Miss Hokusai (opens in Akron October 21st at the Nightlight in Akron)

[MISS HOKUSAI opens in Akron on Friday October 21st exclusively at the Nightlight Cinema.] 

Artists are pretty self-centered and borderline-dislikable people. Kind of a-holes, once you really get down to it. Consider the Japanese printmaker and draftsman Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Among his most famous works is the iconic The Great Wave. We’ve all seen it. Now, back several years ago when one of my books on Great Lakes paranormal phenomena came out, I campaigned for the old Cleveland Free Times newspaper (it still existed then) to run an excerpt, my disquisition on the Lake Erie Monster. Editor Frank Lewis agreed…but that wasn’t enough for me. Even though I hadn’t drawn with pen and ink for decades, I sat down and for days and days did a painstaking takeoff on Hokusai’s Great Wave just to illustrate my Free Times book excerpt. I reproduced Hokusai’s wave, all right, but to give it the proper Cleveland twist I included the Lake Erie Monster (as a Chinese dragon), two floating drums of toxic waste, dead fish, and a homely and fat chainsmoking Japanese mermaid in a LeBron jersey.

When Frank Lewis – who probably had no idea I could draw – got the thing in the mail, he said it was the damndest thing he ever beheld. Here’s the weird part, though: I never knew if the drawing ran. The Lake Erie Monster article did, oh yes – it was findable online while the Free Times still existed. But in all the years I wrote for the paper, that was the one issue of which I could not locate one printed copy on the street.

What does this all have to do with artists being self-centered a-holes. Well, this review is supposed to be about a wonderful and offbeat new movie about Hokusai. But I’ve just gone on rambling about myself. And how I did a Hokusai takeoff. Hence, for a while here I am an artist. And, therefore, a self-centered a-hole.

Wolf Children (screening at Zipcon in Akron, February 20)

 

Hailing from the legendary Japanese distributor Toho, WOLF CHILDREN was a hit theatrical release in Nippon in 2012 and, and no wonder (well, aside from riding the lupine coattails of TWILIGHT movies, of course). Visually stirring and hitting a lot of buttons for longtime Japanimation connoisseurs, animator Mamoru Hosoda's tender fantasy does not hail from Hayao Miyazaki's renown Studio Ghibli - but there is a strong affinity, particularly in its reverence for the natural world.  

Heroine Hana is an orphaned, big-city Japanese college student with a keep-smiling attitude to life (pretty girl, big-city college student, keep-smiling attitude to life? Like I said, it's a fantasy). She falls in love with a handsome loner on the fringes of the campus. The nameless man reveals his astounding secret, that he is actually a Japanese wolf, the last of his kind, hiding in human form. Werewolf movies have it all wrong, he affirms.  

When Marnie Was There (opens in Cleveland June 5th at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE opens in Cleveland on Friday June 5th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Sorry, a rush job on this review of a Japanese animated feature. Bob Ignizio, white foreign barbarian devil round-eye giant pale ghost (those are all bona fide racist slurs Japanese use against anglos, unless I'm much misinformed) dropped this one right on top of me, a review assignment of the latest release from legendary Nippon animation factory Studio Ghibli - right in between my binge-watch assignments to go through two other, more "conventional" anime shows.

So you can identify with my befuddled state, these were the bookends: Noir, a famous 2001 action serial (and, to my eyes, Sergio Leono tribute) about two winsome young girls working as a lethal international assassins-for-hire team, who are also puppets in the hands of a 1,000-year-old secret society. The other is Unlimited Psychic Squad, one of those sci-fi deals in which telepaths with incredible mind-superpowers duel like gods in a sort of alternate-history version of Japan.

Welcome to the Space Show (now on video)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I don't know about you, but when a separate Oscar category for Best Animated Feature was inaugurated, I welcomed it as a chance to open audiences up to the rich world of cartoons, CGI and stop-motion that exists outside of the usual Disney/DreamWorks axis of evil. (Plus, I like to think that advancements in animation will mean fewer live-action cinema - meaning fewer borderline-psycho actors would be employed in our midst - and that can't be a bad thing). So, perhaps thanks to the Academy, more viewers are turned on to stuff like SONG OF THE SEA and the output of Studio Ghibli than would have been otherwise.

Still, there are still some major animated features that take some time to get here. I'm still curious about FELIDAE, the German cartoon based on a best-selling thriller novel (that never broke big with American readers) about a cat version of Sherlock Holmes...

Wait a minute! Didn't I just write this same exact lead for a previous review? Well, yes. I've got two movies in a row in which it's applicable. Plus this is a bad economy, it's cold and dark, it's dispiriting in Cleveland, and I just couldn't up with anything more original. What are you going to do, garnish my Cleveland Movie Blog wages? Good luck.

