History WesternAnimation / SitaSingsTheBlues

''Sita Sings the Blues'' is a ''very'' independent animated film that portrays a portion of the Hindu epic, the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''. It was created by Nina Paley, and the film is, remarkably, almost a solo effort.

''Sita Sings the Blues'' is a ''very'' independent animated film that portrays a portion of the Hindu epic the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''. It was created by Nina Paley, and the film is, remarkably, almost a solo effort.

The other piece of the film shows parts from ''The Ramayana'', which mostly detail Rama's banishing to the forest, Sita's kidnapping by Ravana, and the aftermath of this incident. One segment describes the parts of the story as they come along and are narrated by three shadow puppets. The shadow puppets not only tell the audience about the story, but also point out inconsistencies and their own interpretations of characters and other elements.

The musical episodes then follow. They also show the portions from ''The Ramayana'', but this time with less limited animation, and more cartoony character designs -- the page image is from one of these sections. Throughout these parts, the action plays out with no actual dialogue from any of the other characters. Instead, Sita helps narrate the scenes by singing through recordings of Annette Hanshaw, a 1920s jazz/blues singer. The songs here are juxtaposed in order to match the kind of emotion that Sita is going through at the time.

This movie can be watched and downloaded free and legally [[http://sitasingstheblues.com/ in various locations online]].

Was followed up years later by ''WesternAnimation/SederMasochism'' which reinterprets Hebrew Bible events from the Book of Exodus.

!!Contains examples of:

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Nina loses Dave, and Rama loses Sita as well - but in a meta twist, Rama and Sita are shown together again in their godly forms, except that [[BookEnds this time it's Vishnu massaging Lakshmi's feet]]. 'Cos, goddammit, ''he owes her.'']]

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Interestingly enough, the main staple of the film is Sita singing 1920s blues songs. It works quite well.

* GreekChorus: The shadow puppets take the audience through the story .

* {{Intermission}}: Three minutes not only for the viewer, but played ''by the characters themselves'' as if they attended a movie theater at the film's first-showing. Very humorous moments as some go to a restroom break, and get refreshments. The fire god goes to get a ''hot dog'' and ''Red Hots'' candy.

* PublicDomainAnimation: Nina Paley released the film into the public domain.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Subverted. Paley thought that the Annette Hanshaw recordings were in the public domain, but they're still protected until the 2030's. She still had to pay music clearances for the ''compositions'' (mostly to [[Creator/WarnerMusicGroup Warner Chappell]]).

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: [[spoiler: Sita gives one last performance before her pursuers, frozen in time, before she disappears into the Earth Mother's womb.]]

* {{Flanderization}}: The shadow puppets discuss this happening to Ravana throughout the years. Ravana has become, to most people, a monster because of his kidnapping of Sita. However, this action is about the only horrible thing that he is shown doing. In fact, he is actually shown on many instances as being a rather scholarly person. Also, when Ravana takes Sita, he gives her shelter and food, and he pointedly does ''not'' take advantage of and/or rape her.

* PlotParallel

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: See EvenEvilHasStandards above.

* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Singing Is a Free Action]]: [[spoiler: Sita gives one last performance before her pursuers, frozen in time, before she disappears into the Earth Mother's womb.]]

* SingleTear: [[spoiler: Rama]], at the very end.

** Also done by his own children in song form.
-->[[SarcasmMode Rama's wise, Rama's just]]
-->[[IDidWHatIHadToDo Rama does what Rama must]]
-->Duty first, [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim Sita last]]

* BuffySpeak: Done a few times in the episodes with dialog in order to make it more modern sounding.
* CatchPhrase: Annette Hanshaw says "That's all!" at the end of nearly every song she sang. Played in a particularly hilarious way in the last two songs of the film.

* CrossCulturalKerfluffle: While reaction to the film has been overwhelmingly positive, Paley did receive some negative feedback ranging from "how dare this American woman make a movie based on ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''" to "[[StopHavingFunGuys It's offensive just because it's animated.]]"
** According to her website, she also got a lot of negative feedback because Sita's breasts and hips were "too large", and her outfit didn't help.

The whole film is split into four different segments that are interwoven around one another. One of the main stories is set in modern times and depicts the director Nina Paley and her husband. At first, the couple are very close to each other, but after he is sent off to India and contacts her less and less, they begin to grow apart. Even after Nina flies out to India to be with him, she feels a distance between them. [[spoiler:Eventually she returns to America on business, where she receives an email from her husband telling her that it is over.]] These parts show how Nina finally finds ''The Ramayana'' [[spoiler: as help to get through her break-up]] and how Sita's relationship parallels her own.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation
* AnimatedAdaptation
* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Nina, upon arriving in India for the first time.
* ArrowCam: Deftly parodied when Rama fires arrows at Ravana.

* CoolAirship: The ''pushpaka'' is even referred to as such.

