"The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them."
-Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
It's been quite the ardous journey so far for 2016, and I apologize for not writing on here for the past year. Life has gotten busy. To sum it up in 3 A's, I'm a proud new Auntie (yay!), I decided I don't want to be an Accountant, and I'm going to work my butt off to make it into Animation. Because it's my dream, guys. It's the sort of thing I've seen as a second family in my life, ever since I was a kid.
I can't imagine what my adulthood would've been like if I hadn't seen King Triton destroy his youngest daughter's precious trove of trinkets, or watched Little Foot cry over his dying mama as she instructed him on how to find his grandparents. And Hunchback. Holy crap. That scene where Quasimodo's tied down and humiliated at the city square, food being thrown at him from all directions, and then in comes the gypsy girl to reluctantly wipe the tears from his face, despite being in front of the most evil character of all time. Those scenes made my kid self realize that art could move you, and help you feel things that were sometimes too difficult to manifest in real life. o_0
My life without animation wouldn't seem like a life at all. It would be like an empty half-life, trivial, just full of countless days and responsibilities and errands. I've been in Chicago for 5 years now, and with every job I've gained or every hobby or activity that I've taken up, I always manage to find a way back to Animation. If anything I find utter joy in seeing these films, and I'm not ashamed of it.
Heck, there's a Glen Keane drawing of Beast hanging above my work desk. :)
Overall, 2016 has been all over the place, choosing to drop out of Accounting in order to take Improv, dealing with roommates moving in/out, continuing to do Bollywood Groove, doing physical therapy for my legs, but also enjoying the time I have explore creativity and take up Improv, Stand-Up comedy, Voice Over (finally!) and drawing fun things whenever I can.
I'm doing this Saturday morning illustration class that keeps me productive on the weekends. And I'm saving up for a new computer. I'm taking it slow to really build my skills to the point where I will actually make the most of the computer software, rather than just buying it now and feeling overwhelmed because I don't know the basics. I've realized that if I don't start things from scratch, I don't gain the confidence to continue and instead feel like I'm wasting my money and become distracted with hobbies. I understand myself more now than I ever did 7 years ago. Graduate school can wait - I really just need to start as a traditional illustrator and read those books I've had in my shelf all these years. When I'm ready for a grad school program, I'll know what I'm in for.
In the midst of this 2016 creative soul-searching, I've found the time to watch some amazing animated films:
Finding Dory (Pixar) -
A sequel 13 years in the making, much like Toy Story 3. Overall the story didn't grab me as the original Finding Nemo from 2003, because back then, it dealt with the relationship between a father and son, and the obstacles that the father would overcome in order to get to his son. Dori was such a scene-stealer in that first film, that I was a little skeptical about how she would develop as the main character. There were things that resonated, though. You learn that she was born with this memory loss, and her parents were super-protective-yet-loving and wanted her to feel like she was a normal kid in spite of her disability. When Dori remembers she has a family, we go through the whole Finding-Nemo-esque adventure montage in the span of a few minutes to find the Ocean Lab where her parents are. It was a little anti-climactic, but the action of the whole story ends up as "Nemo/Marlin trying to get to Dori while she is trying to find her parents." The scene-stealer in the film would have to be Hank, the camouflaging Octopus who's goal is to get to Cleveland. He pretty much made the movie for me while the other new characters fell into a bland, silly, comedic mess.
6/10
Kubo and the Two Strings (LAIKA)-
I saw this film twice in the theaters, and I'm so glad I did. Because the quality of stop-motion in this piece was just too jaw-dropping to pay attention to the dialogue that was being said. I'm such a fan of LAIKA because they're keeping things old-school and do most of their work by hand, working with sculptures and scenic design shot-by-shot. You see stormwaves. You see floating leaves. You see origami paper fold and unfold and refold into characters that have personalities and you just don't know when to blink. The story itself was wonderful and intense (almost too intense for the little kids!), and there's quite a bit of violence and danger throughout the film. Kubo is a half-mortal on an epic quest to retrieve three pieces of armor to fight his evil Moon King grandfather and his twin Aunties before they steal his eye. The reason? Stealing his eye will make Kubo blind to humanity and he can become immortal. Turns out he likes being mortal. I liked the film because it had great message about how being human/mortal is the most wonderful thing in the world, because even when you're gone, people will remember you through memories and stories.
9/10
Zootopia (Disney) -
This was the first animated film I watched in theatres this year, and it took me greatly by surprise. I'd read the reviews from critics, the percentage of freshness from Rotten Tomatoes, and I was very impressed and willing to see the film for myself. This did not disappoint, by any means, and the message resonated so much with the things in the news. The main character is a bunny who wants to train to be a cop, which I could imagine is the last thing people want to hear their kids say nowadays. :/ Disney took a huge creative risk to make the story about a cop wanting to do good to her society, because it's the sort of thing that's been done poorly these last couple years: Cops killing in what they claim "self defense", oppressing people without valid evidence reason... and people have retaliated with city-wide protests. I will say that Disney did a good job with interpreting these societal lines with the whole Predator/Prey coexistence in Zootopia, how in spite of what's in their DNA, these two parties try to coexist. It resonated with me so much about the real world, where everyone's racial, economic, or religious background is so different, yet we're all just trying to make a living. In the film, we learn to love Judy Hopps, not only because she's proving to her Predator colleagues that a bunny can be a tough cop, but she puts away her childhood prejudices/fears about Predators to be a forward-thinker. It's how she makes a friend out of a character who is her exact opposite, Nick Wilde, and together they work to make Zootopia an actual better place. It was a good message overall. :)
8/10
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