Diversity
This instructive cartoon teaches important lessons of life, like how to do the happy dance.
Film Tag: Animation
Dry Fish
A gently paranoid musical animation about finding yourself in unfamiliar surroundings.
Gravity
Falling objects are synchronized to produce rhythms and patterns.
The Deep
Metallic objects come to life in the depths of the sea, in the newest film from New York’s brilliant stop-motion artist PES — whose past NYICFF selections include Western Spaghetti, Dogs of War, and Game Over.
Chute
Experience the whoosh of the wind in your ears with two animated skydivers as they freefall at terminal velocity through a field of clouds.
Dawn
When bump in the road causes an unexpected chain of events, a truck-driver’s life flashes before his eyes.
Gulp
Aardman Animations and Sumo Science follow up last year’s wonderful diminutive Dot (which set the world record for smallest animated character) by notching it up a few orders of magnitude. Shot on an expansive seaside location, they set a new record for the world’s largest stop motion set, in this story of a fisherman who gets swallowed by a whale.
Hello, I Like You
Created by Brooklyn’s Mixtape Club, this quick-cut musical montage plays with texture, shape, pattern, and movement — with rope, leaves, nuts and bolts, and eye hooks twisting, dancing and popping to a soothing electronica beat.
Fluffy McCloud
A short film about man’s mixed relationship with Mother Nature. Fluffy McCloud uses his powers of precipitation mostly to annoy. But when one of his pranks causes near calamity, he decides to use his meteorological skills to make people happy.
Pixels
Pixelated old-school video game icons take over New York City (and the world) in this video for French techno-pop band Naïve New Beaters.
Foosball
Oscar®-winner Juan José Campanella’s first animated film obliterated box office records in his home country of Argentina and puts Hollywood on notice that high-end CGI is not the exclusive purview of the major US studios. Amadeo spends his time ruling the foosball table in the back room of his parents’ café, where he has customized the tiny footballers with little uniforms and hairstyles, and individualized personalities to match. What he lacks in social skills, he more than makes up for in foosball chops — an early gameplay sequence where he humiliates local bully Grosso is a tour-de-force of animation art direction and a teaser for more to come. Flash forward several years, Amadeo is still languishing in his parents’ bar while Grosso has gone on to soccer super-stardom — and now returns with bulldozers and wrecking crews to exact his revenge by demolishing the little town that was the scene of his only defeat. With all seemingly lost and his beloved foosball table turned to rubble, Amadeo sheds a single teardrop — rendered in amazing detail — and brings to life the tiny captain, who then sets off to reunite the rest of the team. Voiced by Argentine comedians who improvised much of the dialogue, the players’ rapid fire banter provides non-stop amusement as they join together in a showdown match to save the town.
Hey Krishna
Packed with iridescent hues, outrageous characters, epic cartoon battles, and endearingly loopy musical interludes, Hey Krishna is about as much fun as you can have in a movie theater. As it turns out, Hindu deities make awesome cartoon superheroes and villains. For this is the story of the child Krishna, the naughty prankster with the beautiful blue hue and long eyelashes — and a particular fondness for milk. A prophesy foretells that the brutal tyrant Kans will be killed by the eighth child of his sister Devaki — and so Kans has Devaki imprisoned, and each of her children is taken away at birth and destroyed (tastefully, mind you — this is a children’s movie!). But her eighth child, the infant Krishna, is spirited away to a nearby village to be raised by peasants. When Kans hears that Krishna has escaped his fate, he sends out demons and monsters to finish the job. And Oh what monsters! In one of the film’s more outré musical numbers, the bodacious she-demon Putana (Bollywood pop-star Sunidhi Chauhan) as- cends from the netherworld like a pole-dancer and attempts to kill Krishna by breastfeeding him with poisoned milk — only to have Krishna (somewhat alarmingly) defeat her by…well, we won’t spoil it for you, just go see the movie.
