Customer Reviews

Sita Sings The Blues

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the pleasure of checking out the film at a Festival in New York. The animation has a unique home made, heartfelt and endearing quality. It is visually delightful. The juxtaposition of the director's contemporary, emotional journey alongside a character from hindu mythology is a remarkably difficult to execute. She pulls it of with sensitivity and transports the audience to a period in her life. The use of witty shadow puppets as narrators is fantastic and I strongly recommend the film. It is an enjoyable, mature, non-disney like use of animation which is rare. The vision is undeniable and I am looking forward to see what the filmmaker does next.

Imagine a Betty Boop-embodied Hindu goddess, batting obscenely gigantic eyes in an A.D.D.-friendly, cleverly-animated Indian folktale/comedic tragedy. Sita's Mystery Science Theater-style commentary is mashed with a San Francisco love-story; overlain with the sexy, smoky 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw; and is all elegantly woven into a colorful, creative, masterpiece landmark in illustrative storytelling.

Talented animator Nina Paley further exhibits badassness by redefining copyright definitions and movie distribution, and by encouraging free public screenings.

Support new media distribution, and enjoy this amazing film.

A film of amazing emotional depth , Sita Sings the Blues is not merely animated personal mythology. The film combines the creative talents of cartoonist Nina Paley with a selection of (what are now) standards from the 1920's Blues singer Annette Hanshaw (think Bessie smith without the lugubriousness) and some honest pictorial rendering of the Indian myth "The Ramayana".

Sita Sings the Blues is Pre-Cinema. If much of today's Hollywood film scripting owes itself to comic books, this film fits easily within the creative embryo of the genre and produces a minimalist ,illustrated video comic that blends disparate audio and visual styles with a narrative personal mythology , so original that it is capable of influencing a whole genration of artists and filmmakers.

Sita's story (the Ramayana is a very well known tale and Ill skip repeating the epic here) has always been the lost voice in the telling of the epic. "The blues" corrects this historical slight in a very satisfying way.

[...]

An incredible film, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always entertaining. I was impressed that such totally different elements - a tragic Hindu epic, a failed modern marriage, a 1920's blues singer and an eclectic assortment of animation styles - could all blend together so seamlessly. A must see!

I'll add my own lauds to the mass and say that I loved this movie. It's somewhat bizarre and you may feel inclined to turn it off if you just watch the first few seconds and weren't sure what you were getting into, but after the titles, the story immediately grabs you, starting off with the midnight cat demanding food. So funny.

Now what I haven't seen mentioned by anyone is that this movie is provided by the Creative Commons license and is a free downloadable movie. You may freely download this movie. The official site ([...]/) has a page of downloads and streaming sites. There is also a donation page where you may donate directly to the creator.

I encourage everyone to spread this around so that the film can get the exposure it deserves. Movies like this may find a nice audience eventually. But with it being freely distributable, hopefully it can find a bigger audience faster.

The big animation houses blow through hundreds of millions of dollars on each their films, but never have and likely never will deliver the electric joy inspired by Nina Paley's masterpiece. The universe offers us only one force powerful enough to bind together the wildly disparate elements in this color-drenched musical--the epic traditions of Hindu scripture; the sweet, spicy, pungent flavor of Hinduism's kitsch art; a crinkly New Yorker-style tale of modern love on the rocks; a driving, cosmical, East-meets-West soundtrack; the fond but skeptical sound of average modern-day Indians dissecting their cultural heritage; and of course, the campy, touching torch songs of Annette Hanshaw. That irresistible force is Paley's priceless sense of artistry and humor--a huge, soft tiger's paw with its claws retracted, caressing rather than slashing its prey. This film is only a few years old, but I feel sure it is one of the greatest movies ever made. When I first saw it on the Internet, I wanted to pinch myself to see whether I only dreamed a film could be so delightful. When I saw it again in a theater, I realized that Sita may soon earn the evergreen stature of "The Wizard of Oz." I can think of no higher praise.

SITA SINGS THE BLUES is a marvel of imagination and ingenuity. An animated film that has very low production values, yet every frame drips with inspiration. The term "labor of love" is thrown around a great deal...but when you see this film (and if you understand a little of its background)...you remember what the cliché was meant for.

Writer/director/animator/editor/designer/etc. Nine Paley went through a traumatic and abrupt breakup a few years ago. Left adrift in NYC, she found strength in the old Indian tales of THE RAMAYANA, particularly the character of Sita. She was the wife of a most noble Indian ruler...a man with a mighty reputation who nonetheless treated his devoted and faithful wife horribly. I won't provide more details, but suffice it to say that Paley drew some parallels between the treatment Sita received and her own.

Yet at the same time, Paley also was inspired by the `20s era Blues of Annette Hanshaw, a legendary singer...a singer whose music should have no place in the story of Sita in about 1000 B.C. and Paley herself in current times. Yet what Paley has imagined is a beautiful melding of those three elements, in animated form...thereby creating a work that would have been hugely diminished had any 3 elements been missing. If Sita did not frequently burst into song (using the voice and tunes of Hanshaw) a richness of feeling would have been lost (to say nothing of reintroducing Hanshaw's singular talent to a new audience). If the modern part of the story had been left out, the effort would have felt like a quaint look at a dusty old story, without any modern resonance. And so on.

