The Host with the MOST
Thanks to Cain's comments on my last post, I've just uploaded Battle of Lanka to the Internet Archive. I've long been a huge supporter of Creative Commons so this is a great solution.
Battle of Lanka was made about a year ago, and is chapter 4 in Sita Sings the Blues, after Hanuman Finds Sita and before Trial By Fire. In this episode, Rama, Hanuman, and the monkey armies cross the sea to Lanka to conquer Ravana and the rakshasas, and rescue the captive Sita. Assisting me was Jake Friedman, the only animation apprentice I've ever had. Jake wanted to learn Flash and had excellent animation chops and a good eye, so he came to Brooklyn almost every day for a month. Jake animated much of the monkey-on-demon violence: monkey swinging axe, monkey throwing axe, monkey bashing demon with club, monkey kicking demon, etc. A panorama of Jake's animation occurs at 1:28, in which I took pretty much everything he'd animated on the project and composited it into a single scene. It's worth multiple viewings, to catch all his lovingly considered variations. Thanks Jake!(Lest this spawn new offers for assistance, I'm not taking on any animation apprentices right now. It actually takes more time to train someone else, even while they work, than to work alone. Much as I appreciate the unique contributions of a new set of eyes, I really want to get this project done before, say, I die. End of 2007 is my target.)
There are several more episodes I haven't posted publicly, and I reformatted Trial By Fire for widescreen, as well as changing a few scenes, and haven't uploaded the new version. I don't want to post everything online before the film is done, but you can see stills from all 8 episodes.
Comments:
That's one of the most inspired things I've seen on the internet! It's Geek Hierarchy, Gallery of Regrettable Food, Order of the Stick good. My wife and I saw a series of paintings depicting the Ramayana at a Boston museum; I love the joining of cultures between the story, the old songs, and your hilarious animation.
Hey Nina,
Fan of yours from back in the old Santa Cruz days. Hadn't seen any of your work in a while, so it was with surprise and delight that I saw the link on BoingBoing, and with more surprise and delight that I downloaded and watched all the episodes to date of "Sita Sings the Blues." The choreographed beheadings and the Sita-wrist-watch animation were my two favorite parts of the cartoons. Oh, and the idyllic fountains of blood. You can tell I just got back from the World Horror Convention.
Keep up the great work and looking forward to the final film.
Hey Nina,
Viewing your work is almost like a guilty pleasure....something sooooo good is gotta be bad eh..:).For all us idiots who thought there is nothing such as path breaking Indian Animated Art,you re the antidote.I felt terribly disappointed with the work that is being passed off by the Desi Studio system.Hanuman was a rip off in more ways than I could count.The monkey god is an unbelievably rich source for making an animated movie,but somehow the powers that be botched it up.Keep it going Madame
Kartikeya
hey nice work on everything! how long have you been doing it for seems quite advanced
just wondering about your stills do you mind if i can use them for a mario game that i am currently making? it would be great if we good.
~Ravi Luhar
Genutech.tk Team
Hi Nina. I'm actually a student at Eugene Lang, so I linked to your Sita Sings work through the Weekly Observer. Crazy isn't it? Congrats on the Guggenheim Fellowship.
It's interesting that you say the Battle of Lanka is worth seeing a few times because it was the only one I had to watch a several times for the whole thing to load. For some reason, it would only continue to load if I was playing it, and of course it always played faster than it loaded. Sita's choreography is definitely amazing in this chapter, and I'm very impressed with your ability to get Sita to dance (i.e. hip bumping) in time with the music.
Last bit: The part where Sita plays a saxophone is actually a clarinet in the background, I think. I don't know if you care or if it's worth changing, but it's a little detail espcially contrasted to Hanuman playing the sax later (which is a sax in the background).\
Looking forward to the rest,
Shannon
Dear Ms. Paley,
A friend of mine in Austria sent me a link to your ongoing work the Sitayana. While I appreciate your talent (I've taken the time to check some of your other pieces) I think that you may not be fully aware of the regard in which many people, myself included, hold the Ramayana. While some say that the Ramayana is a mythological work, many accept it as fact. It's stated in many scriptures (e.g., the Bhagavat Purana) that Lord Ramacandra is an incarnation of God. Being omnipotent, God can, and does appear in unlimited forms known as plenary (complete) expansions. So when you (perhaps innocently) poke fun at Lord Rama your work is seen by many as facetious at best and offensive at worst. In today's sensitive socio-political-economic climate it is perhaps foolhardy to go down this road. Would you be brave (or foolhardy) enough to make a cartoon version of the Qu'ran that pokes fun at Allah? For your sake I would hope not. Please be sensitive enough, and informed enough to understand that while the average worshiper of Lord Rama may not be as aggressively oppositional as the typical Islamic fundamentalist they don't hurt any less.
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