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Spirited Away Set for 800 Theatre Rerelease
Robotech_Master writes "According to the website of Jerry Beck, a 20-year-animation industry veteran and one of the co-founders of Streamline Animation, when Spirited Away won the Oscar, it also "won the right to be re-released to 800 theatres this Friday. Disney will be announcing plans to re-release the Japanese masterpiece in theatres later today." When I emailed Beck to ask him his source, he said it was someone within the Disney publicity department and it would be made public sometime today. According to Spirited Away's numbers page at Rotten Tomatoes, it peaked during its first run at 151 screens. Wonder how it'll do this time around?"
I see a lesson to be learned here... this is a great idea... make sure there is an audience for it before wasting money...
Perhaps they should have waited for Star Trek Nemesis to win something BEFORE releasing it to theaters...
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Also Kiki's Delivery Service will be out April 15.
won the right to be re-released to 800 theatres this Friday. Disney will be announcing plans to re-release the Japanese masterpiece in theatres later today
Are they saying that it would been illegal for the movie to show in any theatres if it hadn't won an Oscar? Or is this just a deal they had with the 800 theatres? Or an internal Disney thing?
If it's the former, then that industry is more red-taped than I had thought.
"I only speak the truth"
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The DVD will be out in three weeks. So for the price of two tickets, you can actually own it!
heh... Originally that is exactly what I thought. Then some friends dragged me to the theater and we saw it. I really liked it.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
I for one am more than happy to see that Spirited Away will be in theaters again, but will the fact that it's coming out on DVD in the states in April hurt ticket sales?
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
There's not a whole lot of kids stuff out now. You've got spring break everywhere. They should release it in 3000 theaters.
The mouse has a love hate relationship with the movie. They want the money it will make, but they don't want it to overshadow the in house animation.
Yes, but will it be coming to IMAX screens? :-)
What would make me happier is a European release. Or more specifically an Irish release. Anime is still very niche here (Although seeing The End of Evangelion on the shelves next to other new DVD releases in mainstream stores Virgin in the UK is very encouraging) and according to the IMDB website there isn't even a European release date announced for the Cowboy Bebop movie. I hope I don't sound like some whiney loser, but the only thing that's sustained my anime interest is the fact that I have access to American releases and have a region free player (two actually, including my computer) but many people here have neither. Any way, big releases like this, judging by Princess Monoke's treatment, usually get a nice DVD release here at least, so I am a bit encouraged :)
Yup...
Here's the press release from Disney...
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Yes, but Spirited Away isn't a Disney cartoon (its not even dubbed to English by Disney... Pixar was in charge of that) Its a Studio Ghibli animation directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
If you don't mind a show that isn't crammed with nonstop action, you might just like it. The pacing can be slow at times compared to the latest hollywood Blow Em Up, but there are still a number of action and suspense sequences.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Dubbed or subbed? The subbed version was only out at a few 'artsy' theatres in the area.
Finally. I was hoping to see this done with Mononoke Hime, but at least its successor will get the treatment it deserves in the States. Personally, I found the subtitled version to be far superior to the dub (Sen's voice is the traditional whiny American dub little girl that doesn't much help the perception of even the best anime as Saturday morning cartoon fodder), but the movie, all in all, was amazing. One successful U.S. release will pave the way to a lot more movies going mainstream.
maybe media companies shouldn't promote lots of crappy bands so they can charge you $18 for a good band's cd
If there are good voice actors, it could be great I suppose. I would welcome comments!
Is there any news on an internation release or prehaps a DVD I could import? I've only heard about this on the grape vine but never had a change to even see a clip :(
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Disney is just the distributor. Miyazaki-san is the brains behind this.
While it tickles me pink that this wonderful movie is getting another big-screen release, I doubt it will do any better this time than it did last time.
Spirited Away is just too Japanese/Asian for middle-Americans to get.
I could do three pages of Way Important Stuff which Every Japanese Kid Over Five Already Knows But Gets Glossed Over.
I dragged a bunch of friends to see this during the first release. They left the movie shaking their heads in utter incomprehension. "But don't you see? It all makes sense!" OK. Maybe not.
j.
Further down the page was news that made my day! A live-action Jetsons! Whoopie!
