Monthly Archives: December 2022

Stop Motion Animation Gives Life

Movies

Stop-motion animation is one of the oldest and most labor-intensive animation styles. There aren’t many studios that are crazy enough to do this kind of work. It’s my favorite style as it’s truly three-dimensional art coming to life. You can see the brains and hands that put all of this in motion as it dances around in front of you. With modern technology aiding in the design of sets and puppets and expanded possibilities of scene complexity, it’s stunning what can be accomplished. Over the holiday I’ve had the time to dive into three great works.

Wendell and Wild– This is the latest show from legendary animation director Henry Selick. Based on a book by Clay McLeod Chapman, Wendell and Wild are two demons who convince 13-year-old Kat to summon them to the land of the living. The pair is stuck managing a more powerful demon’s balding head and they have much greater ambitions with the living. Kat feels responsible for her parents’ death and that makes her an easy mark to agree to the pact. Thankfully Kat has some good people looking after her and they help her manage her own crisis as well as her rotting hometown.

This show falls firmly into Selick’s wheelhouse as you can see many of his other shows (Coraline being the biggest one) peaking through here. Great visuals and animation that looks very clean. The story feels pretty rote and doesn’t do much that’s new. It’s still a good story but of these three movies, this is my least favorite.

Missing Link– Mr. Link is a sasquatch who finds Sir Lionel Frost, a great explorer, to help him find his long-lost family. Frost quickly agrees to help Link in the hopes that this will make him the envy of all of his peers. A rather selfish and egomaniacal man, Frost comes to learn a few life lessons in this globe-trotting adventure. The duo doesn’t travel alone after a wild run-in with compatriot adventurer Adelina Fortnight.

This is largely a buddy/fish out of water story and it works really well. Link, Frost, and Fortnight are different personalities who work as great foils to each other. It reminded me a bit of Indiana Jones and the Mummy movies (the ones with Brendan Fraser) but with one main cast member being a different species. The voice acting is great and it’s really funny.

This is a Laika Studios production who are responsible for some of my all-time favorite stop motion pictures, Paranorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. Stunning animation. The backgrounds are so rich and colorful that it makes you want to step through the screen. I had this on my list for a while, I regret not watching it sooner.

Pinocchio– Officially titled Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, this show is simply stunning. It’s a del Toro production done with animation. They went as far as lighting the sets to look like his live-action movies. There are a handful of monsters and they look like they came from The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth (in fact, you can run these movies in a row for a theme night). Just unending artistic beauty from top to bottom in every frame. The thing that really struck me is that the characters (puppets, actually) don’t look like they were made for a movie. It’s like they were living their lives and some camera guys with microphones showed up in this small town in Italy after the World War ended and decided to follow them around. Perfect voice casting as well.

Oh yeah, the story. Most people know the Disney version of this show and many of the big beats from the source material are used here, like Pinocchio getting manipulated into joining the circus and the whale swallowing Cricket and Geppetto. This is a rather deep dive into what it means to live a life. Why we do the things we do and how we treat ourselves and each other. This isn’t for young children. It’s pretty complex, it has a lot of scary imagery and it’s two hours long. I’d say ten, maybe twelve-years-old and up.

The Wood Sprite brings the puppet that Geppetto made in the grief of losing his son to life in an attempt to heal his heart and take away his crushing loneliness. She puts Cricket in charge of being Pinocchio’s guiding light. Together they attempt to raise Pinocchio. Mistakes are made by Cricket, Geppetto, and Pinocchio but they do come together in this gorgeous story of love and family. This adaptation is so touching to me in ways that the Disney version never reached.

This is my favorite film of 2022.

Things Are Looking Up

NY Rangers

19-11-5

The Penguins stopped the Rangers’ win streak at 7 (just after their win streak was ended) marking the best run of the season so far. The Penguins have hit their stride as well, it was a close game marred by bad penalties. In the following game, the Rangers thundered back against the Islanders, making a 5 point lead in the standings. Right now the Rangers have a wild card spot in the playoff standings. We’re suddenly very close to the halfway point of the season which means the playoff race is now taking shape. Eyes are now on the prize.

The Rangers are 8-2 of the last 10 at the Christmas break so going back next week (Washington, Tampa, Florida) they have a great wave of confidence. It’s going to be put to the test as the only team in that trio that isn’t doing well are Florida (really odd that they are under .500). The Metro division is incredibly tight. Carolina is killing it now with 50 points for first. The Devils have hit a brick wall at the same time the Rangers jumped over theirs which has allowed everyone to catch up to their once ridiculous record (which is still very good at 22-10-2). The Rangers are now only 3 points behind them. There are only 2 bad teams in the Metro, the rest are very close to the point where at the end of the week, the standings could drastically change. Carolina is the only one with any cushion and they’re playing at the top of their game. Where the Devils have faltered, Boston has had no problems retaining their game. 27-4-2 which is ludicrous. That’s 6 points ahead of Carolina and Vegas has gotten wobbly but is at a fantastic 49 points. No Devil’s level panic for them.

