#Jeff Danna

[dweemeister]

My Father’s Dragon (2022)

Kilkenny, Ireland-based Cartoon Saloon has now released its last two films in collaboration with companies more interested in maintaining their streaming services than granting a significant theatrical release. Wolfwalkers (2020), a production alongside Apple TV+, was an excellent addition to the studio’s Irish folklore triptych, and understandably few theaters showed it due to COVID-19 pandemic closures. Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon is a Netflix feature, and this is her first directorial effort since The Breadwinner (2017). With a similarly nominal theatrical release, My Father’s Dragon also represents another departure from all of Cartoon Saloon’s feature films thus far: it is specifically for a younger audience. I dislike the prevalent conflation of animated filmmaking as children’s entertainment (whether by those who write about films or filmmakers themselves), but this is an adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s book of the same name (itself a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, which honors American children’s literature).

My Father’s Dragon is visually striking, although it contains some of Cartoon Saloon’s most simplistic character design yet. But what makes this the studio’s most prosaic work yet are its tonal inconsistencies, noticeably modern sense of humor, and a conventional resolution to the central drama.

Elmer Elevator (Jacob Tremblay) and mother Dela (Golshifteh Farahani) move to a big city when their small-town candy store forecloses in difficult economic times. Money is short, and a distant Dela spends much of her time looking for stable work in order to help open a new store. Soon, Elmer encounters a talking cat (Whoopi Goldberg), who suggests that he might travel to faraway Wild Island to kidnap the lone dragon that lives there, and use the dragon for entertainment and exhibition purposes. With help from Soda the Whale (Judy Greer) and Saiwa the Gorilla (Ian McShane), Elmer travels to Wild Island and tracks down the dragon. The situation on Wild Island is more perilous than first impressions suggest, as Elmer befriends the young and immature dragon, Boris (Gaten Matarazzo) in order to address the situation.

All the animals on Wild Island are anything but nightmare-inducing, so younger viewers will probably be remarking how cute or cool the primates (Chris O’Dowd and Jackie Earle Haley), the rhino (Dianne Wiest), the crocodile (Alan Cumming), and the tigers (Leighton Meester and Spence Moore II) appear.

We do not see much of Dela after the opening minutes of the film, but her and Elmer’s character designs are a development from what viewers saw in The Breadwinner as opposed to Cartoon Saloon’s Irish folklore triptych. The oval faces and oftentimes half crescent/quasi-crescent eyes of the two human characters (and, strangely enough, Boris) in My Father’s Dragon are not quite enough to evoke responses that seem emotional enough for the moment. Acting teachers will say – and this is true for animated characters as well – that emotion typically precipitates an action (not the inverse of this). The degree of that action is up to the actor or, in this case, the animator. Too often, the human and the animal characters – in moments of distress, peril, and relief – are too still when expressing themselves. Frowns, tears, and anguished shouting convey only so much; through bodily movement and facial expressions do films, animated or otherwise, provoke an emotional response from a viewer. Twomey’s animators closely replicate Boris from how he appeared in Gannett’s book. But in that replication, they produce an inelastic character design that lends humor and a sense of fun, but largely incapable of handling pathos – which invariably harms the film’s closing act.

Gannett’s My Father’s Dragon lies somewhere between a picture book for the youngest children and a chapter book for students in the middle of primary school. At just over eighty pages, it is an abbreviated plot that sees Elmer encounter the dragon only in the final ten pages. The episodic nature of Gannett’s book makes the book difficult to adapt for screenwriter Meg LeFauve (2015’s Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur). LeFauve elects to understandably introduce Boris much earlier in the narrative and to introduce a catastrophic crisis to Wild Island that frames most of Elmer’s time there. Without spoiling much, such a calamity is nowhere to be found in Gannett’s original work, and one detects the influence of the interchangeable, humanity-threatening stakes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was this sense of world-ending danger necessary? If one is targeting the audience that would also read My Father’s Dragon, the film’s climax is much too intense for them. Gannett’s book is defined by episodic, child-friendly peril from the animals (i.e., hungry carnivores that have peculiar quirks and can be reasoned with) and not existential stakes. Converting My Father’s Dragon away from an episodic narrative might be the primary narrative concern for most, but the counter to this is that LeFauve’s adapted screenplay dispenses with Gannett’s gentle wit that can delight those of any age.

Thus, Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon can be a clamorous work that shows none of the patience – for its characters and viewers – of any of Cartoon Saloon’s previous work. Despite some impressive backgrounds (the most polished ever seen in the studio’s work) and wonderful color palette, no amount of visual mastery can cover up a screenplay that is trying too much to draw out laughs from Boris’ emotional immaturity. This writing tactic – in which modern screenwriters attempt to placate supposedly gratification-hungry viewers with one garrulous punchline-spewing character – is something I associate with the major American animation studios.

