Sorry, this is rushed

Tomasz Popakul is a Polish animator and director known for his distinctive, experimental style that blends 2D and 3D animation. His films often explore themes of alienation, identity, and psychological transformation, characterized by surreal storytelling and striking visuals. Notable works include Acid Rain (2019), a hallucinatory road trip film praised for its intense atmosphere, Ziegenort (2013), a coming-of-age story about a fish-like boy struggling with identity, and Black (2016), a sci-fi short about stranded astronauts facing existential dread.

Tomasz Popakul studied animation and scriptwriting at the Łódź Film School (PWSFTviT) in Poland, where he developed his storytelling and visual style. His films have gained international recognition, with Acid Rain (2019) premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and winning awards at Annecy and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. His earlier work, Ziegenort (2013), also screened at Annecy, Sundance, and other major festivals, while Black (2016) was praised for its monochromatic sci-fi aesthetic. Known for his surreal visuals and emotionally raw narratives, Popakul has established himself as a significant voice in indie and experimental animation, especially in Poland.

ACID RAIN

Acid Rain follows a woman, known as Young, who runs away from home and meets Skinny, a reckless drug dealer involved in small-time crime. Together, they embark on a chaotic journey across a bleak, neon-lit Eastern landscape. As their trip unfolds, reality begins to blur, and the film takes on an increasingly hallucinatory and unsettling tone. The story explores themes of escapism, self-destruction, and the search for connection in a hostile world. With trippy visuals, glitchy electronic soundtrack, and raw emotional intensity, Acid Rain shows a dreamlike yet gritty atmosphere.

SOURCES

https://culture.pl/en/artist/tomasz-popakul

https://polishfilmla.org/tomasz-popakul

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4588730

https://www.polishanimations.pl/en/director/2480/tomasz_popakul

I chose Spiderman Homecoming because I love the movie and it was one of my favorite Marvel movies. I thought the Intro had lots of style and creativity, which made it an appealing choice.

This title sequence was animated by Handel Eugene, a Haitian-American based in San Francisco, who also animated the intro to Black Panther. He works with a lot of multimedia elements in his animations. (Other animators on this title sequence include Ilaria Cacace and Justin Molush.)

I know we were supposed to go down inspirational rabbit holes for this project- however I actually had a really hard time doing that. My original title sequence was going to be the Deadpool opening, however there wasn’t a lot of other media to choose from for direct references that the animators chose, and there was a lot of terminology I just didn’t understand all together. This was a similar experience with this intro- where there wasn’t any real place to find information about the making of, which was rather disappointing.

That was… until I finally found gold.

I found the original concepts, and that lead me to Perception Studio- and a part of their website! Tucked away under past projects and awards- they had a making of and concepts for this title sequence.

The main goal of this title sequence was to illustrate the vibes that one would get from the surrealist feel of a day in the life as spiderman- they wanted to illuminate bright colors and a more peppy attitude.

Claymation was an instant go-to, as it really felt organic, and brought out a very real and almost childish approach to the Spiderman character, illuminating the fact that yes, he is still a highschooler! Painting it in a less gritty and more up-beat light.

Another approach they considered was a pop-punk DIY poster effect, which didn’t really make the final cut, but rather combined with one of their other elements (Illustrated Daydream) to blend into the story elements of Zendaya’s character MJ’s art and doodles throughout the movie.

I like this above look- and think that if there was a SpiderPunk movie, (yes please, btw), this would be a great look! It reminds me of early Gizmos-

In the end- the real inspiration from the title sequcne came from the idea of a day-to-day life spiderman, and vignettes from the movie that painted spiderman as a Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman.

Sources;

https://www.experienceperception.com/work/spider-man-homecoming/
https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/spider-man-homecoming

https://www.behance.net/gallery/61695601/SPIDER-MAN-HOMECOMING-Main-on-End-Title-Sequence

Chris Lavis is a Montreal academy award nominated director and animator who closely collaborates with longtime work partner Maciek Szczerbowski. His films are off-putting, unsettling, and eerie. His first film is the one we watched in class…

Madame Tutli-Putli (2007)

Madame Tutli-Putli was made primarily with stop-motion, however, the eyes were motion captured using a video camera, and added to the stop-motion puppet. It follows the story of an anxious woman (Madame Tutli-Putli) Boarding the night train. She takes all her possessions with her, and leaves her past behind. Or rather, it seems, she is running from it. It uses both visible horror elements with disturbing imagery, as well as suspense and building an unsettling feeling in the viewer. The eyes give a very uncanny look to the whole short. Down to the message it conveys, it it littered with symbolisms for death. (The night train, leaving your things behind, being killed, intense fear before euphoric feeling, going into the light, etc.)

Higgelty-Piggelty Pop!

