Tamala 2010 (2002)

          Tamala 2010: Jesus Christ.  No, Christ’s name isn’t part of the title, that’s just what I’ll be saying after anyone mentions this movie in the future.

        This odd little animated export from Japan comes with a sense of freshness.  It’s visual style is more akin to old 4-color dailies, just in black and white.  The film follows the voyage of the young Tamala (At least the first part of it) in her search to find out where she came from, having been taken from her mothers warmth right after birth.  Along the way she meets up with Michaelangelo, another cat (yes they're cats) who seems to keep her around just to see what she’ll do next.  Eventually a domineering cop, a dog (who rule the planet she ventures to), comes into play with unexpected results. 

        But then the unexpected is the movie's ace, one it uses over and over until “Tamala 2010” escapes the boundaries of regular narrative.  The movie is 90% abstract, with quick nods to 2001 and (I think) a few Terry Gilliam films.  All of this is played out under the shadow of the universal Catty Co, who seems to manufacture everything short of the ground they walk on.  Needless to say while the characters may resemble certain children’s heroines, it’s not a children’s film.  Watching Tamala talking about how good she tastes or approaching her new male friend slowly while he works at his computer only to do what any real cat would do are things better appreciated by older audiences.  Then again, she does cuss out her adoptive mother a few times, like so many children do.

            So the initial reaction may be: Japanese Fritz the Cat?  Well yes and no.  There are a few moments of vulgarity just for vulgarities sake, but not to the point where it overshadows what’s important (or at least what I think was supposed to be important).  In fact the film owes more to the quieter animation of Tartakovsky (who may not exactly be where credit is due, but is certainly a popular

example).  Not just in the way the main character resembles a Power Puff girl with her large rounded head and reflecting eyes (complete with blinking sound effects – every time), but in the way a sudden burst of energy can come out of what was until then a very somber scene.

            The thing is, I’m not sure what all this adds up to.  There’s a slow shift from the beginning of the movie to the end that actually seems to follow the nature of what might have been the writer's creative process.  A fresh idea is brought to us, loose fitting and open to many possibilities.  But then more questions were brought up than answers, and this state of uncertainty made it’s creator nervous.  So here a slight directional change was made to try to wrap up some of the larger loose threads, but by then the idea isn't as fresh as when first conceived and has a hard time straddling it’s two minds.

            The movie simply tries too hard to have both.  It doesn’t commit to enough of a logistical ending to please our urge to know why, and doesn’t stay true to it’s non-coherent nature to please our urge to simply be entertained (which I would have also been happy with as opposed to an airtight plot).  At one point when an old man/dog who has been studying the catty co and a parallel religion is talking, I actually began to see similarities between the middle section of this movie and some of the dialogue in The Matrix Reloaded.  A monologue or two would’ve sufficed, but the writers keep going until people are no longer scratching their heads but shifting in their seats waiting for things to pick up again.  But maybe it’s

too much to hope for any movie to maintain the quirky sense it had in it’s early scenes for an hour and a half or more.  And I don’t think a hope like that is unfounded either, movies like this don’t have the traditional 3 acts.  There’s a beginning to be sure, and part where the main characters all seem to be established, but until it actually happens one will probably be hard pressed to realize

when things are being wrapped up.  Accordingly, at the screening I attended the credits had been rolling for a few seconds before the crowd really started to applaud, a small gap but a noticeable one.

            I can’t say I disliked the movie, I’m glad for having seen it and would readily recommend it to most people.  There’s something that’s just too out of the ordinary to not smile at when you see a statue staring down a fluttering bird, or an Italian like fresco that depicts a massacre of felines.  But at the end of the day, I just can’t be convinced that it tried as hard as it could have.  I went in hoping to see new things in a new light, and exited having seen something new in a somewhat old light.  Ever since I was younger and saw MTV's liquid television I've been waiting for a full length feature to fully exploit that same kind of surreal logic.  Films like Tamala give me hope that someone is at least trying.

            To be sure, within all the uncertain aspects of the film the one thing I’m confident of is this: Tamala had a much better way of dealing with the old man who seemed to “know and see all” than Neo did.

            Then again, before the start of the film at the Fantasia screening I heard that there were supposedly two sequels and a TV series in the works.  So maybe all my observations are just as incomplete as some parts of the story itself.

            Also before the film was a short called “Ward 13”, which frankly got a higher per-minute reaction from the audience then Tamala did.  It ran like a claymation cross between the Twilight Zone and Wallace and Gromit.  It’s violent, without dialogue and basically one long and very funny chase scene.  We follow one man who ends up on the wrong side of a moving car and is put into a hospital more concerned with making double headed dogs and Cthulhu like monstrosities than ever healing someone.  I couldn’t help but wonder if Tamala wouldn’t have benefited from being content with this shorter format.

-Rafael Servantez