Animation Movie Reviews

I strongly recommend this light hearted wholesome movie for children of all ages.

The saga begins on the day this sweet creature is found by a fruit vendor in a crate of oranges. Rejected by the Moscow zoo because of his unknown species, he is befriended by a genial crocodile named Genady. Genady works at the zoo as a crocodile.

"Crocodile Gena" Episode (#1): The improbable team befriends all who are lost and lonely and build a Playhouse for Friends.

"Cheburashka" Episode (#2): Genady and Cheburashka, now inseparable friends, build a playground for children.

"Shapocliak Episode" (#3): Genady and Cheburashka go on vacation and protect nature with the capricious Old Lady Shapocliak.

"Cheburashka Is Going To School Episode (#4): Cheburashka fails to meet his best friend Genady at the airport because he did not know how to read, and is sent to school by his friends.

My only request is: more of this wonderful Fleischer collection.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As far as the visual and audio quality of this production, to quote Jerry Beck (Animation Authority/Historian) "The print quality is the best...and the transfers are excellent." Ray Pointer also makes the very best use of sound effects and music (by Winston Sharples, Fleischer cartoon music composer) which, to quote animation instructor Brian LeMay, "...didn't intrude on the original animation..." and gives each cartoon a wonderfully authentic period feel.

The fact that the original "Out of the InkWell" releases on VHS (which were the inspiration for the DVD for Volumes 1 and 2...go to [a website]...won the "GOLD AWARD in the Entertainment Category for the Houston International Film and Video Festival in 2001 and 2003" is only the icing on the cake.

Thank you Ray, for preserving this piece of history and for giving us an insight into the mind and talents of Max Fleischer!"

Richard Kish
Animation Enthusiast and Devotee

Your first viewing will leave you slack-jawed. (I wonder if Disney's Fantasia had such an impact at its debut.) I have followed computer animation for quite some time, but this is the first time I have seen a truly successful marriage of music and computer animation. For me, "Drum Machine", "Pipe Dream", and "Acoustic Curves" are particularly appealing because they appear like machines that could exist in reality given a NASA-sized budget, much like Rube Goldberg inventions. The others are more fantastical, with floating drum sticks and string picks that appear to be operated by ghosts, and pretzel shaped laser beams. Although there is some duplication among the fictitious musical instruments, there is enough creative range between the pieces that no one is likely to complain about repetitiveness.

The appeal of the music itself will vary depending on your current musical fare. If you have listened to early John Tesh or mid-career Jean-Michel Jarre, the music will strike you as unoriginal. In fact, most of the music will feel very predictable - a solo instrument that is joined by additional instruments, rising to a climactic symphony of instruments. If you don't regularly listen to "New Age" music, this will be a fresh exposure to purely instrumental pop music.

This is a unique fusion of technology and art and I look forward to the already announced sequel.

The animation of the instruments is fantastic, being dynamic and fluid. You can see drums 'thump', strings vibrate and horns and pipes 'blow'. Other instruments are altogether more 'imaginative', and everything is fun to watch. On most pieces, the instruments belong to recognisable families, perhaps with one or two interesting 'twists'. The final piece however, being a more 'ethereal' musical number, dispenses with most of the ties to traditional instrumentation and allows itself a little 'experimentation', but with great effect.

Animusic mixes the fascination of watching 'complicated machines', the musical contraptions, with the appeal of watching good performance art. While there are no human 'players', the machines have a wonderful grace and feel completely organic. The whole thing possesses a definite beauty and leaves you wanting more.

I was introduced to Animusic through watching 'Pipe Dream' on the web (after it had featured at SIGGRAPH). This piece alone was compelling enough to buy the album as soon as it became available, but in the end three other pieces from the album feature as my equal favourites - a tribute to the appeal of the album both musically and visually.

I thoroughly recommend this DVD and I'll be looking out for future Animusic albums!

I was already familiar with Animusic's Wayne Lytle's work, from a short I had seen entitled "More Bells and Whistles", created in 1990. So I had a basic idea of what to expect.

The video started with "Future Retro", a very nice piece, in which mechanical instruments play the music. The creativity in the instruments was stunning, with a guitar that had 3 ends, a flute-thing, and more. The drums were played by moving arms holding drumsticks. The composition was incredible, and the perfectly-timed animation made the piece come alive; it seemed as though the animated instruments were actually playing the song.

Next up was "Stick Figures", in which the instruments play themselves with their arms. A very interesting concept, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece.

Then came "Aqua Harp", in which a unique harp stands in a pool of water, under a starry night sky. The harp is actually four instruments: the harp-strings, tubular bells, air-flute-thing, and strings. The song was soft and slow, and matched the scene very well. This piece was incredible.

