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Spirited Away Wins Award; Cowboy Bebop Opening Soon 139

Posted by michael from the radical-edward dept.
May Kasahara writes "Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away just won the Best Animated Feature award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Note that last year's winner in this category was Shrek, which then went on to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The article says it's still too soon to detect a pattern, but IMHO, Spirited Away is the best film among this year's eligible Oscar selections, and at any rate, it's good karma :)" And rnb writes "I'm not sure when the listing was created, and unfortunately, I don't have much more information, but imdb has a January 2003 release date for the Cowboy Bebop: Knocking On Heavens Door. Yahoo also has a listing that seems to indicate this limited release may only be in LA and NY, but I'm still hoping to get it in at least one theater here in Philadelphia."
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Spirited Away Wins Award; Cowboy Bebop Opening Soon More

Spirited Away Wins Award; Cowboy Bebop Opening Soon

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  • Metropolis (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nuhonda ( 256188 )
    bummer that Metropolis got skipped due to timing.

  • Good Review - Bay Area Anime (Score:3, Informative)

    by StCredZero ( 169093 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @03:47PM (#4909502)
    A very well written review. [bayareaanime.com]
  • Knocking on Heavens door was alright, but I wouldn't get very excited about it if I were you.
    It didn't live up to the series in my opinion.
    • Agreed. It's a fun action movie, but rates a very decided 'enh' on my movie scale. Nowhere near the quality or plot of Sen to Chihiro.

  • Bebop (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Raven ( 30575 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @03:50PM (#4909527) Homepage
    I'm glad that the Cowboy Bebop movie is finally out, though I have only a slim chance to see it in theaters... I'll probably have to wait for the DVD.

    For those who have not heard of Cowboy Bebop, it's a dark humor anime with a very unique soundtrack... very stylish. 26 OAV episodes, 13 of which were released for TV, 13 only on OAV... you can often tell which are which pretty easily, since the OAV only episodes are darker and carry more of the plot. It's worth a view if you like anime, and if you don't like anime... well, may God save your soul! ^_^

    • Re:Bebop (Score:5, Informative)

      by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @03:59PM (#4909611)
      Actually, TV Tokyo determined that the series was, as a whole, too violent to air entirely, and picked 12 episodes to show. WOWOW later picked it up and aired all of it.

      I have a big node on Everything2 under Cowboy Bebop all about that.

      But generally, even for a TV series/OAV, the budget for the show was incredibly high, and it paid of well for Sunrise.

      Oh, and for fans of the music, a new show called "Wolf Rain" is coming, with Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts at the helm of the soundtrack.

      • Re:Bebop (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I thought that the Seatbelts were a fictitious band comprised of those individuals whom Yoko Kanno had called upon to perform. The actual band, the Seatbelts, was in the Bebop timeline and these musicians were merely playing their roles in the Seatbelts.

        • Re:Bebop (Score:2, Informative)

          by Microlith ( 54737 )
          Not really.

          It was created for the explicit purpose of creating the music for Bebop, and was done so months before production of the animation had even begun.

          The Seatbelts, however, exist beyond Bebop. I believe they _did_ do an album after Bebop, but information on that is sparse.

          Regardless, they are not solely a part of Bebop and will be returning to do Wolf Rain.

          And I'm going to burn my f#$%@ comma key off I swear...
          • The Seatbelts, however, exist beyond Bebop. I believe they _did_ do an album after Bebop, but information on that is sparse.

            Well I know they did some live concerts. There's a live recording of them on the 'Future Blues' DVD.
            • I have that CD. Which one was done live?

              I think that was a DVD that contained footage from the Japan premiere of the movie.
              • Not the Knocking on Heaven's Door OST, but a DVD by the same name. Have a look down the bottom of this page [jazzmess.com]

                (quoted from CDJapan) "This is a compilation of music clips for the songs by The Seatbelts which are used in the movie 'Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door'. . . The video includes live action footage shot in Thailand. A kind of a road movie following the last week of the multi-national band 'The Seatbelts.' Includes an appearance by the mysterious producer 'YK' and the live footage of their live gig on August 10"
    • Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that all 26 episodes have made it to Adult Swim on Cartoon Network... at least, I'm pretty darn convinced that I watched them all last year. It took like three months to get through all of them, because they'd show two episodes per week.

