Message from jflinn

[Anonymous]

*echem* well, not so sure about your title there, but . . .
To some degree, yes, Korean animation is still developing, and isn't anywhere near being as well established, diverse, or developed as Japanese animation. But that doesn't mean they haven't already produced some marvelous works. While I have mixed feelings about Oseam, I fell in love with Mari Iyagi (My Beautiful Girl, Mari) which was original both in terms of storyline and animation style. And, because at that time nobody had any interest in the Korean animation industry, it was able to develop in its own way, and took everyone by suprise when it turned out both to be a domestic hit and a critical success abroad, even garnering top prizes at various international film and animation festivals. It was a distinctive and moving work, and was generally a superior work because it didn't try to conform to anime conventions.
I suspect that Korean animation will get better in the next few years as more and more students of arts and design schools, including some devoted to animation, graduate and more people start working in the field. Of course, many of them are already heavily influenced by Japanese animation styles, and frankly I expect that at least for a few years they'll still be generic copies to some extent. But I'm very optimistic that Korea will develop it's own style and form until it reaches similar levels of sophistication to the rest of the film industry.
Let's also remember that many "american" animated shows are in fact animated in Korea, such as the Simpsons.
In the meantime, Sky Blue was a bit of a dud. Yes, it was pretty, but it was also derivative. The technique was a mishmash of lovely backgrounds and boring character design and animation, but the biggest problem was an under-developed story, and that's what really brought down my opinion of the film. A better story would have made derivative character design much less important, and would have garnered the movie a much more positive review.[Edit by="jflinn on Apr 14, 9:08:56 AM"][/Edit]