Extra Credit Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blue, Part B

Hello VagaBuddies,
Welcome part to Sita Sings the Blues review Part 2! In part one,  I also forgot to mention that I noticed that the movie took certain liberties with the story of the Ramayana, which kept it interesting, but one of the more controversial changes (in my mind) was leaving out Lakshmana in Rama's exile into the forest. In Narayan's Ramayana, Lakshmana was there to protect Sita when Rama went to catch the golden deer, but in the movie Sita was left by herself.
In addition to the Lakshmana removal, I also found it odd that the battle between Rama and Ravana was very oversimplified and frankly unsatisfying in this movie. In Narayan's Ramayana, Ravana and Rama battle furiously with different weapons on the ground and in the air on chariots, with tons of trickery and magic throughout the whole fight. In the movie, Rama shoots one arrow that flies straight into Ravana's chest, killing him instantly. This was after all the build up of Ravana as this powerful evil king who was Rama's wife's kidnapper, his arch-nemesis. And his death seemed way too easy for Rama.
Anyway,  story changes aside, I loved loved all the songs in here. Honestly! "Who's that Knocking" was such a bop that I am thinking of just listening to that song anyway!

Trigger Warning, Dave being an absolute d*ck: Sita Sings the Blues

Ok, another thing that I liked (and yet also hated in this movie) was the "real-life" portions of the film about Nina and Dave's relationship. First of all, Dave is a complete asshole. It is a testament to this film's storytelling ability that I disliked Dave so much, that I became so sad when he broke up with Nina over email while she was away in New York. It was interesting to learn that this story arc of the movie was based on real-life events between Nina, the creator of the film, and her boyfriend. The movie has a whole then seemed to be a very cathartic exercise for Nina, and I was happy to get a good film out of it! Overall this movie is a fun, fresh, and exciting adaption of the Ramayana (with only a few questionable choices), and I would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about the Ramayana, or just wanting a good story in general.

Vaga-Buon Voyage.

Nina Paley. "Sita Sings the Blues." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTg7YXuy34&feature=emb_logo

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

Hello Vagabuddies,
Today I am reviewing the first half of the the beautiful movie Sita Sings the Blues. I watched it with two other students from our class (and a past student who just wanted to rewatch the movie!), and it was such a fun movie. I really enjoyed the different art styles that were used for different purposes throughout the movie. First, there was the art style of a chalk-style rough animation on flashing cut-out real-world images such as hearts or the sun. Then, there was the art style of the characters talking to each other, which was just a simple animation, and this was separate from the animation during the songs, which was a very distinct cartoon-style animation that over-emphasized the character's body types such as Sita's very very skinny waist and Rama's Dorito chip body. Then there was the style of animation during the narrator's parts that had more realistic drawings but a choppier style of animation. Finally, running parallel to the whole story of the Ramayana, there was the drawn cartoon on real backgrounds animation for the "real life" story between Dave and Nina. This constant switching between animation styles sometimes made the story a little difficult to follow and feel a little disjointed, but overall it kept the film interesting and fast-paced.

Onto more things I liked about this half of the film specifically, the interaction between the narrators among themselves was hilarious! It felt like an episode of Drunk History, and they disagreements and confusion parallels what a first-time reader of the Ramayana feels during their read-through. I especially liked it when the narrators discussed why Sita never escaped with Hanuman, something I had also wondered. The female narrator explained (and I agreed with her) that Sita wanted Rama to save her and prove himself to the world by defeating the evil king Ravana. Other things like the comedic timing of the camera panning to Ravana every time Sita explained her devotion to Rama was hilarious and a definite laugh-out-loud moment!

Ravana's Shock at Sita's devotion: Sita Sings the Blues

In the extra reading due this week, I will discuss what I thought of the songs too (spoiler, I loved them)!

Vaga-Buon Voyage!


Nina Paley. "Sita Sings the Blues." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTg7YXuy34&feature=emb_logo