      Am I missing something?

      • Re:Adult Swim? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Microlith ( 54737 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @04:07PM (#4909675)
        They all made it.

        At least, the second run through. The first time at least two episodes were skipped, namely:

        Sympathy for the Devil
        Cowboy Funk

        If any others were dropped, I don't know because I didn't watch more than the first few. I had bought the dvds almost a year earlier and prefer subs, anyways.
        • Adult Swim didn't show Cowboy Funk the first time around? How did people get through the seires without meeting Andy?! One of my favorite one shot characters in anything, and Adult Swim didn't show him. Figures.
          • Well, showing an episode featuring a guy blowing up tall buildings very soon after September 11th, 2001 was probably deemed a touchy subject...
          • Nope. Might (okay, definitely) have had something to do with the fact that one of the characters was going around, detonating bombs around skyscrapers. So CN skipped it the first time around (too close to 9/11).
          • It beats me why Adult Swim are showing any anime at all. In my opinion, all anime is supposed to be on Toonami, and Adult Swim is for the set of cartoons made by the Adult Swim crew .. you know, SGC2C, Brak, SQ2011, TAHF, etc. NOT FOR ANIME! Stand up for bastardisation of our television viewing! Get anime back into Toonami, there's a reason it's called Toonami (something about a pun?) ;-p
        • usually i prefer subs too

          but the ones on the DVD are so poorly translated
          when compared to high-quality dubbing
          i just couldnt put up with it
        • No there isn't any evil Star Chamber in Cartoon Network that decided to cut Sympathy for the Devil and Cowboy Funk. There maybe some hidden group that is calling the shots but they had little to do with this.

          For awhile people have claimed that both of these episodes where cut because of their contraversal natures. This is odd since a lot of Cowboy Bebop episodes feature one or some of the "Three TV Sins"(sex, drugs, violence). People claimed that Sympathy was cut because of youth violence (think Columbine) while Cowboy Funk was cut because the maniac bomber (who blew up tall buildings).

          However what I remember is this fact: during the first run of Cowboy Bebop on CN it ran a 4 days a week run for 6 weeks. That adds up to 24...two episodes had to be skipped to fit.

          So it is simple as scheduling. Two episodes had to be cut on the first run. These two episodes where somewhat weakly tied to the CB methos so it wasn't a big loss.

          As for Spirited Away: go see if it is in your area. It is one of the best and blessed visualzations put to film in recent history. As for Knock'n Down Heaven's Door: it is an interesting movie that takes advantage of foreshadows and themes to emphize what the core of Cowboy Bebop really was.
          • Bebop was a premiere show for Adult Swim, and during it's first run was ONLY on sunday and thursday nights.

            Additionally, the two episodes were the same both airings. Thus it would have run for 12 weeks exactly.

            Bebop hasn't gone nightly until VERY recently and yes, content was the reason they were dropped.

          • However what I remember is this fact: during the first run of Cowboy Bebop on CN it ran a 4 days a week run for 6 weeks. That adds up to 24...two episodes had to be skipped to fit.

            As someone already pointed out, the first run of Cowboy Bebop was on Sundays and Thursdays, with two episodes each Sunday, rebroadcasted on Thursday. The other problem with your theory is that three episodes were cut. The other one was Waltz for Venus, which started with a hijacking. Considering that September 11, 2001 fell during the beginning of this run and the episodes that were cut featured hijackings and skyscrapers being blown up, the reason for the cuts is fairly obvious. Subsequent runs of Cowboy Bebop included all three of the "missing" episodes.

            You may have confused the scheduling of Cowboy Bebop with the scheduling of Mobile Suit Gundam, which had its first run stopped right after September 11, 2001. Mobile Suit Gundam did air 4 or 5 days a week, and its first run lasted about 6 weeks. Unlike Cowboy Bebop though, the cut episodes (with one exception) were never aired (and won't be aired in the second run either).

    • It was out long time ago. I watched it several times. The Bebop movie isn't as good as the series. The plot is a bit slow. But soundtrack is just as good.
    • IMHO...Cowboy Bebop: Knocking On Heavens Door is one of the greatest anime movies out there. I saw it a few months after 9/11 and...well all i could say was "woah".

