Thar she blows! (was: In defense of Miyazaki)

From Cinephile Forum:

Uncle Jay: That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever read! What are you, Anti-American?!

Isn't that obvious? Well, anti-Hollywood, 'specially recent Hollywood.

Uncle Jay: This is why I hate critics!

Haw! That Steve McQueen or Robocop talking (He has avatars of both)?  

Uncle Jay: Bakshi has shown ambivalence in his characters, maybe not as thought provoking and glamorous as Miyazaki Thought provoking agree; but glamorous?

How glamorous is a family of two girls and an adult in a ramshackle Japanese home (Totoro)?

Uncle Jay: How about Linklater's "Waking Life" or George Lucas' silly but very imaginitive "Twice Upon a Time" or Don Bluth's "The Secret of NIMH"...how about French director Rene Laloux's "Fantastic Planet"...or Martin Rosen's "Watership Down" or "The Plague Dogs" or any of Brad Bird's works...ambivalence, understated storytelling and narrative sophistacation have been recognized here.

Waking Life is terrific; I love Linklater. Twice Upon a Time is only produced by Lucas (one of the few things he laid his hands on that was any good); John Korty and Charles Swenson directed. Laloux's Fantastic Planet is beautiful...but rather emotionally remote, and the storyline's trite (I do love it, though, for the artwork and creature design--an equal of Miyazaki in that respect). Rosen's Watership Down is a wonderful adaptation and Plague Dogs a harrowing work, better than the book it's based on (unlike Watership). Brad Bird's Iron Giant is by far his best work, and excellent work it is too...only it's still firmly entrenched in children's stories and it's not that understated; The Incredibles I'm just not a big fan of.

Sure they're all very good; just didn't mention them, is all.

But I stand on my position: in terms of emotinal subtlety and narrative sophistication, in terms of understated storytelling and depiction of ordinary life, I think Miyazaki (and Takahata, his colleague) are unparalleled.

Uncle Jay: ...my point is, Japan is not the superior kings of smart animation, as you seem to think!

I mention Grimault and Svankmajer in my previous post. Ever seen their works? Might as well throw in Lotte Reiniger, the Brothers Quay, and (yes, Americans) Max Fleischer, Fritz Freleng, and Chuck Jones.

Uncle Jay: Japanime stories are recycled as well!

Nothing new under the sun. All we canhope for is to present the recycled material in some new way, emphasize some point no one's thought of before. So?

Uncle Jay: It's all opinion, my friend...

And when did I say otherwise? You takes it or leaves it, or you shats out bricks.

Uncle Jay: you think Americans have an obsession with motion smoothness

So name me the postwar Disney film (prewar Disney still had the guts to experiment--and besides he had the genius Iwerks working for him) that doesn't have motion smoothness.

Uncle Jay: I think you're a overly judgmental, tight-assed, self-righteous, low-rent premadonna critic asshole who thinks his opinion is fact , belittles the people around him (especially those from America) and tries to show off as if he knows all.

Can't be Robocop. "...or there will be--trouble." And McQueen's too classy. You're not Roger Ebert, are you? How was that colonoscopy?

Uncle Jay: You make me laugh. You're a joke, man! And pathetic...

My hands are washed of you, and this anti-American board!!

Wash away, Unkie Jay! Gotta wash after a colonoscopy...