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Spirited Away Still Has a Chance
Dean Siren writes "Disney chairman Richard W. Cook says that they've budgeted to market Spirited Away in up to 1,000 North American theaters, and if the Oscars endorse it as much as Metacritic has, Disney will launch it. They'll spend the same time and money promoting Spirited Away for Academy Awards as they will Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. Cook hopes that it will win not only Best Animated Film, but get nominated for Best Picture, as Beauty and the Beast got in 1991. Thanks to Jack Mathews at New York Daily News for getting Cook to explain."
This is a great victory for geeks everywhere. Disney has always done a good job of supporting "long shot" geek movies (Toy Story, anyone?). They have the market clout to make people see the beauty in things usually only appreciated by us geeks. If you think about it, The Sorcerer's Apprentice was sort of a prototypical hacker programming geek. The promotion of this film in competition for an Oscar is only going to help geeks of all walks of life. Hopefully, geeks on Slashdot will continue to support Disney so that we can get more of this!
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Except for both movies being presented as animation, comparing SA to BATB is like comparing gold to crap.
Its a comparison between true visual art and typical, run-of-the-mill disney fare. Want to see BATB again? go rent The Little Mermaid.
And let's not even begin to compare the story lines. SA is far, far more creative, deep and moving.
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That movie was really great. And plus, with disney bringing it in that'll just make it easier to access. So if it's playing at a theater near you, see it. It's a great movie. I however do wonder if the original script was changed to 'americanize' it. I hope not. But it's good to see that a big company has finally acknowledged that Anime movies could really do well in the US.
Even if you hate Animation this is something everyone should see. There are just too many good things to say about this movie, as this is something that can be considered a truly artful piece of work among the repetitive norm.
Don't make the mistake of filing this film under the typical "Anime-blahblahblah" category.
Because Disney doesn't hold the merchandising rights to the Ghibli catalog, they will never promote these movies as they should be promoted. Remember: Disney gains nothing from the success of these movies, and loses nothing if they fail.
There is also quite a bit of Not-Invented-Here attitude that is quite apparent in what little promotion there has been.
I was lucky enough to see Spirited Away on the big screen. My girlfriend and I went to the 7:45 PM showing on a Saturday. We were the only ones in the audience. The print looked almost new, as if the theatre hadn't been bothering to run it to an empty house. Local promotion? There was only the simple one-line listing in the newspaper. There were NO posters, one-sheets, lobby cards, stand-ups, or anything in or around the theatre. No wonder I got a private showing. Even if the general public had heard of the movie, no one would know it was playing at that theatre.
To sum up: Disney is burying this movie, just as they did with Mononoke. It may not be entirely intentional, but it is still occuring.
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They need to be bought out and disolved, so art can continue. Look at all the crappy studios disney runs and ends up producing total crap. The only exception is pixar, but we all know they only distribute for pixar. All of the other studio's disney owns produce crap. Someone please disolve disney and throw away all of their stolen copyright. Yeah, it's flame bait. Fuck disney.
I was simply bown away watching a 4,5 and 6 year old glued to the screen for the entire movie. No potty breaks and no wandering minds. Hell, my oldest probably caught only 10% of the subtitles.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
The problem with judging Spirited Away alongside this year's stock of American films is the lack of knowledge of the symbolism/references in the anime which are foreign and unrecognized in American culture. I hope the judges do their homework, which may enable them to realize the full brilliance of the movie. Also, Spirited Away helps us familiarize ourselves a bit more with the mentality of Japanese society. While it may be as magical as Alice in Wonderland there are plenty of differences between Alice's Wonderland and Chihiro's Wonderland. I, for one, appreciated seeing a "spirit house", let alone the huge, very important bathhouse operation.
The story's focus on Disney is completely idiotic. Focus on the company that made the film, not the one that succeeded in getting it after ripping off or destroying as much Japanese anime as it could up to now.
I don't know how the voiceovers are in English. If possible, see the Japanese version with subtitles as well some time, it is quite impressive. Of course Hayao Miyazaki's work is all fabulous. Check out Laputa!
P.S. There is a book of Spirited Away as well, in English I believe. And in convenience stores they also sell segments of the movie as gorgeous shot-by-shot full color glossy manga books. Lots of Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro) stuff. I believe there is a shop in New York that handles tons of Japanese anime related stuff downtown.
Incidentally the name Sen to Chihiro refers to her name being stolen (I won't say by whom). The only character left can be read as Sen as well as Chi. Sen means a thousand.
I've sen "Spirited Away" on a large screen twice now. The film is so rich that, like all good art, it gets better with more study. Beyond the story, the incidental artwork in so many of the scenes is breath taking. I am looking forward to the DVD so I can actually freeze frames and just look more closely at the landscapes, the interior sets, the tapestries, etc. My feeling is that Disney is completely outclassed by this work. They [Disney] are intellectualy bankrupt. If they can use their influence and ample cash reserves to promote something of this quality, I am all for it. My only hope is they do not lock the artist up in a Disney contract for a string of pictures that reflects their dead end concepts of "product." A clear example of this "opportunity" is the Jackie Chan deal. His Disney funded movies are TERRIBLE! They all have that lame "written by committee running a formula" feel. If they want to promote the work, fine. If they need to CONTROL FUTURE CONTENT, we could be screwed.
I was lucky enough to see one of the screenings Disney did at their El Capitan theater in Hollywood in Japanese with subtitles. I remember there was a HUGE line out the theater and there was a sign when we came out saying due to popular demand, they had added another subtitled show that night. Cool, huh? I don't give Disney any credit in this except they brought good anime to America and to a wider audience.
And I still can't get the music to the movie out of my head...Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away definitely rate on my all time favorites list.
That's why I loved this movie. It went against everything that Disney stands for. Most of their movies the main characters are rich, and considered by society to be beautiful. Stupid conformist crap. Shrek showed that you don't have to conform and you don't have to live up to other people's view of what beautiful is.
I think 2002 will be a much better year for Disney animated features.
Lilo & Stitch did good business at the box office and was very well-received by critics; it appears that Treasure Planet may do this also. It appears that Disney has learned from the horrid experiences of The Emperor's New Groove, Dinosaur and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and the upper management kept pretty much hands-off on this year's feature releases.
About the idea of Spirited Away being nominated for best picture, won't happen. The new category of best animated picture was created by the MPA specifically so that animated movies wouldn't be nominated for the best picture award.