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."

Comments

Bebop

[The Raven]

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! ^_^

Re:Bebop

[Microlith]

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.

I think Disney was right...

[dagg]

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.

Spirited Away has also won...

[Mononoke]

...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.

Re:Bad for Disney

[AzrealAO]

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

The Purpose of the Film

[tuffy]

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.

Re:Bad for Disney

[Robotech_Master]

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."