When writing this I made a point to only include animations that are more than just obscure but that are impossible to obtain through official means for the majority of people who will read this. The works mentioned here either do not exist inside English speaking countries in any official form, or do not exist in any official form at all. Thanks to the wonderful power of region coding we are locked out from being allowed to view them in our homelands. We can always pray that some day a miracle occurs and abolishes region-specific encryption, or that someone with influence decides to bless us with official distributions in our own regions. But since that shows no signs of happening I encourage everyone in the meantime to put an effort into watching these in whatever means possible, be it unofficial fan copies or other methods of bypassing the system. These all deserve to be seen by everyone.
Mind Game (2004) (and similar films)
I am mainly singling out this one film for the sake of brevity, but everything in which director Masaaki Yuasa is involved deserves to be mentioned. For seventeen years he worked in the industry where he produced the animation for segments of several television series and short films. The shorts Noiseman Sound Insect in 1997 and Cat Soup in 2003 both served as a predecessor to his signature experimental styles and eventually led to his debut as a director. Mind Game has been Yuasa's only film at the time of this writing, but since then he's gained a career in television. In 2006 Kemonozume aired which dove deeper into his creative storytelling imagination as well as his fearless progressive art direction. Kemonozume was less of a television show and more of a four and a half hour movie split into episodes. Yuasa's most recent project, Kaiba, yields even more genius storyline and artwork. As part of his artistic ambition he's refused to recruit any writers for this show and instead leaves everything to himself, the artists, and the episode directors. Plenty could be said about the merits of all these works and I encourage the reader to research them himself.
Mind Game tells the story of three people who, after a near-fatal encounter with a psycho killer, a mafia mob boss, and God himself, decide to take their lives into their own hands and set out on their own adventures. This is cut short however when they are swallowed by a massive whale. Inside the whale they meet an old man who has lived there for thirty years and has created his own paradise from swallowed ships. After living there for some time quite peacefully they make an ambitious attempt to escape... and I'll refrain from spoiling the ending.
It is no doubt a brilliantly animated and directed film. Each scene is its own self contained work; progressing the story but mainly stands alone on its own merits. The almost episodic structure was perhaps a warm up for Yuasa's television career. The artwork, directed by Tooru Hishiyama, is always one of the first things we as visual creatures will notice; any viewer can immediately see how hard it tries to be as unconventional as possible. The lines are sketchy, the coloring is rough and simple, the faces in several clips are live faces pasted on top of the animation, and numerous other details demonstrate the effort put into breaking away from conventional smooth and polished animation. Although Yuasa admits that this style had a price advantage, it is clearly not just an issue of cost that made him decide to go in that direction. And the drawings are not unusual just for the sake of being different, they intentionally take the audience out of its comfort zone, Yuasa refuses to let Mind Game be seen as passive entertainment. The film leaks out of its role as a fantasy cartoon and forces the audience to think about it. But Yuasa does not want to tell the audience anything, only present them with his creation and let them draw their own conclusions. You will not find monologues or one liners that explain it, the drama and artwork speaks for itself.
Mind Game is too big and ambitious to be only watched once. It demonstrates how exactly how far good direction and writing can go with a limited budget. The film's conclusion brings a sense of completion, like every piece of an intricate jigsaw puzzle is in place. Even without its previously mentioned merits, its an extremely well rounded, unique and enjoyable presentation.
Angel's Egg (1985)
If an artist's goal is to manifest reality in the most unrealistic ways then Mamoru Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano, the writer/director and visual artist subsequently, have definitely achieved that in creating this. Like artists, Oshii and Amano express an overflow of imagery but they offer no explanation of it. A painter may not understand why a landscape is beautiful but he paints it anyway. Oshii calls it as he sees it so to speak, and leaves the interpretation to the audience. But unlike a landscape this film is extremely abstract and metaphorical. No one can fully describe what it is about, even Oshii himself admits to not knowing the meaning. Angel's Egg is a rare instance of a film driven entirely by an inner personal struggle and consequently is extremely removed from anything considered mainstream or wholesome entertainment. It is no surprise then that this has never seen an English release. Anchor Bay in America bought the rights to it in 2001 but the project went nowhere after that, presumably because it was considered unprofitable.
