ANI-MOVIES, *Evangelion 2.0: You Can(Not)Advance

Continuing the Rebuild Of Evangelion movie franchise, Evangelion 2.0(or Evangelion 2.22 as shown on the video release)is the second of a 4-part series that remakes the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime, but adds alot of new twists and elements to make this a totally seperate entity from the TV show.

The sequal starts out with us being introduced to the brand new character of Mari Makinami, who is the pilot of Eva Unit-05, plus the resident meganekko. She tangles with the zombified remains of the 3rd Angel(the first Angel in movie #1)comes back to life, which results in the total destruction of Unit-05 and one of the numerous NERV bases. Cut to Japan where the 7th Angel is attacking Tokyo-3, but is defeated by the timely arrival of Capt. Asuka and Unit-02. Asuka ends up moving in with Shinji in Misato's apartment, where we're treated to a very fanservish-retake of Shinji's discovery of Pen Pen. Shinji is introduced to Misato's ex-boyfriend Kaji, who in secret delivers a mysterious package to Gendo. The 8th Angel then attacks from orbit, and all three Eva units work together to stop it from bellyflopping on NERV headquarters. Asuka actually takes a turn for the different at this point in the story as she starts to opening up to Shinji, and even Rei, more proven with the poignant elevator scene where they both realize they have alot more in common than before. Rei tries to arrange a dinner meeting between Shinji and his father, and invites most of the NERV regulars. Asuka politely declines to be the test pilot for Unit-03, although it gets possessed by the 9th Angel. With Asuka trapped inside, Unit-03 stomps its way to NERV. Unlike in the TV series where Shinji wouldn't attack the evil Eva because he can't bring himself to kill another person(even though at the time he didn't know it was his friend Toji), he realizes that Asuka is in it, and refuses to stop Unit-03. Gendo pulls a supreme act of dickery by switching Unit-01 to automatic mode with a dummy system, and it tears the crap out of Unit-03, even more than it really needed to. I mean, did it really need to chomp the entry plug with Asuka in it? The Angel was already dead by then! Anyway, Shinji quits just as the 10th Angel appears, and Mari counterattacks inside Unit-02 as Asuka is still in recovery. Even going into "beast mode", Mari can't stop it. Rei appears in the still-damaged Unit-00 and tries to shove a nuke down the Angel's throat, but the Angel devours Rei in Unit-00, and then mutates into being part giant naked Rei(shades of End Of Evangelion?). Mari happens to find Shinji, and carries him in Unit-02 to Unit-01. After being bruised, Unit-01 ascends into a higher lifeform, and plows through the metaphysical mush of the Angel to bring Rei out. Now, at this point, the movie looks like its going to end with Unit-01 bringing about a premature 3rd Impact, but if you stay to the end of the closing credits, Kaworu comes down from the moon in Unit-06 and spears Unit-01 with what is supposed to be several Lance of Longinus, which puts the brakes on 3rd Impact, as least for now.

There's alot more progress made in this film in the story and characters than in the original TV series. Asuka seems to have a less traumatic past, and opens up alot more. In other words, Asuka is less of a b-i-t-c-h! Shinji has gained more confidence than in the first movie, but withouth getting all cocky as he seemed to in the series. Rei is less introverted, and shows more than just her "motherly" concerns toward Shinji. The addition of Mari was mostly unnecessary, as the character didn't add too much more to the movie that couldn't have been filled in by any of the rest of the cast, but it is possible that it was done to set her up for a more important role in the next two movies. The animation in this is of course far better than the original anime, especially in the Eva fights. Asuka's "Rider Kick" entrance is pure gold! The dub is still pretty good too, with Tiffany Grant returning as Asuka, and the same from the first movie's English cast. Unlike the initial release of Evangelion 1.0, Funimation went ahead in did the Evangelion 2.22 release with the bonus features included, instead of just the regular 2.0. If you can stand to wait the extra 3-4 years it'll take to catch the rest of the new Eva movies, then you'll want to grab Part Two.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 7: Page 4

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Aimi Tokutake.

ANI-MOVIES, *Tinkerbell

Where as most Disney's direct-to-video followups to their feature films are rarely treated with any real care, this prequal to the original Peter Pan animated movie was actually pretty good. Tinker Bell was first put together mainly as a vehicle for the Disney Fairies product line which includes Tink and several other original fairy characters. This was mostly a response to several other shows that were out at the time like Winx Club and W.I.T.C.H. which featured teenage girls who transformed into fairies(which on their own were semi-ripoffs of Sailor Moon). It's a step up from the other Disney movie prequals/midquals/sequals to as it was the first one to be done in digital 3D.

This is essentially Tink's origin story. She is "born" from the laugh of a baby and first appears in the fairy home of Pixie Hollow which is part of Neverland. She is greeted by the other fairies, and learns that every one of them has a specific talent that is categorized into different types(water, animal, light, etc.). Tinker Bell is classified as a tinker fairy whose job it is to create and fix tools for the other fairies. At first she doesn't seem to mind it, but after meeting the spiteful garden fairy Vidia, she is told that tinkers aren't allowed to go to the mainland as only the nature fairies are sent to prepare the rest of the world for each season. Determined to prove that she's more than just a tinker, she tries to learn the nature magic skills from some of the other fairies. She fortunately has gained many quick friends, each one with their own type of power, but unfortunately its a power each one is born with and can't be learned. While begging Vidia for trying to learn her skill, she cons Tink into collecting runaway thistles, which end up wrecking most of Pixie Hollow and the fairies' plans for the changing of winter to spring. Mulling over the mistakes she's made, Tink uses her tinker skills to quickly craft some tools that will help repair all the damage she caused, which also increases the production of the fairies' season changing. Tink is then allowed to go to London with the rest of the fairies acting as a finder of lost treasures for humans, where she delivers a music box she fixed to a certain young girl(that she tries to have killed at least twice later on!).

I have to say I was pleasantly suprised by this when I caught on in TV. The story was good, and even though it was intended for younger girls, it wasn't done with a bunch of fairies singing ridiculous songs every five minutes, and going on about chocolate and boys. It also isn't some sappy romance where Tink is trying to find her token "Prince Charming" like other Disney heroines, although she does develop a small friendship with one of the boy fairies that's covered more in the sequal, Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure. The only problem I felt was I don't see where Tink goes from being only slightly agitated from time-to-time, to being the full blown vidictively jealous boy-stalker that we see in Peter Pan. No mention of Pan or Capt. Hook is mentioned in this, but there are at least three more sequals being planned, all of which supposedly take place before Peter Pan. The computer animation in this is also exceptional, considering its not done by Pixar. The vocal cast is pretty impessive too with Anjelica Houston, Raven-Simone, America Ferrera, and Lucy Liu doing most of the fairy regulars, and Mae Whitman is suprisingly good as Tink considering this is the first time she ever talks in a movie. Your daughters or nieces should enjoy this as a nice gift, and worth watching on your own if you're a regular Disneyphile.

MISC. MANGA, *Clockwork Sky

Another steampunk tale from Madeleine Rosca, this follows the dark but meant for younger readers theme that her previous manga-styled series of Hollow Fields did. Clockwork Sky(no relation to the RPG)takes a new look on the Victorian Era in England, but without that pesky Sherlock shoving his ego into it.

Set in 1895 London, the celebrated scientist Erasmus Croach is the creator of a brand new line of mechanized substitutes of the ever-increasing rebellious lower class for the convenience of the snobby upper class twits. His first working model for the police forces is the steampunkish Astro Boy clone, Sky, that the police hope will help them solve the mystery of the city's missing children . Croach's is also "burdened" with having to take care of his inquisitive niece Sally, who is just as much of a genius that her uncle is. She rigs a motorized velocipede(19th Century motorcycle), and enrolls in special underground racing done in the sewers by vagabonds with not much to lose. Sky is sent after her, and causes her to crash into hidden chamber. There, the two of them discover a mound of childrens corpses which are being used for parts of Croach's automatons.

