deciding which was better, the story or the medium. I ultimately went with the medium. If you want to see a movie similar to this (different art style), watch the Secret of Kells. The story and medium is absolutely amazing and for that case, I would not be able to decide which was better.
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Sean Tseng
10/2/2018 04:53:41 am
I like how you mentioned the lip-synching, as that incredibly critical detail hadn't even crossed my mind when I was studying the film. I can imagine now how jarring it'd be for me to realize the lip movements don't match the speech, and how much that would take away from my immersion in the scenes. The fact that it was so naturally done that I didn't even notice or consider the effort put into it shows just how deliberately crafted the film was. Every detail was accounted for in such an unfathomably seamless manner, and unravelling these details just makes me love the movie even more. Great thoughts!
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Ryan Askew
10/1/2018 02:04:20 pm
I watched Loving Vincent and absolutely loved it. The story was engaging from start to finish, though I do think it was more interesting to me because of the way in which it was told rather than the story itself. The fluid animation style of the film reminds me of the filter used for films like Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, though it is much more impressive given that this is composed entirely of oil paintings. As such, this film is particularly notable as an artistic homage to the titular artist and his signature style. It is also unique within the medium of cinema and the genre of animation, drawing upon Van Gogh's artistic vision for inspiration. It's really interesting to see how well these different mediums complement one another. It's also reminiscent of motion comics at times because of the dynamic art style with certain fixed limitations.
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Abigail Magat
10/1/2018 03:31:03 pm
Rango is just different from many western films in general due to the fact that its animation. Most western films are live action because it is always trying to depict the western lifestyle as masculine and tough. Animation has a child-like vibe to it and so if you were trying to make a western movie seem intimidating, this kind of medium would not really work. Although Rango was an animation and did feel child-like at times because of the characters and soft storyline, the writers and animators did an amazing job making it more serious and not super light. I honestly didn’t expect it to be that way because I’ve never watched Rango and I thought it was just going to be some Disney-like movie, but the way the storyline was built, where the protagonist was basically narrating how he is the protagonist and what he must do is very different from most movie styles and your typical story arch. Although many story arches work the same way, the fact that he was narrating it with the audience was quite interesting.
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10/1/2018 10:14:00 pm
I agree, what makes Rango different from other Westers was from the animation. Usually these genre of moviess often grounded in reality due to being live action. Since Rango was an animation, It lets the animator and creators to get creative with the story.
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Joshua K Mouledoux
10/2/2018 02:35:04 pm
Yeah, I can definitely see a Disney vibe as a first impression to the movie. The seriousness of the story was combated fairly well by the comedic relief scenes and the softer nature of some of the characters. I found it fairly lighthearted for the most part, at least not too intense.
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10/1/2018 10:09:26 pm
I remember seeing the Magnificant Seven last year. It was a good Western movie about a group of men saving the town. It's also works because of how each of the men happen to have different and unique backgrounds. That way, it keeps the viewer interested.
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Atlas Yuen
10/2/2018 04:43:27 am
I also noticed how Rango seemed to poke fun at the Western genre while following what you said was the Hero's Journey format. I found this "poking fun" of the western genre to have added more to the movie, as it very often created humorous situation (for example, the last scene where Rango does indeed "ride off into the sunset")
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Ma. Rebeca Escamilla
10/1/2018 11:06:08 pm
Rango
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Javier Arias-Romero
10/2/2018 12:22:41 am
I watched Loving Vincent for the second time. I loved it so much that I jumped on the opportunity to watch it again. Placed in kind of the "aftermath" of van Gogh's death, the protagonist is investigating the nature of the painter's "mysterious" death.
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Russell Lee
10/2/2018 11:33:57 am
What did you think of the flow of dialogue?
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Atlas Yuen
10/2/2018 04:37:08 am
I watched Rango this week, mainly because I remember seeing it in trailers and such, but never got the chance to see it. I thought the animation was really detailed, especially when it came to Rango’s eyes. Compared to other films in the western genre, I thought the accents and the premise was generally very classic and traditional. It was the humor and delivery of some lines that truly made this movie stick out. One especially hilarious moment I remember is during the scene where Rango and Beans is trying to escape the water vault. After they kiss, Beans swallows bullet by accident, in which Rango says “I think you just swallowed plan B”– a beautiful double entendre in my opinion.
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Judith
10/2/2018 02:56:26 pm
Wait I didn't even realize what he said during that scene, but that makes it so much better.
