6A - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
fiA - Wedn~sday, February 6, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Still a better love story than 'Twilight.'
Animatedwonders
'Paperman' stands
out among cartoon
competitors
By MATT EASTON
Daily Arts Writer
Short films refresh. The com-
pact nature of the stories forces
intense focus, yielding a greater
appreciation for every frame,
every second. And, while larger
works may revolve around mul-
tiple narratives, themes and char-
acters, the true glory of a short
comes from its immersion into
pure emotional resonance. But
let's not assume "pure" means
"simple" - specifically in the ani-
mated category, where oftentimes
the style and method of the ani-
mation is just as on display as the
stories themselves.
And what kind of stories do we
wantto see?Personally,short films
should be little rollercoasters of
emotion, with occasional dips into
tears and with an ultimate ending
that's a soothing, feeling-affirming
crescendo. Three of 2013's Oscar
entries do just that in innovative
and visuallystunning ways.
"Paperman" is love at first
sight. A black-and-white melding
of hand-drawn and 3-D anima-
tion recalls times past while still
remaining modern. It tells a heart-
felt tale of glances that turn into
love, boy meets girl, Sure, noth-
ing new, but who cares? Classic
themes are classic for a reason.
The Disney short charms with
simplicity. And while its visuals
delight the eyes and its plot lifts
the heart, it is the score that pow-
ers the short toward wonderful
heights. Trickling notes carry you
alongside the protagonists, and it
evokes amagical hope, abeliefthat
dances between the screen and
the audience. "Paperman" builds
slowly. Every step draws us in,
dares us to dream.
Lush water-colored landscapes
backdrop the magnificent "Adam
and Dog." The short reimag-
ines Genesis with the addition of
Man's best friend, Dog. The natu-
ral world, Paradise, is drawn with
an almost Miyazaki-an care. The
style moves from a breathing, rich
forest to stark desertswith mature
ease; and while the backgrounds
are usually immobile paintings,
the inhabitants are not. Adam
lumbers about the forest, a grin
plastered on his face, as panthers
stalk sleekly and Dog-acts ... well,
like a living dog. Dog playfully
leaps throughlilies, chases fireflies
intermixed with stars (an eye-wid-
eningscene) and plays catch.
And, if the visuals don't steal
you, the story will. "Adam and
Dog" reaffirms loyalty and love.
It shows man's callousness - and
Dog's forgiveness. "Adam and
Dog" is a tear-inducing, thought-
ful imagining of Paradise.
"Head Over Heels" is a scintil-
lating stop-motion experiment
portraying an old couple with
opposite gravitational pulls living
under one roof. This is a nice con-
cept, but sadly for many animated
films, concept becomes the sole
driving motivation for creation.
This can be positive when the
concept is supported by power-
ful feeling and characters, or less
than great when the concept ends
up as a giant "look what I can do!"
Thankfully "Head Over Heels"
moves past this trick. The true
center of the piece is the emotional
distance between the old couple
- magnified by their contrast-
ing worlds. The concept is used to
grow the story, not to substitute it.
Thesense ofbitternessis poignant,
but the ending eventually wraps
everything up in a realistic and
touchingmanner.
"Fresh Guacamole," on the
other hand, is a concept short that
relies too much on its concept. In
fact, it really is nothing more. The
film shows a pair of hands making
guacamole out of familiar-objects.
While admittedly fun to watch (a
Christmas light is a pepper!), this
sort of short feels unfulfilling in
comparison to the masterworks of
"Adam and Dog" and "Paperman."
Still though, it's engaging, pithy
and very creative, so it's hard not
to smile while watching.
By far the worst and most out-
of-place short in this year's entries
is "Maggie Simpson in 'The Lon-
gest Daycare.' " Bad because
most jokes miss their marks; out-
of-place because the ubiquity of
"The Simpsons"universe feels too
corporate for a short film compe-
tition. The short brims with ref-
erential humor, which provokes
a sort of bemused "Oh, yeah I
get that" expression. The style
is, obviously, "The Simpsons."
Ultimately, this short seems like
a waste of space in such a limited
amount of nomirnations.
That being said, "Paperman,"
"Adam and Dog" and "Head Over
Heels" deserve to be seen, by
hopefully a wide audience. They
are all works of immense human-
ness, which remind that we don't
need much to feel a whole lot.
These short films are better than
most bigmovies.
AMALGAM
Is that tongue licking the Lord?
ILi B is the real badass
By THOMAS KLEPACZ
DailyArts Writer
Nearly 10 months ago, a cer-
tain, casually 18-year-old New
York rapper released possibly
the greatest mixtape of the year.
It was called 1999, an ode to the
days when Supreme was a brand
that only baggy-jeaned New
York skaters knew about and
when Nautica rivaled the life-
style authenticity of Ralph Lau-
ren. The days of "true hip hop,"
where simple looping drums
and drab piano highlighted pure
lyrical prowess, where content
- the "meaning" of your lyrics,
your own relevance to them -
mattered over everything else.
The good ol' days, when rappers
like Lil B couldn't have survived
among the waves of hip-hop
greatness that sprung from the
"bEast Coast." Joey Bada$$ was
four years old at the time.