Nocturna (now on video)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I don't know about you, but when a separate Oscar category for Best Animated Feature was inaugurated, I welcomed it as a chance to open audiences up to the rich world of cartoons, CGI and stop-motion that exists outside of the usual Disney/DreamWorks axis of evil. (Plus, I like to think that advancements in animation will mean fewer live-action cinema - meaning fewer borderline-psycho actors employed in our midst - and that can't be a bad thing). So, perhaps thanks to the Academy, more viewers are turned on to stuff like SONG OF THE SEA and the output of Studio Ghibli than would have been otherwise.

Still, there are some major animated features that take some time to get here. I'm still curious about FELIDAE, the German cartoon based on a best-selling thriller novel (that never broke big with American readers) about a cat version of Sherlock Holmes. Then there's NOCTURNA, a Franco-Spanish epic that was completed all of eight years ago. Now it's finally shown up here on disc.

Fantasia, with the Cleveland Orchestra, December 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

BREAKING NEWS: The Cleveland Police have shot Mickey Mouse. The classic cartoon character, 86, was pronounced dead on arrival at University Hospital. Officers said they were responding to a call about a male rodent, largely black in color, waving around a magic wand in University Circle in a threatening manner. Police saw the rodent - dressed in a costume and pointed hat covered in occult/gang symbols - using the wand to make starbursts in the sky and command a legion of broomsticks to carry pails of water. Police felt there was a threat to public safety and acted in accordance with department policy. Mickey Mouse was hit with an estimated 877 rounds. Said a Police spokesman, "He was only a mouse, so we held back a little."

DragonBall Z: Battle of Gods (now on video)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Anything left of interest in the movie theaters in the dreadful year of 2014? While I'm sure some of you are looking forward to the WW2 nonfiction drama UNBROKEN as a holiday release, the latest mind-bender from Christopher Nolan INTERSTELLAR and, I guess, CARS 3: CARS SAVE CHRISTMAS (Pixar sure has fallen, if you ask me), I recently got my abused eyes on the 105-minute import from Japan, DRAGONBALL Z: BATTLE OF GODS, released here direct to video.

I will not pretend to be anything of a follower of the long-running Dragonball franchise, which encompasses comics, videogames, TV shows and, of course, movies - both theatrical features in the Far East such as this one and made-for-video specials. In fact, starting with BATTLE OF GODS may be optimum, as I can't simply see where this addictive franchise can go from here.

A Letter to Momo (September 14th and 17th at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[A LETTER TO MOMO screens Sunday September 14th at 7:00 pm and  Wednesday September 17th at 7:00 pm at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

As regular readers of my reviews (probably the NSA; nobody else) knows, I landed a critic gig that pays me actual money - yes, just like in the old Clinton era - to review Japanese animation on DVD and Blu-ray. I know that probably arouses envy in some of you. Isn't Japanese "anime" supposed to be the coolest thing?

Well, it isn't much money. Far less than I deserve. Hear me, O My Brothers, when I watch this Japanese stuff in massive doses, I have to go back and decontaminate with a Far East episode of Capra's WHY WE FIGHT or other WW2 propaganda pieces, to settle accounts with those bastards of the Rising Sun.

One of my recent assignments, for example, was this thing about teenage girl ninjas (not Ninja Turtles, even). You'll notice I'm not divulging the title. But like a lot of Japanimation, it runs a 12-episode cycle - 300 minutes, folks, not counting the disc "extras.' Enormous, beachball-like breasts is/are the primary attraction, pendulous with what the anime cognoscenti (or "otaku," as they're called) have dubbed "fan service": partial nudity, shower scenes, swimsuits, lesbian-ish gropings, and panty flashes.

Toy Story 2 (Feburary 15th at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium)

[TOY STORY 2 screens Saturday February 15th at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Someday, if and when entertainment historians contemplate how technology made human actors largely obsolete (and not a moment too soon), the TOY STORY movies will get their due. With TOY STORY 2, the sequel to the 1995 original sensation, Pixar's computer-generated characters based on household toys display more personality, charisma, emotion and finesse than their flesh-and-blood counterparts in most live-action Hollywood productions.

Of course, it's an unfair comparison. The digital thespians get consistently better scripts.

In TOY STORY 2 catastrophe befalls the once-durable cloth doll Cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks). A ripped seam in the toy's arm compels his owner Andy to leave Woody at home while he's off at summer camp. Woody and playroom cohorts Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Slinky Dog (the late, underrated Jim `Ernest' Varney) and Rex (Wallace Shawn) know what this portends; a broken toy is destined for the trash, or just as bad - the yard sale.

