Jumat, 14 September 2018

Animation in Obscurity: The Trumpet of the Swan

Image result for trumpet of the swan movieGiven the low budget and being made by a relatively unknown animation studio, you'd honestly be surprised by the amount of actors involved in this little film. Based on the book by EB White (responsible for Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little) and directed by Richard Rich (responsible for The Swan Princess and its sequels, Alpha and Omega and its sequels and the animated version of The King and I.), was given a limited release in 2001, which ended up bombing mostly because of a certain animated flick from Dreamworks that was a middle finger to Disney and became a massive franchise. So can live up to Richard Rich's other animated feature focusing on swans, or will it be as embarrassingly ugly as Bjork's swan dress? Let's take a look!

Story: While the film takes basic elements from the book, everything else surrounding it ends up leaving you confused, bored or annoyed. With no narrative structure or originality, the writers refuse to answer basic questions on story or character to the point where I made a list of plot holes: How did Louie understand English? What made him think writing his thoughts would make the other swans accept him when they didn't know how to read? How did he know the songs he performed? How did he read the music? Did he ever rehearse? How did the music shop owner know Louie's dad was the same swan who took the trumpet when Serena's father has the same character model? Why did Serena go through with the wedding despite her obvious sarcasm at Boyd's proposal? Why is this movie making me ask so many questions? As you can tell, nothing is explained or expanded in this sixty-five minute film and ends up feeling trite despite lots of plot points and contrivances being brought up. Most go nowhere and are introduced too late to have any impact on the characters, with the rest being cliched while offering nothing new. The most egregious of these would be Louie's fifteen minutes of fame in Boston which is frustratingly forgotten after Louie does the cliched rushing to the wedding and a pathetically dull climax and "villain defeat" that makes no sense. With the low running time and numerous ideas and subplots, is it any wonder the writing is a mess?
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Animation: While the animation is your generic direct to video quality, it's OK for the most part, if not cheap.The designs have the same issue as the other Richard Rich films, in that they're trying to emulate Disney but end up looking off-model and bland with the only way of distinguishing the swans is the garish feather colours and styles on the top of their heads. This still doesn't help matters because there are moments where they copy character models which ended up confusing me with who was who. Another odd part is the rotoscoping on the people, making them look more restrained compared to the cartoonier animals and people we see. While some of the backgrounds look nice with the watercolours and vibrant pallette, they don't offer much in scope or personality. What makes this worse is the attempts at portraying real locations, with Billings, Montana being a hopelessly generic small town and Boston being a generic city with skyscrapers (believe me, I went to Boston a few months ago and it's one of the most beautiful cities I've visited). There's also no lighting or shadowing making the film feel flat and lifeless. It may not be the worst animation I've seen, but some of the design and technical choices don't do much to create a sense of wonder.

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Characters: Louie (Dee Bradley Baker), the mute trumpeter swan, is your generic underdog shunned by his peers because of his abnormality, and would've been interesting and complex if the writers didn't rely on his internal dialogue that plagues the film. It ends up feeling redundant after he learns how to play his trumpet alongside reading and writing and we don't know anything about him because the writers think his abnormality is the only thing that should make us care about him. Serena (Reese Witherspoon) is Louie's romantic prize and the object of Boyd's affections despite not wanting to and has no personality. Instead of Serena and Louis falling in love by her own accord, we now have conflict in the form of the generic jerkass Boyd (Seth Green) who may as well be swan Gaston right down to three pens gushing over him like the three Blonde Bimbos. Louie's parents (they're not given names and are voiced by Jason Alexander and Mary Steenbergen) would have been interesting if it weren't for his mother being useless (she doesn't even have the token "he's not strange, he's special" trait) and his father being utterly annoying trying to fix his son while favouring his daughters and worrying about stealing the trumpet when it was actually thrown at him. This is partly due to Alexander's gratingly hammy performance, and is probably the character I hated the most. Sam Beaver is the generic "cool and hip" kid who inspires Louie to read and write while turning up at random times to move the plot along yet doesn't appear to age when the average trumpeter swan's life span ranges from 20-30 years. Sweets (Gary Anthony Williams) is a squirrel also turns up as random to motivate and follow Louie, but he has so little impact and is quickly forgotten after meeting a squirrel politician in Boston (yes, really). Monty (Fat Tony himself, Joe Mantegna) is Louie's human manager in Boston is such a useless and obvious villain, that taking him out the film would have no effect on the plot. sisters Ella and Billie (subtle shout-outs to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday) are useless except for their father having a reason to neglect Louie. And Mrs Hammerbotham is Sam's teacher who has no reason to exist other than to teach Louie to read and write via montage and get Carol Burnett to act as crazy as possible. With numerous subplots cramming for attention, is it any surprise these characters have the same dimension as a pile of swan crap?

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Songs: This is a case of the songs having no purpose besides filling the running time. While the trumpet music jazz is beautiful to listen to by itself, the sudden shifts into modern pop score are distracting and date the film. This isn't hrn the genres are all over the place. Spittin' Image is the opening number about Father Swan expecting his unborn children to be perfect despite the obvious irony. Hey, Hey, Hey is just a filler pop/jazz song by the pens that's all about music and having fun while not revealing anything about their characters. Louie, Louie, Louie is the obligatory crowd number when he immediately gains fame for his trumpeting skills with lackluster choreography and uninspired animation. Touch The Sky (mercifully not wasting Reese Witherspoon's singing talents) is Serena's pop ballad declaring her love for Louie despite barely sharing any screen time or explaining why she loves him. They're easily some of the dullest songs I've ever heard and would literally make no difference to the story if they were removed.

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What else did you expect from this mess? The Trumpet of the Swan may have some mediocre animation, it the paint by numbers script with numerous plot holes and contrivances, one-note and useless characters and equally as useless songs. I think it's safe to say a majority of the budget went into getting celebrities for the voices instead of saving it for good animation and storytelling. If you need your fix of an animated version of an E.B White book, then check out the 1973 Charlotte's Web by Hannah Barnera. Heck, check out the live action Charlotte's Web (the one with Dakota Fanning & Julia Roberts) and Stuart Little movies because they still respect the source material and have interesting characters unlike this crap. And...I just realized this movie's the plot of Happy Feet! Seriously, a male bird is born with an abnormality in a music loving society and is shunned for it by everyone except for a girl who'd later become his love interest. After growing up isolated, he runs away and realizes he can embrace his talents after performing for humans, so eventually returns home and ends up with said love interest while his parents, particularly the father, learn to love their son for the way they are...except Happy Feet had amazing photorealistic animation, fun dance and musical numbers, sympathetic and funny characters, gut busting comedy and Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams and Hugo Weaving, all of whom are talented people. Other than that, totally the same.
Story: 2/10
Animation: 4/10
Characters: 2/10
Songs: 2/10
Overall: 3/10

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