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Rawan Mohsen
10/2/2018 04:06:13 pm
Hey Atlas,
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Sean Tseng
10/2/2018 04:46:11 am
I watched Loving Vincent this week and was absolutely blown away by the movie. The story itself was fascinatingly done in layers of separation, interesting characters, dynamic dialogue, and a trajectory that involved journeying into van Gogh's psyche. I loved the different narrations and their unreliability in certain instances, showing just how colored (no pun intended) our memories are by our own perspectives. To me, the twists and turns the movie takes its audience on didn't feel overly tiring or drawn out; rather, I enjoyed watching the fragments of other people's perceptions piece together an image of a situation that didn't entirely fit. What interested me greatly throughout the film was the psychology of many characters in the story. I felt that most characters held their own in dimension and depth well enough instead of falling into the trap of becoming plot devices, especially in such a long game of telephone. The mystery of the plot at first held my attention, and as I grew more attached to the personalities within the story, I was emotionally invested in its conclusion even without any real conspiracy lying at the heart of the situation. Personally, I found the storyline to hold up well even on its own.
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Cassiel Chadwick
10/2/2018 12:04:16 pm
Absolutely - the psychology of LV's characters is what really drives this film. The doctor and his daughter are particularly well-realized. Doctor Gachet, who wished he was an artist, loving Vincent for his vision but also loving him for what he represents: what he could never become. Marguerite, astonished by genius and devastated by its loss, feeling more like a witness to greatness than a participant. Jerome Flynn and Saoirse Ronan did an extraordinary job representing historical figures with confidence and sensitivity. This film couldn't have existed without such a stunning cast.
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Russell Lee
10/2/2018 11:32:08 am
I watched parts of Loving Vincent and was actually in awe at the medium of animation used in the movie. Each scene looked like a moving painting and it baffled me that such a medium could be possible.
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Monse Lopez
10/2/2018 01:04:02 pm
Hi Russell,
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Monse Lopez
10/2/2018 01:00:27 pm
Film: Loving Vincent
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Jesse Ou
10/2/2018 05:03:57 pm
I also was in awe of the animation. The story itself was also just as interesting. The mystery behind Van Gogh's death kept me engaged throughout the entire movie, and the emotion portrayed in the film left me empathetic consistently.
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Michelle
10/2/2018 05:04:44 pm
Hi Monse,
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Nick Michael
10/2/2018 01:10:39 pm
Loving Vincent
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Joshua Mouledoux
10/2/2018 02:29:42 pm
I chose to watch Rango at the recommendation from my friend who also watched it.
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Judith Kim
10/2/2018 02:52:30 pm
Film I chose: Rango
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Jonathan Truong
11/20/2018 08:53:24 pm
It DOES look like a Pixar movie though, that's the thing. Well, a Pixar movie that has a different sense of depth perception and more... grit. That's to be expected in a western setting though. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much, is because it was just like the films I enjoyed as a kid and brought me back to those days while also adding in a less "child-like" arc.
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Rawan Mohsen
10/2/2018 04:02:48 pm
I have not watched either movie that was put up for this week homework assignment before. I have seen trailers of Rango when it was first coming out but never really wanted to watch it, so I thought I would watch Loving Vincent because it seemed interesting. I tried to watch it but the oil painting animation made me uncomfortable and I didn’t want to watch it anymore. I don’t really understand why it made me uncomfortable but it gave me weird gut feeling as I was watching it and I didn’t like it, so I decided to switch to Rango instead. Rango gave a comedic vibe to the genre of Western films, because it is a Nickelodeon animation film it didn’t compare to classic western, Clint Eastwood type films. It was more childlike with the use of animation and the fact that they are animals and not people. I didn’t really expect to like the film, because I have known what it was for a while and never bothered to watch it, but I really enjoyed watching it. I really enjoyed the way the story was told, more than the actual story because the actual story feels very general and can be told so many different ways, with different mediums. The way it was told, however was what made it fun to watch.
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Michelle Nguyen
10/2/2018 05:00:01 pm
I watched Loving Vincent, and I thought it was a beautifully made movie. What really sets this movie apart from the other movies is through its very unique form of storytelling, which combined live-action acting with stylistic oil painting. I didn't realize this form of storytelling until I was about 15 minutes into it. I initially thought that the animation of the art was very skilled, but then I began to think it was almost too fluid, if not lifelike (i.e. use of a green screen with live actors). So when I searched up the movie on Wikipedia, my suspicions about the movie were confirmed. As the movie went on, I began to appreciate the visuals more than how the story unfolded. Each scene was strikingly beautiful, but it sort of distracted me from the plot. In addition, I am sort of familiar Van Gogh's biography, so many of the scenes of the movie were enjoyable if not to be expected. At the ending credits, I can certainly appreciate the attention to detail that the creators but into the characters in the movie since all of them were based on paintings that Van Gogh did. However, I would say overall, the story was certainly overshadowed by the cinematic artstyle.
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Eric Hernandez
10/2/2018 05:17:15 pm
I also noticed the extreme fluidity where I was stunned at how natural the motions felt. I was in the same boat where I thought it was really skilled work (which it still is), but makes a lot more sense to know that real actors were involved in front of a green screen. And lol yeah the art style distracted me from the plot, sounds like we had a very similar experience.
