Movies We Watch

We watched this film because we had heard so much about the music in it. All old jazz tunes by Annette Hanshaw. Licensing on these musical pieces had become a source of controversy.

For me, the musical numbers were the least interesting part of the film.

The film was good, but had its problems. There were too many different styles of animation going on. The musical pieces all had a great clean stylized look. The story line for Sita and Rama used traditional Indian icongraphy and storytelling. The modern couple story appeared to have been inspired by the Dr. Katz school of animation with a little Cathy thrown in. Though this served to keep the storylines seperate visually, the music numbers and the Sita and Rama story were part of the same story. So it seemed odd that those would use 2 different styles.

My favorite part of the film was the Sita and Rama story tellers. Funny, moved the story along at a great pace. The musical numbers slowed the story. The modern couple story just seemed tossed in there at times.

So interesting enough of a watch, but has its flaws. Great first effort from this film maker. It will be interesting to see if she does anything else.

imdb.com

An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920′s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw.