The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint

The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon with the kids than seeing The Day of the Crows, an animated feature directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint.  Presented as part of the 41st edition of the Festival du cinéma du nouveau monde at the Théâtre Outremont, the much anticipated film, a France-Canada-Belgium-Luxembourg co-production, is based on the internationally acclaimed book Le Jour des corneilles by Quebec writer Jean-Francois Beauchemin. In addition to using the voices of actor Jean Reno and late Nouvelle Vague legend Claude Chabrol, the film was drawn almost entirely by hand, instead of the usual computer-generated images. As 24 images are required for just one second of animation, making a feature-length film is no small feat.

In The Day of the Crows, the central character is a young boy called simply “Son.” After the mother dies in childbirth in the wild, the infuriated father discards his infant son, but then reluctantly takes him back, raising him alone in the woods. Son, however, still sees his mother as a half -human half-fawn spirit. She and other anthropomorphized forest creatures are his only companions, besides his decidedly strange father. When Son is old enough to venture to the forest’s edge, he discovers a new world. His father warns him of the dangers of civilization, but when the elder falls ill, Son seeks help in the village where his father is eventually given medical treatment. This is where we learn of the father’s tragic past, and the grudge that some of the villagers still harbour against him. While the father recovers, Son stays with the doctor’s family, discovers love and learns the ways of the civilized world from Manon, the doctor’s daughter. Son eventually returns with his father to the forest, but his stay in the village has prepared him for his future survival.

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The Day of the Crows incorporates some beautiful painting and finely detailed characters, but Son, intended to be simple and devoid of any sophistication, is basic to the point of being bland, with few traits to make him endearing to young viewers. Artistically, the film was stunning with strong influences from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, but there were some technical problems that might be the result of a poor film transfer. The colours were oversaturated, and there were details out of focus throughout the film. But probably the biggest problem was its length. In spite of all of its artistic merits, the film could have easily been edited by at least 20 minutes.

Had Day of the Crows been released 10 years ago, it would have been wildly popular. But with stiff competition from Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Dreamworks and Disney, and the technical innovations of the last decade, young viewers (and their parents) now expect much more than just beautiful artwork and music. They want to be dazzled and entertained from beginning to end, which Day of the Crows fails to do. However, for the purists or those curious to see what hand-drawn animation looks like, this is an enjoyable film.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

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NFB: Learn the ABCs of Animation

NFB: Learn the ABCs of Animation

Little known fact, the National Film Board (NFB) offers group activities for children (aged 7 and up) and their parents to learn the basics of animation. Last week, my daughter and I made our way down to the NFB at De Maisonneuve and St-Denis to take part in a two-hour workshop on cut-out animation. For those of you unfamiliar with cut-out, just think South Park.

The theme of this session was Guerre des tuques, a film by Roger Cantin et Danyèle Patenaude. We were given some instruction ahead of time, specifically about breaking down movement. An important concept: it takes 24 frames to make 1 second of film. In groups of four, we had to think of a very short segment related to our theme, draw a four-framed storyboard, and then make our own cut-out characters. In the studio, two oil painting backdrops were supplied for filming. The photo in the top left is one of the backdrops we used, minus the props and clay characters. The process for filming a short sequence is much longer than one might think, and strangely enough, my seven-year-old caught on much more quickly than I did. My husband says that some people just have an innate sense of how to break down movement.

The cost of the workshop was $7 for adults and $5 for children. In addition, you have an hour of free viewing in the CinéRobothèque before the class starts. This is an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon with your kids. Below is the fruit of our cut-out labours. The NFB also holds clay animation and a recycling-animation workshops.

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