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Sen To, X-Men 2
liquidbrains writes "With 'Princess Mononoke' fresh in our memories, the number one highest grossing film in Japan -ever- is coming to the US. Thanks to Disney and Pixar's John Lasseter, who has supervised the dub, we can soon expect a fine English adaptation of animation master Hayao Miyazaki's latest masterpiece, 'Spirited Away'. See the trailer here." Reader thefalconer writes "It seems that Apple has just released the very first trailer to X-Men 2 on their website. From what I've seen this movie looks like it's going to rock! Too bad I have to wait for May of next year!"
we could send a message to the MPAA by boycotting [these] movies.
Nah, I guess that just won't happen.
Anyway, mixing the two is sacrilige, as the first is 500 times what the second will ever be. (self-respecting anime geek subtle joke inserted in the hope of karma whoring a few points off them...)
Check out Nausicaa.net for more about Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. These people are brilliant, and Disney bought the North American distribution rights because they're (as much as I hate them) good business people. Porco Rosso, Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Castle of Cagliostro and Tonari No Totoro are all examples of pure brilliance.
This is what Animation should be. Also, Disney's trailer sucks, ignore it, the trailer for the French release was WAY better, check out the official France site or follow the "La Fiche du Film" link here (they took down the really good trailer, damn). There are other trailers around, anyone got links?
well, not quite direct, damn akamai
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As CmdrTaco himself best said,
"anime makes you wish American tv and movies had a soul..."
What I loved about Mononoke was that there was no clear good or evil. The central character, the boy, was kind of a protagonist, except he fucked up royally and got poisoned. That mark sealed the fate of his doom. You wouldn't see something that grim from Disney. They are afraid to even say the word "death." And Lady Iboshi was pretty bitchy and greedy, but she turned around in the end. And the great forest spirit was supposed to be so benevolent and good, ended up being a total havoc wreaker. So the movie doesn't draw clear lines about who is good and who is evil.
That's the point. You're supposed to think about the qualities of the character and decide for yourself whose side your on. It gives you insight into human nature. And it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than watching some Bruce Willis action flick where the villain may as well have the snidely moustache painted on his face with the word "VILLAIN" stamped on his shirt.
Mononoke was about redemption, about good and evil, about preservation and progress, and about carrying out your duty even though you're damned to die.
And come on, did you see when he shot that guy's head off using only an arrow? Fuck all, that's badass as hell.
I don't know about the rest of the /. crowd but I extremely surprised by how much I enjoyed the first X-Men movie.
As an avid comic book reader (and a one-time X-Men fanatic) I was apprehensive about the film adaptation of my favourite band of super heroes.
After all, the track record of comic book characters on the silver screen wasn't exactly filled with success - Superman, Batman were both good movies but their follow-ups got progressively worse, Judge Dredd had so much potential (see Robocop, which even includes some classic Dredd on-liners) but was such a disappointment, The Punisher, etc. (The less said about Supergirl the better.)
Compared to all of these, X-Men rocked.
Not only was it true to the comic book in most regards but it got across the underlying moral message of the comic book title - that no matter what we look like on the outside or what we can do, we are all equal - without having to excessively spoonfeed the audience or dragging its feet.
OK, if we're nitpicking then Rogue shouldn't be a teenager and neither should Bobby (Iceman). Jean Grey should be called Marvel Girl - or Pheonix at a pinch - when in costume not Jean (did anyone else find it silly that her's was the only alter ego that didn't have a proper name?). Ororo should have either had a headpiece or a mohican hair cut. Toad should have been fatter and stupider. Mystique should have had a costume. It should have been the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
But, there are things that will work in comic books that won't work on screen. The writers allude to this when they have Wolverine question the fashion sense of the team's costumes, to which Cyclops replies "What would you prefer, gold spandex?" - any X-Men fan will recognise this immediately as a reference to Wolverine's own comic book costume, which was originally blue and gold and later orange and brown.
In fact, this was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, and even my girlfriend who wouldn't read a comic book if you paid her laughed along with the joke.
Bottom line is this: rather than nit-pick over minor details why don't you just enjoy the film?
Brian Singer, the cast and the crew did a great job. Would it kill you to acknowledge it?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
alt.binaries.multimedia.anime
See it without excessive mouse raping (and it's subbed, sorry, some of you will have to deal with the horrors of reading)...
Or try for it on any P2P service...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
One of the things that made the US release of "Princess Mononoke" more accessable to Western audiences was the excellent translation by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman didn't just make a literal translation (try comparing the soundtrack to the "literal translation" subtitles if you have the Region 1 DVD), he also adapted the narrative slightly so that some assumed cultural references were replaced with ones which would be more familiar to us, and conversations would flow in a way more natural to English speakers. He even went as far as to use words that would roughly lip-sync to the film, unlike the literal version. This is a heck of a lot of work to do, and shows real dedication.
True anime fans, used to subtitles, might balk at this - they'll get the cultural references and know the background. But think back to when you saw your first anime, and how alien some concepts seemed, and don't forget that the R1 DVD edition also contains the original soundtrack and literal translation subtitles, so you still have that option as well as the greater audience appeal resulting from the (respectfully done) Westernisation.
I hope future dub projects get this kind of attention... it makes quite a big difference. Gaiman said he'd have to be mad to ever do it again. Not an easy job, it seems.
Has anyone seen other well-done dubs from studio Ghibli on DVD? My other half and I love their work, and want the option of the literal sub/japanese dub, but would also like an English soundtrack if possible...
-- What goes up must come down. Ask any SysAdmin.
While I realize they aren't Making this movie, I can't help but wonder how much of it they will chop out, or change to fit their idea of what a movie should be.
If you'd read the article at Nausicaa.net, you'd see that there will be no changes except the dubs.
According to Mr. Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli, other companies such as Fox and Time-Warner contacted Tokuma, but Disney was the only company willing to agree to this condition, and that was the main reason why Tokuma chose Disney as a partner.
The VHS release of Kiki's Delivery Service had a ton of Disney previews before the movie. The Princess Mononoke US DVD release had very little if any Disney spots, I don't know if it even showed the Disney castle with Twink flying over it as in other Disney movies. AFAIR it was the the least "disnified" Disney release ever. Most people were satisfied in the DVD release- but felt they bungled the theatrical release. Let's hope they do better this time.
So no, Disney is doing nothing with the movie except possibly throwing in some previews, distributing it, and making money off it.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.