Sin City was innovative in its use of black and white, and therefore is not a parallel example.

Clerks was black and white due to budgetary constraints. The fact that it was in black and white added nothing to the film, artistically or otherwise. The film was a marvel for completely unrelated reasons.

Ponyo just seems to use traditional animation in an ordinary way. If the film is marvelous, it sure as hell has nothing to do with the animation, unless they left a totally kickass scene out of the trailer I saw.

[quote="sheerheartattack"][quote="Blank"]Apparently you don't know the dictionary definition of marvel. Something doesn't need to be extremely innovative for it to be marvelous, however, marvelous can mean something that's surprising. Something hand-made nowadays is pretty surprising, etc.[/quote]

If someone made a modern black and white film, it would be very surprising. However, that wouldn't make it marvelous at all.[/quote]

Schindler's List?

Before anyone makes any further suggestions, use the following criteria:

1) Is the use of black & white/traditional animation the singular notable aspect of the film that makes it marvelous, or was it merely a marvelous film that also utilized black & white/traditional animation? (e.g. Schindler's List and Clerks were marvelous for many reasons, but their use of black & white, while notable, did not make them marvelous.)
2) If the former, were there aesthetic and/or artistic innovations that were utilized to improve the medium in that film? (e.g. Sin City considerably improved upon the medium)

If your example answers the former for number one, and "no" to number two, then you should post your example. Otherwise, I'm sure we can all think of a great many films that are utterly fantastic that either are in black & white or are traditionally animated.

I'm going to step back and say Sin City is a parallel example, because its innovative use of black and white is pretty much the same as the innovative use of animation.


But to contribute to the examples: Pleasantville. Pleasantville would not have made sense if there was no b+w in it.

@GoldenRhino - I agree on the trial part, that was one of the biggest things that made me go... huh? But maybe it was the journey beforehand that was supposed to be the trial? I shouldn't have to think this much about a kid's movie. I could ignore the cheery acceptance of all the bizarre incidents, but that part should have made more sense, considering the Ponyo-Sosuke relationship is the core of the story.