for a recent one, Id pick Sita Sings the Blues.
Second that one, Crap Monster. Criterion could really bail out poor Nina and her beautiful little film.
I’d also kill for a definitive Adams/Rosen bundle with Watership Down and Plague Dogs. But we’re not even scratching the surface of the wealth of criminally under-seen animated films (Flaklypa Grand Prix, Mind Game, When the Wind Blows). It really is a bit of a black eye that Criterion have so blatantly ignored the genre.
Agree on Sita Sings the Blues and Triplets of Belleville for sure. I’m curious as well. I can’t think of any in the collection. If not someone should start a petition thread and see how much demand there is in this sample group.
I’d recommend the beautifully made stop-motion, Madame Tutli Putli. It’s only about 16 mins, but the production took the filmmakers 7 day/week, 17 hrs a day for 6 months of so.
I’d recommend the beautifully made stop-motion, Madame Tutli Putli. It’s only about 16 mins, but the production took the filmmakers 7 day/week, 17 hrs a day for 6 months of so.
forgot about Nightmare Before Christmas
This I actually wrote in a TV and music video thread"
“the Collection doesn’t include a lot of Anime, so I nominate FLCL. A six episode mini-series that redefines post-modernism. It is a coming of age story about a young boy in a nondescript small Japanese town where “nothing interesting ever happens.” Things change when he literally crashes into a strange older woman. It is a fast-paced, colorful and frenetic story that is at the same time solemn, calm and contemplative like an Ozu picture. Oh yeh, it also includes GIANT FIGHTING ROBOTS.
I first saw this series on adult swim. I was not prepared for it in any way, I had no idea what I was watching and it was like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life."
Tekkon Kinkurîto (Tekkonkinkreet)!!!
& Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) is okay.
I’m happy with the Spirited Away DVD that’s already out there.
on topic of anime, i want to throw in Mind Game. a seemingly overshadowed little film that came out in 2004 and still has no release outside of its native country.
I’m agreeing with FLCL because I think it’s a bizarre little piece that puts a radically different spin on the slice-of-life coming-of-age story, but Lord knows the six episode series will never get the love it deserves.
Anthony’s initial list has some hits and some misses, but I’ll agree with Princess Mononoke and with Crap Monster’s suggestion of Sita Sings the Blues—I stumbled upon it last week courtesy of /Film and loved it!
Iron Giant is a good one too.
There is no way in hell Disney will ever give criterion rights to any of their stuff. I think thats a bug reason you will never see much animation 75% of the criterion worthy animation is Disney owned. It is like trying to get rights to release a special collection of The Beatles music. It just isn’t going to happen.
It would be nice to get a non-dubbed version of Svankmajer’s Alice. Also, maybe some R1 releases of the Studio Ghibli R2 DVDs other than the Miyazakis; I’d love to see a release of Only Yesterday.
oh yeah Yellow Submarine is a classic.
@Campbell
I know it will never happen but Fantasia is perfect for criterion.
im surprised no one has mentioned Prince of Egypt….
Wings of Honneamise
Ghost in the Shell
Angel’s Egg
Galaxy Express 999
Night on the Galactic Railroad
Haibane Renmei
If Armageddon gets a special edition, Criterion should definitely give some love to anime. I’m sure there would be trouble securing the rights to most of these though.
Even hypothetically speaking, it’s ridiculous to suggest that Disney titles be outsourced to another production company. How could Criterion possibly improve upon recent blu-ray releases like Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio? They are absolutely definitive, and arguably, the pinnacle of current HD authoring.
… and I don’t want to be a stick in the mud, here, but 90% of the titles mentioned in this forum have, in fact, already received decent to immaculate transfers. I, for one, am weary of marginally upgraded double-dips and would much rather prefer releases of rare gems yet unearthed.
The Fantastic Planet, Light Years, Heavy Metal, B.C Rock, Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin and When the Wind Blows……if you’ve never seen When the wind blows , i suggest you do….it’s heartbreaking..
