Crazy date beautiful city
This is an excellent Western animation, humorous, interesting, detailed, and most importantly, strong expression. But to say that it achieves a perfect union of expression and thought is not at all convincing. Even so, this film is a must-see!
Director Sylvain Chomet is really bold, taking such an extreme approach, and impressing with the score. But “Belle City Trio” still has Disney at its core — it’s still heavy on happy endings (which I don’t disagree with) and humor, and it’s still superficial. Last time I saw the Beautiful City Trio, I found the expression to be extraordinary, but I was wrong to compare it to Matsudo Oromo’s work. After all, Western cartoons still do not pay attention to the expression of ideas; this point is really unable to help.
There’s no denying that Sylvain Chomet was able to make an animation like this, and there’s a lot of personal stuff that goes into it, and a few things that make people smile, some small details that would have been worth studying. And it is a silent film, rare in recent years, is indeed a very rare masterpiece. However, after watching the movie, I felt that the director’s thought was limited: maybe he satirized the American society and the industrialization process, but this was not a kind of ideological, but for the pleasure of the audience. He himself has talked in interviews about wanting to make a Disney film, but not in a Disney way. I get the feeling that he doesn’t realize much himself that he’s just trying to express himself perfectly (which he does very well, absolutely superlative), and that the plot is a little thin. For me, who always wanted to find the feeling of being touched deep inside, the film still did not do enough.
About expression methods:
In its delivery, the film is exemplary. Two-dimensional hand painting, three-dimensional cohesion, music collocation, picture color, character modeling, character silent shaping, humorous plot, foreshadowing, and lens (storyboard) skilled use, is indeed commendable. The depictions of the city (pulling down from the top and then back to the top for grandeur) and the races (multiple events moving and switching simultaneously) are classic. Of course, when it comes to depictions of cities, Metropolis (2001; Original work: Osamu Tesuque; Directed by Taro Hayashi; Script: Oromo Matsudo) in the city structure is the most classic. But “Beautiful City” is a pretty good thing, given that it’s mostly 2D. There’s also the obvious “fat Statue of Liberty” (very much in line with the female characters, which is what the film does well, i.e. it doesn’t leave small areas of uniformity) and “Hollyfood”, but I think it’s still more about making people laugh. In terms of character description, it is also a classic — it is difficult to describe characters purely through behavior, with little or no words, but the Beautiful City Trio does it very well — for example, the protagonist “Champion” only says one sentence at the end of the film. But his tenacious, his struggle, his persistence is undoubtedly moved a lot of people. The image of the grandmother is also very plump – for the grandson everything. Even the character of the old dog named “Bruno” cannot hide from us — in order to avenge his childhood being run over by a toy train, he has been barking at trains all his life (although the trains in Milieu have left him without the strength to bark……) . Sylvain Chomet said in an interview that he liked Chaplin’s film, and that there was no doubt that he had learned a lot about expressions for Chaplin.
On Music:
The film is also excellent in the treatment and use of music. Sylvain Chomet used a lot of classical music — in the beginning, part of the pianist talked about the equal temperament of Bach, and he used C minor tune of Mozart to cross the sea (I don’t know exactly what it is, because I have never heard it, I guess it is mass, requiem, etc., but I almost admired the ability of music supervision to death; When I watched the interview later, I learned it was Mozart’s……). And it’s not just that that’s impressive, there are other times when the soundtrack is great and context-appropriate (and weird)……. Such as a nightclub – do you have newspapers, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and bicycle underwire? And the night when my grandmother plays the ring of steel, which brings out Bach’s balancing law in a special way (she’s a terrible piano player, though)…… Therefore, there are many places to smile. Mainly because the scene and music are very appropriate, very rare.
On Ideas:
Some people have commented that the film propagated the disadvantages of industrialization and so on, which is purely out of thin air. I’m more inclined to criticize American culture, but the evidence is still lacking. Unlike Hollywood, there is plenty of black humor about violence, but that’s not enough. If this is the American society in the author’s eyes, I think it is a narrow understanding. Exaggerated cinematic techniques are not always thought, and I don’t think that’s much to say here. In general, the main aspect of the animation is still to satisfy the audience’s psychology, rather than to express their own thoughts. Maybe there is something in Sylvain Comet’s personal thoughts, but I think it is still to satisfy the audience’s psychology: The Statue of Liberty, the craziness of the mob, the fat women, Bruno barking at the train, etc., may not be trying to make a statement, but to make the audience feel funny, that’s all. Maybe Sylvain Chomet just had an idea and did it on a whim. This may reflect his impression of certain societies, but it is not a depth that can lead to thinking, let alone “about the evils of industrialization.” As for “irony in American society” (which for the time being, Sylvain Chomet didn’t even touch on in the interview), it might make more sense to explain it as an attempt at gallows humor — I don’t think Sylvain Chime thinks that much. He’s probably thinking, “It’s nice to have ingratiated myself with the audience again, and to have a chance to blow off steam…….”
However, I still appreciate this cartoon very much. It is a rare masterpiece of Western cartoons because it integrates French humor style, excellent expressive force and the use of descriptive techniques, and does not have narrow national concepts and atmosphere. Being nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song is an absolute no-no.
