There's something about voiceless or semi-voiceless films that just
doesn't feel right. Charlie Chaplin was successful because his actions
spoke more than he ever could have. Here, the animation doesn't really
manage that. The result is awkward-moving over-acted characters. Robot
Carnival is weird.
This anthology is a collection of short
animated films concerning
various robot-related scenarios. Some are better than others, but
overall there isn't a great deal to be said for any of them. It took me
two attempts to get through the whole film, and if it wasn't for a
pre-existing interest in concepts of the cyborg then I may not have at
all.
Stylisticly, on the plus side, some scenes and designs
remind me of
Battle Angel Alita, Wind of Amnesia, and even Naüsicaa of the Valley of
the Wind (Not coincidentally, as Miyazaki's key animator Takashi
Nakamura is on the direction team).
Perhaps my dislike is a
cultural product: the DVD never got an English
release, though it was apparently shown on the Sci-Fi Channel several
times. For this reason I had to put up with a terrible fansub version
which managed to turn most of the very few spoken sentences into
garbage - "sometimes I will be jealous strongly of her" and "I have
never get mother love" are two random samples. Funnier still was the
curious incidence of subtitling the English-speaking character in A
Tale of Two Robots. "Next time, you will see my electric self-propelled
artillery" becomes "Next time I'll come with automatic robot!".
One
story which did stand out was Cloud, directed by Mao Lamdo.
Animated very simply with what looks like a pencil, there was a certain
charm to the piece. Although much too long, there was an element of
robot and human philosophy there which I couldn't help but appreciate.
The robot child walking endlessly, unchanged, through major world
events, catastrophes and conflicts, oblivious, head down and braced
against the wind is powerful. Its later transformation into an alive,
sensuous human being, suddenly aware of its surroundings and able to
transform them, is a hopeful outlook for the cyborg man, if somewhat
unrealistic.
The comments made by the Madonna-lookalike android
in Presence were
also noteworthy. "I know myself very well... what is my purpose?" It
seems that the android has exactly what we lack – a vision of itself
and its surroundings that is completely objective.
The rest of
the segments have little merit other than the big names of
some of the people involved in their conception. How is it that a
gifted person such as Kōji Marimoto (Fly Peek!, Animatrix) can produce
something as boring as Franken's Gears? And why would someone involved
in mega-hit (though I'm not a fan) Mobile Suit Gundam (Hiroyuki
Kitazume) produce shōjo trash Star Light Angel? Having said that,
Katsuhiro Ōtomo's opening and closing scenes were well designed and
animated, and somewhat interesting, too. These are the parts of the
film that make best use of the decadent budget and unusually high
animation quality (Presence is especially notable for the quality of
animation, where Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite)'s style is clear and vivid).
Lastly,
for a film so ostensibly dependent on the soundtrack, it was
curious to find most of the OST to consist of the most decade-limited
music known to man – 1980s disco. The animation, too, had a very 80s
anime feel. Having been made in 1987, I suppose this is excusable (the
animation, not the music).
All in all, not really worth it.
Screenshots
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