Another characteristic of My Father’s Dragon that seems more characteristic to its mainstream American peers is the presence of an all-star voice cast that does little to no modification of their typical vocal inflections while recording for the film. It is distracting to hear Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno (as the Elevators’ landlord), and Matarazzo (who essentially plays a character not too far removed from his character of Dustin in Stranger Things) acquit themselves in this manner. Too little thought has gone into how can they best voice their characters, given their characters’ appearances and the situations of the moment. Are these developments – the hyperactive and comedy-seeking writing, merely adequate voice acting, and declarations about courage and the Power of Friendship – indicative of Netflix’s influence over Cartoon Saloon’s approach to this adaptation of My Father’s Dragon? Or is it a sign of things to come for the Irish studio?

Whatever the case, this is a disappointing fifth effort from Cartoon Saloon over the last thirteen years. Given the standards of their previous work, the studio deserves mercy from further barbs from yours truly. The missteps seen in My Father’s Dragon pale in comparison to some of the work that the likes of Disney, DreamWorks, and especially Illumination have offered in recent years, The tenor of Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming work appears, at least for the new future, to be similar to that seen in My Father’s Dragon. Up next for the studio is a feature film treatment for their children’s television series Puffin Rock (on Netflix in the U.S.) and Louise Bagnall’s directorial feature debut in Julián (adapted from the picture book Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love; Bagnall previously directed the Academy Award-nominated short film Late Afternoon for Cartoon Saloon).

As for Nora Twomey – one of the co-founders of Cartoon Saloon alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young – she remains a figure in animated cinema to keep an eye out for. The co-director for The Secret of Kells (2009) and sole director on The Breadwinner has shown her ability to guide projects along with emotionally and thematically nuanced narratives and stunning visual splendor. And though My Father’s Dragon represents the first miscue on the former element, Cartoon Saloon’s animation remains a visual balm in an industry that, at least among those that financially dominate animated filmmaking, is as far away from hand-drawn work as it ever has been.

My rating: 6.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL). Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#My Father's Dragon #Nora Twomey #Meg LeFauve #Jacob Tremblay #Gaten Matarazzo #Golshifteh Farahani #Dianne Wiest #Rita Moreno #Chris O'Dowd #Judy Greer #Alan Cumming #Yara Shahidi #Jackie Earle Haley #Whoopi Goldberg #Mychael Danna #Jeff Danna #Cartoon Saloon #Netflix #My Movie Odyssey

[ancestorsalive]

Loch Etive | A Celtic Tale | Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna

#youtube #Loch Etive #A Celtic Tale #Mychael Danna #Jeff Danna #music loves #myth #Deidre #love #heart and soul #Ancestors Alive! #What is remembered lives #Memory & Spirit of Place #music #the listening room #Naoise

[innervoiceart]

Loch Etive | A Celtic Tale | Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna

#youtube #Loch Etive #A Celtic Tale #Mychael Danna #Jeff Danna #music loves #myth

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

You have good taste when uploading images, or rather I like your taste when choosing them...

@visualthings66

Ⓢ Ⓤ Ⓟ Ⓔ Ⓡ ＼(｡✪‿✪｡) ／ Thanks! umm… good taste lol

and

😊 🎧 Hope that you'll like this Disney animated adventure film soundtrack 🦕

2024/1/19 Chu Lan~*

The Good Dinosaur (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

#answered #umm... good taste lol #dinosaur #好可愛 #the good dinosaur 恐龍當家 #mychael danna & jeff danna #homestead/soundtrack #the good dinosaur (original motion picture soundtrack) #i love dinosaurs 🦕 #thank you 🙏

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Boondock Saints Theme - The Blood of Cuchulainn - Jeff Danna & Mychael Danna

#youtube

[caemthe]

so... did you know that there are songs inspired by the tales of cú chulainn, deirdre and (more or less) patroclus? and that they're actually pretty good at capturing their essence and the message of their tales?

The Blood of Cú Chulainn by Jeff & Mychael Danna has no vocals but the mix of an upbeat and solemn rhythm, the ominous and the inspirational, the spirited and the heartbreaking, the lighthearted and the bittersweet perfectly represents the life and death of Cú Chulainn. It's the kind of song that picks you up when you're at a low point and reminds you of the good of the world that is worth fighting for. It's the kind of song that gives you hope, just like how Cú Chulainn's life and death were hopeful and inspiring despite the adversity and hardships.