      Got to love how dark CB is...bioterriosiom...violence.

      Think I will watch that tonight.
  • That is where I saw spirited away.

  • Coyboy Bebop - Movie. Not out yet? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @03:55PM (#4909555)
    Sheesh, I watched that thing almost a year ago. In truth its not that good. Its just like a long episode with better art. The story does nothing for the over all series. Which is a disapointment as I was hopping for somthing that tied everything together with regards to the char' history.

    • Re:Coyboy Bebop - Movie. Not out yet? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Imperial Tacohead ( 216035 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @04:34PM (#4909899)
      I disagree. It's been a while since I sat through the movie, but I remember thinking that it tied into the series very well, with a lot of foreshadowing for the final two episodes. A lot of dialog (especially the stuff about dreams) is paralleled in the Real Folk Blues, and the fact that Spike saw himself in the character of the crazy terrorist gives you some insight as to how he felt at the very end. Not to say that I wouldn't have traded the movie for another Vicious episode...but I thought it was pretty good.

    • No, but it WAS a very, very good movie. Some great intruige stuff (keeps you guessing almost right up to the end), memorable characters (the villain is CREEPY), and great action scenes (the monorail!) make it a nice product on its own. To say nothing of the excellent soundtrack. The only complaint I had about it was the single dogfighting scene - it had no connection whatsoever to the rest of the movie, and seemed to have been dropped in there just because they needed a dogfighting scene.

    • Well I don't know about "not that good" -- I found it +1 Entertaining and +1 Insightful, and I've never seen any Bebop episode.. So by itself it's pretty good, and if the series is that massive that it renders this movie "not that good", well then I'm very curious as to what the heck that will all be about :)


      Though I admit the second half of the movie seemed a little less polished than the first half.. Or maybe it was just the shift of pace.

      • Do yourself a favor. Rent the DVDs, in order. Do NOT watch "The Real Folk Blues" until you've seen the rest of the series. It will be worth it. Even the "bad" episodes (and there are a few) contribute to the experience of the last episode.

  • I think Disney was right... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dagg ( 153577 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @03:59PM (#4909603) Journal
    I think Disney made the right call on waiting [nydailynews.com] to blitzkrieg the public with Spirited Away ads. If they wait until it gets tons of awards, then they'll surely make more money.
  • I was really impressed with the Cowboy Bebop series. I watched it on a fluke and decided to buy the whole thing on DVD. A lot of thought went behind it and the animation is really superb.

    Character development is great. Some of the episodes are tear jerkers. The episode that Ed finds her father was pretty emotional.

    And the music is top notch!

    Check it out if you haven't. Personally, I'm really excited to see the movie come out here. Hopefully it will hit the nearest independent theatre.

  • Bad for Disney (Score:4, Insightful)

    by a7244270 ( 592043 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @04:14PM (#4909738) Homepage Journal
    If the movie wins a bunch of awards then it seems like it will be more difficult for Disney to kill it so that it won't make it onto any screens.

    If it gets much more press, then people might actually see it, which as far as Disney is concerned can only be a Bad Thing.

    As far as Disney is concerned there's nothing worse than to have an animated masterpiece come out - now people might actually realize just how bad the mindless movies that they shit out every year (don't forget the stuffed toys, and fast food tie-ins) truly are.

    I hope this movie comes out big. I really do. Whether it happens or not, we'll just have to see.
    • I could be completely off base (which happens frequently) but isnt disney distributing this movie?

      • Re:Bad for Disney (Score:5, Funny)

        by AzrealAO ( 520019 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @04:26PM (#4909851)
        Don't let facts get in the way of a good Anti-Disney rant!

      • Re:Bad for Disney (Score:3, Insightful)

        by a7244270 ( 592043 )
        the key is - they didn't make it.

        This movie is a landmark production, which raises the bar for all childrens animated films.

        If you are in the business of cranking out childrens animated films, then the LAST thing you want is the bar raised....
        • If you are in the business of cranking out childrens animated films, then the LAST thing you want is the bar raised....

          Judging by the box office returns (or lack thereof) from "Treasure Planet", I'd say the bar has already been raised...

