Toon Zone Talkback - NY Times on "Sita Sings the Blues;" Airing on NY PBS Station on March 7, 2009

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Its Donnie

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This is the talkback thread for NY Times on "Sita Sings the Blues;" Airing on NY PBS Station on March 7, 2009.

Hmm...the article goes against what I've read of the Ramayana. I knew Sita threw herself into fire, but from what I understand, the god of fire saved her, because he knew that Sita had been virtuous. Afterwards, Rama and Sita basically lived happily ever after. I've never heard that Sita committed suicide. Maybe it's a matter of the epic being told in different ways over the centuries.

Anyway, the film looks absolutely amazing. Hopefully I'll be able to watch it on the website of WNET.
 
The player is a little glitchy (at least on my computer) but I managed to watch the whole film. Very much worth the time. Well done, Nina!

(and I, along with millions of other people, recieved screen credit in this film for donating money to it.)
 
I watched this on the Reel 13 website the day they put it up--it was worth it. Hats off to Nina Paley for being innovative with both visuals and storytelling! The uses of the different animation styles were all awesome, and the dialogue was so droll (not to mention the songs!). I'll definitely be downloading the whole film when it comes to archive.com (I think it will be up there March 7).

The only downside, I'd say, is that seeing an independent film of this quality has highlighted how low-brow most studio-produced animations are (yes, I'm looking at you, Dreamworks).
 
Just finished watching it on Reel 13 and I loved it! I've been wanting to see this film for a long time and it was totally worth the wait. Nina Paley did a great job on this. Loved the visuals! :D
 
Just watched it on WNET on the telly and it was awesome! Loved the droll humor indeed and it was a bit easier to swallow the Ramayana legend through this version a bit easier than other adaptions I've seen (I'm looking at you Yugo Sako :p).


It's a great movie! Anyone interested in Indian mythology or into animation in general should see it! The official website says you can even call your local PBS station to ask them to air it and they can play it for free.
 
Is Yugo Sako the guy who adapted the Ramayana into a three-hour anime film? I kind of want to see that, if only for the novelty of watching what may be longest cel-animated film ever.
 
Yes. The version I saw was not 3 hrs but was a little over 2 hours. It was pretty boring and overlong from what I remember. However, when I saw it I wasn't familiar with the story of the Ramayana. I think if you know the tale beforehand you may be able to appreciate it more. I'll probably give it a second viewing one of these days as I still have it lying around on VCD somewhere.
A much shorter cut which is 90 minutes was released here theatrically in 1999 which had celebrity voice talents such as James Earl Jones redubbing the dialouge for American audiences. The longer 130-minute version I have on VCD dates from 1992 and was dubbed in English with an entirely Indian cast.
Nina Paley's film makes the Ramayana a bit more interesting to an American audiences as it's not told completely straight like Yugo Sako's film. Sako was making the film primarily for an Indian audience and had it animated by an anime studio in Japan.
Yugo Sako's film (in its 130-minute version) is available used on Amazon on DVD. The DVD includes a Hindi dub (with subtitles) in addition to English, which the customer reviews say is better.
 
I've already seen part of this, and it's excellent. What a great idea, marrying an ancient Indian myth to the torch songs of an 1920's American jazz singer. It's amazing how well it works. :)
 
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