* DamselInDistress: Sita.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Hanuman and his monkey army taking out Ravana.
** Although the Shadow Puppet narrators have a bit of an argument on whether or not Hanuman is a monkey or not. They decide that they can't figure out what the heck he is, and say he's a species all his own.
** This is because Hanuman and the monkey army are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanara Vanaras]], monkey-like humanoid creatures from Myth/HinduMythology.

* EyeTake: Done with Ravana, ''[[OverlyLongGag several times in a row]]''.

* FlowerMotifs: LOTUSES!
* GreekChorus: The shadow puppets.
* TheHeroSucksSong: ''Rama's Great'' [[WhatTheHellHero calls Rama out]] [[HonorBeforeReason on abandoning Sita]] by sarcastically singing his praises.
** [[CallingTheOldManOut And it's sung by his own sons.]]
* [[SheWillComeForMe He Will Come for Me]]: Sita waits calmly for Rama to rescue her from Ravana.

* HopeSpot: it's even called "If You Want the Rainbow You Must Have the Rain".
* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Take a look at Sita's body shape.

* LineBoil: The parts with Nina.

* MeadowRun: After the battle where Rama rescues Sita.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Ravana and some of the actual deities.
* MultipleHeadCase: See above.

* [[IHaveManyNames Sita Has Many Names]]: Sita only being one of them.

--> "...my man will come and rescue me, and when he does... [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments your ass is grass]]."

* SparklingStreamOfTears: Sita uses these regularly.
* StormingTheCastle: The attack on Lanka.
* TheTeaser: Lakshmi summoning the peacock phonograph.

* TopHeavyGuy: Several, but Ravana takes the cake by having like, ''ten heads''.

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Cat?]]: The cat shown with Nina at the end of the movie is not the same cat shown in the first scene. They know you're worrying and the first title card of the end credits lets you know Lexi is fine.

[[quoteright:210:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sita_sings_the_blues.JPG]]

The musical episodes then follow. They also show the portions from ''The Ramayana'', but this time with less limited animation, and more cartoony character designs -- the page image is from one of these sections. Throughout these parts, the action plays out with no actual dialog from any of the other characters. Instead, Sita helps narrate the scenes by singing through recordings of Annette Hanshaw, a 1920s jazz/blues singer. The songs here are juxtaposed in order to match the kind of emotion that Sita is going through at the time.

These are followed by the episode from ''The Ramayana'', which includes dialog from the characters. This segment is drawn to mimic the Rajput style of Indian art, which was used to illustrate some of the original versions of this particular epic. The animation here is rather limited, in order to look like illustrations. The dialog is somewhat more modern here as well.

The whole film is split into four different segments that are interwoven around one another. One of the main stories is set in modern times and depicts the director Nina Paley and her husband. At first, the couple is very close to each other, but after he is sent off to India and contacts her less and less, they begin to grow apart. Even after Nina flies out to India to be with him, she feels a distance between them. [[spoiler:Eventually she returns to America on business, where she receives an email from her husband telling her that it is over.]] These parts show how Nina finally finds ''The Ramayana'' [[spoiler: as help to get through her break-up]] and how Sita's relationship parallels her own.

** According to her website, she also got a lot of negative feedback because Sita's breasts and hips were too large, and her outfit didn't help.

* [[TheVillainSucksSong The Hero Sucks Song]]: ''Rama's Great'' [[WhatTheHellHero calls Rama out]] [[HonorBeforeReason on abandoning Sita]] by sarcastically singing his praises.

* LyricalDissonance: "Rama's Great, Rama's Good" is a peppy, catchy song about...[[KickTheDog how awesome Rama is for throwing his wife onto a pyre and banishing her when she was pregnant]].

** Also done by his own children.

Was followed up years later by ''Seder-Masochism'' which reinterprets Hebrew Bible events from the Book of Exodus.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sita_sings_the_blues.JPG

The musical episodes then follow. They also show the portions from ''The Ramayana'', but this time with less limited animation, and more cartoony character designs. Throughout these parts, the action plays out with no actual dialog from any of the other characters. Instead, Sita helps narrate the scenes by singing through recordings of Annette Hanshaw, a 1920s jazz/blues singer. The songs here are juxtaposed in order to match the kind of emotion that Sita is going through at the time.

** This is because Hanuman and the monkey army are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanara Vanaras]], monkey-like humanoid creatures from HinduMythology.

* CreatorBreakdown: Without giving too much away, the impetus for the film was a messy breakup.

* DoingItForTheArt: The story behind the film is as remarkable as the film itself. Paley created the film [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome almost entirely by herself on her home computer]], then allowed it to be distributed online for free. This is explained a bit better [[http://sitasingstheblues.com/faq.html on her website]].