The story is notable in the sense that there barely is one. It follows the life of a girl in a strange post-apocalyptic world and her struggle to keep a giant egg safe. A man who mysteriously carries a wooden cross in his bandaged hands keeps asking her what is inside the egg, but the audience and perhaps he too never receives an answer. Dialogue is only used when completely necessary and the film is very primarily a visual experience; and Amano's handiwork shines from the first through last frame
One quality of Angel's Egg worth noting is that it has a very un-Japanese portrayal of Christianity. Japanese are not known for being Christians themselves and generally only use it in media for its mythology. This film however presents the religion not only in terms of its mythology but mainly as a very mature theology. Internet sources such as IMDb say Oshii was a very devout Christian himself and even considered the priesthood, but he lost his faith shortly before producing this film. It is also interesting how he seems to have kept a fascination with the religion throughout his life, working it into other creations of his like Ghost in the Shell. It can definitely be assumed that Angel's Egg is a work conceived entirely by his inner experience.
Whatever the film means or whatever the reasons for making it were, it is an excellent movie. Oshii is a valid writer and director, and Amano is undeniably a talented artist. Even if the film means nothing then it expresses its nothingness with exceptional skill.
The Thief and the Cobbler (1995 ????)
Although released in theaters and is now available on DVD, that version is a far stretch from this film's true form and in a very wrong direction. Richard Williams, the man behind Who Framed Rodger Rabbit's animation, began production of this as early as 1968. His vision was that this would be the greatest animation ever created and he passionately did everything in his power to reach that goal. As a perfectionist Williams dragged everything along until it was flawless. Each frame of the nearly two hour long film was hand drawn with incredible detail and scenes were constantly being drawn and redrawn until everything was perfect. He hired and fired people sporadically, wanting only the very best to work for him. Funding was a continuous issue and he ended up taking support from several sources which all eventually abandoned him. Nearly three whole decades after the film began there was only fifteen minutes of footage remaining to animate. But Williams' current supporter, Miramax, was tired of waiting, and ever since Disney had just released Aladdin they were afraid of competition. They confiscated all the artwork and shipped it to a cheap Korean company to finish. They recut the scenes, added musical sequences, and changed the script heavily. Fragments of the original genius remained, but the would-be masterpiece was forever destroyed.
With a fascinating history The Thief and the Cobbler is also a fascinating film. It would be easy to bash its simple story and uninspired dialogue, but that would mean ignoring the fantastic animation which more than makes up for those. To say that the animation is amazing would be an understatement. It is smooth, clever, uses visual jokes, and is extremely detailed... at least it would have been. Low quality clips can be found which show the direction it was going, too bad it never reached its destination. Perhaps the cinema industry just was not designed for ambitious animations like this and the project was doomed from the beginning.
Today all attempts of recreating the work are limited by the unfinished, and sometimes missing, source material. You can watch a low resolution version what it may have looked like on Google Video, but the final product can never truly exist.
1001 Nights (1998)
One final film I will mention is one I assume very few people have seen and even fewer have even heard of. 1001 Nights is another work which Yoshitaka Amano directed the animation and it demonstrates the diversity of his abilities. It is a 23 minute aural and visual fantasia, originally shown with a live score composed by David Newman and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in April 1998. It was never meant to be officially distributed although this may have less to do with business and more to do with Mike Smith's, the short film's director, artistic vision. He is quoted saying that it was meant entirely to be a live event. Despite being a primarily American production there is a region 2 DVD release, probably because of Amano's popularity and heavy involvement. It is art for art's sake, and no commercial product was ever intended. A short commentary by Smith can be found on Animation World Network.
1001 offered me a great opportunity to work with a variety of talents that stretched from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Toronto to London. Many of the people that I approached, I had worked with before and knew their unique abilities. The others I found very creative and willing to work on such a film. In that we had a little over 4 months to make the piece, all of the animators, both traditional and computer were extremely giving and trusting in terms of how it might all come together.
It was creatively fulfilling to bring such diverse areas of animation together to make a smooth flowing visual piece that tries to involve such emotions that arise in moments of lust, passion and love.
I kept the film's story line from being too literal and made it more surreal to allow the music, which should not be called a `score,' but rather a piece especially composed by David Newman to explore these emotions in their own way. Very little influence was forced from either the music or the visuals onto each other. This situation was designed to add to the impact and exploration of a live performance with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra.
Although primarily meant to be a live event, the film has had good reactions, and I am honored it has reached this far in such a prestigious award.