Sometimes, you encounter a duo of writers and directors who understand literature so well, that they make an animated film so accurate to the source material that you'll wonder how it was done.
Take for example Richard Adams, writer of Watership Down in 1972
and The Plague Dogs in 1977.
As well as director Martin Rosen who directed the animated adaptations of said films.
I think Martin Rosen set himself as the true Maverick in the animation scene from 1978 to 1982.
What sets his adaptations of WATERSHIP DOWN in 1978,
and THE PLAGUE DOGS in 1982,
apart from all the other animated films that were contemporary at the time is that these films stuck about 89% as close to the Source Material as written by the late RICHARD ADAMS.
and THE PLAGUE DOGS in 1982,
Other literary adaptations, mostly from DISNEY, often water down the content not just because of things like the HAYS CODE from 1934 to 1968,
or public perception by animation audiences,
or public perception by animation audiences,
(Missing Image)
or to focus more on characters instead of sticking close to source material.
(I'm looking at you Disney's The Jungle Book.... Just kidding. You're still a classic to all us fans.)
The closest competitor to WATERSHIP DOWN that stuck very close to the source material was RALPH BAKSHI's THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
But right now, We're focusing on the two animated films from MARTIN ROSEN.
Another thing that sets apart Rosen's animated films from all the contemporaries at the time is the fierce dedication to HAND-INKING animation cels instead of Xerography which was the style of the time.
In the early 60s, Animation switched to XEROGRAPHY for inking animation cels due to rising costs.
While this made production faster, some animation fans at the time felt the scratchier the lines, the less clean the cels looked....
This screenshot from THE TWELVE TASK OF ASTERIX featuring Fulliautomatix beating the living daylights out of a Roman Legionary is a double-whammy ALLEGORY of how sketchy the line art was and how disgruntled the old guard or some animation fans from the 1970s felt about Xerox.
My oh my have times changed.
Now I'm see people saying that xerography should be praised for retaining the authenticity of the pencil line art... or in this case, the Cleaned Up Pencil line art.
But back to the dark ages of animation which was from the 60s to the late 80s.
Martin Rosen was one of those directors who fiercely hated the Xeroxed look of the cels.
So when he directed and produced Watership Down, he prohibited his artists from using Xerography in favor of hank-inking the cels.
And it absolutely shows with these screenshots from the 1978 film.
DO YOU SEE ANY XEROX LINES ON THIS FILM?
NOPE!!!
This is beautiful hand-inking at it's finest.
Another thing that shows that it's all hand-inked is the fact that the outlines are in color.
Animation wouldn't bring back colored outlines properly until the rise of the computer process... aka: DIGITAL INK AND PAINT which started in 1990.
And that's if you want to use Colored Outlines using the digital process.
To which almost every production that used UNIX based Computers in the 90s would always go for Colored outlines.
Which persisted in the 2000s before 85% of Major Studios mandated all-CGI...
Unless it's Japanese Animation to which they still use 2D Animation.
Even with all the CGI Camera moves they sneak in, at least their industry knows what fans want instead of what the studio tells us to have.
Anyway, back to Martin Rosen.....
Mayuri has all you anime fans covered for the best in anime production news.
Anyway, back to Martin Rosen.....
THE PLAGUE DOGS from 1982 would be another adaptation that was meant to be as close to the source material.
But there was a change in the animation.
That change was the absence of Outlines.... well sort of.
There are still outlines but only in the inside of the cels.
A good 19 years before SAMURAI JACK made animation cels without outlines POPULAR..... even if the 2D Animation Cels in SAMURAI JACK are all digital.
What burns me up however is all those internet comments made by people where they complain that MARTIN ROSEN's films are too dark or too distressing to be considered animated films.
"WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!"
ROSEN was trying to stay true to RICHARD ADAM's books as well as staying true to how animals behave in real life. And he achieved that very well.....
And I still see you complaining that it's all graphic even for animation.....
REAL LIFE BIOLOGY IS NOT ALL ABOUT BAMBI ANIMALS.
ANIMALS HAVE TO FIGHT TO SURVIVE!
THAT'S REALITY.
Only thing Bambi got right about real-life Biology was Bambi's fight with Ronno over Faline.
Anyway, You can't just watch and expect a light hearted film about Bunnies only to walk out after the credits and complain about the blood and gore or the Marxist portrayal of Woundwort's warren.
Comments like this undermine what Richard Adams was writing about in 1972.
And Comments like this undermine Guillermo Del Toro's views on how Animation should be treated like it's equal to Live-Action films.
I say this because Guillermo Del Toro actually got a chance to be in an interview on the 2014 Criterion Collection DVD talking about his experience watching Watership Down and how it influenced his filmmaking.
The interview in question is called
A MOVIE MIRACLE: GUILLERMO DEL TORO ON WATERSHIP DOWN.
What I'm trying to say is that independent animation tends to be 10x better than the mainstream when it comes to audience and critic reception regardless if it's a short or feature length.
But independent films often always get overlooked by the mainstream films just because EXECUTIVES, and the Academy....
I get that winning awards at the Academy awards is GIGA-COMPETITIVE
But at least show respect to the creator.
If he wants either an R-Rated film about bloody biology or Regime Allegories, then let him have it.
But I don't want to hear anymore complaints about a film being sad or bloody because I fiercely believe the medium should tackle real-life issues and a rabbit allegory is the perfect tool to satirize Marxism and eventual escape.
And Watership Down wasn't the first.
And then there's Aardman's Chicken Run in 2000which we all know is a parody of the 1963 film THE GREAT ESCAPE.
So you see, we all live for allegories.
And if the creators want their blood and gore to appear animated whether it's drawn on paper, Wacom Cintiqs, or modeled with clay or CG polygons, let them have it.
I had this post in the backburner for most of the end of August 2024.
But now that it's September, I want to take it easy with these blogpost due to a new change of job opportunities at the airport that I'm currently undertaking.
That and I'm getting my groove back together in Autodesk Maya doing my animations for my next demo reel.
So please be patient for some of my new animations....
Or the highly anticipated Teen Titans Post I promised to do back in June but got sidetracked due to my Cafe Job.
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