From The Girl Without Hands (courtesy GKIDS)
For this month’s roundup of streaming recommendations, we’ve decided to highlight some great but generally lesser-known animated films, many of which either aren’t available on physical media or are out of print. There are titles both classic and contemporary, coming from a wide range of countries and genres.
The Girl Without Hands
The story of the “Girl Without Hands” is one of the Brothers Grimm’s more obscure fairy tales, and this French film is a very un-Disney adaptation, preserving the original’s darker and more morbid bits. (Such as how the title character loses her hands.) The whole thing is told in a lovely sparse, painterly style.
On various services.
Alice
The first feature from Czech stop-motion master Jan Švankmajer adapts Alice in Wonderland with his trademark surreal attitude. Carroll characters like the Caterpillar, Bill the Lizard, and the White Rabbit get uncanny, unnerving iterations here. Less a daydream than a fun, off-kilter nightmare.
On Hoopla.
DumbLand
One of the forefathers of modern crude, nonsense-oriented adult cartoons, this series of shorts by David Lynch presents a characteristically horrifying vision of suburbia. Both drawn and animated with intentional ugliness, each episode follows grotesque versions of the nuclear family as the world around them gradually falls apart.
On the Criterion Channel.
From My Life as a Zucchini (courtesy GKIDS)
My Life as a Zucchini
The grim realities of the foster care system get a gentle, patient treatment in the Swiss-French claymation feature. An excellent family film, it tackles topics of parental neglect and abuse in a whimsical manner without making light of anything or talking down to kids.
On various services.
Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
A landmark in both Japanese animation and the cyberpunk genre, the original Ghost in the Shell remains a stunning, sterling philosophical action film. The sequel doesn’t have as great a reputation, but it builds on its predecessor’s themes of identity in the digital age with nuance and style from director Mamoru Oshii. It also pulls a clever move by going in a very different aesthetic and narrative direction, rather than try to merely replicate the beats of the original. A great sci-fi one-two.
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
This ’60s movie from Czechoslovakia brings to life the fantastical tales of the titular character through a hybrid of live action and animation. Sumptuous costuming and set work is combined with dazzling special effects which draw inspiration from everything from antique woodcuts to Georges Méliès.
On the Criterion Channel.
From Millennium Actress (courtesy Eleven Arts)
Millennium Actress
Long unavailable, this masterpiece from anime virtuoso Satoshi Kon will soon get a theatrical and home media re-release. Ahead of that, it’s been put on Kanopy. The story of an aged actress reliving her life through her various film roles, it’s a loving tribute to Japanese cinema in the 20th century and a showcase for Kon’s typically brilliant attention to character detail and editing.
On Kanopy.
Neighbours
This is a stop-motion short with a twist: Rather than animate clay figures or puppets, it features two real-life men whose battle over a flower is rendered via pixilation. Made in the ’50s with Cold War tensions simmering, this little Canadian movie turned out to be hugely controversial for its antiwar message.
On the Criterion Channel.
From Love, Death & Robots, “Good Hunting” (courtesy Netflix)
Love, Death & Robots
This sci-fi anthology presents the work of a variety of animation studios, with each episode coming in under 20 minutes and many adapted from short stories by veteran authors. The show overall is hit or miss, but the better installments showcase some incredible-looking, affecting stories. Highlights include “Good Hunting,” “Helping Hand,” “Fish Night,” “Zima Blue,” and “Ice Age.”
On Netflix.
The Latest
Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?
Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.
Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay
She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma.
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists
Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.
Quiet Paintings at a Time of Sensory Overload
Where Kim Mikyung’s process suggests an obsessive burrowing into the self, Kim Hyung-dae casts his gaze upward and outward into the sky.
Is the “Free the Nipple” Movement Too White?
Online representations of the activists lean White and thin, creating an image problem for the movement.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
New “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign Misses the Mark
The recently unveiled design is meant to live alongside the iconic original and specifically address the city, but New Yorkers are not happy.
1,000+ Objects at The Met Linked to Antiquities Smugglers
A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed hundreds of works once owned by people accused of or convicted of antiquities crimes.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Offers Summer Art and Design Courses Online and On-Campus
Emerging and established artists can choose from over 50 Adult Continuing Education courses at one of the most influential art and design schools in the US.
Lunar Bead Necklace and Asteroid “Emoji” Head to Auction
Christie’s bizarre sale features other space rocks propped up on stands like sculptures.
Scientists Create the First Full Brain Map of a Fly
The achievement is a giant step toward understanding human neural networks.
IDSVA Offers a Non-Studio PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
With no campus, the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts is a truly nomadic institution, existing everywhere our students and faculty are.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Closes Over Climate Protest
The institution shuttered in advance of an action planned for the 33rd anniversary of its infamous art heist.
Remembering the Migrants Who Died in US Detention
Artist Jackie Amézquita will lead a caravan of trucks with the names of the deceased to LA sites representing systems of oppression and solidarity for immigrants.