Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Sinking of the Lusitania" is a black-and-white silent film from 1918, so it will have its 100th anniversary in two years from now. The writer and director is Winsor McCay and if you know a bit about film history, then you will know that he one of the pioneers when it comes to animation. As groundbreaking as some of his early works may have been, this one here is where he really shines because it is about a very important event that happened during World War I, namely the sinking of the majestic ship Lusitania by the German forces. This film does not only use animation to bring across his message, it is also very informative including intertitles that describe what happened or also lists some famous names that drowned because of the sinking. Of course, there is certainly some fiction in this film as well, but I still believe it is very much worth watching and for me it is a contender for McCay's best work. I do recommend the watch.

John T. Ryan AN OFTEN HELD and widely spread attitude concerning animation is that it is kids' stuff and not proper fare for we 'sophisticated' adults. All work in this film discipline are somehow lumped into the not so flatteringly used term of "Cartoons." Just check how they are invariably classified as being 'Children's'.WE MUST CONFESS that we succumbed to some of this propaganda; which would appear to be very difficult to resist. When we add to that the widely held notion that all of today's pictures are superior to any from "the old days." These are falsehoods that would be easily put to rest if only one would view some of the early animation work of pioneers in the genre; whose names are unknown to most.GOING STRAIGHT TO the top of the list and the head of the class is one Winsor McCay. Mr. McCay was already an outstanding draftsman and true artist; who had already been well known for his comic strip, LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND, which had run for years; being syndicated to many newspapers in both the United States and throughout the world.THE METHOD USED by McCay made use of many thousands more drawings than would have been required only a few years later. This was due to the invention of clear plastic cells; which would be alternated sequentially over a single background. The painting of characters, vehicles, animals, etc. on the cell and then photographed over the background eliminated possibly as much as 60% of the drawing required.BUT IT IS this quality of rendering the scenes that are so lifelike that gives such a dramatic and moving feel to this short. There needn't have been more length to the story telling, when the actual sinking of the Lusitania was completed in about 15 minutes! WE FOUND THIS "cartoon" to be eerily haunting, even disturbing. In particular, we are referring to the depiction of the great ship sinking, one end going down with the other high in the air. All during this time, McCay has given us the sight of many people (in long shot); who are helplessly and desperately jumping many feet off of the ship to an equally unsure fate in the North Atlantic.WHEN WE SCREENED this short, we were instantly put in the same mental state we all had when viewing those poor, helpless murdered individuals who jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.NOW YOU SEE what we mean about seeing this being a highly dramatic experience! DO YOU STILL call them "cartoons?"

Michael_Elliott The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) *** (out of 4) This WWI propaganda piece is from Winsor McCay, the famed animator who decided to use his skills and so something quite different. This film documents the German attack on the Lusitania ship, which was carrying 2000 people when it was hit by a couple torpedoes and sank fifteen-minutes later. The film clocks in at twelve-minutes and the animation is used to show what happened and then we're given actual footage talking about how evil Germany is and we also have a brief tribute to some of the men who were lost. This is a fairly interesting film on many levels but the biggest is because of all the fire and passion that McCay brings to the material. There's no doubt that this was a very personal film to him and he clearly makes his feelings known by attacking Germany on pretty much every level. There's no question that the gloves are off as the title cards are quite damning to the actions that were done that day. The animation of the boat sinking is quite simple on one hand but I'd argue there are still some very striking moments here. I think the greatest are the shots of the ship and the smoke coming from it. The long, complete shots of the ship are quite striking in their animated form and just watch the way that the smoke comes off of it. The previously mentioned tribute shows some of the famous people that died on the ship, which was somewhat questionable and especially since none of the other victims are even mentioned and no tribute is given to them. With that said, this is still very much worth seeing just for the passion that it displays.

Puppetmister Animation historians must view this film immediately, but I suppose if you can find one McCay cartoon you can find them all - they're compiled on the 'Animation Legend' video and DVD. 'Lusitania' is the film where McCay tries to escape the caricatural confines of the animated picture to produce a serious and moving film, and damn, he succeeds. The meticulous care which he put into the thousands of drawings necessary for this short cartoon meant that by the time it was finished, it was barely topical and WWI was over, leaving its calls for vengeance somewhat stranded. However, as a study of technique it is perhaps unsurpassed. McCay's animation has a dimensionality which is worlds apart from the character animation of Koko the Klown or Felix the Cat, perhaps a deliberate differentiation from such gentle entertainments. The grim monochrome images of the Lusitania's stern raised in the air while hundreds of people leap to their deaths while remind most audiences of shots from James Cameron's 'Titanic'. While the barely-concealed rage and maudlin tributes to the famous noblemen who died in the sinking (as opposed the penniless plebs who we can afford to forget) now appear unpalatably heavy-handed, the elegant curls of smoke from the stricken vessel are simply powerful cinematic touches which seal McCay's reputation as one of the great film artists of the silent era. If only he, and not Disney, had become the template for the future of American animation...