Movie o' the day: The Secret of Kells

Spokane has this little art-house theater that's come and gone over the years, called the Magic Lantern. I normally don't pay it much attention, since the majority of its fare tends to be small foreign films and documentaries that, if they grab my attention, I can generally catch on Netflix in short order, in the privacy of my own home. However, they do also occasionally show some piece of animation that had escaped my attention earlier, and isn't currently available on DVD, and may never be, for that matter... such was the case for The Secret of Kells.

The story itself isn't anything earth-shattering... during Viking times, our young hero Brendan lives in an abbey where his uncle is the head abbot. The abbot is doing his best to make his abbey defensible, and shield his flock from the northmen... in his nephew's case, to the point of forbidding him from leaving the abbey. A master limner, who survived another Viking raid on his abbey, comes to the abbey with his cat, Pangur Ban, and a book that generations of limners have been working on, the Book of Iona... and proceeds to lure the hero away from the path of the abbot's choosing. In the end, the vikings come, the abbey is razed, but the limner and his new apprentice survive and complete the book, now called the Book of Kells. In and amongst all that, there's a fair bit of Brendan sneaking out of the abbey, befriending a local faery who's the guardian of the surrounding woods, and battling a dark pagan god in the process. It's a passable tale, but not something likely to grab the imagination of young children, I'd wager.

That said... the animation is oddly beautiful, in its own way. The main art style is influenced by anime, but also looks to draw on time-appropriate European artwork (it wouldn't surprise me if that influence came from the real-life Book of Kells itself). When they deal with the Norsemen, the color palette shifts extremely dark, and the motion they use to imply their implacability and unstoppability is inspired. At times, they split the behavior of a character and their shadow, to better portray mood or shadow something they're describing. The one time the faery does actual magic involving Pangur Ban is understated but simply outstanding. Oh, and Pangur Ban is one of the better mostly-normal cat portrayals I've ever seen.

So, overall, if you're an animation geek, get thee to the Magic Lantern before this goes away (or check your own local art-house to see if it's coming or already gone), or at least get it saved in your Netflix queue and pray that a DVD release is forthcoming soon. For those of you looking for something to take the kids to... it's not bloody, it doesn't have any bad language or other naughty bits, but neither does it have enough action to keep real young kids enthralled. If it still sounds like something they'd enjoy, by all means go, or stow it away in your Netflix queue.

Something good, for a change: The Maxx

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of focusing on the craptastic side of our life and times here of late, so it's high time I highlighted some of the cooler things about living today... to wit, The Maxx.

The Maxx is a short cartoon series from the mid-90s, with a unique concept, entertaining voice-work, and a wide range of artistic styles. For those not in the know, here's a link to more details... but, suffice it to say, that it was never mainstream fare. In years past, if it ever made it to a home recording, it would have been released shortly after the series ended, while whatever interest it held was still 'hot', then quietly stuffed into the archives, never to see the light of day, except in odd corners of video stores or even odder private libraries of cartoon nerds (and yes, I did get a VHS tape for myself back in the day).

Fast forward fifteen years, and we find ourselves with the Internet in full swing... and on the Internet, nothing is truly obscure. On the small scale, that means you could likely do a search on YouTube and piece together this series, or many others, with a little time and effort. On a larger scale, there are plenty of movies and series that have been resurrected in DVD form, the vast majority of which you can get through Netflix... unfortunately, The Maxx isn't quite "big" enough to do a full production run of DVDs, it seems, so Netflix doesn't carry a copy. Not to worry, though... we've also entered the age of on-demand publishing, which has reached into the realm of DVDs as well as books. As such, you can get The Maxx made, legally, just for you... and who knows what other "marginal" goodies are out there, waiting to grace your shelves, the better to spring on unsuspecting guests?

So, yeah, obviously, I bought a copy... here's a link to Amazon. $15 for two DVDs, and they threw in streaming copies of the episodes as well. If you've never been exposed to the series, well, check out that IMDb link I tossed in earlier, maybe do a little online research... but, if it draws your interest in the slightest, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the buy.

A study in human nature - the Humble Bundle

Funny how you can watch a wide swath of human behavior over the course of a week. Last week, a group of independent game developers got together to offer a limited time offer... five developers, five games, one week, pay as little as you want for the games, and donate as much of what you pay as you want to one of a pair of charities. They called it the Humble Bundle, and, as of this writing, with about 15 hours left on the offer, they've gotten over $840,000. All things considered, not too shabby.

Of course, it's not all a feel-good story. Having to pay for the bandwith to let all those downloads happen, they get tracking reports of how much bandwidth they've used... and, despite offering the option to pay as little as $0.01 for the games, it appears that about 25% of the downloads were made without any payment or contribution whatsoever (link). There are a number of people out there who, for whatever reason, couldn't or wouldn't pay anything for the games, even to charity.

So, there's your portrait... faith in humanity on the part of the developers, mostly decent people willing to play by the rules, and a pool of scum that can't be bothered to dig a penny out of their pocket for a little entertainment.

Bloomsday

For any of you without a Spokane connection, today was Bloomsday. Naturally, I didn't participate (not much of one for exercise, especially with 50,000+ of my closest strangers), preferring instead to sleep in... but I thought that it might be a fine time to snag brunch and hit Costco before the hordes hit.

Naturally, things didn't work out quite that way. I drove out to the Old European on Sprague, only to find it closed and converted to some sort of Japanese establishment (still one on Division, thankfully... much prefer eating aebelskivers to making them myself)... so I settled for the evil of IHOP (not terrible if your expectations are low... but man, those were some greasy sausages). I then hit Costco, to find things even more crowded than usual for a weekend, with all the Bloomies clustering around the sample stands, clogging flow through the aisles better than the greasy breakfast I had just eaten ever dreamed of doing to my arteries. Foolishly, I pressed on... it wasn't quite Christmas-at-Walmart levels of people packing, but it wasn't pretty, either... it's never a good sign when I breathe a sigh of relief on managing to exit a store.

So, lessons learned... be damn sure, if you're going to try to take advantage of an event to get something done, that you get what needs done done while the event is still in play. I might have spent more shopping Costco while I was still peckish, but my sanity would be in better shape, I believe.