I think When The Wind Blows would be a great choice for CC. As far as I can tell there is no Region 1 release of this DVD. It would be nice to have that as part of the collection…along with a really cleaned up copy of Fantastic Planet and possibly a nice little Eclipse set of the Bakishi films in keeping with the animated theme for that particular week…autumn would be nice. Similar to how they released the Rossellini films where Louis XIV came on CC and then Eclipse picked up the set of History Films. Yeah…something like that.
A definitive collection of Felix the Cat shorts.
And Fritz the Cat.
As those are my two favorite animated characters.
Otherwise great suggestions, all around. I’m an animation whore so I really dig bringing this up. Anybody else own the Animation Show DVDs? Spike and Mike DVDs? Great, great stuff. I could use a Don Hertzfeldt collection on Criterion, including Rejected, Billy’s Balloon, Ah, L’amour!, and The Meaning of Life (though they could just as easily include, you know, everything he’s ever done on a single disc, that wouldn’t be too hard).
I recommended this on another thread, but honestly, Anxious Animation. It’s available through Other Cinema DVD and it’s spectacular. All animation buffs need apply.
—PolarisDiB
Hedgehog in the Fog, which is “considered one of the best animated films of all time.” There are a few other worthy Soviet cartoons out there that I can’t recall their names at the moment.
I found the clip of Hedgehog in the Fog on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRsXU4Q6a0Q
I loved Hedgehog in the Fog.
I think Watership Down deserves very much to be in the collection, without a doubt.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Coraline really was great
The Incredibles
Ratatouille
Dumbo (I’m sure it is)
Hopefully Fantastic Mr. Fox
A collection of John & Faith Hubley would be great, as would a retrospective of Jiri Trnka.
I could very easily see Criterion taking on classic old school animation like Winsor McKay and the Fleischer brothers.
As far as features, I would pretty much eliminate everything Disney. Not so much that they aren’t up to quality. Instead, I am saying that Disney has done a fine job with their Platinum Series of their classic films. The only two Pixar films I would consider are the two by Andrew Stanton, ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Wall-E’ (the best American animated film in nearly two decades).
Satoshi Kon is one of the most fearless filmmakers working in world cinema today. Every new film is a revelation (for the uninitiated, check the following: ‘Perfect Blue’, ‘Tokyo Godfathers’, ‘Millennium Actress’, ‘Paprika’, and the series ‘Paranoia Agent’).
Hayao Miyazaki is the master, and deserves to be placed next to Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi as the finest Japanese directors of all-time. However, his Studio Ghibli is owned by Disney, and the DVD releases have been solid (perhaps with the exception that Disney didn’t pay too much focus on the Japanese transfers on some of the older ones).
There’s so many places to go here in terms of both releases of feature lengths and shorts collections. This is such a vast untapped field for Criterion. I can very easily see shorts collections soon.
However, if this is a thread on what we think are the finest animated films of all-time, I will give a quick (forgive me) list of what I think are the greatest (no particular order)
Pinocchio, What’s Opera Doc?, A Czech Year, The Dot and the Line, Duck Amok, Watership Down, Cameraman’s Revenge, Wrong Trousers, Fantastic Planet (would be a great Criterion release), Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, Perfect Blue, Akira (released on Criterion’s laserdisc library), Nightmare Before Christmas, Triplets of Bellville, Wizards, The Iron Giant, The Simpsons Movie, Rooty Toot Toot, Madame Tutli Putli, Fantasia, Bambi.
Ok, maybe not a quick list, just what came immediately to mind.
Not 100% animation, but I would absolutely love to see Criterion releases of Karel Zeman’s films which mix cut-out animation and live action together quite beautifully. Currently completely unavailable in english except for a dubbed version of The Fabulous world of Jules Verne. Quite a lot of fan-subs for his films out there on the internet though.
Anthony N
Are there any animated films on Criterion?
What animated films should be on Criterion?
Here are some of my picks:
Fritz the Cat
Tripplets of Bellvile
Persepolis
Akira
Paprika
Waltz with Bashir
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflies
Fantasia
Wall E