He adapted a story by Maurice Sendak, Higgelty-Piggelty Pop!, about a dog who is searching for more in life. ‘This animated short tackles the subjects of personal space, conflict, and conflict resolution in the workplace. At the office, tempers flare as two coworkers who are sitting dangerously close find themselves bumping elbows and spilling ink. The film demonstrates four common approaches to interpersonal tensions: retreat, aggression, denial and – finally – negotiation.’ – Synopsis provided on YouTube. Much like Madame Tutli-Putli, it combines Stop Motion and live action. It is so smooth, it looks more like puppetry. It reminds me a lot of Fraggle Rock, specifically the segments with the man and his dog, Sprocket. It has a familiar feeling to it’s aesthetics, but it also has elements of horror and mystery- as well as fear and suspense.

HIS/THEIR WORK

Chris Lavis mostly works with a fusion of Stop Motion and Live Action elements. They do not use them separately, but rather in with each other. Stop Motion mingles with Live action, and vice versa. Which reminds me a lot of early animation in movies, like scenes/sequences the original ‘King Kong’ and ‘Godzilla’ movies. Or like ‘The Lost World’, which animated dinosaurs via Stop-Motion animation, still had live action in it! This feels like a hyper-advanced version of it, which can use modern technology and better equipment to pull off the effect better! His lasting impact? That I cannot exactly answer. He seems to be a notable name, and has an impressive record behind him of films and projects. However, I wasn’t able to find much about him specifically. It could be that I wasn’t looking hard enough- however, overall, I do not think that he has a huge ‘This Is A Face of Animation.’ sort of reputation. So for his lasting impact, I have to conclude with; he’s still alive and making things, his lasting impact is yet to be set in stone.

My favorite horror-tinged animated films

I quite like Watership Down, when it comes to just sheer darkness and grit, as well as pure fear and disturbing feeling, Watership Down takes the cake for me. It is brutal- like- horrifyingly brutal. I think part of the reason why I think it’s scary is because it was for kids- but boy howdy. It had scenes likes this.

But I also like The Great Mouse Detective. Is it horror? I wouldn’t say so. But it has scary elements? I just love it a lot.

SOURCES

https://collab.sundance.org/people/Chris-Lavis-1554997144

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2650321/?ref_=tt_ov_dr_1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZFFmcq3Jo

https://www.semainedelacritique.com/en/directors/chris-lavis-maciek-szczerbowski

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcdzdHoDvkg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHigglety_Pigglety_Pop!_or_There_Must_Be_More_to_Life&psig=AOvVaw2vkO8HOsMyAv5Z7-MCGB83&ust=1730230979240000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBcQjhxqGAoTCNiKp-zqsYkDFQAAAAAdAAAAABCGAQ

https://www.acmefilmworks.com/directors/chris-lavis-maciek-szcerzbowski

Please note I did NOT understand the parameters of this assignment.

UPA… who’s behind it?

Upa, aka United Productions America is a production company centered around animation that arose in the 1940s (1941), and was formed after the Disney Animation Strike when long-time animators at disney went on strike to demand higher pay and better working conditions, as well as proper credit and better treatment in general. The artists who led and founded UPA were tired of Disney’s formula, and the painstaking process of imitating real life through animation. Creative lead at UPA, John Hubley explained that he didn’t want his animations to be imitations of live action, but rather to be something that live action couldn’t make in the first place. He, amongst others, (them being: Bobe Cannon, Henry G. Saperstein, Zack Schwartz, David Hilberman and Stephen Bosustow) were the founders and key members of UPA.

ROOTY TOOT TOOT

I know I wrote about this before, but Rooty Toot Toot is genuinely one of my favorite animated pieces of media at all time. Produced by UPA, directed by John Hubley, this was one of (in my opinion) UPA’s best films. It is directly inspired by the cartoon modern style with limited color pallet, exaggerated features and basic shapes. It is a really well executed film, because stylistically it was new, it was bold, it was unapologetically artistic. Exactly the goals of the animation? To tell a fun dark-musical story- but knowing the goals of the studio to push for artistic expression, artistic freedom and stylization, this style is absolutely the perfect style for this short. IF it were to take a more Disney approach to make the movements hyper-realistic, the music would end up feeling less like the story, and rather an addition to the story. It wouldn’t be as punchy, which would make the tone fall flat.

TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE

The Triplets of Belleville, or Les Triplettes de Belleville is a french animated feature film directed by Sylvain Chomet. If you have seen the Illusionist, you may recognize his name! Or at least the style. The Triplets of Belleville has a style that is much like UPA in the sense that the actions of the characters are exaggerated, however the approach to how they do so is different. With UPA, its stylistically, whimsically creative, whereas with this film, I would call it Grotesquely realistic. The characters move much like humans, even when they don’t. They twist and turn and warp around- having a very clear skeleton, however their joints articulate in such bizarre ways. For this movie, this style absolutely makes sense. It is supposed to be a bizarre and somewhat unsettling film, it isn’t supposed to be infused with a childlike wonder or a humorous lawyer who is more nose than man. The fellows who are more nose than man look that way in a comfortingly odd way. Everything down to the camera angles makes it feel unsettling. Which totally works with this style!

SOURCES

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043980

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Productions_of_America

https://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triplets_of_Belleville

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-09DbxHBU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMF2i6WTqHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jg1RrneJ4

https://wherecreativityworks.com/united-productions-of-america-upa/