        • Of course, being a money-grubbing entity, wouldn't make lots of Money be a Good Thing, and wouldn't be the company that stood behind the movies that raised the bar Not Be Such a Bad Thing?
      • The general belief with regard to Disney and anime imports is that Disney has no desire to see full length anime flicks succeed in the US because it would force them to change their style of movie to compete (aka dump the formula flicks).

        Consequently, every time a anime comes along that might have a chance of succeeding with the mainstream audiences, Disney buys up the rights to it and then undermarkets it so that nobody ever hears about it or even has the chance to see it. This happened with Princess Mononoke and seems to have happened with Spirited Away.

    • Re:Bad for Disney (Score:5, Informative)

      by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @05:49PM (#4910596) Homepage Journal
      I am so tired of all this Disney conspiracy theory bashing. Take a look at this New York Daily News article [nydailynews.com], specifically the parts that say
      While defending the studio's arthouse strategy, [Richard W. Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios] elaborated on the studio's original long-range plan, which was to roll the movie out slowly and end up in about 1,000 theaters. The money to market a 1,000-theater run was budgeted and is still available. All that's missing is a good reason to send it back out.

      "If we get on a lot of critics' [top 10] lists and get [Oscar] nominations, we'll have a reason to go out bigger," Cook explained.

      [...]

      In any case, Cook says that Disney's marketing department will spend exactly the same amount of time and money promoting "Spirited Away" for Academy Awards as it does for the studio's other 2002 animated films: "Lilo & Stitch" and the upcoming "Treasure Planet."
      The film business is a lot more complicated and intricate than most of us know, and we really shouldn't let our feelings of frustration lead us into thinking that Disney is "out to get us."
      • I don't think that Disney is "out to get us", nor did I intend to imply it.

        All I was trying to say was

        a) Disney is in the business of making profitable movies and associated merchandising.
        b) Disney prefers to spend as little as possible when making movies - increases profit
        c) Disney movies mostly tend to suck
        c) This (non-Disney) movie is so good, that it has raised the bar for animated feature films - it has gotten absolutely stellar reviews
        d) Disney will probably have to spend more money on movies to avoid looking bad in comparison
        e) This will cut into Disney's profit per movie

        Thats all. No conspiracy plot, no bashing, just an opinion
        • I'm sorry, but you're ill-informed, and besides, Disney-bashing is passe (with statements like "Disney movies mostly tend to suck", it is bashing).

          Your most inaccurate statement is: "Disney prefers to spend as little as possible when making movies". I don't know about the live-action end of the company, but animation-wise, the Walt Disney Co. spends more money on animated feature films than any of their immediate competitors (even Dreamworks). Treasure Planet is the most expensive animated film ever made; the production of Fantasia 2000 ran at least five years longer than anticipated, and at the time was one of the most expensive features ever-- animation or live-action. This tradition of huge budgets has been around since Uncle Walt made Snow White.

          I do recall that there were massive layoffs and slashed salaries in Disney Animation not too long ago, but that was just the biggest casualty in the entire industry; MTV Animation, Dreamworks, and others were cutting jobs at the same time (gotta love this economy). As for the salaries, when Dreamworks Animation started hiring, they raided the Disney Studios for talent, which led to a lot of raises to keep people at Disney (the perks Glen Keane was rumored to have recieved are legendary).

          I believe that Disney still has a commitment to quality animation-- and I also believe that they realize full well that it can be found in numerous places. That's why they bought Jumbo Pictures. That's why they signed Pixar and Studio Ghibli to distribution deals. Of course they have a bottom line to look out for, but they also have a reputation to uphold, especially within the film and animation community. Sure, Lilo and Stitch was okay, but Monsters Inc. and Spirited Away had many professionals at other studios oohing and aahing; we have Disney to thank for all three films.

          • Disney is merely the publisher for Spirited Away. It was produced by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli in Japan. Aparrantly though, Disney has purchased the rights to distribute (or not distribute) all of the Studio Ghibli films in North America. Similarly, Monsters Inc was produced by Pixar, but is published and distributed by Disney under a deal the two companies have. To say that Disney is responsible is giving them far too much credit. At least in the case of Spirited Away, it would still exist without Disney; the financing simply would have been by a company with a different name. Perhaps the U.S. distribution would have been more difficult, but it still would have been produced in Japan, as all the other Studio Ghibli films were without the help of Disney.