Ugh.
...is ported to anime.
You'r loss. Theres a reason that a film that was released in only a handful of theaters won the best animated picture oscar! Spirited Away isn't the normal Disney crap, in fact its Disney in name only... Now when Disney releases Spirited Away 3: Voyage to Snow Whites Castle i'll be disinterested.
My question is: is there an official English-subbed Japanese release of this that I can play in a region 1 player? Or am I seeing only boots on eBay?
Because I'd love to see the movie without funding the Mouse's lobbying efforts against Fair Use and the public domain.
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This is interesting. Most of the replies have been "yeah but this isn't Disney produced". I assume the original poster was not making a reference to Disney quality, but Disney corporate (you know, like Sony). So it's funny that this is "ok" because anime is cool and it wasn't produced by Disney. Yet no one has said (there are 5 replies as of this writing) "hey it's those slimeball copyright extending Disney dudes, I'm not gonna support ANYTHING they are involved with".
With such a small number of theaters in the first run, isn't it a little disingenuous of Disney to say in their press release, "... it has always been our desire to share this film with the widest possible audience here in the U.S." ? I mean, give us a break! If you're a behemoth like Disney, wouldn't the widest possible audience be basically all theaters in the entire country?
It's been my experience that whenever something gets dubbed, it usually degrades it's quality. They should show the movie in subtitles like they did with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The original soundtrack is usually purposefully orchestrated to fit the movie, and when you take a language as foreign as English and dubb it; the quality usually always degrades. I've also heard that they've changed some of the soundtrack around, and if this is true then it will be a MAJOR blow to the movie because as far as I can tell, the original soundtrack is mindblowing.
Has anyone seen both versions and can confirm/deny this?
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I think that having more theaters is nice... but they need to sell the movie first... to some audience. The Oscar is nice and all but I doubt there will be too much a correlation between it and increased sales unless it had won for Best Picture.
But the more important problem is the audience. Who is this for? Under 13? Teenagers? Adults? Are they going to show commercials during Saturday mornings between Pokemon and Digimon? Or is this after-school fare?
I still think the biggest problem is that Disney doesn't know what to do with these films. They don't fit into their standard G rating pipeline so the films end up showing on 100 screens and getting attended to by the film heads only. Too bad.
What is music when you despise all sound?
800 theaters is a joke. They spend insane millions making and marketing the craptastic Treasure Planet, they release it in 4x as many theaters, and it tanks. And now Spirited Away earns the highest American movie award, in addition to mountains of international acclaim, and their answer is 800 theaters?
What the fuck, Eisner? Do you need me to draw you a diagram?
Never approach a vast undertaking with a half-vast plan.
Failed at the box office? What box office?
You know where I got to watch it? I watched it in a nearby university's 100 seat theater. This is the kind of coverage Disney gave the film: very little advertisement, very few showings. Is there even a "box office" for universities for it to fail at?
Even 800 theatres is nothing compared to what the real box office bombs open at.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
The best part of the moviegoing experience is how they mop down the floor between showings with soda & butter 'flavouring'.
I love that.
Here at
The Japan Times
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
Yes: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/video/sen/ -- but. . . it's released by Buena Vista Japan. Disney kicked in 10% of the film's production costs, they got a cut from the theatrical release as well as the video releases. Some of the European video releases are from third-party distributors, Disney may or may not receive funds from those sales.
Does anyone have any figures for how Princess Mononoke did? I imagine that it would be the best indicator for what this will do.
I know Mononoke's theatrical release was lackluster, but that's largely because there were only 8 prints of the movie, and so it slowly wound its way through the country instead of having a real "release" per se. But how were the sales/rentals on the Mononoke DVD?
Philip Sandifer's academic website
in portugal atm theres 8 cinemas with the movie :/
in the capital lisbon the peak was 3 cinemas but now its down to 1.
Smile... tomorrow will be worse.
