MovieChat Forums > Song of the Sea (2015) Discussion > Anyone else think the artwork in this wa...

Anyone else think the artwork in this was absolutely awful??

posted 9 years ago by ulrichburke
16 replies | jump to latest

You see, I loved the story. I just wish the artwork hadnt been so abysmal. The story was great The actual animation, as in movement, was lovely. The drawings themselves - I have honestly seen better in average school projects. The artist, whoever he was, should have been sacked about 5 minutes after he got hired and someone brought in who could actually DRAW people! Everyone looked like childrens drawings held together by paper fasteners and wobbled on strings or lengths of cotton. All the lovely smooth animation was wrecked by these awful drawings. Such a shame. And the colouring wasnt much better, it looked like coloured school chalks. I dont know what effect the artist was trying for, but he had me wanting to turn it off after 5 minutes because I couldnt stand looking at such awful drawings (My Mom is an artist, thats why I know what good drawings are like, checkout Brenda Burke to see what I mean!)

Id give this thing a 5 just because the story itself was so good. On artwork, as opposed to animation, Id give it a 3 at best. Sad.

Chris Burke.

[–] jezus_tapdancing_christ 9 years ago

This is not poorly animated it's just in a different style than you're used to
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/award-season-focus/tomm-moore-on-song-of-the-sea-reinventing-2d-and-dodging-the-studio-system-107389.html

[–] hrafnamarie 9 years ago

Exactly. Regarding the illustration more so than the animation...the fact that you don't consider it good doesn't mean it isn't actually good, it just means it wasn't appealing to you. He obviously wasn't aiming to do something as figurative as your mother does because he clearly sees no point in it (thank you jezus_tapdancing_christ for bringing up that interview, I'm just going to paste this quote here):

"But I think today 2D animation has a responsibility, much like painters had after photography was invented, to reinvent what it is. It can’t go after realism, because there is no point; it has to do something only 2D can do. In painting, we got Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism and other modern movements because of photography. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and other Ghibli films point the way that 2D has to keep going to reinvent itself. In the whole history of visual arts, there is still so much that we can explore."

-
I live in the weak and the wounded.

[–] OctoberFox 9 years ago

That was a sticking point for me as well. While I appreciate the unique visual style sheerly for its stepping away from more familiar studio projects artistry, I found the work itself ranging from bland to repulsive. The faces, expressions and such, were especially bad, but the whole thing overall just put me off and made this one of those movies I just couldn't enjoy.

A good story or interesting ideas and characters are not enough to save this one for me, but it appears I'm in the minority. Smacks of a ham-handed attempted stylization that just distracted more than entertained.

[–] pinkarray 9 years ago

I guess this sort of artwork won't appeal to many people. I heard that "The Book of Life" used a style where the characters were like blocks and I got annoyed by that and and the usual big heads and little bodies. I thought that the artwork was perfect and adorable but maybe because you are so used to the other animation styles they use.

DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE BY THEIR AGES, NOT USE COMMON SENSE, OR ASK CRITICAL QUESTIONS!

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] theImpeccableTroodon 9 years ago

If that really is your mum, then I must say... her work is spectacular. However, animation is a broad medium covering many different styles. Occasionally, you will get an animated film with extraordinary detail. Old Man and the Sea. Check that one out if you haven't already. Basically a moving painting and it absolutely blew my mind. Art and animation aren't the same thing, so I agree with you in that regard because so often do folks use the terms interchangeably it gets annoying. However, why is simplicity in art being treated as inherently bad? I will admit that not every aspect of the art style worked in my favor, but it being "abysmal" and the artist not being able to draw are entirely subjective points. Sacking that artist because you don't like his/her art is a terrible suggestion.

Less than a century ago, there were forms of art that were not readily accepted because they challenged "the norm" or standards established at the time. It's a thing called variety. Taking away that variety and depriving artists of a career in animation because they don't draw, say, a hyper-realistic butt with pinpoint accuracy, is a silly reason and a step backwards. A film with cartoony and realistic imagery respectively can bore me just about the same if everything else lacks a necessary luster. To each his own, of course.

[–] WadesWiddleYellowBoxes 9 years ago

I'm not having a bar of that, Mr.Burke.
The tale was beautiful and I felt the style of artwork complimented the story and the characters.
Ren and Stimpy is also tremendous and that's hardly artwork worthy of the Zwirner.

[–] Helenlaurence 9 years ago

This is very true- when Van Gogh started painting people didn't like his style... Probably because they didn't 'get' it, because they'd never seen anything like it before. Now we accept it as 'great art'.
This animation is so different from what we're used to.
Having said that I did find some of the characters faces a bit too simplistic, but the backgrounds and lights were so beautiful. Like a series of touching paintings.

[–] culturedeluxe 9 years ago

Wow, we thought the artwork was gorgeous. The film poster alone made us desperate to watch it.

Certainly can't say the same for the majority of animated films where, try as they might to make their characters look human, everyone looks odd.

It's the perfect, charming look for a perfect, charming tale - a shame you didn't like it.

[–] davdav34 9 years ago

Before seeing the film I had a similar thought. I absolutely love Studio Ghibli films also because of their beautiful animation. That's why I was very disappointed by The tale of the princess Kaguya, I didn't like the style of the animation at all. But from the first frame of Song of the sea, I was enchanted and thought it was so beautiful. I can't explain why, maybe because I preferred the story of Song of the sea.

[–] Helenlaurence 9 years ago

What? The amazing paintings were one of the best things about it... It's different style of animation.
It had a simple quality about it which added to the story, I thought.

[–] ImInTheater 9 years ago

I watched this for the art and thought it was nice but was comparing it to the oscar winner Big Hero 6. I still can't decide if they chose correctly but BH6 was beautiful. If that is really your mother that is amazing though my first instinct is to not believe you and wouldn't think you'd even try to compare by name dropping cause I find that sort of irrelevant, stylistically speaking. Sorry.

[–] texagander 9 years ago

Coincidentally, I went on rant to my friends an hour before we watched this movie, which we didn't know anything about.

Something like, "I am so sick of Blue skies and perfectly fluffy clouds in every animation these days. I miss when the enviroment changes based on mood or tone, like every animated film in the 80s."

After Song of the Sea I was hyped up, "that's what I'm talking about!" I thought this movie was the antithesis of everything I had just been complaining about.