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Jesse Ou
10/2/2018 05:01:15 pm
Loving Vincent
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Nick Michael
11/19/2018 12:46:07 am
I would agree that the animation went smoother than I expected it do. It took me a few minutes to adjust, but after that it was seamless. However, I would disagree with what you said regarding the way the story was told vs. the story itself. In my opinion, the visual style of the film was more interesting than the actual story, which I considered to be rather standard/run-of-the-mill.
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Jonathan Truong
10/2/2018 05:12:45 pm
In a lot of ways, Rango helped to bolster the more photographic side of animated filming, in which with each scene, the animators try to make it look like it could have been filmed. This is no easy task, as one has to keep in mind not only the look of what's in front of the camera, but also how a camera might pick that up. Things to focus on include the f-stops and ISO, which are things that usually change how a film looks using cameras. It was also an interesting choice to use personified, anthropomorphized characters, because animators would also have to factor in certain key traits that those animals had in relation to how a human would act.
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Tiffany
10/2/2018 05:28:52 pm
I agree with your observation of a hyper-realistic, almost photographic animation style, and how impressive it is. I think to that point, the animation style is largely related to how classic westerns are live-action with highly memorable stars (John Wayne, Clint Eastwood) and the stylistic choice of using anthropomorphic characters instead of animated humans. The specific details of each character were pre-meditated in such a way that they added dimension to the film, like how you mentioned animators and writers would have had to relate animal traits to human traits.
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Eric Hernandez
10/2/2018 05:13:48 pm
Loving Vincent was a beautifully done animation, and really testifies to how creative one can get regarding storytelling mediums. I thought that compared to other films in its genre (biography/documentary) the art medium actually enhanced the storytelling. Because it was all drawn, the audience was able to directly travel to the time period and place of the story, giving the narrator a character within that time period, and having interviewees as actually characters instead of old historians or actors playing reenactments. Some things about the animation that I didn't expect was how motion was so extremely fluid, and how the sound design was amazing. Even though we were watching paintings, I thought movements were so extremely natural with natural pacing, that I was really shook. They were able to make things so dynamic with the art style which added fluidity to every scene, nothing felt static and was filled with life.
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Tiffany
10/2/2018 05:24:16 pm
1. What stood out to me about Rango was how it at once mocked and paid homage to the classic western film genre. It is different in that Rango is an animation, giving it space to explore fantastical scenes not available to traditional live-action western. At once making fun of cinematic traditions of a western, such as an overly dramatic mariachi band, incompetent thieves, and an excessively self-deprecating protagonist, Rango juxtaposes really stunning landscapes and a fairly serious storyline with satire and absurd anthropomorphism. I think the contrast works unexpectedly toward a careful balance of excessive weirdness and the exploration of classic western themes.
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Riley Robinson
10/2/2018 05:35:47 pm
I chose to watch Rango, and, after recently watching a couple of western movies to compare it with (a previously unfamiliar genre for me), I saw many aspects of the genre were present. For example, the story centers on a town that is short of a vital resource in the form of water, and whose mayor is evil. Also, the typical form of the western villain takes the form of Rattlesnake Jake. In terms of the visual aspect of the film, there are also many aspects of a typical western. There are a lot of picturesque scenery shots, as well as a riding montage, and a standoff between Rango and Rattlesnake Jake. I thought both the story and the way it was told were important to the overall uniqueness of Rango. While the story took on many aspects of the western, it also played with these, as in the case of Rango's fraudulent identity. The way of telling the story was equally important. Not only was the technicolor visual aspect of the western genre uniquely augmented by the use of CGI, but I found the method of narration (the owls) helped to create a unique narrative experience.
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Luc Pogue
10/2/2018 05:50:16 pm
For this week, I watched Rango. To be honest, I went in somewhat skeptical, since I love good animation as well as Western movies. To see a movie try both seemed a difficult feat. Western movies often have quite a serious tone, one that can easily be undermined by a cheeky joke thrown in (and seeing the Nickelodeon logo before the credits got me prepared for the worst-- sorry Nick). However, I ended up really liking the film. The screenplay and writing was really good with a genuine hero's journey that was a bit self-referential (but it worked!), a satisfying finish, and a really neat art style. Obviously, what set Rango apart from other Westerns was the fact that it was (1) animated and (2) a story of animals rather than humans. Yet many of the Western standards were there-- the charming yet gruff townspeople, the damsel in distress/love interest, the man in black (Rattlesnake Jake) and the hero in white (Rango). Yet its also a fish-out-of-water story (or in this case, a chameleon-out-of-terrarium), since Rango has to adapt to a new identity along the way. I actually really like the animation style-- it was pretty photorealistic (you could definitely see some incredible detail on the close up shots) without being off putting (though the human Spirit of the West straddled the line). There were several really beautiful moments of animation-- the sunset shots and wide desert landscapes come to mind. I actually think the animation style is what kept me most engaged, though Rango as a character was still fun to root for.
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