So, yes, SITA SINGS THE BLUES was crafted almost totally by Paley herself. She received excellent voice-over work, but otherwise, she put the whole thing together herself. While one might argue that she didn't compose the music (a critical element) one could say that just the fact that she chose to use it in the manner she did showed immense creativity.

As with many ancient folk stories, there are many versions of Sita's story. Also, the motivations of the characters in myths often seem arbitrary or, frankly, unmotivated. Paley takes on this problem directly, through the use of three very funny narrators who clearly disagree on the facts of their story and who can only theorize on why Sita or her husband or others acted the way they did. This acknowledgement that the ancient story has its holes becomes not only an amusing device, but it is a commentary of the very nature of story-telling and shared mythology.

The animation is "crude" by the standards of today...but Paley, working mostly on a personal computer, makes up for the lack of technical wizardry by fully utilizing the tools she DID have at her disposal. And she uses several very distinct styles during the different portions of her story...and this very jumpiness in style becomes a storytelling element.

I have deliberately left out all but the barest suggestion of the plot itself. To me, the plot is not as important as the journey. We see Sita and her husband banished for 14 years from the palace of his father, their humble but happy time together in the forest, Sita's kidnapping at the hands of the ruler of Lanka (now Sri Lanka) and all the adventures that follow. Sita occasionally speaks her mind, but most often, expressed herself through Hanshaw's songs. Juxtaposed throughout is Nina's story of a happy life in San Francisco, brought to an end when her guy gets a job in India. While the stories are charming, it is again the style and the passion that makes SITA SINGS THE BLUES a unique experience.

There are minor problems. A few of the "numbers" Sita sings feel a tad repetitious, as though we've covered very similar ground before. The film ends more abruptly than it needs to...frankly, to fully understand the modern portion of the story, you need to know that it is autobiographical. That "ah ha" realization adds the final touch to the film...but you don't get unless you do some additional research. (The DVD extras MIGHT address this...I don't know, though, because I saw the film in a theater.)

And while there is little objectionable material in the film, I suspect that young children would find it quite boring indeed (as evidenced by some squirmy kids sitting a row over from me). Yet for older teens and adults with an adventurous spirit, SITA SINGS THE BLUES is a way to capture some of the feeling we had as kids when we saw an animated film take us to places we could barely imagine. It's a charming and original mini-masterpiece. 4.5 stars.

An animated musical treatment of the Ramayana full of humor and a questioning, feminist slant. Great all around. The "sings the blues" part of the title is from the fact that almost all of the all the singing is jazz recordings of Annette Hanshaw from the 1920's. It's almost impossible to give this film it's proper due in words. You just need to give it a try. I originally saw this film in 2008 at the Seattle International Film Festival. Even after a year where I attended three international film festivals and saw probably 200 films it was still one of the most positively memorably things I'd seen.

I found the film laugh-out-loud funny, interesting and great to both watch and listen to. One frequent filmgoer who'd read the Ramayana earlier in his life mentioned that on top of really liking the film as entertainment it made many points he'd missed as a child.

There's a long interesting story about what the film maker had to go through to get this DVD released ([...]). But really all you need to know is that this is food stuff, creative story telling, great music, and many laugh out loud moments. Did I mention the flying monkeys?

You can even view this as a companion piece to Religulous given it's ever present skeptical Greek chorus that goes along for the ride. Like animation? - it's got that. Don't like animation? - you'll be laughing too hard to notice. Want a sad story of modern love gone wrong - check. The only thing this film hasn't had going for it was guarantee that you'd be able to see it off the festival circuit. Now that this problem is solved there are no more excuses.

Bring it on Amitabh Bachchan and move over Shahrukh Khan, there is a new modern stud in town, Ramayana in the internet sensation Sita Sings the Blues. It is easy to sit down and fall beneath the spell of the animated multi media film. However the strung together story that switches between the modern day and the ancient past is more then the Powder Puff girls 20 centuries ago. The film takes on an old popular Indian epic legend and stirs it up creating a film that transforms the story into an Indian diaspora feminist epic narrative. Exciting for all audiences, the film takes music from Annette Hanshaw throwing the audience into a Bollywood mind set, but captured into the American past. If you want a film that is full of complex dimensions but also a film to giggle along with your friends, I suggest sitting down with the romantic tale of Sita and Rama.

I was lucky enough to see this film at the Disney Concert Hall during a Los Angeles showing around a year ago. I was mesmerized from the first minutes of the film.

I have to be upfront in saying that I had emailed Nina Paley, the director beforehand, and she became a blogging friend of mine. I learned about the the toils, the tribulations, and what effort she had to go through to put this film together, and the film didn't dissapoint.

The film is fantastic, with different styles of animation, good music, and the story which intertwines the lives of Sita, from the Ramayana, and Nina, the director/animator's life, is quite brilliant.

It has received many accolades, applauses, and the like...I truly recommend it to all my friends and colleagues.

Go NINA GO!