Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Smash!

3 comments:

Veeshush said...

There's a few great older interviews with him floating around youtube too.

" Critical thinking in the arts, in film and literature is very, very important. I grew up during a time when there were brilliant film critics, brilliant art critics. There were art movements. All that's gone. That entire movement of critical thinking and discussion is dead."

Because the review mediums, sites, papers, are out to make money. Many of them are funded by the very people they review. All creative mediums have suffered cause of it, all of them. Even the video game industry had a thing a few years ago where one guy was fired from a major game review site for doing a bad review. I was even thinking about Leonard Maltin the other day and I can't remember one bad review short of the one he is famous for, "No", or maybe giving that sequel live action Scooby Doo movie a 2/5 stars (that's as critical as he gets). Really, take a look at this:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/film_review_tangled

"I approach each new Disney film with a combination of eagerness and apprehension: will it be as good as I want it to be? Can “the new guys” carry the torch lit by Walt and his colleagues so many years ago? Where Tangled is concerned, I knew within minutes that the answer was yes."

Wow. And of course, Maltin "wrote" a good review of Skyfall too.

So, movies must not only be made under "feel good", but so do the reviews. And that's the problem.

Veeshush said...

I actually just found a whole load of Bakshi stuff I had missed.

Check this out:
Ralph Bakshi: Surviving In Tough Times
youtube.com/watch?v=WApcUBcVMos



Elana Pritchard said...

Yes! I've seen that "Surviving In Tough Times"

It had an almost life-changing effect on me and on why I shouldn't be too chicken to make my own films.

I've just always really liked his attitude. It's a real, "yes, you CAN do it attitude"

and a "Don't take any shit from corporations attitude"

I grew up in a DIY punk scene of sorts and that was always the attitude.

A "no, you don't have to get stepped on attitude"

And I think he's really right about the animation industry being clicky... it's a big chunk of it has totally devolved into a clicky "cool club"

Having standards is good, but when it's just ego driven that attitude's not good for art.

I try not to promote that attitude.