Word: cartoons
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...TARZAN and SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER & UNCUT It can be plausibly argued that there were more good cartoon features made in the U.S. this year than there were live-action films. Disney alone had Tarzan (its snazziest and most affecting feature since The Lion King), Fantasia 2000 (a rhapsody of sound and light) and, via Pixar, the deft, ingratiating Toy Story 2. And what can we say about Trey Parker's very un-Disney South Park that the film itself didn't sing in four-letter words and the cleverest original movie score in decades? Just that it's devilishly...
...ROOTS Things Fall Apart (MCA). This Philadelphia-based band named its CD after a novel by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe: very cool. And while other rap acts rely on canned beats, the Roots play instruments (guitars, drums, etc.), giving their work unique vibrancy and depth. Let the cartoon gangstas cater to suburban stereotypes--the Roots are keeping it real...
...soldier and his ballerina love battle an evil Jack-in-the-box in a gorgeous blend of traditional and computer animation. Eric Goldberg has a snippet set to Carnival of the Animals--flamingoes playing with yo-yos--that is giddy enough to remind you of Bob Clampett's 1943 cartoon classic A Corny Concerto. The Goldberg variation on Rhapsody in Blue is a smartly syncopated tribute to ageless caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. In the style of the NINAs that Hirschfeld hides in his drawings, the piece is crawling with furtive graffiti: a few Ninas, a "Goldberg" apartment house and, everywhere...
Back in that once upon a time, Walt Disney made miracles. In 1928 he presented a primitive Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. By 1940 he'd brought sophisticated color and sound to cartoons, extended them to feature length and, with Fantasia, boldly merged classical music and abstract images. Those were revolutionary days for animation; more was conceived in those 12 years than in the 60 that followed. Fantasia 2000 may look a bit timid by comparison, but it provides some fine artists the chance to stretch and frolic, even as it reminds today's audiences of animation's limitless borders...
...COOL How do you sell a heating system made in Germany? An ill-advised ad agency in Taiwan tried a cartoon Hitler announcing he was "declaring war on cold fronts." The makers were not amused, and the poster was pulled...