As sent via IM from one of my friends:
SPUNKYMORT: the movies plot is that all the japanese god's go to this hidden island for vacations
SPUNKYMORT: and this girl winds up there
SPUNKYMORT: but this horrid big headed woman takes your name and you're her slave
SPUNKYMORT: and now the girl has to work there
SPUNKYMORT: but there's this black ghost thing that follows her around'
SPUNKYMORT: and he seems friendly at first
SPUNKYMORT: but then he starts eating everybody
SPUNKYMORT: the girls parents eat this food and turn into pigs
SPUNKYMORT: she works with a guy with 8 arms
SPUNKYMORT: the black ghost spits out gold for everybody
SPUNKYMORT: and then everybody flocks to him
SPUNKYMORT: then he eats everyone and becomes really big
SPUNKYMORT: but then he pukes them all out
SPUNKYMORT: oh and the big headed witch has a good twin sister
SPUNKYMORT: that helps them turn her friend from a dragon into a little boy
SPUNKYMORT: and the big headed witch has a GIANT baby that gets turned into a mouse
SPUNKYMORT: but the big headed witch...the evil one only cares that the giant baby doesn't cry
SPUNKYMORT: because the giant baby starts destroying everything like an infant would
SPUNKYMORT: oh and there's these little black things that look like lint balls that carry REALLY heavily dense pieces of coal to the fire and you feed them candy stars and that makes them really happy
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Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
You could run commercials during the McNeil-Lehrer report and 60 minutes and no adults are going to go and see it.
It has nothing to do with 'ignorance of the masses'.
They understand it's a "growed up" cartoon.
They simply aren't interested in seeing it.
And that's that.
Few people share your tastes in cinema, and I don't see why you or anyone else cares.
Watch your cartoons and quit preaching.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
From dictionary.com
disinterested:
Not interested; indifferent: "supremely disinterested in all efforts to find a peaceful solution" (C.L. Sulzberger).
Having lost interest
uninterested:
Marked by or exhibiting a lack of interest. See Usage Note at disinterested.
So, stick it up your ass, you contextual fool.
You could just go ask the director (miyazaki) who, upon being told he won an oscar said he was more interested in capturing the hearts of children than Hollywood's highest honor.
Does that answer your question?
no
Just like "Iron Giant" failed at the box office? Oh, wait. You mean, that failures at the box office are somehow linked to a lack of advertising and publicity?
If Disney actually pushes "Spirited Away" it'll do just fine at the box office.
I had to travel 45 minutes away from my home to find a theatre showing it back in October. More theatres and a bit of publicity can do wonders.
Jory
Sorry.
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For a decidedly non-Disney (it was one of a very few number of Studio Ghibli movies that Disney declined to distribute worldwide), check out Grave of the Fireflies. One word of warning, however: don't watch this movie if you're feeling even slightly depressed.
--
The first is that there are very often small details in the image that I miss if I'm distracted by subtitles. This is especially true with Miyazaki, I think.
The second is that it's much harder to follow a language like Japanese if you don't have a background in it. I grew up speaking English and studied some French. So it's easy to follow films in French, Spanish and Italian without having to read every last word. Japanese is so different that I don't get anything at all from hearing it. So I have to read the movie instead of watching it.
I haven't seen the subtitled version of Spirited Away, but I had both problems with Metropolis.
By the way, Spirited Away is amazing. If you can, catch it in a theater with a digital projector.
There are almost no official Japanese DVDs that play outside of region 2. Just like there are almost no official US releases that play outside of region 1.
However, ignoring the region code on the DVD is not breaking the DMCA (not by the letter of the law anyway... just remember, you can be sued for anything at all, and then guilt must be proven in court) since the region code fails to meet the standards in the definition of an access control method by the DMCA.
Many Studio Ghibli DVDs have both subs and dubs. www.amazon.co.jp or www.cdjapan.co.jp are good places to start looking.
The bad news: The Japanese release of Sen To Chihiro has a red tint to it, supposedly because Buena Vista screwed up. BV changed their mind between claims it did what it always did to releases, and that they adjusted it for proper display on plasma tv's (this one appears to be true, the red tint may be a "color temperature" adjustment), and that it looks perfectly fine on their high-end multi-tens-of-thousands test equipment (if you were such A/V freaks that you cared about a red tint, you would too, right?).
The Official Region 1 US DVD comes out april 15th, along with Kiki's delivery service and Laputa: Castle in the Sky
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Its a Studio Ghibli animation directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
The odd thing is they call him the "Disney of Japan", which I think is a little insulting, considering he surpassed Walt Disney a long time ago.
