Quote:
Originally Posted by riverboatking
ok here is a list I came up with after very cursory googling:
fritz the cat
metropia
scanner darkly
Renaissance
waking life
spirited away
beowulf
waltz with bashir
Persepolis
watership down
fire and ice
fantastic planet
heavy metal
I've seen scanner darkly and spirited away but none of the others, wondering what ppl's thoughts are on any of the others on the list.
and obv pls add any good ones that I've left off.
for now I'd prefer ones in english, I'm sure I'll do another thread at some point for foreign animated films (yes I know I included spirited away but whatever I've already seen it so don't need feedback on that or scanner darkly)
I feel that stuff like Persepolis and Waking Life barely belong on the list (have not actually seen Persepolis). Sure they're animated, but I guess I'm associating "animated" with fantastical elements, not more down-to-earth stories. Obviously I'm not correct, just pointing out how I think about "animated".
Waking Life was good when I was in college - probably worth a watch. What I remember is largely just people talking about lucid dreaming and philosophical concepts the way you do in college.
Heavy Metal is an anthology and I would recommend it if you've taken an interest in adult Western animation. I don't think I loved it, anthologies are always a mixed bag; but worth a watch.
Fritz the Cat is whatever, kinda cool though in that it captures that 1960s beatnik (?) subculture. Also worth a watch if you are continuing down this path, largely for historical reasons - just don't expect great things.
[TANGENT THAT I THINK I'VE ALREADY WRITTEN ABOUT]I've noticed that animation often seem to do a better job of capturing the essence of a real time and place better than live action. Example, Fritz the Cat - I'm aware of no live action movie that captures a 1960's NYC college beatnik lower-class partying druggie lifestyle in this way.
Another example, old Disney cartoons. Many live action movies from that time period ('20s-'50s) focus on the rich, or sanitized suburbia, and/or it's all filmed on fake-looking sets. Mickey and pals live in middle America in tiny, shabby, sparse houses. Similar with some early Charlie Brown. You rarely if ever see that in live-action film. In the special features for Revolutionary Road, they say that they couldn't physically film in a house that was actually representative of how small suburban houses were at that time, so there you go.[/TANGENT]
My biggest Western adult animation recommendation really would be the
Aeon Flux cartoon series (it has the anime "look" a little bit, but creator is Korean-American). Watch all of the shorts, the first two seasons (this is prob only like 45 minutes total). From the full-length third season, watch Thanatophobia and The Purge (all episodes are stand-alone) and then go ahead and watch the rest of the season if you want to. If you do this it will be around 90 minutes and the equivalent time-wise of watching an animated film.