Her Blue Dog's Colors Within - Renegade Animation #171
In this episode, Captain Kaye and the Animation Guru discuss Her Blue Sky, The Colors Within, and Dog Man!
What’s going on, everyone? This is your Captain speaking, alongside my esteemed co-host, the Animation Guru! I’m not going to bury the lede, this is a great episode because everything we’re about to discuss is worthy of a recommendation! But if you want to understand why we feel so strongly about each of these movies, you’ll need to tune into the podcast to find out.
Her Blue Sky
Don’t ask me why it’s taken over 5 years for this movie to be localized in the US, I’m just happy that I finally had the chance to see it! Her Blue Sky comes from the same creative team behind one of my favorite anime romcoms, Toradora!, and the 2015 anime film The Anthem of the Heart. If you enjoyed either one of those, than chances are good that you’ll enjoy this as well. It’s a very well told story about love, regret, and how far you’ll go to pursue your dreams. While it’s not necessarily a musical, music still plays a key role in the narrative, and the songs are damn good.
“While it may have taken awhile to finally get this movie, Her Blue Sky was worth the wait to see this fantastic journey of self reflection, dealing with regret, and moving forward.“ -The Animation Guru
The Colors Within
Man, in a less competitive year, this movie would definitely perform better in the awards race, or so I’d like to believe. The Colors Within is a movie that perfectly demonstrates why I love both animation and music! It’s another masterpiece from acclaimed director Naoko Yamada and screenwriter Reiko Yoshida, a coming of age story about three students who bond through their shared love of music. Synesthesia’s not an easy phenomenon to describe, but the film takes full advantage of the medium of animation to help the audience see the world through the eyes of our main protagonist. The songs are great, the characters are all likable, and the story is simply delightful!
“The Colors Within is not only another home run for the team of animators at Science Saru, the core creative team of Naoko Yamada, Reiko Yoshida, Kensuke Ushio, and Takashi Kojima, but it’s a slam dunk in the world of amazing theatrical animation. It’s a calm, sweet story about exploring one’s emotions and the path of finding their identity and what they want to do with their lives.“ -The Animation Guru
Dog Man
As I’m writing this, it’s been over a week since I’ve seen the movie, and I’m still laughing at some of the stupidest, yet brilliant sight gags and dialogue. Dog Man, much like Captain Underpants: The Epic First Movie, is a near perfect adaptation of author and illustrator Dav Pilkey’s wonderful Scholastic Book Fair staples. Writer and director Peter Hastings completely understood the assignment, while also bringing out an incredible vocal performance from Pete Davidson as Petey, “the world’s most evilest cat.” Dog Man is what you get when you mix the premise of RoboCop with the silly humor of Police Academy, and the manic energy of The Lego Movie in a blender.
“This movie may suffer a little from having too many plots and our titular lewd being second fiddle halfway through the movie, but we have another fantastic adaptation of Pilkey’s work. Any flaws it may have are made up with a ton of laughs, action, incredible animation, and one of the more complex villains seen in animation.“ -The Animation Guru
That’ll do it for this episode! Thank you all for joining us! We have provided a link to several GoFundMe pages in support of those affected by the 2025 Wildfires in LA. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10gvOxituYvxxknoY9IQa-YEqfK8WvCjcLBcg4hsmME4/edit?pli=1&gid=0#gid=0
