Dreadfully Boring

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

A collection of tales concerning robots of all kinds, impressively animated with depth and feeling, ranging from action to dramatic stories.A village awakens to the fact that a robot carnival might be coming into their area. In hurried horror the primitive villagers, eking out a difficult existence in some barren desert wasteland, attempt to hide themselves in their homes as the gargantuan traveling robot carnival machine comes rampaging through, cutting a swath, destroying everything in its celebratory path as fireworks go off, music erupts in harmony, and little robots dance and play.In an obvious homage to FRANKENSTEIN, a mad scientist scrambles about in a desperate attempt to bring life to a robot in his laboratory. Just when all hope feels lost, the giant robot rises, but at a destructive cost. This one impressively shows a castle crumbling around the scientist as he joyfully cheers his creation "coming to life", until a devastating conclusion which follows a similar pattern as FRANKENSTEIN in that what one creates can be his own undoing.In DEPRIVE a robotic protector will assume the form of a male superhero as he gallantly fights numerous mechanical foes in an attempt to rescue the little girl kidnapped by a tyrant who sent a mechanized army to invade a planet. This tale seems like energetic action clips from a series, assembled together, backed up with a pulsating accentuating the action.In PRESENCE a lonely feminist/inventor, pining for a "real relationship", stymied by a family(career woman wife; daughter absorbed in her own little world) which doesn't seem to acknowledge his "presence", finds companionship with a female robot he has created, kept hidden in a home in the woods, who seems to be evolving past her programming, in essence "becoming human." When she(interesting enough)decides to "make the first move", the inventor, not used to any sort of "emotional human contact", from a sentient being or otherwise, he resists in an accidental outburst surfacing out of fear. We see as he ages the regret of this decision.In STARLIGHT ANGEL, the setting an amusement park where robots are an essential part of the entertainment, a broken hearted teenager, who discovers that her boyfriend had betrayed her for a best friend, flees into a "robot ride" where she is rescued by an avenger as an ominous force attempts to capture her. The image of a star necklace is an indelible visual element used to superb effect as are the many different kinds of robots which show up in various forms(of course this is a constant, plenty of awe-inspiring mechanized beings, visually stimulating if you are a fan of robots and sci-fi stories containing them). Part of the story is a "robot entertainer" trying to return the teenage girl her necklace(which fell from her person while running through the park with her gal pal).Layered with music STARLIGHT ANGEL is an example of most of the tales in this anthology, dialogue is of little importance, the animation, subtle nuances in the facial expressions, and action communicate the stories.The musical arrangements, as applied in a "for instance" with CLOUD, are selectively appropriate for the emotional subject matter of each story. CLOUD simply follows a "robot boy" almost from his birth as he walks forward, the clouds above changing in shape and color during the travel. What makes this one interesting is that robot boy keeps his face forward while so much activity(the clouds actually take the form of people looking down upon him; a mushroom cloud develops and eventually disrupts the sky; we see space ships and hobbling rabbits moving about in the sky even)carries on as if he's drifting through life without noticing a thing--heck, even at one point lightning and rain pelt his body and he merely shakes off the effects. Eventually, though, robot boy turns around, quits drifting through life, and actually becomes a part of what he's been missing.A crazed genius, operating a giant mechanical monster laying waste to a city, meets his match in a group of kids who have also created their own robotic titan in a battle which will decimate whatever lies in their wake. This one is cool in how it shows the opposing forces working throughout their robots, controlling the inner-workings and responsible for their actions and reactions.Perhaps a metaphor in regards to technology overtaking us, a modern city is "infected by a mechanical disease", first started by a godlike robot towering overhead and later carried by a second, more mobile creature operating a flying contraption, blasting various areas with cybernetic beings rising to the surface carrying the close resemblance of insects. We follow one human man as he attempts to evade the mobile robot within a nightmarish mechanized assembly line creating more and more cybernetic creatures..through this maze of nuts and bolts, metal and wires, maybe only the human being can bring about the catastrophe needed before all hope is lost for mankind.And as the Robot Carnival machine comes to a halt, we realize that the animated movie must to find its conclusion. What makes ROBOT CARNIVAL a dynamo are the grand variety of different styles of animation, the animators' own unique visual flourishes on display here for its audience to enjoy, no one story is alike which is welcome. Some are geared towards an adrenaline rush, other stories more melancholy, worth pondering and thinking about for a while.

I wasn't a die-hard anime fan back then as an 18-year old young man, but I happened upon this movie on VHS at an independent video shop after moving from another state. It was placed semi-obscurely at the bottom rack of the animation section but the strange cover artwork case of the VHS edition made an impression on me.So I rented the videocassette to pop it into the VCR. I was mildly impressed with all of the 'weird' shorts except one short that is so lyrical and surreal it moved me like no anime ever did (except for Spirited Away years later which I admit to having seen 7 times in theatres). That short is called, if I remember correctly, "Cloud".Independent video shop have since 'closed' (sold its business to a competitor) a few years later and I never had a chance to see the movie again since it's out of print.Cloud segment is one of the most haunting films (short or feature-length) I've ever seen. Even though I remember *nothing* about the movie, I still recall the Cloud segment.It's an unforgettable experience witnessing the aesthetically mind-bending short sitting in the darkened living room in the basement on the sunny afternoon day.The black & white animation...background...strange but haunting ending. I barely remember what the story is about (must be silent) but I understood what it *is* about -- loneliness and requiem for love.I think it must be seen on the large screen to experience the full effect of emotional tranquility. One of the best examples of surrealist & moving cinema on the meditation of loneliness and love as conveyed by sublime emotional transcendence, animated or not, and one that stamps indelibly in the memory base of the human brain when the viewer is still youthful as a child or adolescent.Cloud short is an incredibly transcendent work of art in cinema that make for an utterly unforgettable visual experience. One that have the honor of magnificent art among the grandest 2-D dimension paintings of the 17th century Naples and Golden Age of Dutch Art in conveying profound emotions through the magic of artistic motion picture in silence.

Originally saw this back in the early nineties as a part of Sci-Fi's Saturday Anime. To this day, through all of the anime films/series I've seen, this still reigns as the greatest. No anime fan will be disappointed with this film, even those who aren't fans of the genre should enjoy this flick. It is sad that this film didn't get very much exposure in the States, as it easily could have been subject to awards. A great example of a film students interperetive dream; Trying to develop a correlation between all of the shorts (outside of their all contain robots), pulling some greater meaning from the movie. Yea, it's one of those types of movie, that appears to be on a higher philosophical level than just your average entertainment.

Like all anthology films, some of the segments are better than others, but there are enough good ones to make this film worthwhile for animation fans.The framing sequence which opens and closes the film is nicely animated, certainly one of the most original ways I've seen for a film to present it's title. The great Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) contributed to this sequence, you can really see his touch. Two of the segments, "Starlight Angel" and "Deprive" are pretty typical sci-fi action anime, albeit nicely animated. A lot of anime fans complain about the "Cloud" segment, I find it kind of interesting, like a piece of animated art. My favorite segment in the film is probably a tie between "A Tale of Two Robots, Chapter 3: Foreign Invasion", which made me think a little of Wild Wild West (a lot better, of course), and "Nitemare".I think having all but two of the film's 8 segments (I'm counting the opening and closing as one segment) dialog-free was an interesting choice, it allows the viewer to concentrate on the images, and precludes needless exposition. I really liked Aeon Flux a lot better before it became a regular series and added dialog. Of course, it also makes an English-dubbed version of the film more tolerable.Some of the music for this film is by the great composer Joe Hisashi, the regular composer for both Hayao Miyazaki and Takeshi Kitano. I think the opening and closing themes are by Hisashi, as well as the music for the "Presence" segment.This is one of the first anime films I saw when I knew or cared it was anime, I think it's a really good introduction to the genre. Also a worthwhile film for anyone interested in animation in general.