The Incomplete Compendia

EDIT: i didn’t expect this post to get so many notes. for the record, these are just my personal recommendations, not a definitive list of best underrated animation. i also did not include anything made by Disney. I know that they made some movies that didn’t get as much attention as their other hits, but lists of underwatched Disney films are pretty common, so I thought I’d make one of films by studios that aren’t household names. 

Angel’s Egg (1985)

This movie is a nearly silent film with painstakingly beautiful frames and environmental details. All I can say is that it is a real piece of art worth watching and can be watched on YouTube here.

Les Triplets de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) (2005)

An incredibly quirky, strange and humorous French film, also with almost no dialogue. The colors, creative storytelling, and almost caricature-like designs make the Triplets a must-see. The setting and timeframe is left sort of abstract, but it’s a clear transition from last-century rural France to the hustle and bustle of urban America. Lots of homage is paid to cartoons from the 1920s.

Mindgame (2004)

This movie, quite like the title says, blew my mind. It’s also incredibly strange and out-there, but the awkward imagery gives way to real emotion and huge payoff by the end. The colors and animation are delightful, and always tailored to the situation. It is an amazing intersection of an altered state, a love story, a struggle to get home, an existential trip, and an unlikely group of friends. I almost always cry when I watch this. Seriously, can’t stress this enough. There is absolutely nothing like Mindgame. 

Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat) (2011)

Rabbi’s Cat is a French film based on a French comic by the same name. The comic artist also directed the movie. Honestly, the dialogue  in this is unmatched. Both Cat and Rabbi are witty and have the best banter. The setting is one of the most unique and real-feeling I’ve ever seen a film take place in: a Jewish community in Algeria. It’s wonderful and incredibly charming, could not recommend more.

Tekkonkinkreet (2006)

This movie hits me on a number of levels. I have so much love for the two orphans, Black and White. The story quickly becomes raw and almost difficult, as it touches on a lot of the feelings we see in things like Grave of the Fireflies, but in a much more abstract way and on a much grander scale. Also less sad, but there are very sad parts also. I guess the best way to describe this movie is intense. While there are a lot of sweet, domestic moments, none of the gruesome reality is sugercoated for you. 

The visuals are all completely stunning; the art is on another level. Treasure Town is a rich, fantastical environment and the characters flow through it effortlessly, like water. You gotta see this at least once in your life. 

Chico and Rita (2010)

An American/Spanish romance between an aspiring piano player and a young singer. The film opens in Cuba and has a vibrant and unique visual style while exploring a multitude of music styles and cultural backdrops. It’s touching and sweet, but does not erase the hardships of being a black music star in America or living through the Castro regime. 

Wizards (1977)

Ralph Bakshi is notorious for underappreciated gems. Wizards is set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where magic is real and man has survived the radiation to evolve into fairies, elves, and dwarves. It’s a classic nature vs industry story with Bakshi’s unique spin. My favorite character is Necron 99, the assassin robot turned pacifist. I’ll warn you though, Bakshi films aren’t everyone’s taste (he’s responsible for Fritz the Cat, which against my better judgement I recommend as well).

Wizards was completed during the dark age of animation, and its fascinating to see how Bakshi gets around these limitations to produce something that grossed more than twice its budget.

Memories (1995)

★ BNHA 30 DAYS CHALLENGE ★ - DAY 29   *:･ﾟ✧ The character I wish to see more ✧ ･ﾟ:* 

James Bond No Time To Die (2020) 

Lashana Lynch as  Nomi

Get the comics here

★ BNHA 30 DAYS CHALLENGE ★ - DAY 29   *:･ﾟ✧ The character I wish to see more ✧ ･ﾟ:* 

someone literally had the balls of vibranium it takes to attempt christ air

in front of Tony Hawk

AND STUCK IT

someone literally had the balls of vibranium it takes to attempt christ air

in front of Tony Hawk

AND STUCK IT

Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film (2008)

by Adilifu Nama

“Science fiction film offers its viewers many pleasures, not least of which is the possibility of imagining other worlds in which very different forms of society exist. Not surprisingly, however, these alternative worlds often become spaces in which filmmakers and film audiences can explore issues of concern in our own society. Through an analysis of over thirty canonic science fiction (SF) films, including Logan’s Run, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Gattaca, and Minority Report, Black Space offers a thorough-going investigation of how SF film since the 1950s has dealt with the issue of race and specifically with the representation of blackness.

Setting his study against the backdrop of America’s ongoing racial struggles and complex socioeconomic histories, Adilifu Nama pursues a number of themes in Black Space. They include the structured absence/token presence of blacks in SF film; racial contamination and racial paranoia; the traumatized black body as the ultimate signifier of difference, alienness, and “otherness”; the use of class and economic issues to subsume race as an issue; the racially subversive pleasures and allegories encoded in some mainstream SF films; and the ways in which independent and extra-filmic productions are subverting the SF genre of Hollywood filmmaking.

The first book-length study of African American representation in science fiction film, Black Space demonstrates that SF cinema has become an important field of racial analysis, a site where definitions of race can be contested and post-civil rights race relations (re)imagined.”

Get it now here

Adilifu Nama is an Associate Professor at California State University Northridge. He is the author of the award-winning Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film, the first book length examination of the topic. Throughout his books, various articles, and presentations, Nama has explored how race and media intersect in television, film, and hip-hop music with a critical eye toward contextualizing black representation along with black racial formation.

Today on medievalpoc we brainstormed historically accurate Asian women as Robin Hood in Medieval England, with possible Trotula the Medieval gynecologist as a Merry Woman, touched on 30 ways to become An Immortal from a non-Western perspective (including eating mermaid meat!), revisited the accurately diverse demographics of the Caribbean and possibilities thereof (including LGBT pirates), saw some average peasants of color from the Renaissance doing their peasant thing, learned about the legendary beauty of an enslaved man named Paul in Pre-Revolutionary France, attempted to clarify the sociopolitical nuances of terminology, religion and race in 16th century Spain and Portugal, and called out Gilgamesh for being a raging tryhard.

^ In one day. Which is kinda the point here-and why I can be pretty critical of how we see the same things over and over and over in Medieval style fantasy media.

No writer or creator is limited by history or “historical accuracy”.

Anything you can possibly imagine has a historical precedent.

Too much of what we think we know boils down to assumptions we’ve made, or things we have been told by others and believed, internalized, and replicated through our art. Or ideals and aesthetics are shaped by our culture, but we are also the shapers of culture, and we can break the loop.