'Homeland' confusing, but shows promise
Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta
It is a simple concept that ran away with itself and got too ambitious. This was a shame, for in itself it was an ambitious idea that had unexpectedly found the light of day.
It is Homeland, Indonesia's first fully three-dimensional, animated, feature-length movie, created by Studio Kasatmata, a group of university students and recent graduates from Yogyakarta.
In essence, the story of Homeland is about a boy in search of a place to call home. That sounds like a lame story, which was probably what the writer, Gangsar Waskito, thought when he inserted all that other stuff about sinking ships, four warring civilizations, and the "whosoever pulleth out this sword from this stone" Arthurian legend.
Only, he put in too much, and with a running time of only 90 minutes, it was not long enough to explain all the disjointed fragments in the story.
The movie begins with a narration about four warring nations -- Cougar Halmahera, Bobolonia, Artik, and Tiritonia -- which, after three days of intense fighting, decide to call a truce and build the castle of peace, Castle Utopia.
High atop the castle is a sword embedded in crystal, with the legend that says the next king of Utopia would be someone who could pull out the sword.
The movie then cuts to the next scene, the sinking of Atlas -- a state-of-the-art, high-tech trading ship in the middle of nowhere.
Like any good captain, Sal is forced to go down with his ship, but not before blasting away his only son, Bumi, on a pod to safety.
The pod lands on a pristine beach, and Bumi -- his name meaning "earth" -- is left marooned with only his backpack and violin.
After playing a tribute to the perished sailors, Bumi sets off to find his father's legacy -- none other than Castle Utopia, which Sal has bought for his planned retirement.
An Alice in Wonderland moment ensues with Bumi falling down, not a rabbit hole, but a tree root. After which he witnesses a fight between some black boars and a Diablo-like monster.
During this time, the audience is forced to put up with Bumi talking and grunting to himself.
There is a very good reason why the garrulous Donkey in Shrek was introduced at the beginning of the movie. It was the same reason for having Dory the blue tang fish along in the quest for Finding Nemo. The reason is that it is not fun watching a cartoon character talk or even think aloud to himself.
In both Shrek and Finding Nemo, Donkey and Dory's chatty personalities allow the main characters an excuse for conversation, as well as providing both movies with comic relief.
In Homeland there is no such relief, because even when Bumi finally finds another character to interact with, the creators of the movie decided that it could only grunt and snort!
After watching the fight that indicates an intention to save the monster when it falls over a cliff, Bumi sets out and finds himself in a field of monster mushrooms. The Diablo-like monster saves Bumi from the mushrooms and conveniently drops him atop Castle Utopia, where Bumi names him after Sal's ship, Atlas.
With no curiosity at all about the sword in the crystal, Bumi makes the castle his home and befriends the Bobolonians who are on a school excursion there. He later meets with a gypsy girl, Serene, and her pet panda, Abraham.
One of the highlights of the movie is the interaction between characters of the gypsy tribe, Trinitas. Dubbed by three members of the famed comedy group Project Pop, the banter between Trinitas's leader -- coquettish hippopotamus Simione (voiced by Tika Panggabean) -- rocker dog Jimmo (Yossi), and tombstone ghost Dantes (Udjo) provide a fresh break for an otherwise slow-moving story.
A year passes in a calm and oh-so-boring happy-happy atmosphere. Bumi is still not in the least curious about the magic sword embedded atop his castle (making me seriously question his education and upbringing).
On an excursion with Atlas, Bumi encounters General Nino, the Cougar Halmahera general with Bob Marley hair.
The ease with which the characters in this movie befriend Bumi is simply astounding. Even the cougar-riding General Nino, who is the antagonist in the movie.
The friendly General Nino, however, has an ulterior motive. He is there scouting the land to conquer Castle Utopia for the glory of the Cougar Halmahera (probably because they cannot afford to buy it off Sal). Only, he believes that Bumi is the next king of Utopia (because he is naive, trusting, innocent and gullible?).
So the battle begins between the Cougars and the Castle Utopia household -- consisting of Bumi, the Bobs, Serene, the Trinitas and Atlas. It ends with a showdown between General Nino and Bumi, in true Matrix fashion.
Homeland's animation is worth mentioning. It shows genuine talent and promise of what Studio Kasatmata has to offer.
Landscapes are well thought out, and characters are unique and conspicuous enough to be marketed as merchandise, particularly the trio Trinitas.
Unlike the slapstick comedy shorts such as Kelolodhen (2002) and Loud Me Loud (2002), which Studio Kasatmata was already familiar with, a feature-length movie is new territory for the group.
Gangsar Waskito, Homeland's script writer and director, admitted that the original length of the movie was about two hours. Due to time constraints, many of the movies' explanatory elements were sacrificed, he said.
Furnished with Rp 150 million (about US$17,241) in prize money from the Visi Anak Bangsa Award they won last year, these 12 youths successfully gave us a glimpse of what young Indonesians are capable of when given an opportunity.
Despite its shortcomings, Homeland is a laudable effort from our own, homegrown young animators. We await Kasatmata's future endeavors with bated breath.
Homeland will tour 12 cities across Indonesia beginning May 7, mainly in university campuses, and will be shown in Jakarta on June 19, 2004, at Pusat Perfilman Haji Usmar Ismail (PPHUI) on Jl. Rasuna Said, Kuningan, South Jakarta. For a complete schedule please visit http://homeland.kapanlagi.com.