Deirdre by The Beach Boys is both a gentle and calming love song and an oddly eery and uncomfortable song the more attention you pay to the lyrics. On one hand, it narrates how it is to love Deirdre (probably from Naoise's POV), her swiftness, and that she's not meant to stay in one place forever but that's not a bad thing. On the other hand, it could be just as easily sung from Conchobar's POV and that completely changes the tone of the song, taking a much darker turn and it's about the inability to accept rejection, running away and being found again by a stalker that is too deep in his own delusions.

Achilles come down by Gang of Youths is a song about battling depression, of dueling forces between one's self-loathing and the concern of their loved ones. It constantly changes between the caring and the want to help, coming from a place of love and understanding (Patroclus) to harsh words, self-deprecating and suicidal ideation (Achilles). When the latter gets too bad, the first is quick to interrupt to cut that line of thought, to try to help, to find an alternative solution, to be there and remind them that they'll always be there.

#hc. ° ( shooting star. ) #cu. ° ( lancer. ) #dee. º ( saber. ) #pat. º ( lancer. ) #/ sometimes you just need to sit on grass and listen to the blood of cu chulainn #/ or walk in an abandoned building at night while listening to deirdre #/ and you listen to achilles come down when you feel like having your head messed up (don't)

[koholint]

today’s playlist:

Athena Tergis - Johnny McGreevy’s / Owney Davey’s / O’Callaghan’s / Margaree Reel

Lúnasa - Lafferty’s / Crock of Gold / Lady Birr / Abbey Reel

Mychael and Jeff Danna - Defeat of the Red Branch

The Poozies - Dheanainn Sugradh

Lisa Lynne - Circle of Joy

Moving Hearts - Tribute to Peadar O’Donnell

Patrick Ball - May Morning Dew

Floating Cloud Acoustic Band - Majotachi no Jig

Tannas - Mairead Nan Cuiread / The Bob Parsons Strathspey

KOKIA - Song of Pocchong 〜 Shizuku no Uta

Deanta - The Usual Suspects

Pat Kirtley - Finn MacCool’s Reel

John Doan - Where Horses of Faery Hide

thanks for listening!

[rougedragoonreaper]

#musictime #playlist #music #music time #Spotify

[weathernameda]

#rainisms; #rains tunes; #Spotify

[captain-habit]

Revenge! 18, 53, and 99!

HELLO! A wrapped spoot

Anyone else? >;3c

#kaz answers #spotify wrap 2023

[thenewnio]

#music

[mattsmoviewatchingworld]

And now it's time (finally) for the 2020 Gunnther Awards! Normally I would have presented these awards close to the beginning of 2021, but because of the 2020 coronavirus crisis, film release delays, delays in my seeing movies I wanted to see, and some of my own complicated personal obstacles, this presentation got delayed until 2023 Aug. 12. But here I am, optimistically catching up on presenting these awards, and presentations for subsequent years are still planned to come soon.

Best Sound Effects: Soul. Best Visual Effects: Soul. Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Bill & Ted Face the Music. Best Costume Design: WW84. Best Cinematography: Onward. Best Production Design: Soul. Best Adapted Screenplay: Bill & Ted Face the Music. Best Original Screenplay: Onward. Best Music (Original Song): "Face the Music (The Song that Unites the Universe)" from Bill & Ted Face the Music. Best Music (Original Score): Mychael and Jeff Danna for Onward. Best Animated Feature: Onward. Best Supporting Actress: Brigette Lundy-Paine for Bill & Ted Face the Music. (Honorable Runner-Up: Samara Weaving, same movie.) Best Supporting Actor: Roger Dale Floyd for Greenland. Best Actress: Yifei Liu for Mulan. Best Actor: Alex Winter for Bill & Ted Face the Music. (Honorable Runner-Up: Keanu Reeves, same movie.) Best Director: Pete Docter for Soul. (and a drumroll) Movie of the Year: Onward!

(If you want to know runner-up nominees for any category, contact me.)

[what-if-rpg]

Hey there, tags! The week just got started, and we would already love to see some apps coming. If you are looking for some new rp, check us out. Under the read more, you will be able to see a full list of all our open characters right now. Also, yes, you can send in an original muse of yours. We will welcome you all here.