Next was "Drum Machine", where the instruments are played by sticks attached to gears, which rotate to hit the drums. It was impeccably well-done, where even the gears attached to the other gears turn, and at a different speed. If you've ever wondered if a machine full of gears can create music, this will answer your question.

Next was "Pipe Dream". This piece takes it's concept from one of the original instruments in the first production, "More Bells and Whistles", in which balls would shoot out of a central machine and hit the correct note exactly on time. Pipe Dream extends this, with every instrument being played by small metal balls shooting out of pipes, hitting the instument, and then re-entering a pipe. The timing was incredible, and seeing thousands of balls all creating music was an awe-inspiring sight. This animation was probably the most interesting.

Then came "Acoustic Curves", which is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have heard. The instruments are all arranged in a circular shape, (thus the name), and they play together with incredible timing. It all adds up to make a very exciting piece.

Last but not least, "Harmonios Voltage" sizzles up my TV with it's slow and futuristic music. Lasers, plasma, and switches all come together to make this piece come alive. An excellent piece to end the video.

I would recommend this video for anyone who enjoys any kind of music, it's totally awe-inspiring. I've watched it 3 times already and there is always something new to be seen. This video truly is a 5-star production!

This is one of the most awesome anime ever. It's not spectacularly amazing, but it feels that way. It more than makes up for ABe's lain, which is really pale in comparison to this. It is similar to ABe's works in that it features a young girl trying to find where she belongs in life. It's what NieA_7 would have been if it were serious and had a plot.

I would strongly reccomend this anime if you like dramatic anime or if you liked some of ABe's previous works. If you think ABe is just all about lain and you thought it wasn't good at all, give Haibane Renmei a try and you'll be glad you did.

We get to know all the major characters in the first disk, as well as the lay of the land - Old Home, the town, and the Wall. The latter will play an important role in the series to be sure, but in an unexpected way. The real meat of the story is the growth of Rakka's character and her relationships with the other Haibane. This is what makes Haibane Renmei a treasure.

The collector's box, pencil boards, and the Haibane Hakusho (info booklet) are all wonderful additions to this DVD. Extras on the DVD are pretty standard for an anime, and include previews for other series, some character sketches, and a few other things like that. The English dubs aren't exceptional, certainly inferior to the Japanese voice talent. Hopefully the other volumes will include a more interesting assortment of extras.

They were driven and self-taught. They had unprecedented knowledge of computer technology and they created computer art on equipment which was not supposed to meet the requirements. Spread across the world in relatively small numbers they met each other at computer clubs, exchanged their demonstrations of art through sending floppies by regular mail and they called themselves 'the demo scene'.

This DVD is a historical archive of the development of computer art in the 1990s. Produced by the very same people that were part of that development it features ultra-high quality of original productions from the era and a 20 minute documentary on the scene.

This is a MUST HAVE for each and everyone that was part of the scene and a recommendation to everyone interested to know how computer multimedia all began.

If you're a fan of the demo scene, then you need this disc - unless you want to keep a bunch of 286, 386, and 486 machines around and running, this is your best bet for seeing oldschool demos from now on, since they often won't work with modern hardware. If you're not familiar with demos, well, they're basically a demonstration of (visual and audio) things you never knew your computer could do. If you're a fan of computer graphics, "The Mind's Eye" videos, electronic music, neat screensavers, or music videos, you'll probably dig this.

The disc is double-sided, with side one being "transcendental vistas", containing 22 demos from 1999-2001. Very advanced visuals here. The second disc is "kickin' it oldschool", which has 20 demos dating from 1990-1998. Here you can see the evolution of the art form from the beginning (on the PC, at least).

Side One contains: Wonder, 604, Kosmiset Avaruus Sienet, Further, Chrome, Volatile, Tesla, Broadband, Mikrostrange, Moral Hard Candy, TE-2RB, Le Petit Prince, Engergia, Gerbera, Lapsus, Enlight the Surreal, Experimental, Live Evil, The Nonstop Ibiza Experience, Codename Chinadoll, Art, and Kasparov.

Side Two contains: Second Reality, Megademo, Cronologia, Unreal, Amnesia, Panic, Crystal Dream 2, Show, Verses, Dope, X14, Stars: Wonders of the World, Reve, Paimen, Inside, Megablast, 303, Saint, Square, and Riprap.

I was a bit concerned about how well the visuals would be preserved, since moving the old-school DOS-based graphics to DVD is harder than you might expect. Once I got the disc, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. The audio and visual fidelity is stunning. This was clearly a labor of love by very talented people who care about the art form. Now I just have to wait for them to make the next volume...