thebeastoburden
Granted this is not for everyone since many have poor attention spans and cannot tolerate sub-captions but for the rest of us that appreciate good art no matter what country it is from this is the bee's knees! This jumps from rich animation in deep vivid color and detail and realism to black and white very simplistic 'hello kitty style animation with mouths and moving eyes. The music is pretty damn good as well. keep in mind this is not only done by Japanese it has never really been adapted to fit American culture so do not think this will have the same feel as other Animation titles such as Nausical or Pom Poko. This is the most unique piece of animation I have ever seen so far hands down. In a way it is an homage to classic animation and the modern age as the two differences in animation style constantly converge and diverge throughout. Some scenes are very Fantasia like. Tamala herself is very much a cat in the way she acts and subjects she speaks about. She comes off as cute but has a serious potty mouth at times and she smokes. it is like cute collided head on with reality. Imagine Dot Warner of Animaniacs smoking and letting out four letter expletives while going on freaky adventures. Well I hate to tell Dot Warner this but Tamala IS Cuter than she is! Sorry Dot... The story may come off as undirectional but keep this in mind, Japan is a country of coming to a point indirectly. This is one story that is about the subtleties, the art, the characters, and describes the human condition well in many of the smaller elements in it like references to human extinction and Catty and Co. running everything in an iron fisted monopoly. This is not for children as there is violence and sexual references. Also do not watch this one with huge expectations. It is a lite piece in comparison to say Akira nor is it as direct in story as Kiki's Delivery Service but it is different and for those that are into the different, bazaar, and strange (as well as the non-xenophobic viewers out there) this is a animation that needs to be in your collection. No serious collector of Japanese cinema or animation should be without this even if it is not only tough but expensive to get. I had to look HARD for this one but Yesasia came through for me! Try Amazon Japan as well. It can be had but you got to look. Even though it is my personal opinion I loved this animation and hope more comes from this studio! It was food for my mind!
vlvetmorning98
This p***-poor excuse for an animated film has almost no discernible plot or characters you can make heads or tails or out (pun intended). It's supposed to be some sort of tongue-in-cheek comment on 21st century life, but your guess as to what it means is as good as mine. On top of that, the obviously computerized portions look amateurish. The sole bright spot is a pretty hummable soundtrack. Avoid this pretentious, silly mess of a film..
alexduffy2000
"Tamala 2010" is a great animated movie with a great soundtrack, period. I could stop there and the review would be complete, but I'll say more. Much more.To begin with, this is an animated film by a group that calls itself "t.o.L", and I'm assuming that they came up with the design, the animation, the characters, and the music. It's a film with a plot that could be sketched on a napkin. But that's besides the point. This film is a great fusion of design, 2D and 3D animation, and music in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It's as if the children of the creators of Yellow Submarine approached R. Crumb about making "Fritz the Cat" into a film again, Crumb angrily turns them down, so they go to a group of Japanese animators to make a cat-themed movie, and get the spirit of Philip K. Dick as their creative consultant.The result is an animated masterpiece where one scene flows into another, largely driven by music and exciting artwork and visuals, but hardly ever by plot. If this sounds like Disney's "Fantasia", it's not. Tamala is a "cute female cat" who is going from CatEarth to Orion to find her mother, but is diverted along the way to Planet Q (or Q Planet) and ends up in "Hate City" which is a skid row slum type of place with a war going on between cats and dogs.Both CatEarth and Planet Q are highly original creations. We spend most of the movie on Planet Q. Overshadowing everything is the mysterious, sinister, and somehow comforting "Catty & Co." which is a capitalistic conglomerate that controls 99% of all production. Catty & Co. is everywhere, like Big Brother, but more indifferent. It is this "Feline Galaxy" that t.o.L has created that is the big selling point of the movie for me. Now that I've been introduced to it, I want to see more of it, like I want to see more of Springfield each week on "The Simpsons".The attention to detail is amazing. Every scene in this movie has something to offer. There are no wasted backdrops, everywhere you look there are posters and advertisements for Catty & Co., with a brilliant array of designs. So much work went into this movie, so much care was placed in executing each scene, that I had to see it twice, to see all of the details I missed the first time.And what about the characters? Tamala is a "cute female cat" as the movie calls her, but she's no "Hello Kitty". She's an enigmatic symbol that the animation flows around. The film get quite a lot of emotional mileage out of these simple characters, considering how simply she, Michelangelo (her friend on Planet Q), and the Professor are drawn by the animators.This review wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the great soundtrack. This movie could be broken up into just the animation that goes with the songs and it would still be great. It's a fusion of electronica, heavy metal and pop, and in the context of this film it's fantastic.This is not a film for young kids, it's pretty much R-rated fare. There are some very violent scenes, and occasional use of the "F-word" by Tamala mostly. Though Tamala makes a few sexually suggestive comments, nothing ever happens, and most of the "sexy" talk is from two gay male cat hustlers who talk about other gay male cats they find attractive, but nothing happens visually, it's all talk. "Hate City" is violent, oppressive, dirty, damaged, it's one perpetual skid row, and I wanted more of it, it was a great, original creation! But it's not for young kids, they wouldn't understand it.I went to www.tamala2010.com but could not get the Japanese language pack to install, so I could not get any information about whether there will be a sequel, and I was able to find little credible information about t.o.L via Google, so I am in the dark about the future of this "project" as their site calls it. All I can hope is that they will create more planets with dysfunctional societies for Tamala and her friends to explore. This film is a true work of art, and a true 10 out of 10.
noothergod
I was very curious about Tamala prior to viewing. I was amused at the animation, which was often clever and espoused a simplistic style not seen in some time. The look of the world was at once both desperate and cartoony. However, this film gave me little beyond eye candy.The plot was sketchy (animation puns aside), the dialogue was annoyingly simple (though I did see it in English), and there was no real message or purpose. When the film finally ended, all I could say was "Wow, I guess it's over."More annoying was that the creators tried desperately to create a cult-pop icon. Half the time I felt like Tamala was doing weird things just because weird things are cool and hip with young kids these days. I'm 25, and I found it neither cool nor hip. It was just annoying. Also, Colonel Sanders with a cleaver in his head left a little something to be desired.If this was supposed to be Hello Kitty for the next generation, I think someone needs to change the litterbox. Something stinks.
