Things Wot I Have Watched (Wotched?) Recently.

[freckles_and_doubt]

1. Pom Poko. Great Japanese Racoon Testicles, Batman! This early Miyazaki piece has a weird pseudo-documentary style which is actually surprisingly effective, and a strange but compelling tendency for the raccoon characters to slide without warning between realistic animals, beautifully detailed anthropomorphised animals, and strangely plastic simplified versions of same. As usual, a rather grim ecological subtext, here coupled with a not-at-all happy ending, fairly inevitably. The transformation sequences were beautiful, but the whole thing left me rather depressed. Apart from anything, the raccoons are just too cute, naive and absolutely, utterly doomed.

2. Lots of second-season Doctor Who, illegally, courtesy of strawberryfrog. Am v., v. enamoured... actually, not of the Doctor (I'm just a bit enamoured), but of the construction and photography of "Love and Monsters". Clever, ironic, self-conscious, rather tender piece of TV, with a great cast and excellent writing. Also, of the perfectly gratuitous Cthuloidness of "The Impossible Planet" and whatever its sequel was called. Lots of tentacles, runic inscriptions, pits, glowing red eyes and escape of chained gods from eternal prisons. Ia! Ia!

Comments

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Mort didn't like "Love and Monsters" much. I thought it had some merits.

"The Impossible Planet" and the second parts cribs mercil... er, pays homage to any number of sources: Alien, Aliens, Event Horizon and Doom spring to mind.