Slashdot Mirror


Spirited Away Wins Award; Cowboy Bebop Opening Soon

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."

19 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Good Review - Bay Area Anime by StCredZero · · Score: 3, Informative

    A very well written review.

  2. Bebop by The+Raven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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! ^_^

    --
    "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
    1. Re:Bebop by Microlith · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  3. Coyboy Bebop - Movie. Not out yet? by Kenja · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Coyboy Bebop - Movie. Not out yet? by Imperial+Tacohead · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

  4. I think Disney was right... by dagg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think Disney made the right call on waiting to blitzkrieg the public with Spirited Away ads. If they wait until it gets tons of awards, then they'll surely make more money.

    --
    Sex - Find It
  5. Re:Adult Swim? by Microlith · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  6. Re:lame by unicron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then you're watching the wrong anime. Anything that has ever aired on TV pretty much sucks. Go with the classics: Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and now my new fav Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Granted, tentacle porn and big eyed morons is some stupid shit, but if it's an honestly good story, what do you care that it was drawn rather than filmed? If the Shawshank Redemption was been animated would it be any less good?

    --
    Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
  7. Bad for Disney by a7244270 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Bad for Disney by Cheeziologist · · Score: 3, Informative

      I could be completely off base (which happens frequently) but isnt disney distributing this movie?

    2. Re:Bad for Disney by AzrealAO · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't let facts get in the way of a good Anti-Disney rant!

    3. Re:Bad for Disney by a7244270 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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....

    4. Re:Bad for Disney by Robotech_Master · · Score: 5, Informative
      I am so tired of all this Disney conspiracy theory bashing. Take a look at this New York Daily News article, 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."
      --
      Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
  8. Spirited Away has also won... by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Informative
    ...the New York Film Critics Circle award 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.

    --
    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  9. Re:spirited away? by jacoplane · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  10. The Purpose of the Film by tuffy · · Score: 5, Informative
    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?)

    Mr. Miyazaki has a nice explanation. It's basically a story about keeping in touch with one's past, and it's nicely told IMHO.

    --

    Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  11. Re:More Jap porno? by tdelaney · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And most importantly, historically most anime is *not* pornographic.

    A large amount of what was originally imported to the US was pornographic (e.g. Urotsukidoji/Legend of the Overfiend and sequels).

    However, the vast majority of anime is not pornographic, and never has been. There may be scenes of nudity at times (very often comedic), and they often deal with adult situations (not necessarily sex).

    Many animated Japanese shows are mature. There are also many that are aimed at children. And many aimed at teenagers.

    Anime covers the entire spectrum. Anime is a style, not a genre.

  12. Re-rendered Shrek in high resolution 3d IMAX... by fingal · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the VFX 2002 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...

    --

    The only Good System is a Sound System

  13. Cowboy Bebop: Opening soon? Try a year ago. by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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...

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.