Weekly Movie Recommendations : 22nd March 2008 - 28th March 2008

Zodiac (2007)

Genre - Crime/Drama/Thriller
Cast - Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr.
Why to watch it - All the above mentioned people have done some amazing performances by playing the roles of Robert Graysmith, Inspector David Toschi and Paul Avery respectively.

A subtle, dialogue-driven thriller that delivers.It is a solid suspense thriller that pins you to your seat. A quiet, dialogue-driven thriller that delivers with scene after scene of gut-wrenching anxiety. The cinematography, is great, the darkness and giddiness of the story are perfectly portrayed in the film's visual elements.

Overall a great story told in a remarkable way, very entertaining, with great performances, and wonderful direction.

Enjoy the trailer -

Carlos Baena is back with a bang !!!

Ok, i apologize !! I have no idea just how i missed posting this one up. I keep rambling upon useless stuff and i totally forgot to inform this one.

Carlos Baena, the super duper talented animator who has contributed hell loads to the awesome animation you see in PIXAR films and recently in Ratatouille, is back with his new revamped site totally with some awesome animation and tons of fun stuff. And the best part is that even with his super busy schedule he is actually updating it quite often. More the merrier !

Bookmark it, add to your rss feed...this is a must see for your regular dose of super informative stuff.

Weekly Movie Recommendations : 15th March 2008 - 21st March 2008

Taare Zameen Par (2007)

Yes "that" movie is Taare Zameen Par. The directorial debut of the outstanding Indian actor par excellence Aamir Khan.

Genre - Drama
Language - Hindi
Cast - Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan, Tisca Chopra
Whats It About - About a kid's struggling with dyslexia.
Why To Watch It - This is one of the finest films to have come out in recent times and specially last year across all categories and languages, whether Hindi, English, French, etc.

This is one of those movies, which not only entertains but acts as an enlightenment to your inner self. Its like a wake up call, an eye opener, that wake up this is real.

The kid played by Darsheel Safary, has played the part with utmost perfection. Even after the movie you just cant separate him from his character in the movie. Add to the burden of being the lead protagonist, carrying the entire canvas of the movie from beginning till the end and playing a rather sensitive role of a dyslexic child is no easy task by any means, even for more grown up actors let alone a child. But this is where Darsheel Safary as shown exemplary talent thru his brilliant performance. If the actors role is to get the audience involved, he has succeeded beyond imagination by making the audience feel the same emotions has his family encounters thru out the story. Now it doesn't get more closer than this.

Now to the other supporting actor who in fact is the producer and director of this movie, Aamir Khan. In this age of slick editing, masala commercial flicks, he is one actor who has always gone against the tide and has always come out triumphantly and unscathed. He is proved that film making is much more than getting the audience to the screens, have them enjoy 3 hours of entertainment along with popcorn and cola and also earning money(loads) in the end. And consider the fact that its his directorial debut, i must say Aamir Khan has arrived as a Director with laudable story telling skills and a force to reckon with in this business of making movies.

Overall Taare Zameen Par is a MUST see for everyone, whether parents(specially), kids, people of age group and all nationality. Though its based upon a very sensitive issue of Dyslexia the way its been handled by Aamir Khan is extra ordinary. Instead of grieving and sympathizing with the issue of Dyslexia he has given a completely new perspective and a very positive one at that. He has proved yet again that he is indeed a perfectionist at his craft of acting and now directing. He has shown that a good actor is never bigger than the character he is playing. When the real personality(even a small tint of it) gets seen on the screen, the actor has failed in his endeavors(and his job) of playing the character in the movie. In Taare Zameen Par we completely forget the real Aamir Khan and instead we are consumed by his on screen character completely. This is what true character performances is all about. Though the original movie is in Hindi, get a DVD with English or whatever language subtitles you are comfortable in and get engrossed in this gem of a movie wrapped up in brilliant cinematic aesthetics.

To NOT watch the movie for any excuse would be nothing less than sinful blasphemy. Do yourself a big favour and watch Taare Zameen Par before you die ! Trust me its worth it !!!

Have a sneak peek -

Catch up time !

Its been a crazy week what with Class 2 - Body Mechanics slowly and steadily coming to an end here at Animation Mentor. Time is really flying these days, the saying "good times seem to pass by fast" is indeed true. Its just awesome how much i have seem to learn in the past 3 months of Class 2 and overall past 6 months here at Animation Mentor.

The entire credit should go to the Bobby, Shawn and Carlos, the very motivating Mentors, AM support staff (Student Care, Technical, et al) and of course my super class mates. All of you make AM so much fun. I wish all the schools were like this !

Last week was quite eventful, here at AM what with many of my senior class mates getting their dream jobs in PDI, Dreamworks, etc. Yes you read that right and your eye sight is totally fine. Its indeed PDI and Dreamworks. This is what AM is all about. Its make me feel that much more nice and confident that coming to AM was indeed one of my best decisions in life and that i am inching towards my dream job which i am sure would happen some day !

Also i will be soon posting my work from Class 1 and Class 2 (hopefully) as and when i get the time to do it. Class 3 is beginning next month and this is where the real animation with acting and all starts to unfold. But i will definitely try to at least start posting my progress, one by one, so far here at Animation Mentor.

Last week, i saw a movie. It was one of those movies, which stays with you with a long time even after coming out of the theater and makes you see life in a different perception.

In fact the movie was so good (understatement) that i had to delay my post of Weekly Movie Recommendation for last week, because i just had to share this one with you all. And because of my Sunday assignment submission, things got crazy at the end and i just couldn't get time to blog the post.

So more info on "that" movie in my next post !

Till then...cheers !

Animation Mentor in the news...AGAIN !! :-)

MovieMaker had this article recently.



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