Each week I offer three DVD recommendations for your viewing pleasure or edification. OK not each week. But thereabouts. Can you blame me for taking Thanksgiving off? With Beowulf painting over actors and Enchanted enchanting (Ha. Wow, I'm talented!) moviegoing audiences everywhere, I thought we'd look at three other films that combine animation with live action. I'm not perverse enough to suggest you rent Ralph Bakshi's Cool World miss, which pits Kim Basinger's cartoon vamp "Holli Would" (get it?) against a cartoonist (Gabriel Byrne) and a detective (a very young Brad pitt with very big hair), I have included another risque offering: animation isn't just for children. This list is 66% safe for the entire family. The randiest entry is up first
Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)
Jan Svankmajer's absolutely bizarre ensemble film details the elaborate and often sexual fetishes of six people. Their efforts to masturbate, eat, dominate others or mutilate their own bodies are explicity depicted with a combination of stop motion animation and vivid handmade-looking props. It's not at all unusual in the context of other Svankmajer work but the celebrated Czech filmmaker is undoubtedly a huge inspiration to filmmakers far and wide. It's tough not to watch his work and assume that modern filmmakers like Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep) are crazy for it. Svankmajer started out in puppetry and maskmaking and it shows in his work. If you don't see Conspirators of Pleasure you owe it to yourself to see something, anything by this inimitable auteur.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
An obvious choice yes. But I'm of the opinion that we should all rewatch this late 80s gem which tells the tale of a funny rabbit and his pneumatic femme fatale wife Jessica. Did Roger kill for love of his bride? It's remarkable in this era of franchise mania that this big hit never spawned countless sequels but it's probably a good thing. There's no law of diminishing returns here. The technology has moved on but Roger Rabbit still looks swell and smells fresh as daisies. Lazier films would lean more heavily on Roger Rabbit's legally complex use of famous cartoon characters from history such as Betty Boop "boop-boop-a-doop" but the new characters are vividly realized and memorable. Betty Boop's not the only one who's "still got it"
Mary Poppins (1964)
With many children's fantasies getting rethinks and retreads these days in one way or another (Willy Wonka rethought by Tim Burton, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway, etc.) I think it's time to revisit this Oscar winner about the magical nanny who saves an English family. Mostly I'm horrified by how neuteured its current Broadway production is. You'll believe a magical nanny can fly (the stage production didn't cost millions for nothing) but for the ticket price I was horrified that the movies most enduring pleasures: working in time period appropriate but resonant modern news "Well Done Siuster Suffragette" in the mid 60s (yes!), that jolly holiday...that supercalifragilistic day out with Mary(Julie Andrews) –you know the part. It's where the animation comes in, and the insane "I Love to Laugh" sequence have either been excised or botched in Broadway form, to make room for banal "save this marriage" moments and atrocious new songs. So save yourself $100+ if you're in New York and rent the movie instead. Julie Andrews is practically perfect in every way. The stage production is not.