The Rangers are playing like we expected coming off of last season. Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil are absolutely heating up now. We’re looking at head and shoulders gains in points for career best seasons with all of them, which is incredibly exciting. They’re going to be adding a stack of points this season, giving the team much needed scoring depth. Kakko in particular could be catching fire very soon. He made a bad turnover that led to a goal in Thursday’s game but he bounced back with a righteous game winning goal. Miller is making one fantastic play after another. Julian Gauthier has made his case for never being scratched in favor of Sammy Blais. Panarin and Trocheck are scoring goals. Trocheck in particular looks like he’s much more comfortable now (he’s an excellent linemate to Kreider). Trouba is making fewer mistakes and has scored 2 goals. Fox and Zibanejad are reliable as ever. Vesey is doing great, he’s really made a case for himself that he’s rightfully playing in the NHL after getting a professional tryout with this team. It helps that he played with Kreider at the beginning of his career.

The Penalty Kill has been doing well with one bad game against the Penguins. Power Play has regained its potency but still needs work. Too many teams have adjusted to Zibanejad being the biggest threat so changes need to be made to get the potency up. They were 1-6 against the Islanders. They’re currently 13th in the league and it needs to be top 10. They can do that.

There’s a whole lot of season to go, but things are looking good. The momentum also gives the same vibes as last season where the right moves at the trade deadline that’s coming in about 2 months could mean a deep playoff run. There are like 2 missing pieces to making a dominant team.

Lot’s to be thankful for! Stay safe and warm!

Alright, Back On Top Of The Ice

NY Rangers

15-10-5

What a difference a week and a ton of panicking can do. Four wins in a row: Blues, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and the Devils last night. That is legit competition right there. The game against Vegas was the best, a sound 5-1 clobbering. The others were closer games and were much more trying.

The Devils game was a rivalry match for the ages. Before this season the Rangers had beaten the Devils 9 out of 10 games. They’ve been terrible for a while. Last year they were good but injuries plagued them the entire season. In the first go this season the Devils won after the Rangers gave up an early 2 goal lead. This time, the Rangers did the same to the Devils and won in overtime. There’s been a rivalry between these two teams for ages but the competition level hasn’t been there so the big targets were moved to the Penguins, Capitals, and the Islanders.

The drive to win has been reinjected into the team. The lines have been shifted-even midgame to try to fix match-ups and effort-and it seems to be working. Gallant is making better choices and giving more players opportunities Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil have all scored. Braden Schneider is making tremendous strides, he’s coming up like K’Andre Miller has been. Scoring depth has been a problem and that’s improved this week.

Goodrow is playing with Panarin and Zibanejad, Trocheck with Chytil, Vesey with Kreider. These new pairings with the “kids” getting more time together and a part is diversifying the lines and making it much harder for teams to counter. I think predictability (and terrible aim) has been a problem.

The Power Play and Penalty Kill units are working again and that’s an integral part to winning. All of these good things need to keep improving. This is probably the most hopeful the fan base has been all season. Toronto is next on Thursday and that’s another big test. Besting Vegas, St Louis, and New Jersey gives a lot of confidence going up against another top team. That confidence was at an all time low during the losing streak and having this momentum should help a lot.

The big problem remains turnovers. Trouba in particular stands out for this. Panarin has been getting better but the dumb high risk cross ice passes at the worst times are still confounding to watch time and time again. More diciplin on this is needed.

After Toronto, it’s Philly and Chicago on the weekend. Those are easy games, but only if the Rangers don’t fall into their lackadaisical trap. They have to show up for every 60 minutes. All of these points are adding up and making a difference. Losing to the bottom teams has to stop in order to make the playoffs. The remainder of the week is very important.

We Have Fallen Through The Ice

NY Rangers

11-10-5

Every part of the Rangers’ game is regressing. The time for concern is over, we have reached a low point that is unacceptable. Something or some things are broken on this team and all of it needs to be fixed.

Lost to New Jersey by blowing a 2 goal lead. Lost to Edmonton by blowing a 3 goal lead. Beat Ottawa. Lost to Ottawa in OT after blowing the lead in the last minute of the game. Got completely embarrassed by Chicago last night. In the last 10 days, the Rangers have lost to the worst teams in the league. Wins are so far and few between it’s like putting a full 60 minutes of competing in a game is an afterthought.

None of the systems are functioning now. There is no structure. The first Power Play unit is getting nothing done despite a stacked roster. It’s like 28 million dollars out there and they’ve scored once or twice in 8 games. They’re like 2-22 or something ridiculous like that. Tumbled down to 22nd in the league I think. Could be lower now. The Penalty Kill is now falling apart. Used to be reliable, and kept the team in games, and now last night against Chicago, they let in 3 goals! Three powerplay goals from a team that had lost 8 games in a row! Face off wins are sliding down, hitting posts instead of the net (4 last night!), or outright completely missing the net. The stupid high-risk passing that was going on when Quinn was coaching for some reason won’t stop. The odds of you making a pass through 3 players with their sticks on the ice for a one timer is so low I don’t understand the thought process. Time and time again these passes fail and become turnovers.

Easy points are being tossed away and the next four games are completely stacked. St. Louis tomorrow, which is our best chance to win because the Blues are either switched on or off. Then It’s Vegas, Colorado, and New Jersey.

The dysfunction is so bad that it’s hard to believe that the team is listening to Gallant. It looks like they expect to lose now so they don’t try. This bizarre apathy is taking root and at this rate, the playoffs will be embarrassingly out of reach. This is turning into the most disappointing season in a long time. It’s awful to watch. If they don’t turn things around by Christmas, I don’t think it’s possible that Gallant has a job in January.