The Iron Giant (January 17th at the CWRU Science Fiction Marathon)

[THE IRON GIANT screens Friday January 17th at 10:30 pm as part of the CWRU Science Fiction Marathon.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

When THE IRON GIANT made its debut in 1999, I worked for a newspaper then, a real one, complete with paychecks. Kind of hard to imagine now… Anyway, I published a rather lukewarm (or luke-cold) opinion of the Warner Brothers cartoon, which was a big rollout for the studio’s amped-up animation division. Then I sat back and watched as every other critic in the country declared the family flick a masterpiece beyond words.

I did feel rather sheepish and lonely in my minority stand, until meager ticket sales ensued. And mighty Warner Brothers got less than…giant…results in their big bid to be an animation powerhouse. Could the American people have shared my cynicism? Or were we all too vulgar and spoiled by the likes of Marvel Comic's Iron Man to appreciate the finer qualities of this robot-monster fable?

Repost: Dear Mr. Watterson (opens in Cleveland December 6th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[DEAR MR. WATTERSON opens in Cleveland Friday December 6th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

In every medium there are a handful of undisputed masters, people whose talent cannot be denied. When it comes to comic strips, one name that immediately comes to mind in that light is Chragrin Falls cartoonist Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. The strip, about a mischievous six year old boy and his stuffed (or is he real?) tiger, began in November of 1985 and quickly became a huge hit. Watterson could have easily given in to the forces of crass commercialism, but he refused to license his characters for merchandising. And when he felt he had done all he could with the strip, Watterson walked away from it in December of 1995. Since then the artist has largely shunned the public eye, becoming to some degree the comic strip equivalent of J.D. Salinger, as well known for his reclusiveness as he is for his work. And yet, like Salinger, that work continues to inspire new generations of readers.

Free Birds

Review by Pete Roche

FREE BIRDS, the first animated feature from Reel FX Creative Studios, follows the adventures of a liberated turkey named Reggie as he travels back in time to the first Thanksgiving to undo the events that landed his species on the supper table.  Directed by computer animator Jimmy Hayward (FINDING NEMO, ROBOTS), the plucky cartoon caper is as good (or bad, depending on your taste) as similar fur-and-feather capers from rival CGI zookeepers at Dreamworks and Disney’s Pixar, introducing kids to a flock of fun characters whilst incorporating subtle civics lessons in friendship, teamwork, and loyalty.

Colorful (now on video)

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Right up there with Leo the Lion and the 20th-Century Fox logo (never altered yet to "21st-Century Fox," probably because there isn't enough money) is the distinctive emblem of Japan's Toho Studio. You know, a bluish-translucent starburst-sort of thing, that I do believe represents in the abstract the artful beauty of Japan's favorite flower, the chrysanthemum. Either that or a visual representation of the neural shock that's the last thing that flashed through the brains of Allied POWs when the honorable Imperial Japanese camp commander cut off their heads with honorable clan samurai sword.

Yes, I still have issues with the Japanese, and that Toho emblem always puts me in mind for the imminent appearance of Godzilla or Rodan. But recently I beheld it in a very different context - setting off the animated feature COLORFUL.

Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie (now on video)

[CHEECH & CHONG'S ANIMATED MOVIE is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I remember growing up in greater Cleveland in the late 1970s - no, honest, I really do remember! The rest of you have no recollection of the Kucinich years because you were all stoned, drunk or wasted (trust me on this, and radio talk-show host Mike Trivisanno confirms it).

But I never was. See, somehow I got the ridiculous idea that if I stayed sober and shied away from controlled substances, no matter how much fun the media made it look, I would have an edge in the job market over the overwhelming hordes of burnouts and junkies. So I abstained. No reefer, no coke, no heroin, no airplane glue, no formaldehyde-laced joints soaked in liquid mercury injected intravenously. No, no fun at all. Four decades later I'm still looking for work. It seems this region belongs to the Cheech'n'Chong demographic after all.

Repost: Princess Mononoke (October 10th, 11th, and 13th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[PRINCESS MONONOKE screensThursday October 10th at 8:35 pm, Friday October 11th at 7:00 pm, and Sunday October 13th at 8:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Here's my latest career (sic) update news: I may be serving as a Japanese animation specialist for one of our allied websites. Strange to me that they didn't already have one. Isn't Japanese "anime" supposed to be the coolest thing on Earth? So I asked, didn't any of their other writers, the ones with seniority, want to do anime? Answer: Nope. Nobody at all. Yours if you want it, newbie. Hmmm... That's not the cultural climate I remember.

(here's a metaphorical comparison:
ME - "Hey, Cleveland Movie Blog Reader, I've got a Baywatch starlet here who wants to be your lover!"
YOU (a la Homer Simpson) - "Woo-hoo!"
ME - "Uh, I should tell you, she's not what she used to be, really. been through the wringer. Isn't photographed much anymore. Got rejections by Larry King, Kelsey Grammer, Gilbert Gottfried and Charlie Manson first before working her way down here.
YOU (weakly): "...woo-hoo..."
ME - "It might help if you close your eyes when you're with her. And use the Vicks Vapo-Rub under your nose, the way coroners do..."
YOU - "D'oh!")

Repost: Dear Mr. Watterson (October 2nd, 3rd, and 5th at the Chagrin Documentary Film Fest)

[DEAR MR. WATTERSON screens Wednesday October 2nd at 7:00 pm, Thursday October 3rd at 7:00 pm and Saturday October 5th at 3:30 pm at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

In every medium there are a handful of undisputed masters, people whose talent cannot be denied. When it comes to comic strips, one name that immediately comes to mind in that light is Chragrin Falls cartoonist Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. The strip, about a mischievous six year old boy and his stuffed (or is he real?) tiger, began in November of 1985 and quickly became a huge hit. Watterson could have easily given in to the forces of crass commercialism, but he refused to license his characters for merchandising. And when he felt he had done all he could with the strip, Watterson walked away from it in December of 1995. Since then the artist has largely shunned the public eye, becoming to some degree the comic strip equivalent of J.D. Salinger, as well known for his reclusiveness as he is for his work. And yet, like Salinger, that work continues to inspire new generations of readers.

Repost: Kiki's Delivery Service (September 26th and 27th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE screens Thursday September 26th at 8:35 pm and Friday September 27th at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I can’t imagine University Circle after dark ever being a place for kids – unless they’re cut into sections and displayed floating in formaldehyde in a new Damien Hirst retrospective at the remodeled MOCA, or sold on the human-traffic market by CWRU-enrolled parents that desperate to pay off the interest on their student loans. But every once in a while the Cleveland Cinematheque shows a quality children’s movie at special admission rates, and there’s a particularly highly recommended one this weekend.

It’s KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, from esteemed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, a warm, fuzzy and yet non-condescending release whose original 1989 title MAJO NO TAKKYUBIN translates literally, so I’m told, as “Witch’s Special Delivery.”

Repost: Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind (September 12th and 14th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[NAUSICAA IN THE VALLEY OF THE WIND screens Thursday September 12th at 8:35 pm and Saturday September 14th at 5:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I had semi-serious intent to go to the multiplex and review a new release for you all, but…smeg! What a rotten selection last weekend! Just about everything new has been getting genuinely terrible writeups. No kidding, in a movie marketplace like this, INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS would probably get a wide release, had only the filmmakers had the foresight to make it in Real3D. Fortunately, as part of its Hayo Miyazaki series, the Cleveland Cinematheque is bravely looking backward.

Laputa - Castle in the Sky (September 6th and 7th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY screens Friday September 6th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday September 7th at 5:00 p.m. at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

While I've got all your attention (yeah, right), let me just make this last comment - for the moment - on the Seymour Avenue horrors and the widely applauded suicide, so-called, of sex-criminal Ariel Castro. Just days before, much of this part of Ohio celebrated the 20th anniversary of the filming of the jailhouse drama THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION in and around Mansfield. If memory serves, a theme in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is a Hollywood-liberal notion that underneath their rough exteriors, hardcore maximum-security inmates are really good souls. They are, they are! You just have to have a guy like Tim Robbins serenading classical music in the exercise yard and stocking the prison library full of sensitive literature, and they become lambs.

Yes, audiences adore THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and weep at the appropriate moments...Yet when a real-life notorious convict kills himself or gets killed/executed, not even a week later, and all the same hoi polloi give the high-fives and the "f__ yeahs!" and whatever bad Shane Black dialogue passes for macho affirmation these days. I'm just saying, it's an unusually sharp disconnect there. We cheer on Hollywoodized convicts played by Morgan Freeman; the real non-SAG ones offscreen may well be mass-lynched by vigilantes and Republican frat-boys. It's like BABE inspiring more pig roasts, is all I'm saying.

The Smurfs 2

Review by Pete Roche

Dastardly Gargamel (Hank Azaria) has been living the high life since his undoing in 2011’s SMURFS.  Between upscale magic shows in Paris with his feisty feline, Azrael, the warty wizard spawns a pair of Smurf-like creatures in hopes of harvesting their “essence” to sustain his evil energy. 

The grey-skinned knockoffs—Vexy (Christina Ricci) and her brother, Hackus (J.B. Smoove)—don’t pack half the essence of the genuine article, leaving Gargamel disappointed and desperate.  So he tasks the two “Naughties” with kidnapping Smurfette (Katy Perry), who’s practically bubbling over with Smurf essence—and just happens to know the secret formula for concocting endless batches of the stuff.