CANON CHARACTERS

Brittany Pierce

Kurt Hummel

Danielle Harper

Artie Abrams

Shelby Corcoran

Kitty Wilde

Brody Weston

Unique

Shane Tisnley

Sue Sylvester

Jeff Sterling

Sebastian Smythe

Will Schuester

Matt Rutherford

Friday Romero

April Rhodes

Noah Puckerman

Jake Puckerman

Spencer Porter

Emma Pillsbury

Stephanie Pierce

Sugar Motta

Roderick Meeks

Mason McCarthy

Madison McCarthy

Santana Lopez

Bree Jordan

Holly Holliday

Grace Hitchens

Joe Hart

Rory Flanagan

Judy Fabray

Stevie Evans

Tina Cohen-Chang

Hunter Clarington

Mike Chang

LeRoy Berry

Hiram Berry

Jean Baptiste

Azimio Adams

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

Avery Fabray (FC: Lily James)

Stacey Evans (FC: Lili Reinhart)

Chelsea St. James (FC: Ariana Grande)

Shannon Wilde (FC: Hunter Schafer)

Eléonore Smythe (FC: Stefania Spampinato)

Archibald Schuester (FC: Robert Pattinson)

Poppy Rutherford (FC: Ruby Barker)

Jamison Rutherford (FC: Regé-Jean Page)

Danna Rose (FC: Georgina Amorós)

Claire Rose (FC: Danielle Savre)

Thalita Rhodes (FC: Anna Camp)

Lei Readdie (FC: Shay Mitchell)

Evelyn Puckerman (FC: Kat Dennings)

Imogen Porter (FC: Nicola Coughlan)

Zara Pillsbury (FC: Madelaine Petsch)

Elenora Pillsbury (FC: Phoebe Dynevor)

Alessandra Pierce (FC: Claudia Salas)

Rafa Padilla (FC: Rafael Silva)

Adofo Motta (FC: Mena Massoud)

Maximus Meeks (FC: Jonathan Bailey)

Morena McCarthy (FC: Martina Cariddi)

Rebecca Lynn (FC: Ana de Armas)

Valentino Lopez (FC: Wilmer Valderrama)

Treyvon Jones (FC: Mason Gooding)

Talisa Jones (FC: Laura Harrier)

Levi Jones (FC: Michael B. Jordan)

Kyan Jones (FC: Jeremy Pope)

Billie Jones (FC: Alexandra Shipp)

Angelica Johnson (FC: Naomi Scott)

Jordan Jackson (FC: Zac Efron)

Cordelia Jackson (FC: Brie Larson)

Bradley Jackson (FC: Zac Efron)

Mildred Hummel (FC: Sandra Bullock)

Liam Hudson (FC: Dacre Montgomery)

Brian Hudson (FC: Nick Robinson)

Benjamin Hudson (FC: Shawn Mendes)

Gabriella Goldman (FC: Ashley Tisdale)

Abigail Goldman (FC: Ashley Tisdale)

Daniel Fabray (FC: Hunter Parrish)

Mia Evans (FC: Brianne Howey)

Victoria Crawford (FC: Claudia Jessie)

Alannah Crawford (FC: Renee Rapp)

Max Cohen-Chang (FC: Henry Golding)

Jenny Chang (FC: Gemma Chan)

Lucy Blossom (FC: Olivia Wilde)

Troy Adams (FC: John Boyega)

Caleb Adams (FC: Jacob Latimore)

Jess Abrams (FC: Brigette Lundy-Paine)

Castor Abrams (FC: Henry Cavill)

#RP #RPG #Glee #Glee RP #Glee RPG

[cavenewstimes]

‘Life of Pi’ Composer Mychael Danna Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at SoundTrack_Cologne in Germany

The Canadian-born composer is the older brother of composer Jeff Danna. Mychael Danna attends the 2023 BMI Film, TV and Visual Media Awards at Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel on May 10, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. Jesse Grant/Getty Images for BMI Composer Mychael Danna received a lifetime achievement award at the SoundTrack_Cologne, which was held at the Comedia Theater in…

View On WordPress

[twotrey23]

MY FATHER'S DRAGON stars Jacob Tremblay and Chris O'Dowd, director Nora Twomey, screenwriter Meg LeFauve, producers Julie Lynn and Bonnie Curtis, line producer Zahra Dowlatabadi, and composers Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna introduce the film, then Twomey, Tremblay, O'Dowd, and LeFauve discuss the film after its North American premiere in Hollywood on Friday, October 22, 2022. Captured & edited by TheMovieReport.com #MyFathersDragon #JacobTremblay #ChrisODowd #NoraTwomey #CartoonSaloon #MegLeFauve #MychaelDanna #JeffDanna #JulieLynn #BonnieCurtis #ZahraDowlatabadi #RuthStilesGannett https://bit.ly/11nvHED https://bit.ly/1edyvbz Follow me on Instagram: https://bit.ly/XoHfFC Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/twotrey23 Follow me on Tumblr: https://bit.ly/2BnV19g by TheMovieReport.com

#IFTTT #YouTube

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Boondock Saints theme song - Blood of Cu Chulainn by Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna