We Are the Strange
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| We Are the Strange Feature-Length Animated Movie |
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| Directed by | M. dot Strange |
| Written by | M. dot Strange |
| Music by | Noise Inc. |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000 |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
We Are the Strange is an independent animated film directed by M dot Strange. It uses stop motion, CG artwork, and bluescreen effects. The film premiered on January 19, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival.
The current tagline for the film is: Monsters, Inc. meets The Nightmare Before Christmas inside of a retro Japanese video game.
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[edit] Synopsis
We Are the Strange focuses on "two diametrically opposed outcasts" as they "fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world." These two outcasts are an abused woman named Blue who has a mysterious degenerative disease and a living doll named eMMM.
The two meet in the Forest of Still Life, where Blue follows eMMM to Stopmo City on a search for his ideal ice cream parlor. Upon arriving in Stopmo City, they are caught in the middle of a fierce battle between bizarre monsters, making their progress difficult. Thankfully, a hero named Rain appears and easily destroys every monster that faces him. Blue meets Rain before he partakes in an "impossible battle against the source of all that is evil in Stopmo City." During the battle, Rain, along with Ori are crushed by Him after Rain states he wants to avenge his son. When the outlook seems grim, a fist made of aluminum foil breaks through the ground and starts the final showdown between good and evil. Six alternate soundtracks (+author's commentary), including soundtrack by Noise Inc. are available on the DVD. The music used in We Are the Strange Trailer has been made by chiptune artist YERZMYEY/AY-RIDERS (a cover of t.A.T.u.'s "30 minut") using ZX Spectrum computer.
[edit] Release
M dot Strange has stated that he wishes to release the film on the Internet rather than in theaters as he will be able to retain all rights to his work, and any profits made thereafter (DVD sales, merchandise, etc). On July 16, 2006, in an interview, he said he was "trying to finish it in time to make the Sundance film festival".[1] In an e-mail sent to suscribers on the film's mailing list October 26, 2006, he stated that "The film will be done in 2 months and will hopefully premiere at a fancy_pants festival in January...". According to M. dot Strange's blog he received a call from Sundance saying that We Are the Strange would premiere as part of the Midnight Movie Program at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.[2] The film was released August 2007.
The film has since been released on torrent sites with a Youtube video from M Dot Strange proclaiming this as a "torrentrical release" (a play on theatrical and torrent) that has helped increase his audience and, in turn, DVD sales.
[edit] Str8nime
We Are the Strange is the first film made in a style that M dot Strange calls "Str8nime" (pronounced Stray-knee-may), the term being a mix of "Strange", "8-Bit", and "Anime". This is an accurate description; the character and entire essence of the film can be seen as strange; 8-bit artwork (from early video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System) is injected in various scenes of the film (for instance, a scene showing the sky reveals 8-bit clouds similar to those from Super Mario Bros.), and the film has an obvious anime influence (largely seen in the character of Blue).
[edit] Reception
Reactions form the You Tube audience have been generally negative, M dot Strange received severe panning from the audience, when he premiered We Are The Strange at the Sundance Festival. Many audience members left early, and when questioned, one woman famously replied "It didn't say anything to me...I'd rather watch tennis". M dot Strange put this down to the film being "head explodingly" strange, which has become a recurrent meme on his You Tube channel - in regards to the film at least. The sheer volume, M dot Strange estimates about half, of audience leavers reflects the unwillingness, at least in M dot Strange's eyes, of Hollywood to progress and change, leading to repetitive, boring and uninspired films.
[edit] References
- ^ Studio ArtFX. How to Make Anime into Reality. Retrieved on 2006-10-27.
- ^ Sundance Institute. [http://festival.sundance.org/2007/pdfs/07_SFF_PROGRAMANNOUNCEMENT120106.pdf 2007 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILMS IN THE PREMIERES, SPECTRUM, NEW FRONTIER, PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT AND FROM THE SUNDANCE COLLECTION SECTIONS]. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