On 1999 - released solely over
the Internet and championed by
Internet mogul Hypebeast and
Nah Right frequenters alike - a
member of Joey Bada$$'s crew,
Capital STEEZ (since deceased),
took an old-school "shot" at Lil
B. Referring to the Bay Area rap-
per's alter ego, STEEZ yelped,
"Tell the BasedGod don't quit
his day job!" to a gap in drum
sound, accenting both his emo-
tional cadence and the impor-
tance of his words. To Joey
Bada$$ and his Pro Era crew (as
he calls them), a rapper like Lil
B - a man who gained a legion
of cult-ltke followers purely
from his own devotion to social
media, a man who released a
series of mixtapes named after
impossible flame colors (Pink
Flame is his newest) - seems
like a complete joke. A man who
could never make it in their
hailed golden era, the 1999 of
their high-school imaginations.
What Joey Bada$$ and his
crew didn't imagine was the
trouble that would come from
this line. Earlier this week, Lil
B released "I'm the Bada$$," a
10-month-late response to the
"diss." Over a tweaking soul sam-
ple and heavy drums (a sound
generally uncharacteristic of
Lil B), the BasedGod threat-
ened young Joey, telling him
"If you think / You're a badass /
I'll turn you into trash / You lil'
b*tch." Sure, the song itself was
nothing special - Lil B barely
made any personal attacks on
Joey, instead seeming to direct
the song at the overwhelming
presence of his constant "hat-
ers" - but the overall attack was
tremendous - the Blitzkrieg of
BasedWorld, if you will. Within
hours of the track releasing, "Lil
B" was trending on Twitter, Joey .
Bada$$ had gained thousands of
hate-mongering followers and
innumerable BasedGod fans
(Task Force, as they're called)
had directed their attentions
towards defending Lil B and
destroying the "Bada$$" image
of Joey. They succeeded.
They and Lil B, that is. Joey
Bada$$ has since released his
own diss track, titled "Don't
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
Quit Your Day Job," a completely
underwhelming response to the
man he claimed was "too easy"
to defeat. The man Joey claimed
he wouldn't "waste his time" on
(but then spent days recording
a diss, arguing on Twitter and
addressing the situation to vari-
ous media outlets). The man who
ultimately led Joey to delete his
Twitter account, leaving only
his Tumblr, addressing ques-
tions fromvarious Tumblr girls
offering their own condolences
("I'm so sorry you're having such
a hard time with all this Lil B
sh*t") for Joey's now tragic situa-
tion. Doesn't seem like it was "too
easy," does it?
The Joeyvs.
BasedGod war.
The issue with Joey Bada$$
(and the rest of the internet-
hating contingency) is his own
apparent naivete to the reali-
ties of modern rap.. While Joey
dreamt of VHS recordings and
busted tapes, Lil B constructed
an immense following of dedi-
cated fans through a constantly
entertaining Twitter account
("THEYLOOKAT ME AND SEE
A BLACK MAN? I FEEL LIKE A
WHITE WOMAN") and a note-
filled Tumblr mysteriously titled
"Dior Paint," where Lil B spends
his time making memes of him-
self and re-blogging pictures of
various fans.
His raps aren't to be ignored,
either - Lil B could be the most
versatile rapper in hip hop, a
man who can simultaneously
release songs called "I'm Miley
Cyrus" and "Illusions of Gran-
deur." The man who sprung pro-
ducers like Clams Casino from
his mother's New Jersey home
into mass popularity through
his artistic ear, the man who
invented a style of free-form rap
now called "Based Freestyling,"
the man who tweets dedica-
tions to cancer victims, police
officers and his endless females
alike. The man who broke down
in tears in one of his most recent
videos (for the immensel'y emo-
tional song "I Love You," built
around a Final Fantasy piano
sample) because he was so taken
aback by the beauty of the ani-
mals in the pet store he filmed
it in. "I just ... wanna spread the
love," he said, tears sliding down
his face. "I just got so much love
in my heart, man."
Joey Bada$$ can scoff at Lil
B's skills, YouTube commenters
can lament over his influence on
hip hop, and the Grammys can
mysteriously remove him from
a performance competition, but
The BasedGod's material stands
for itself. Lil B has an entirely
unique perspective on both hip
hop and the world around him,
he makes boatloads of entertain-
ing, creative music and he gar-
ners respect from tween girls,
old men and kittens across the
globe (He made a song featuring
his pet cat, Keke. Look it up).
He is an artist in its tru-
est form, a man who has saved
hip hop by changing the very
parameters which the art form
has been stuck within for years.
He's not the one who needs to
watch out for his day job - that's
the Bada$$. "I need some time
off that sh*t," Joey wrote on his
Tumblr. "Do you know how it
feels to know the whole world
is watching you ... it kinda sux
... but I'm not gone tho my n*gga
I'll be back just taking a break."
Take your time, Joey - I'll be lis-
tening to Pink Flame.
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No. 3lAA 681621 dated 02/05/13.
DO THE
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THEN ORDER
ONE.
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