This isn't a bad manga, although I personally think it's a little too much trying to cash in on the whole steampunk phase that a lot of the American manga publishers seems to be going through lately. It's separate from what Rosca did in Hollow Fields which had a Tim Burton-meets-The Muppets feel, and this a Girl Genius taste to it. It would be helpful to expand more on Sally's background and how she instinctively knew how to put together her own working Victorian motorcycle from scratch. Anyway, it's more than likely to develop with further volumes, and possibly worth waiting for a collected edition.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 7: Page 3

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Aimi Tokutake.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Thief And The Cobbler

Originally released in U.S. theatres as Arabian Knight, and also known in other parts of the world as The Princess And The Cobbler, this movie was actually in production for nearly thirty years. First spearheaded in the 60s by Richard Williams who was the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Raggedy Ann & Andy movie, The Thief And The Cobbler went from one production period to another. It was first going to be finally be released in the early 90s by Warner Bros., but that deal fell through when it wasn't done on time. So Williams did two versions of this, one in America as Arabian Night through Miramax, and as Princess And The Cobbler as another, each edit is supposed to be radically different from the other.

Set during the time of the Arabian Nights, an army of evil warriors called the One-Eyes(because they all have one of their eyes poked out)is making their way to Bagdad which is also referred to as the Golden City. Living there is a simpler cobbler named Tack, who after encountering the unnamed Thief in his shop stumbles into the grand vizir, Zigzag(voiced by the late Vincent Price, which was his last movie role). Ziggy brings him to the king to be executed, but the luscious Princess Yum-Yum takes a serious shining to him, and saves him by claiming she needs a shoe repaired. Meanwhile, the Thief sneaks into the palace to try and steal three gold balls that are placed on top of a high tower which are prophecised to protect the city from evil. Tack runs into ZZ again and has him put in prision. Thief manages after several Wile E. Coyote-type attempts to finally get the balls, just as a messenger comes to inform the king of the oncoming One-Eyes invasion. When Zigzag's posse gets the balls for him after the Thief drops them, he uses this as a chance to have the king let him marry the princess. After being rejected, Zigster takes the balls to ally himself with the One-Eyes. Yum-Yum then goes with Tack on a quest to get advice from a reclusive witch who lives in the desert to find out how to stop the One-Eyes, al while being followed by the Thief. Along the way, they run across some melodic desert punks who were formally with the army, that Yummy adopts as her royal guard. They get to the witch who tells them to attack the One-Eyes when they come. Double-backing it to Bagdad, they arrive just as the One-Eyes unleash their gigantic war machine on the city. Tack realizes that the witch ment to use "a tack" though, and throws a tack at the soldiers which ricochets off several soldiers and eventually causes the war machine to fall apart, although the Thief's attempts to get the balls back from it help bring it down too. Tack is seen as a hero, marries Yum-Yum, and the Thief tries to make off with the closing credits.

This film has some serious design clashes in it, but in a good way. It goes the way of generic Disney style, but is more heavily based on the United Productions of America animation who did Mr. Magoo. The main draw was the esthetic use of perspective involved in some of the shots to provide an almost 3-D effect when watching it. When Disney more or less took the film from Richard Williams when they released it through Miramax, they gave it a new edit and some new voice overs. They added Johnathon Winters as the Thief(in inner monologue only), and Matthew Broderick as Tack, even though in the original dub he was voiced by Sean Connery. After lots of ups & downs with Disney, Williams finally decided to release it as a non-profit bootleg titled The Recobbled Cut. It's visually a wonderful film, and worth owning anyone who can appreaciate a great animated legacy.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 7: Page 2

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Aimi Tokutake.