* ExecutiveMeddling: Paley hoped to get the film released commercially. Conflicts with Annette Hanshaw's music licensee threatened expensive suits. She released it completely free. [[TakeThat Paley still has donations for her work and many, many awards for the film despite the unusual release method.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Agni the fire god doesn't just carry Sita out of the fire personally, he ropes in two more deities to deliver an epic WTHH to Rama.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Nina loses Dave, and Rama loses Sita as well - but in a meta twist, Rama and Sita are shown together again in their godly forms, except that [[BookEnds this time it's Vishnu massaging Lakshmi's feet.]] 'Cos god dammit, ''he owes her.'']]
* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with animated segments of [[strike:Sita and Rama]] Lakshmi and Vishnu (and other Hindu deities) in space.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "Ravana was actually a scholarly man, he was a devout Shiva-worshipper, and... he played the ''vena'' [[BodyHorror with his intestines.]]"

* ColdOpen: Lakshmi summoning the peacock phonograph.

* DistressedDamsel: Sita.
* DoingItForTheArt: The story behind the film is as remarkable as the film itself. Paley created the film [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome almost entirely by herself on her home computer]], then allowed it to be distributed online for free. This is explained a bit better [[http://sitasingstheblues.com/faq.html on her website]].

* [[SheWillComeForMe He Will Come For Me]]: Sita waits calmly for Rama to rescue her from Ravana.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The apparently random [[strike:dear]] deer in "Mean to Me". In the same number, bananas show up when Sita takes a phone call.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Rama sheds a SingleTear when he realizes he's lost Sita for the last and final time... which would make him a [[IncrediblyLamePun literal]] CryingIndian.]]

* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Singing is a Free Action]]: [[spoiler: Sita gives one last performance before her pursuers, frozen in time, before she disappears into the Earth Mother's womb.]]

--> "...my man will come and rescue me, and when he does... [[CrowningMomentOfFunny your ass is grass]]."

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: As in ''The Ramayana'', this is [[spoiler:Sita's ultimate fate when the earth herself (Bhūmi) rises up to take Sita back into her womb.]]

* {{Flanderization}}: The shadow puppets discuss this happening to Ravana throughout the years. Ravana has become, to most people, a monster because of his kidnapping of Sita. However, this action is about the only horrible thing that he is shown doing. In fact, he is actually shown on many instances as being a rather scholarly person. Also, when Ravena takes Sita, he gives her shelter and food, and he pointedly does ''not'' take advantage of and/or rape her.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Nina loses Dave, and Rama loses Sita as well - but in a meta twist, Rama and Sita are shown together again in their godly forms, except that [[BookEnds this time it's Vishnu massaging Lakshmi's feet.]] Cos god dammit, ''he owes her.'']]

* EyeTake: done with Ravana, ''[[OverlyLongGag several times in a row]]''.

* HopeSpot: it's even called "If You Want the Rainbow You Must Have The Rain".

* IncrediblyLamePun: The apparently random [[strike:dear]] deer in "Mean To Me". In the same number, bananas show up when Sita takes a phone call.

* LudicrousGibs: Parodied whenever the Raksasa are attacked, whether with Rama's arrows or ''his bare fists''.

* CoolAirship: the ''pushpaka'' is even referred to as such.

* ImpossibleHourglassFigure

* {{Intermission}}: Three minutes not only for the viewer, but played ''by the characters themselves'' as if they attended a movie theatre at the film's first-showing. Very humorous moments as some go to a restroom break, and get refreshments. The fire god goes to get a ''hot dog'' and ''Red Hots'' candy.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPay: not the numerous re-corrections of certain character names, but the pronunciation of "intestines" you are not likely to hear elsewhere.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Rama sheds a SingleTear when he realises he's lost Sita for the last and final time... which would make him a [[IncrediblyLamePun literal]] CryingIndian.]]

* PowerTrio: the shadow puppets appear to fill these roles after a while; shorter male = Superego, taller male = Id and female = Ego. [[spoiler:The latter two switch roles towards the end.]]

* [[TalkingIsAFreeAction Singing Is a Free Action]]: [[spoiler: Sita gives one last performance before her pursuers, frozen in time, before she disappears into the Earth Mother's womb.]]

* TopHeavyGuy: several, but Ravana takes the cake by having like, ''ten heads''.

* VillainsOutShopping: during the intermission, all the characters regardless of alignment go to get drinks and snacks together (Sita even takes a much needed toilet break). Ravana, the multiple-headed gent and only real villain, picks up a soft drink to sip--one for each head. Cue the synchronized [[{{Gasshole}} belch]] by almost all of the heads.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Cat?]]: The cat shown with Nina at the end of the movie is not the same cat shown in the first scene. They know you're worrying and the first title card of the end credits lets you know Lexi is fine.

** Also done by his own children

* [[spoiler: TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth]]: The ultimate fate of Sita, as in ''The Ramayana'', when the [[spoiler: earth herself (Bhūmi) rises up to take Sita back into her womb.]]