Wolf Children
NYICFF is thrilled to present the brilliant third feature from Mamoru Hosoda, whose Summer Wars (NYICFF 2010) and The Girl Who Leapt Through (NYICFF 2007) have established him as one of the world’s top creative forces in animation. One day Hana spies a mysterious outcast sitting in on her college lecture and decides to follow him. A romance ensues, and when it turns out her new beau is part wolf, she is accepting (and maybe even a little attracted to the idea). Before long Hana gives birth to two children, Ame (Rain) and Yuki (Snow), rambunctious bundles of joy who transform into wolves when excited and whose little ears are as adorable as their fangs are sharp. When they are suddenly left without a father, Hana does her best to raise her changeling children on her own, but it’s no easy task. While normal children struggle with teething and tantrums, Ame and Yuki grow fur, howl, and destroy furniture — and it isn’t long before the neighbors begin to notice their wolf-like tendencies. In order to maintain the family secret, Hana escapes to the country, turning a dilapidated farmhouse into a loving home, where each child is free to pursue its wolfish and human sides. Wolf Children is Hosoda’s most emotionally resonant film to date, a stunningly animated and heart-felt fable about growing up, growing apart, and the choices faced along the way.
Laika: Behind the Magic, Workshop and Film Screening of Coraline
Experience the magic of stop-motion through a rare behind-the- scenes presentation from Laika studios — creators of the Academy Award®-nominated Coraline and ParaNorman. Laika’s Mark Shapiro will give insights into the intricate stop-motion animation process, using footage of time-lapse production, exclusive clips of Laika animators at work, and a demonstration using the actual character models from the movies. Then put your newfound stop-motion knowledge to work during a complete screening of the film Coraline and a sneak peek at footage from the upcoming Laika feature The Boxtrolls. After the films there will be an audience Q&A.
Directed by NYICFF jury member Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) and based on the best-selling novella by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is an enchantingly spooky tale about a young girl who discovers a secret passage to an alternate world where her normal family has been replaced with creepy button-eyed imposters.
Welcome to the Space Show
NYICFF favorite Welcome to the Space Show returns in a brand new English-language version! With an intergalactic cast of thousands, Koji Masunari’s colorfully explosive debut feature sets a new high for visual spectacle and sheer inventiveness, in what has to be one of the most gleefully surreal depictions of alien life forms ever portrayed in cinema. It seems like just another lazy summer is in store for Amane and her older cousin Natsuki. Lolling about the Japanese countryside, the days are blithe and boundless. But boredom quickly vanishes when they find an injured dog in the woods and bring him back to the cabin — only to discover that he is not a dog at all, but Pochi, an alien botanist sent to Earth to track down a rare and powerful plant called Zughaan (better known to Earthlings as wasabi root). Before long, Pochi has whisked the kids away to a space colony on the dark side of the moon, an interstellar melting pot where we experience a non-stop parade of humorous alien creatures, jellyfish spaceships, dragon trains, and — if that weren’t enough — a theme song from UK pop anomaly Susan Boyle. (Really? Yes, really.) The plot twists come fast and furious, and with such a glorious barrage of color and invention washing across the screen, you just want to hit pause and gawk at the wonder of what you are seeing.
Notebook Babies
From NYICFF alumnus Tony Dusko, a series of short, humorous meditations on life calibrated for the self-actualized preschooler.
Aunt Hilda!
Jacques-Rémy Girerd, creator of A Cat in Paris and Mia and the Migoo, returns to NYICFF with his latest hand-drawn gem, Aunt Hilda!, a glorious throwback to the flower power classics like Yellow Submarine and The Point. Hilda lives high above the city, happily at home with tens of thousands of rare and luscious plants in her palace of a greenhouse. But down below, a new, genetically modified super-grain threatens to disrupt the delicate natural harmony. Distributed by the diabolical, money-and-honey-hungry Dolores, head of the DOLO Corporation, the bio-engineered monstrosity is promoted as the solution to world hunger — but only Hilda can see the inevitable danger and destruction it will cause. There’s a controlled chaos to the loosely-drawn, watercolor-dripped animation style that mirrors the characters’ over-the-top personalities. The corpulent Dolores is depicted in all her fleshy glory teetering on high heels, or barely contained in her overflowing hot tub office — while Hilda swooshes across the screen, color trailing behind, Lucy In the Sky-like, as she tends to her flowerpots or does battle with the agents of power and greed. The film’s not-so-subtle eco-message (no nuanced arguments here!) builds to a suitably cataclysmic, technology-gone-haywire finale, as the destructive power of the Frankenplant is unleashed and Hilda must help the Earth save itself from a very colorful biological mayhem.
Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants
Humorously bug-eyed animated insects battle it out within lush live action backgrounds in this enormously inventive comic adventure from award-winning animators Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud. The unique combination of real life landscapes — a micro-world shot in extreme and stunning close-up — and wonderfully animated creepy-crawlies engaging in playful antics, will leave the viewer both dazzled and amused. As the film opens, a montage of breathtaking forest landscapes zooms in on an abandoned picnic just as a gang of black ants is moving in to steal a coveted treasure: a tin box filled with sugar cubes. But before they can get away with the loot, a newly-born ladybug gets trapped inside the box, and is soon spirited away as the ants try to transport their prize across the woods toward their colony. When a rival clan of powerful red warrior ants appears on the scene, the resourceful ladybug comes to the aid of the black ants, and a furious chase ensues where everyday objects become creative tools in the battle. The audience is treated to Q-tips javelins, dollar bill paper airplanes, and a high-speed river race on an old soda can…along with humorous references to Star Wars, Close Encounters and even a shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from Hitchcock’s Psycho (not scary, we promise!). Based on the popular short animated series, Minuscule opened #1 at the French box office and is making its North American premiere at NYICFF.
From Up on Poppy Hill
NYICFF is extremely proud to present the US premiere of the highly anticipated new film from Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s DeliveryService, and many other animated masterpieces. Written by legendary studio founder Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Goro Miyazaki, From Up on Poppy Hill marks the first feature film collaboration between father and son. The results are stunning — a pure, sincere, nuanced and heartfelt film that signals yet another triumph for the esteemed studio. The setting is Yokohama in 1963, and the filmmakers masterfully bring to life the bustling seaside town, with its salty air, sun-drenched gardens, and some of the most mouthwatering Japanese home-cooking set to film (plan on ramen and pork katsu after the movie). The story centers on an innocent romance beginning to bud between Umi and Shun, two high school kids caught up in the changing times. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics — and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. This sense of yearning and possibility is palpable, evoking both a wide-eyed hope for the future and a longing nostalgia for a past that can never be recovered. Star-filled cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Christina Hendricks, Ron Howard and Anton Yelchin, among many others.
The Day of the Crows
Deep in the woods, among towering trees and dense meadows, lives Pumpkin, a burly, ogre-like man, who towers like a giant over the tiny boy who is his only child. Raised like an animal since birth and knowing only the ways of the wild, the boy has been forbidden to venture beyond the edge of the forest to the place his father calls “The World Beyond.” So the nameless boy spends his days in isolation, honing his slingshot skills, eating small creatures, and confiding in his only friends: the half-human, half-animal spirits that occupy the strange forest that is his home. One day his father is injured, and the boy has no choice but to leave the woods in search of help. Entering a neighboring village, he befriends a young girl, Manon, and for the first time in his life begins to experience the wonders that human contact and civilization have to offer. Yet village life is not as harmonious as it first appears — and after discovering the truth about his family’s past, the boy gathers his courage and returns to the forest to confront his father. With tips of the hat to the enchanted forest worlds of Hayao Miyazaki and François Truffaut’s The Wild Child, this lushly animated film travels the blurred lines between animal and human, nature and civilization, and the realms of the living and of spirits. But underneath it all is a simple story of a father’s lost love and a boy’s brave struggle to recapture it.