There is a reason for headlines. Read them, if it's not something you think you'd be interested, then DON'T CLICK IT. I don't and I'm sure no one else cares whether you thought it was interesting or not. I'm not even that interested in it but I know that there are some people out there that are and for them, it is news.
You should put the dice down and get out of your friend's parent's basement for a while.
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Movietickets.com, which I got to by going to AMCtheatres.com has times for it already listed on March 28th, and at my local theatre too! Tickets are available to buy right NOW. I'll be there this Friday.
Bugs Bunny is the most popular cartoon in the world, watched by all ages. "Growed ups" have no problem with watching cartoons.
I thought we were all boycotting Amazon due to their patenting everything but the kitchen sink (Bezos: "Note to self, patent the kitchen sink."). But I guess Amazon is like Wal-mart, everyone hates it, yet everyone shops there anyway.
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Spam subject of the moment: Offshore account secrets -nashville disrupt
That logic has merit, after all. I know I've watched The Oscars several times and said "What movie is that??" And when I saw it at the video store I picked it up.
The guys from The Bob and Tom radio show were pretty unimpressed by it, calling it boring and unfunny. I consider those guys to be a good representation of non-geeks, so I expect the general public will have a similar reaction to Spirited Away. Personally I thought it had several funny moments. There are no banana peels; the humor is more subtle than that.
In the end, it's a simple matter of going see it and deciding for yourself. :/
Call me crazy, but I think the first 30 minutes of Akira would suit your taste.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Spirited Away didn't fail, it didn't get a fair run. Look at Treasure Planet...how AWFUL that movie was, and it was a media blitz from Disney. At least "Spirited" got a better shake than Princess Mononoke. We live in Los Angeles for crying out loud, and we had to drive an hour into Pasadena to an obscure arthouse theater and watch it sitting in folding chairs on a screen the size of a medium-sized in-home projection T.V. screen. MEDIUM-sized projection T.V. screen!
Disney really doesn't want the U.S. to suddenly get an uncontrollable craving for non-Disney-produced animation features. The only reason Ghibli has any ties to Disney at all is because Disney doesn't want anime to steamroll over them without them at least having a hand on the pressure-release valve.
No matter how good the anime feature is, if Disney releases it in the U.S., it's popularity will be governed and reduced by the hand of Eisner.
That would be two different people. Odd concept for you, I know.
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Qzukk:If you don't mind a show that isn't crammed with nonstop action, you might just like it. The pacing can be slow at times compared to the latest hollywood Blow Em Up, but there are still a number of action and suspense sequences.
Okay then, forget it. I'm not much into artsy movies. Take Princes Mononoke for example. It was, technically, a great cinematic acheivement, but it bored the hell outta me. Half the time I was just asking myself, WHO IS ON THE MOST CRACK? Not to offend anyone who likes the movie, it's just that I didn't really want to see some artsy-"Oh look at me, i'm so DEEP and insightful" movie. I wanted to be entertained.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
It depends on the hegemonistic power at the time, doesn't it? In the time of Marco Polo, Venice was called the Suzhou of Europe (as in Suzhou, China - renowned for its canals/gardens). Now, Suzhou is known as the "Venice of the Orient."
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Good to see someone has some sense here. Mod parent up!
A question for all those people who think I should see the movie: Why should I go see this movie (even if it is the greatest one ever made) and pay money to help a company take away my freedom? Disney is a big supporter of digital "rights" managment--the ultimate censorship system. They were one of the companies who brib^Wcontributed to Fritz Hollings--the guy who created the CBDTPA/SSSCA.
I just had to add this ...
... Samara, from _The Ring_. How's that for an eerie girl's voice.
A search on the IMDB reveals that the voice actor for Sen/Chihiro is none other than
-- Rob
Y'a jamais des choses qu'on peut pas se débrouiller ; juste laisse-moi t'aider!
Well. Bummer that Disney will still get a cut (they own Buena Vista) either way.
Looking around it looks like the Japanese release of these features English and French subs, not the English/Cantonese that many of the copies on eBay seem to feature. And the price at cdjapan is insane even before S/H. Oh well.
