Paperman – the Most Beautiful Thing You’ll See This Year

Paperman is the latest Oscar nominated (Best Animated Short Film) animation from Disney. It has received widespread praise for it’s innovative animation technique of blending together tradition animation with computer animation culminating in a short film that is wonderful to watch.

Paperman is the story of a young businessman named (only in the credits as) George. While waiting for his morning train George has a chance meeting with the elegant Meg. After she departs on a different train Meg is all that George can think about and when he finds out that she is in the office block opposite him he does everything he can to get her attention.

It may only be about six minutes long but Paperman tells the most beautiful love story. It’s proof that actions do speak louder than words and that such strong emotions can be evoked just from facial expression, body language and the most amazing score I’ve ever heard. This is better than a lot of feature length films that get released in the cinema.

You can’t help but smile when you watch Paperman, and if you can then there is probably something wrong with you. Here it is:

The Best New Directors in Hollywood?

Not many directors ever get THAT famous among mainstream cinema fans. It really, I believe, takes someone special and a great storyteller, someone who is good enough to make sure that every single one of their films stands up on the big screen to both critics and fans alike; the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese and Danny Boyle have been able to do this and are a few of the most famous directors around but are there any new directors around who could one day join the ranks of the best directors EVER? For my choices I have limited the candidates to have directed, at most, 3 feature length films or have shown enough in two or just the one feature film that they have great potential as a director. In no particular order, let’s have a look.

 

Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson has to be the first person I mention because it was him that influenced me to write this blog. I recently saw Johnson’s latest film Looper and along with his previous two feature films (Brick and The Brothers Bloom) Looper was both written and directed Johnson and also starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt (although JGL’s appearance in The Brothers Bloom was a cameo). Looper has really announced Johnson on the scene as one of the best story tellers around. I won’t go into too much detail but if you read my review of the film here, you will get an idea of just how good Johnson is. He has managed to revolutionise the science fiction genre and the whole theories surrounding time travel. I think Looper will inspire a new generation of film makers and if Johnson continues to direct at this high standard he will be regarded as one of the best ever.

 

Joss Whedon

If you don’t know who Joss Whedon is by now where have you been all year? Whedon has a vast amount of experience in television and film working as a screenwriter for many years and having created hit shows such as Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. Yet this year Whedon was welcomed with open arms to the masses as he directed this year’s highest grossing film Marvel’s The Avengers. Whedon’s only previous feature film was Serenity (a continuation of the Firefly universe) and, of course, flopped at the box office. However, I thought Serenity was great and there is no doubting Whedon’s talent for writing believable characters and dialogue. With him signed on to oversee Marvel’s phase 2 and direct The Avengers 2, the world is his oyster.

 

Marc Webb

Marc Webb is the only director on this list who I would not class as a science fiction director (despite the fact that The Amazing Spider-Man could be described as science fiction but I think that the superhero genre is now a genre in itself rather than a subsidiary of sci-fi but that’s a whole other argument). Webb arrived on the scene with the incredible, hilarious and touching story in (500) Days of Summer and then, like I mentioned, went on to have another summer hit this year with the reboot The Amazing Spider-Man which was more than capable of holding its own against The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Webb seems to specialise in relationships and he has this amazing ability to capture moments in relationships and develop them over time that I haven’t seen in a long time. I hope he continues to work in other genres but keeps his focus on character.

 

Neill Blomkamp

These last two are a little more unknown than the previous candidates but that doesn’t mean they are not as good. Blomkamp has, at the time of writing, only directed one feature length film with Disctrict 9. However, the praise that District 9 gathered and all the rave reviews about it really reshaping the genre of science-fiction and the sequel to his debut smash is highly anticipated, despite his next film being something completely unrelated to that. His next film is another trip into sci-fi and stars Matt Damon and is entitled Elysium. If this does as well as District 9 then stardom really does beckon for this man.

 

Duncan Jones

And finally we have Duncan Jones. Jones’ first film Moon is one of the greatest directorial debuts I have ever seen. Moon is a true masterpiece and Sam Rockwell’s performance along with the directorial skill of Jones is enough to grab the audience without having a mass of characters. His follow up Source Code was purely his directing and this time he had no part in the writing of the film yet still managed to pull off a great action film and again, a magnificent piece of directing because seeing the same 15-20 minutes over and over again can become tiresome for the audience but Jones manages to sustain interest. His next project is a biopic of Ian Fleming and Duncan Jones could well have another hit on his hands.

Disney Looks Set to Win Again: Wreck-It Ralph Trailer

UK Release Date: 15th February 2013.

Stars: Rich Moore (director), John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch.

Plot: A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfil his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.

With Disney raking in all the money from Pixar and Marvel these days it seems as though their feature length films will become less frequent and they seem to be focussing more on their animated shorts. However, with the release of Wreck-It Ralph I think Disney will be proving that they haven’t lost their touch at all.

Wreck-It Ralph is the latest animated family film from Disney and it seems as though there will be plenty to enjoy. As it is a Disney film you have to sort of expect it to just be a hit commercially anyway. However, I do think that older people, teenagers and young adults will probably get the most from Wreck-It Ralph because it features cameos from video game characters that were popular when this sort of audience were younger.

Among the cameo stars are Bowser from the Super Mario games, Sonic the Hedgehog and his rival Doctor Eggman, Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter,one of the flashing ghosts from Pac-Man: Clyde, Kano from Mortal Kombat, Neff from Altered Beast and the Paperboy. With a rich and vast range of characters I think adults will be more than happy to sit through Wreck-It Ralph.

Obviously with it being Disney you have to imagine that Ralph will leave his ‘bad guy’ days behind him and become a good guy in his own video game, but even if you know the ending Disney always manages to take you on an unforgettable journey along the way. And that if more important than the ending.