"Long Way North" + RIP's

Gotta give a little writeup on this movie: "Long Way North” directed by Rémi Chayé (one of the animators behind "The Secret of Kells," among others)... “In the 19th century, a young Russian girl embarks on an adventure-filled quest to find her grandfather at the North Pole.” Here's the official trailer that will give just a slight taste of the films incredible flavor. "... but it's so beautiful"

Personally haven’t enjoyed an animated film this much since 2007's "Persepolis" – an absolute delight in every way. Like the current overdosing on Marvel/DC superhero movies in a world where the feature animation menu seems like it’s always either a choice between Studio Ghibli or Pixar, this unique French/Danish film is a rare gem. Even though it came out several years ago, it just got recently released on DVD. As mentioned in every review of the film, and as easily seen from the couple screen grabs I made of stills from the film, the style + palette is a pure joy to watch, and is testament to the adage “less is more.”

“Right off the bat, it's hard not to mention the film's stunning designs and animation. Foregoing contour lines, the images here are almost completely made up of vibrant color fills, which give the picture a distinct, painterly look. Between the production's masterful coloring and sublime sense of scale, nearly every single frame of the movie looks like it could be an art print ready for hanging. In a world overrun with CGI and photorealistic texturing, Long Way North's abstract style is a breath of fresh air.” - IGN

Bonus in that I didn’t recognize any of the voice actors doing the dubbing – a pet peeve of mine in how 90% of animation films use famous American actors who couldn’t emote if they were shoved off a cliff (which becomes painfully obvious when you work with movies playing in the background).

“In this case, Chayé collaborated with screenwriter Claire Paoletti on an idea inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s exploits, and specifically diary accounts of how his ship Endurance was trapped in pack ice during one of his attempts to set Antarctic records.” - Variety

Also want to note the passing of "Mirthful" Marie Severin, who left an indelible mark upon the comic book industry after an under-utilized stint at EC:
In the ’80s, Severin worked on Marvel’s toys and books, and stayed at the company well into the 2000s. She was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2001 and named a Comic-Con International Icon in 2017, in recognition of her groundbreaking contributions at a time when the comic-book industry was dominated by men. - Atlantic

Some of her hand-coloring on cover art by Jack Davis (left) & Wally Wood (right)

And lastly, here's to one of the titans:

Lee as creator of the Marvel Universe was a myth. Kirby and Ditko were the main creators of the characters and they plotted out most of the stories they worked on. Lee added the dialogue in after the fact. And the dialogue was always the weakest part of any comic he worked on. Lee’s true genius was not as a writer or creator but as an editor, who brought the best talent to Marvel and pushed writers in the right direction, helping them flourish. - The New Republic 

By far and away his unique, distinctive style of parsing phrases added herculean weight to the lexicon of comics, the "natural rhythm and relentless percussive cadence of Lee’s dialogue and narration" best described as "half Lovecraft, half Dr. Seuss." Upon the news only one relatively obscure image immediately came to mind, ironically enough not from one of the landmark comic titles that he co-created, but a Hollywood adaptation (one of the better ones, and one of the few he didn't have a cameo in). X-celsior if you will.