Yeah, I guess it's time to actually learn Japanese, get a region-free DVD player (or just watch on my computer), and stop having to worry about finding stuff that is either dubbed OR subbed. Thanks for the tips on where to get stuff.
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Come on, the Academy isn't that bad. And Spirited Away (subtitled) is still playing
Interesting, speaking of Disney, have a look down Jerry Beck's website, and you'll find this link.
Timely, relevant and ontopic. not just a little f'ing scary! oh no!!
I don't mean to offend anyone's tastes but I really didn't see the big deal with Spirited Away; nor did the two anime fans I saw it in the theater with (some new but empty place near White Plains...). The voice acting was passable and it was a nice little fantasy setting and all but the pacing seemed horribly off. This was one of the few movies I've seen in recent times where I actually checked my watch hoping there wouldn't be much more to go.
/.ers are warned about, or those that only ever enjoy the really esoteric and sort of isolationist-intellectual-film-nut anime. Anyhow, is there anyone else here that didn't really like it so much?
First of all, the main character seemed to be a whiny little girl for far too long, and seemed fairly well-adapted to being enslaved as a bath wench. The main goal she had was to free her parents, but she doesn't actually embark on doing so until at least 2/3 of the way through the film. The bulk of the movie seemed to be clever and well-directed bits that didn't really relate to each other or the main storyline enough to warrant their length or involvement.
Admittedly, I'm usually more drawn to the more action-oriented but intelligent anime (Bebop, NGE, etc) or goofy stuff (FLCL, Excel Saga, w00t!), but I dig the brainy bits of Eva too, as well as Lain, Akira, and even Mononoke, although I hated the way that ended. Am I still just too Western? The only people I know that really enjoyed Spirited Away were either the die-hard anime fans that
Green-voting, republican-registered, socialist-libertarian.
There were Trailers for Spirited Away before many G and PG films, posters in the Paramount Theatre in Downtown Toronto, and it showed in one of the large screens at that theatre during it's initial run, and was packed when I saw it.
Not sure about others. Even if it is to be re-released in some odd number of theaters I doubt it will be anywhere near me. I did not even know it existed until the Oscars. The odds still stand on the side that I'm not interested in seeing it. I've never had the Oscars influence what movies I want to see.
http://www.maximum-cars.com - My little hobbie.
Look at Treasure Planet...how AWFUL that movie was
Treasure Planet was meant to be a light, action-oriented kids movie. And it was. And as such, it was entertaining. I thought the animation was better than in most Disney films, the voice acting was very good, and as Disney kids' fare goes, it was decently inventive (compare this to, say, "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," which was just plain awful in every respect).
The general problem with this thread is that everyone is fawning all over Spirited Away simply because it's anime. Can't we just look at it as a good film? And yet at the same time, people are getting all uptight about Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch, just because they're also animated features. Surely one doesn't have to be so petty as to put them down just because you like Spirited Away?
Your absolutely right. Spirited Away was truly phenominal. After seeing the film in a purely sober state, I still walked out of the theatre feeling as though I had just visited another world. It was genuinely suprising and often terrifying. It was a fairy tale, but one that should never be shown to children.
I saw it in times square, and after seeing something that was so spiritually fullfilling, I almost felt sick when I emerged to the street. Dont get me wrong, I love living in NYC but the experience of Spirited Away is so diametricly opposed to modern urban living; lets just say the contrast of the two experiences leads to a lot of questions.
Unlike other anime nuts, I am fully capable of expressing my fandom without feeling that people have some legal requirement to like the same stuff I do.
Thats why I try to be as objective as possible when talking about anime. It lets people make their own decisions, instead of me deciding for them.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
While it tickles me pink that this wonderful movie is getting another big-screen release, I doubt it will do any better this time than it did last time.
Spirited Away is just too Japanese/Asian for middle-Americans to get.
Oh, I hope not. I'd really like to think that The Rest Of Us could appreciate it. True, it's full of Japanese cultural references, but the story is still the classic kid-and-friends-on-a-quest-to-get-home story. Think of it as a Japanese "Wizard of Oz".