            • For a long time, Studio Ghibli's films (with the exception of Totoro and Nausicaa) couldn't be seen in N. America because no company could afford the rights to them (and after Nausicaa was butchered for the English-language release, undoubtedly the studio was wary of all distro offers since then). The point I was trying to make is that at the time they signed their distro deals, neither Ghibli nor Pixar would've been able to make it on their own; Disney has lent both companies far more marketing power than they'd ever have before... not to say that it will stay that way. Pixar (partially founded by ex-Disney animators) is strongly considering distributing their own films once the contract with Disney's up; more power to them.

              (By the way, Disney has worldwide rights to the Ghibli films, including home video distribution in Japan. Just wanted to point that out)

              • Just because you can't find it at WalMart or Costco doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. When Americans are so damned America-centric it's disgusting. There is a world that exists outside America, you know. And many Americans (especially the mainstream Disney crowd) always seem to try to convert everything foreign into an American story. The butchering of "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" into "Warriors of the Wind" was an horrid attack on an amazing creative work to turn it into a cheap dumb American action cartoon for kids in order to make a quick buck. It's disgusting what Americans will try if they think they can get away with it. It is no wonder that Americans get no respect from other countries, except for the fear of being invaded.

                By the way, I am an American.

      • I am so tired of all this Disney conspiracy theory bashing.

        And I'm fed up with Disney apologists. Miyazaki has Disney beat, hands-down, and everyone knows it, not least of which Miyazaki and Disney. Disney is burying this one.

        And pitching films to the Academy doesn't mean squat. If they're spending the same time and money on SA as they are on L&S and TP, then they're spending twice the amount for their stuff as for Ghibli's movie. It's very difficult to miss the reasons why, if you bother to spend 5 seconds thinking about it. On top of that, at the end of the day only the Academy cares. If you want some important numbers, I guarantee that the amounts they're spending on general advertisements is way less for SA. In fact, I can't remember seeing a single TV ad for SA, but I see TP ads every day, followed by Ronald the clown screaming gibberish about 'solar sailing' or some crap.

        Disney knows they're losing potential revenue hand-over-fist on this one, but it's in their long-term financial interest to bury SA. If you can beat me with financial figures, go right ahead, but until you can, leave me alone.

  • I saw it while in Japan a few months ago, it's really not that great. Unless they've done ALOT of changing there are going to be lots of parts that only make sense after a native explains the Japanese folklore around them..

    • Re:spirited away? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jacoplane ( 78110 )
      I saw the movie here in Switzerland last christmas, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not Japanese (Dutch) and didn't feel there were any parts of the story I didn't understand because I don't know anything about Japanese folklore. Your argument might have made sense for Princess Mononoke, which was based on a Shintoist myth if I recall correctly. Which parts of the storyline exactly did you think were not clear to you?
    • I totally agree. I walked away from it wondering really not getting it. I was told that i needed to understand Japanese Folklore. Somebody told me it was the Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland; not being understanding the folklore of AinW, one would really not get watching the Disney version of it.
    • I saw it while in Japan a few months ago, it's really not that great. Unless they've done ALOT of changing there are going to be lots of parts that only make sense after a native explains the Japanese folklore around them.

      I'm going to have to disagree. You may not be able to fully understand it if you're not Japanese, but you can still get a lot out of it. The basic story is pretty clear - girl is trapped in a magical place by her parents' interference, loses them and is forced to work a demeaning job, is romantically involved with the estranged son of the queen, releases someone from a spell, they all go on a journey, everything comes out fine but ambiguous. She keeps trying to do right and making things worse, she nearly loses something very important to the queen, there's a lot of family conflict and intrigue. If you set it in the West, it would be right out of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Actually, I think it's more The Wizard of Oz than Alice in Wonderland.

      Even if you can't understand any of the cultural references, you can still appreciate it for the story and for how well it's done. I knew this was a beautiful movie before I saw it, but I was still amazed. This is one of the best movies I've seen in the last couple of years. It's certainly one of the best looking animated movies since the classic Disney days.