Patema Inverted
The new feature from Time of Eve director Yashuro Yoshiura is a perspective-twisting sci-fi adventure about two kids separated by opposite gravities. Patema lives in an underground world of tunnels, the long-abandoned ruins of a giant industrial complex. Though she is a princess, she is held back by the rules imposed by the elders of her clan. One day when she is exploring in a forbidden zone, she is startled by a strange bat-like creature and tumbles headlong into a void — and out into the wide open world above the surface, a place with reversed physics, where if she let go she would “fall up” into the sky and be lost forever. Age is a student on this surface world, a totalitarian society whose compliant population has been brainwashed against the “sinners who fell into the sky.” When he spies Patema hanging upside-down from a tree, he pulls her down to safety, struggling with all his might to keep her earthbound as she grips on to him for dear life. Together their weights cancel each other out, and once they master the art of navigating competing gravitational forces, they set out to evade the leaders of Age’s world and discover the secret that keeps their worlds apart.
Rio 2
Fly to Brazil ahead of the flock, with this special pre-release screening of Rio 2, the latest from Oscar-winning Blue Sky Animation Studio. It’s a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel, and their three kids, after they’re hurtled from the magical city of Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel and meets the most fearsome adversary of all — his long-lost father-in-law, who has been hiding out with a group of other Macaws. The Rio characters are joined by Oscar® nominee Andy Garcia, Grammy® winner Bruno Mars, Tony® winner Kristin Chenoweth, and Oscar®/Emmy®/Tony® winner Rita Moreno — plus new Brazilian artists and original music by Janelle Monae and Wondaland.
Giovanni’s Island
Screening for the first time outside of Japan, Giovanni’s Island is the latest grand opus from famed anime studio Production I.G (A Letter to Momo, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade). Spanning multiple generations and locations, the film delicately weaves the true story of two young brothers whose life on the small, remote island of Shikotan becomes forever changed in the aftermath of WWII. Giovanni and Campanella, nicknamed after characters in the beloved Japanese novel Night on the Galactic Railroad, live a free-spirited island life, chasing each other along beach-side cliffs and dreaming about adventures on the Galactic Railroad. But when the Red Army occupies their tiny island following Japan’s surrender, they are suddenly confronted with new foreigners — including a peculiar and enticing new neighbor, the golden-haired Tanya, daughter of the Soviet commander. Learning about each other’s exotic and strange cuisines, music and language creates a quick bond for the children — even while the occupation brings on heavier implications for their families. An elegance and beauty permeates the hand-drawn animation and symphonic score of the film, creating a timeless drama where moments of emotional impact are tempered by animated flights of whimsy and fantasy, as the brothers prove much larger in spirit and strength than their rosy-cheeked, small frames would suggest.
Zarafa
Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously-animated and stirring adventure — a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of night a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe — and an orphan, just like him — as well as the turbaned nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France. And so Maki, Zarafa and Hassan take off in a hot-air balloon to cross the Mediterranean — an unbelievably beautiful and adventure-filled ride through the pink-skied, honey-hued expanses of Northern Africa, the bustling port of Marseilles, and over the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, arriving at last in Paris. There the unimpressed French monarch (portrayed as a laughable, semi-grotesque, pasty-faced, inbred by the same character designer as The Triplets of Belleville) indifferently accepts the gift, but Maki is determined to return Zarafa back to his rightful home in Africa.
Ernest & Celestine
Director Benjamin Renner is our guest for the theatrical premiere of the new English language version, featuring Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Jeffrey Wright. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer—and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny, and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde.
Boy and the World
Brazilian artist Alê Abreu brings to screen a strikingly unique visual style to show the world through the eyes of a young boy. A child, Cuca, lives a life of quiet wonder, exploring all that the countryside has to offer. His cozy life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity and variety as his small world expands. Simple line drawings of the village give way to broad brushstrokes forming giant bushels of cotton lining country roads, and sweeps of pastel churned into roaring waves. Approaching civilization, industrial landscapes are inhabited by animal-machines and strange beings, with barrios of decoupage streets and shop windows, and flashing neon advertisements that illuminate the night like a giant Lite Brite. The story depicts a clash between village and city, indigenous and imperial, hand crafted and mechanized, rich and poor — and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song, a simple plaintive refrain played on recorder. The film’s music is on equal footing with the stunning visuals, a soundscape of pan-flute, samba, and Brazilian hip-hop mixing with the whirling carnival colors and exploding fireworks.
