Made in the US but financed by China, Rock Dog – the latest cheap and cheerful toon from the makers of Free Birds and The Book of Life – represents the worst of both worlds. An unharmonious mash up of cultures, the film might just have scraped by as passable kiddy fare were it better balanced in gender casting and less offensively blatant as an example of American globalisation. It’s based on, Chinese Rock Singer/Songwriter, Zheng Jun’s manga book: Tibetan Rock Dog but might as well be based in New York for all anyone cares. The film’s already bombed in China and, frankly, it deserved to.
Studio Ghibli, that powerhouse of Japanese animation, stirred panic among certain cineastes back in 2014 when they announced that When Marnie Was Here would mark a temporary hiatus in production to coincide with the retirement of co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Three years on, Miyazaki has thankfully resumed his position to direct one more feature – hoorah! In the meantime, to whet our appetites, Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle marks a excitingly potent co-production between Ghibli and European distributor Wild Bunch.
Of the five films to gain nomination in the category of Best Animated Feature in February’s Academy Awards, one only just gaining its UK release this week is Swiss-director Claude Barras’ My Life as a Courgette. An utterly delightful stop motion animation, with an older audience in mind, this is a micro-feature of mesmeric perfection. I left charmed, heartbroken and thoroughly alive.
The Film Blog 