      Here's what I want to know: In the scenes with the many-armed guy who runs the furnace in the bathhouse, there are several shots of an ashtray full of butts, but you never see him smoke. Is it paranoid of me to imagine that Disney had those bits cut out, since smoking is so opposite to their image? It would probably only be a couple of frames. Has anyone here seen the original?

  • Yes, it was a fine movie indeed. Probably one of the best and most creative animated films ever. Heck, I wanted to show it to my little cousin, but then decided not to since she might ask me to explain what the movie was about. (BTW, I'm serious. Can someone please explain to me what the movie meant?)

  • Spirited Away has also won... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @04:24PM (#4909824) Homepage Journal
    ...the New York Film Critics Circle award [nyfcc.com] for animation.

    So far, it's won every animation award offered for this year.

    I don't know that it'll win the Oscar, but it's certainly a lock to be a nominee.

  • A hearty congratulations to Mr. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on a well deserved award! Looking at the incredible work that comes from them, I can't wait to see what is revealed as their next work!

    The only downside is I have to wonder just how long I'll have to wait until I can add this to my DVD collection. Fortunately, Mononoke hit the market pretty quickly. If Mr. Miyazaki ever decided to release the Ghibli catalog to DVD, I have a check just waiting to be filled out for my order!

    • Why wait? The DVD are rolling out in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/video/release.htm l - Still waiting in the US, but it should be noted that Disney is handling the release in Japan.
    • My g/f bought a Miyazaki/Ghibli box set for about $100. Region 1 with Japanese language and english or chinese(!?) subtitles. Contents: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (my personal fav) Princess Mononoke Porco Rosso My Neighbor Totoro Laputa Castle in the Sky Grave of the Fireflies Kiki's Delivery Service On your Mark Ocean Waves Only Yesterday Pom Poko 6 DVD set titled "Archives of Studio Ghibli" with an outline of the totoro on a grey box. Released by Anime Cartoon Intl.
      • Thanks for the info, Acidrain! But the problem is, none of your girlfriend's hard earned $100 went to the person who created this in the first place. Don't you think he should be paid for his efforts?

        For myself, I can wait. For all their upset over what was done to Nausicaa many years ago, the folks at Ghibli are finally relaxing and allowing their stuff to be carried over to English again. Granted, it took Disney's marketing power to convince them, but it's finally happening. Admittedly, Disney wasn't quite prepared for the market. They didn't think they'd push Kiki's Delivery Service to DVD and also delayed the release of Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Kiki didn't sell as well as Disney had hoped. The problem was, it was released onto VHS at the some time that anime on DVD was destroying VHS sales. The swing came so fast, that some studios were hit with some pretty big losses because they couldn't give away the VHS copies of their catalog. Disney got the wrong impression that the market was too weak for development. (I know a couple of our favorite anime sources that went through some very tough financial times during that period.)

        But with the success of Mononoke and Spirited Away, Disney is starting to put more energy into their relationship with Ghibli. Now those other titles are being reviewed for DVD release. If Spirited Away takes an Academy Award, it pretty well will guarantee that Disney will put top priority to releasing as many of Ghibli's titles for which they can get licensing.

        The best way to make a business do what you want is to wave some money in its face. Then it will sit up and beg and do what it takes to get your money. So I'll do what I can to convince Disney to hurry up. (waving credit card it the air)

        -Or to convince them to quickly sell the licensing to a smaller business such as Viz or Animeigo, for whom an amount too small for Disney would be a boon.
  • For those of you in the Southwestern Ontario region, the annual Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema [www.wfac.ca] has titles like ones listed, or rather had in this specific instance.
  • cowboy bebop is great... the series was great with good sound and animation BUT...
    Spirited Away is a Beautiful movie with Beautiful sceneries and story
    i loved Shrek great animation, great fun... but.. spirited away... is... a movie to remember and love and it shouldnt be in the same award category as Spirited :)
    Miyazaki is also responsible for Princess Mononoke but even that one is a long way from Spiritted Away.
    If u havent seen it... see it! if possible in a cinema(i havent had the chance)

  • Re-rendered Shrek in high resolution 3d IMAX... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fingal ( 49160 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @07:50PM (#4911757) Homepage
    Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the VFX 2002 [vfx2002.com] conferance where I was treated to a preview of the new render of Shrek by Don MacBain on behalf of PDI / Dreamworks. This was an extension of the work that they had done on Antz and basically consisted of:-
    • re-rendering for IMAX. As a result of the larger screen format, a lot of the cuts where no longer appropriate so they changed a load of the camera views and speed of pans to make it more palatable on an IMAX screen (no motion sickness).
    • Upping the resolution. I forget what the original resolution of render was but the target for this version is (from memory) 4000 x 3000 pixels.
    • Rendering the whole thing as fully polarised-light 3d.