Anina
There is an oddly comforting charm about Anina, a quirky, warm, simply-but-beautifully animated picture with a look that seems hand crafted from materials gently worn and loved. The title character is endearing, with her bright ruddy red hair, striped leggings, and big head. Her name is a palindrome — mean- ing it reads the same both backwards and forwards — and it causes her grief from taunting classmates. She in turn takes it out on another girl, Yisel, and an ensuing tussle lands the two of them in the principal’s office. There, they are each handed a black wax-sealed envelope and told they must carry it around for a full week, seal unbroken, before returning to discover the punishment inside. The curiosity and temptation become too much for Anina, and she begins having “Heffalumps and Woozles” type nightmare fantasies about the unknown punishment, complete with flying headmistresses and cackling teachers. Itching for an answer, she follows Yisel in hopes of sneaking a look at her envelope — only to discover that they have more in common than an uncommon punishment.
House of Magic
3D maestro Ben Stassen (NYICFF 2011’s Sammy’s Adventures) returns with a rollercoaster-ride of a film filled with jack-in- the-box surprises, inventive robotic contraptions, and plenty of swooping and swooshing z-axis movement to keep you gripping your seat. Seeking shelter from the storm, abandoned orange tabby Thunder sneaks into a mysterious mansion owned by retired magician Lawrence, formerly known as “The Illustrious Lorenzo.” The eccentric Lawrence shares his fairy-tale world with his pets as well as a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos of his own invention. He welcomes Thunder into this odd-ball family, but Jack, the curmudgeonly old jack-rabbit, and his fiercely loyal sidekick mouse, Maggie, are determined to kick him out. Meanwhile, bigger trouble is brewing when Lawrence ends up in the hospital and his greedy nephew decides to follow through on plans to sell the house and get rid of the animals. Using their combined ingenuity — and Thunder as a secret weapon — they craft a strategy to ward off potential buyers by turning the house into a haunted mansion.
Kirikou and the Men and the Women
The pint-sized — or more like peanut-sized — child hero Kirikou returns in the new feature from world-renowned animator/director/storyteller Michel Ocelot, who NYICFF audiences should be well familiar with from Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar, and Tales of the Night. This third film in the Kirikou trilogy weaves together a collection of short-form fables, mixing traditional storytelling and mythology with bits of humor and wit, backed by an upbeat musical score from Malian, Togolese and French artists. Ocelot’s vibrant use of color is everywhere on display — a black panther creeps into the village at night against impossibly deep blue skies, firelight sets off shadows against thatched huts, a Bedouin boy wrapped from head to toe in azure robes blazes like a sapphire against the tawny desert sand — while a village elder introducing each story lends an Arabian Nights quality to the film. Throughout, Kirikou is called upon to save his village from perils both supernatural and human, which he does with a combination of speed, cunning and humor — as well as a certain naiveté about the way the world really works. It is precisely such innocence that makes Kirikou such an endearing and enduring character.
Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart
Jack is born on a day so cold that his heart freezes. In its place he is given a mechanical wind-up heart, which comes with some very peculiar rules — the gravest of which is that he is forbidden from falling in love. Yet when a chance encounter with an equally unusual girl sends him on a journey from his native Edinburgh to Adalusia, Jack decides to challenge the rules that govern his very existence. Nothing in Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart is executed on a small scale: sweeping expanses of Andalusian countryside are dotted with extravagant circus towns and snow-covered mountain top villages; trains get around corners with accordian folding centers; phantasmagoric characters with delicate alabaster skin look like porcelain dolls that would live atop Tup Burton’s desk; and every nook and cranny of the film is filled with ghoulish romantic delights. Produced by Luc Besson, who gave us the 2012 opening night A Monster in Paris, this breathtaking gothic musical is the passion project of writer/director/composer Mathias Malzieu, adapted from his best-selling novel and the 2007 concept album from his rock band Dionysos.