Leeds International Film Festival: Giovannis Island

Giovanni's Island follows two boys during World War II on a small island near Japan. The small community is invaded by Russians, who gradually take the peoples home and food rations. The boys father takes it upon himself to share soliders rations between the people and gets caught whilst trying to keep the rations hidden. From this the boys are taken to a far away town in Russia and try to find their father, losing people along the way.

The hand drawn animation for Giovanni's Island was gorgeous, it contrasted nicely against the heavily intricate and detailed painted backgrounds, with the addition of CG. It actually worked well with the animation as it absorbed the stylization and atmosphere that the hand drawn quality gives to the narrative. The animation style reminded me of the film 'Summer Wars' with the use of the thin lined animation, and use of matte tones, and the narrative reminded me of Miyazaki's 'Grave of the Fireflies' through the setting and view point of the boys that the narrative followed. - Both Grave of the Fireflies and Giovanni's Island start with a scene from the end of the film before going into the story - a flashback. It was interesting to see how the camera angles in the film emphasised the emotions throughout the film, one of which was from the perspective of the boys, highlighting the boys vulnerability compared to the adults around them. The animation style changes when the Galactic Train appears before the main protagonist - the animation is presented in a line art fashion with a galaxy background that represents the child like dream perception of the scene - I found this really inspiring through the change illustrative style, the chalk like appearance of the train as if drawn by a child.

I was really inspired with the character and background design, I found a few production sketches from the film, it was interesting to see how they would design the prop, and then show how it would interact with the character, considering light and shadow, volume and size.