Saturday, October 6, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
ANI-MOVIES, *Treasure Planet
Set in outer space, young troublemaker Jim Hawkins helps run an inn with his mother. One night, he helps a crashed pilot who hands him a mysterious orb. A gang of shadowy pirates then burn down the inn looking for the orb. Jim escapes with his mother, and has the family friend Delbert(an egotisitcal dogman doctor)look at it. He discovers that its a starmap that leads to the fabled Treasure Planet which is the stronghold of a legendary space pirate, Captain Flint, who left all his loot there. Delbert hires a ship lead by the foxy feline Captain Amelia to find Treasure Planet, although its unknown to them that most of the crew is made up of the pirates that were first looking for the orb. Jim is sent to work in the galley with the ship’s cook, Long John Silver, who is really the head of the pirate gang. They both eventually become friends during the journey. Although when Jim learns of Silver’s true intentions, he warns the Captain. Jim, Delbert, and Amelia escape to Treasure Planet. Once there, Jim befriends the brainless robot B.E.N. that worked for the pirate Flint. Silver eventually corners Jim and convinces him to show him how the orb works. Its revealed that the entire planet is really a space station that has warp gates leading to all points in the galaxy which Flint used to plunder starships. The planet then starts to break up, so Jim and the remaining pirates then team up to use their ship to escape in a warpgate back home. Jim then lets Silver go, and joins the space navy. His mother reopens the inn with some treasure that Silver gave Jim, and suprisingly, Delbert and Amelia get married and have kids.
This was a decent “space pirate” movie, although it for me falls more in the “pirates in space” category since it has the actual starships looking like 18th Century galleons. Anyway, I was impressed by Disney’s attempt at taking a children’s classic and reinterpreting it in a different way, although certainly better than what they did with Oliver & Company. They also managed to add some actual depth to their main male protagonist, who in most Disney productions is just your average dashing prince archetype, but also didn’t need to be singing about his problems every couple of minutes like Aladdin. The design of most of the characters was pretty good too, especially with the Chuck Jones-type facial features. Despite its initial lukewarm opening, Treasure Planet is a very watchable movie, and at least makes for a worthy rental.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
MISC. MANGA, *The Lost Books Of Eve
Set during the beginning of the world, Adam and Eve apparently took a vacation from the Garden of Eden, but while at sea, Adam was lost during a storm. Eve makes her way back to Eden thanks to the winged reptile Nakash. Once back, she confronts "The Maker" who advises her to wait in Eden for Adam to return. Not content with this, Eve decides to go on her own, but is met by Asherah, the guardian of the gate to Eden. She accompanies Eve on her quest. After crossing a desert plagued with golems, they reach the city of Jupiter, one of the last outposts for the Greek pantheon. Eve gets caught by Zeus' guards, and forced to wear a Slave Leia outfit for his amusement. She gets sprung Melchizedek(or "Mel"), a horned man who works for the Maker. Even then ends up getting caught by Lilith, the culprit who also kidnapped Adam, who is actually Adam's ex-wife. Lilith was the original guardian of Eden that Adam fell in love with, although her greediness got her expelled from the garden. Eve escapes, but has to leave Adam behind. The story concludes with Eve back in Eden waiting for Adam's return while being tempted by the forbidden fruit.
This was an interesting look at the "mythology" of the Old Testament, while mixing in some serious fan service. Josh Howard does a good job with the character designs and the flow of the story. It would be nice to see a continuation of this story sometime outside the original mini-series.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
ANI-MOVIES, *My Neighbor Totoro
Set in the 1950s, a father and his two daughters move into an old house in the Japanese countryside. Their mother is currently sick in the hospital with an unspecified condition. The girls are Satsuki and her younger sister Mei. They discover that their house is haunted(in a friendly way)by some soot-like spirits(who also make an appearance in Spirited Away). Mei also finds two strange bunnylike creatures, and follows them to a much-larger forest spirit who calls himself Totoro. Satsuki doesn't believe her at first, but one night when she and Mei wait for their father at a bus stop during a rainstorm, she's suprised to see Totoro standing next to her. After offering him a spare umbrella, he gives them some seeds, and then gets a ride on a giant cat bus! The girls plant the seeds in their backyard, and Totoro visits them the next night by making them into a huge tree, which is gone by the next morning. Later on, its reported that their mother has taken a turn for the worst, and Mei goes missing trying to get to the hospital. Satsuki searches for Totoro in his lair, who summons the Catbus, and takes her to Mei. They then take the Catbus to go see that their mother has recovered, and return home.
This movie has seen two releases in English, one through the now totally out of the scene Streamline Pictures, which was picked up by Troma Films(the guys who did Toxic Avenger), and then released on DVD through Fox. But later on, Disney bought most of all the other Studio Ghibli titles, and redubbed it with some celebrity voice-overs, with Dakota Fanning and her sister Elle doing Satsuki and Mai. Weirdly enough, when this movie was released in Japan, it was shown with Grave Of The Fireflies, which is one of most depressing(but still brilliant)anime titles ever, so its more than a little odd to be showing it with this upbeat family movie. Admittedly, the story itself does kinda pace along slowly, and there isn't much of a deep plot to speak of. This is all minor though considering how whimsical and entertaining it is, and for all ages. The movie's impact has lead to several enviromental campaigns to be carried out in Totoro's name, and there's even a brief cameo of a Totoro doll in the recent Toy Story 3 movie. There's also a short spinoff movie that you can only catch at the Ghibli Museum in Japan. Any animation fan worth his salt is dutybound to watching this movie as part of their bucket list.
Monday, October 1, 2012
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