Forum - View topicNEWS: Horton Director Talks about Anime-Inspired Sequence
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mangajunky
Company Representative
 Posts: 72 Location: New York City |
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From what I recall - the Private SNAFU shorts that Geisel worked on poked fun at the Germans more than the Japanese.
edit - whoops - i never saw that one about the Aleutian islands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se1cw5JtuiM spies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6XaKfZvaYM Last edited by mangajunky on Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:25 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Originally I'd had no plans to watch this movie. Now, I feel a little more interested.
Personally I don't think there's a need to "make up" for the previous war-related stuff but if you're going to try, this sounds like the right way to go about it. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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Judging by the trailer, I thought the film was an homage to LSD.
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Mr. Toto
 Posts: 139 |
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I thought that it was a very good film. Not only is it well-written, but the acting is spot on. Aside from that, Dr. Seuss's designs transition well into 3D animation.
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OnanRulz
 Posts: 132 Location: The MPLS |
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"Dear Japan,
I am deeply sorry that Dr. Seuss used stereotypes of your culture in his animated works. In an effort of apology, I have decided to use another stereotype of your culture in my animated work. Yours, James Hayward P.S. - If that isn't enough, take heart that the American film industry works hard to destroy his literary reputation." |
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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From what I heard, Dr. Seuss wrote disparaging propaganda about the Japanese, but was pro-civil rights. So maybe he just got caught up in the war frenzy? A guy who dabbled in porn can't be that bad.
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Anime inspired action sequences? Bah. I don't want to even bother checking out what this guy thinks anime means.
As for making up for the propaganda videos Seuss was involved in, why bother? Or at least this doesn't seem a way to do it. Imitating animation from that country? Bah. Then again, if you want to talk about apologizing for stuff done during World War II, well, Japan has plenty of its own stuff to deal with. Some stupid racist cartoon is far from the worst, on either side of the war. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14893 |
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"Having once dubbed anime, [James] Hayward added a homage to the Japanese art form...."
Which anime has he dubbed? Is he related to Andy Heyward of Sailor Moon fame? <grin> |
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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That's a really good question, actually. I couldn't find anything, so presumably, he worked under a pseudonym, as is not at all uncommon. |
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Labbes
 Posts: 890 |
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I'm really astounded at how offensive people get on this topic. I mean, is it a bad thing if he says he was inspired by anime? Isn't that the right of every artist, and probably a part of the reason art exists?
If a French guy said he was influenced by English culture, but still was sorry for the wars they fought, would you bash him, too? That's so pathetic, really. |
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OnanRulz
Posts: 132 Location: The MPLS |
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The implication isn't that he was inspired by anime so much as he put the anime influenced scene in the film in order to apologize for Dr. Seuss' anti-Japanese WWII propaganda shorts. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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It's kind of dumb to be so upset about our propaganda films, because the Japanese had their own versions of Americans in their films. As for the director's intent, I think it's not necessarily to belittle anime, but to show how the anime style probably helped make the CG Horton a reality. After all, one of the Blue Sky people later did work on GITS: Innocence.
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Haru to Ashura
 Posts: 617 Location: Termina |
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I wouldn't consider Dr Seuss as a racist person, I think he was just swallowed up by American war-time propaganda.
Dr. Seuss was a political cartoonist throughout WWII. He opposed the Japanese because they were obviously our enemies. I've read most of his cartoons, and while his depictions of the Japanese were stereotypical looking, they were written as reactions to Japan invading other countries, not out of sheer racism. (Although his 1947 documentary, "Design for Death" is...really something else.) Actually, a book entitled "Dr. Seuss Goes to War", contains all of his political cartoons. I believe it's still in circulation and is easily accessible at a public library. They're actually pretty interesting to look at, you can see some of the ideas for his characters and stories starting to emerge. Out of the 3 axis powers, he depicted Hitler and Germany the most, and those sentiments were displayed later in his writing. ("Yurtle the Turtle" is probably the most obvious reference.) |
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Labbes
Posts: 890 |
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If anyone would read the interview, the passage where he states that is:
And I really don't see how this implies that he did it only as apology. I don't think it's wrong to say something like that, because otherwise Japanese press could come up with "He likes anime but the author hated Japanese" and stuff like that. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I agree with the view that the director’s reasons for including such a sequence are probably not entirely apologetic. I assume that Seuss’ more regrettable works don't get associated with him by the general public, let alone the film’s younger target audience. Hayward is perhaps just incorporating something with somewhat of a cult status into the film, presumably for comic effect. I remember watching an episode of Nickelodeon’s Angry Beavers which did something similar.
Of course my initial reaction is to dislike the film even more for imitating something I hold dear, but I tend to abhor all child-friendly cinema nowadays anyway. The possibility of this fight sequence being respectful and avoiding anime clichés and the like does exist, but even if it did many of the kids watching it in the multiplexes wouldn’t get the reference. |
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