    They only had one scene completed which was the crossing the rope bridge over the lava scene, but I can say that it was the most incredible bit of computer animation that I've ever scene. Don't know when the final thing is going to be finished, but I would definately recommend it to anyone...

  • Cowboy Bebop: Opening soon? Try a year ago. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Tuesday December 17, 2002 @08:36PM (#4912137) Homepage Journal
    Holy crap... is there really anyone out there who hasn't already seen the fansub of this, like, a year ago? If you ask me, these anime companies are really shooting themselves in the foot by delaying American desireada by so much.

    If there's one thing about the free market, it's that people will always create things people want. That's why the war on drugs doesn't work. Of course, in the case of CB:KOHD, it was distributed for free, possibly throwing my free market analogy completely worthless. but. um. the point is that a high quality English translation of the film has been available for over a year.

    If internet geeks could do it in that short time, why couldn't the company? It seems to me they would have made a lot more money if they were putting out a movie that most people were excited to see a year ago...
    • The company has to play by the rules, and keep it legal.

      Fansubs are defacto illegal, and Destination was Columbia/Tristar additionally had to translate and produce a DUB for the majority of audiences in the US.

      Certainly, that was why it was distributed free, but it certainly it shouldn't have. It was inevitable that it would be released here, with an impeccable translation.

      Which is why I haven't seen it, I'll wait for the legitimate release and support the creators.

      Don't forget this interesting little fact:

      EVERYTHING THE "INTERNET GEEKS" CAN DO THEY CAN ONLY DO BECAUSE THEY DON'T FOLLOW THE RULES THE COMPANIES DO, NOR DO THEY COMPENSATE THE CREATOR(S) IN ANY WAY.

      This applies to ALL fansubs.
  • Here where I live, Spirited Away didn't play (or hasn't yet) at any of the major cinemas, just at a small community-run cinema that plays offbeat, non-mainstream stuff. I don't mind that per se. It was really nice to see Spirited Away in a more intimate, less herd-like setting than Regal Suckemas. I took my very sensitive 6-year-old daughter to it and she loved it, wasn't even phased by the more intense moments. And I went along as guardian, of course, because... you know... I'm an adult... and I don't watch cartoons... of course. I did it for the kid. ;^)

    It seems a shame to me that such a fantastic film has been relegated to a smaller and less visible venue. It will automatically undercut ticket sales. SA only played there for a week-and-a-half and the theater was only about 1/10 sold out when we went. That's a fucking crime!

    Is this the case elsewhere? Where is SA playing in your area? How much promotion is going on?

  • Disney bought the distro rights to Studio Ghibli's back catalog to bury it. Look at the advertising budgets for Spirited Away vs. the ohmy god bad Treasure Planet. Think of the marketing Mononoke got. And Disney hasn't done jack to promote the backcatalog they landed. Disney bought the stuff to "prove" that there isn't a market for Anime. (I have friends who worked in the animation industry for Nickelodeon, Disney, and Fox. They've told me where the bodies are buried.) As for Anime, I'm a staff writer at Sequential Tart,and we have a section devoted to Manga and Anime. I reccomend: Grave of the the Fireflies Record of Lodoss War His and Her Circumstances Helsing I watched the first disk of Cowboy Bebop, and frankly, I couldn't stand it. Kitsch and deus ex machnia endings and "goofy" unfunny comic relief characters are EXACTLY what I f'n HATE. My husband says it gets better, so I may give it another try. ---
  • Ha. I say let them try -- even vi+perl couldn't match the power of an
    editor which is, after all, its own OS. ;-)
    -- Johnie Ingram on debian-devel, about linking vim with libperl.so

    - this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...

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