I have seen a thing
Feb. 7th, 2012 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_andyGot around to watching Redline finally. I think I want to watch the first part on a loop forever.
It's anime about car racing in space. No, that's too easy. Um, it's like Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, made in a fusion of modern and retro anime style. Maybe?
This is not a serious movie. No, wait, it is very serious, but only about what it wants to be, which is impossible physics for vehicles and pompadours, hand drawn animation, details that won't be caught until the eight viewing, a great soundtrack, and the most lovingly over the top Shonen Jump competition manga style of melodrama. It is excessive and lurid in all the right ways. It knows it's a cartoon and that informs its look and logic. Characters are stretched as they speed up. Turbo charged cars skip across water like stones. The power of love beats race technology.
It's kinda like a shonen anime equivalent of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. That is either the best or most horrible analogy possible for this, sorry. (Still better than the shitty wikipedia entry. Seriously, don't bother with that noise).
I wanted to link to a trailer here, but I didn't like any that I found. Ideally I could post the first race in it's entirety, cause that's what sold me: just starting the damn thing (I rented it sight unseen based on the hype of critics I trusted). Honestly I think it's better to go in cold (I didn't even like hearing the music during the DVD menu). You'll know in 10 minutes if you'll like it or not.
For all that I'm excited about Redline I'm a little uncomfortable recommending it, as my reaction is so visceral and personal. David Brothers said it made him feel like when he first discovered anime, and I think my feelings are about the same. It has this not quite cohesive mix of action and explosions and sex that was so appealing when I was 12. That may mean you need to have been a young boy getting into anime in the early 90s to connect with it the way I am. Or maybe not. But you have to like spectacle.
Unfortunately that does mean it has some of the same problems as the random anime that I remember from that period, mainly arbitrary nudity and sexualization. Though the “intentional exaggeration of pop archetypes turned to 11” aspects are hard to separate from the superfluous sexuality and nudity for titillation’s sake. That's one of the problems with evaluating this; it's taking elements of particular styles and recreating them in loving, indulgent, excess. Even the stuff I don't like might be necessary to properly homage the source material. Shrug. I'll leave that for a more academic post.
I think I'll end up purchasing this for the same reason I own FLCL: when it works I really really really like it and when it fails I find the attempts interesting. Also, sweet soundtracks on both.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the planet run by a magical princess. It's got that too.
Post script: if you decide to watch this, make sure you have the setup for it. This is a movie of spectacle and excess, I really think it benefits from a large screen and a decent sound system. At least get some good headphones if you're going to watch it on your computer.
It's anime about car racing in space. No, that's too easy. Um, it's like Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, made in a fusion of modern and retro anime style. Maybe?
This is not a serious movie. No, wait, it is very serious, but only about what it wants to be, which is impossible physics for vehicles and pompadours, hand drawn animation, details that won't be caught until the eight viewing, a great soundtrack, and the most lovingly over the top Shonen Jump competition manga style of melodrama. It is excessive and lurid in all the right ways. It knows it's a cartoon and that informs its look and logic. Characters are stretched as they speed up. Turbo charged cars skip across water like stones. The power of love beats race technology.
It's kinda like a shonen anime equivalent of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. That is either the best or most horrible analogy possible for this, sorry. (Still better than the shitty wikipedia entry. Seriously, don't bother with that noise).
I wanted to link to a trailer here, but I didn't like any that I found. Ideally I could post the first race in it's entirety, cause that's what sold me: just starting the damn thing (I rented it sight unseen based on the hype of critics I trusted). Honestly I think it's better to go in cold (I didn't even like hearing the music during the DVD menu). You'll know in 10 minutes if you'll like it or not.
For all that I'm excited about Redline I'm a little uncomfortable recommending it, as my reaction is so visceral and personal. David Brothers said it made him feel like when he first discovered anime, and I think my feelings are about the same. It has this not quite cohesive mix of action and explosions and sex that was so appealing when I was 12. That may mean you need to have been a young boy getting into anime in the early 90s to connect with it the way I am. Or maybe not. But you have to like spectacle.
Unfortunately that does mean it has some of the same problems as the random anime that I remember from that period, mainly arbitrary nudity and sexualization. Though the “intentional exaggeration of pop archetypes turned to 11” aspects are hard to separate from the superfluous sexuality and nudity for titillation’s sake. That's one of the problems with evaluating this; it's taking elements of particular styles and recreating them in loving, indulgent, excess. Even the stuff I don't like might be necessary to properly homage the source material. Shrug. I'll leave that for a more academic post.
I think I'll end up purchasing this for the same reason I own FLCL: when it works I really really really like it and when it fails I find the attempts interesting. Also, sweet soundtracks on both.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the planet run by a magical princess. It's got that too.
Post script: if you decide to watch this, make sure you have the setup for it. This is a movie of spectacle and excess, I really think it benefits from a large screen and a decent sound system. At least get some good headphones if you're going to watch it on your computer.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-08 01:03 pm (UTC)It thinks I'll like it less than its average rating, :O