There's always hope. After all, no one expected "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to do anything, and it stuck around the theaters for a year or so. Then again, my rational self doubts it. I'm afraid you're right.
What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?
"Hi, I'm geekwench, and I'm an animation addict..."
Silly, but true; I love the illusions created by well-done blobs of ink and paint (or well-done CGI.) Spirited Away was a beautifully made film, and I shuddered when I found out that Disney was handling the US distribution, because I knew that there was no way in hell that they would give it the marketing that it deserved.
Fast-forward past Oscar night: Spirited Away walks away with the gold. I find it absolutely hilarious that Disney in general (and Eisner in particular) is sitting down to a 3-course meal of crow right about now. Much as I liked Lilo and Stitch, it was good because the filmmaker got Disney to stay the hell out of his way for the most part. I've been hoping that somebody would come along to derail the Disney juggernaut for a long time. Don Bluth had potential, but not the budget. Bakshi doesn't have the broad appeal. Pixar became an ally. Dreamworks is still too much in its infancy to really tell. OTOH, Japanese companies have been putting out some amazing stuff for quite a while now, with very little recognition outside of the community of "anime fans." The fact that the Mouse's in-house product lost to the redheaded stepchild has put a nice warm fuzzy feeling in my cynical, coal-black heart. Maybe AMPAS doesn't have its collective head stuck entirely where the sun don't shine after all.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
I'm not entirely sure about this, but I believe there is an actual official licensed Hong Kong release, that may not have been by Buena Vista (although they probably paid Buena Vista for the HK rights to it)
I don't know where to go about importing these DVDs though.
This bootleg page lists an "IVL Hong Kong" as one the distributer of an official licensed Region 3 DVD with english subs. This may be a branch of BV with a different name though. This review confirms that the Hong Kong release also suffered from the infamous red tint.
Reviews are split on the red tint. Many people didn't find the red tint to be annoying. Others think its the end of the world (what do you expect with fans?) If you hunt for it, you can find pages with side by side comparisons of some of the scenes.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Mickey Mouse gas masks. Oh. My. God.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
are available from nausicaa.net: http://nausicaa.net/miyazaki/sen/theaters.php Tell them if it's playing in your area.
Marklar: marklar
Big-budget anime films are made the same way as any big-budget animation: actors are recorded first, then the characters are animated from the recorded track. By dubbing over the original track, much nuance is lost.
Having seen Spirited Away in the theatres in both subtitled and dubbed versions, I have to say that I first of all find the voice acting better in original vocal track, and second, find the voices "fit" the characters and their expressions much better.
Of course, this isn't always true - I actually like the voice acting in the dub of "My Neighbor Totoro" better than the original. IOW, I guess it's a case-by-case thing.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
Why did Miyazaki join forces with Disney? Isn't this something like Mandrake joining with Microsoft? It really doesn't make any sense, much less business sense.
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I encourage everybody to go watch it, simply because by showing Disney that anime can be profitable, you could increase the amount sent over here.
Why see it in the theatre. According to Amazon the DVD will be out April 15th. I'd much rather watch it at home in a proper 5.1 setup that in some theatre that equates quality with loudness. I haven't seen this movie yet but I am very curious. I usually don't care for Anime but I really liked Princess Mononoke.
Interestingly, children seemed to respond very well to the film, despite its length. I think this might be because the film was effective on a level kids could understand, and because young children have not yet been fully programmed by culture as to what they are 'supposed' to find acceptable in the media they are offered. Kids are much more open to alternative ways of thinking than adults, who have been programmed and de-sensitized to such a high degree.
Of course, one might also argue that kids are simply not savvy enough to spot crap when they see it, but I think there's more going on here than that. This film was not crappy in any sense, (except in that it violated a host of Hollywood formula 'rules'.) This film was perhaps my favorite Miyazaki film to date. Very, very smart. Very insightful on many levels. There were some brilliant things done in that film, and the background works were awe inspiring. I came out of the film practically bouncing. --And I typically can't stand Anime. Miyazaki is in a whole other league of film makers. He's not one of the teeming hoards of Japanese animators still dealing with teen angst, sex and self-confidence issues which practically scream from the screens of most Anime. --Nothing wrong with that, mind you. It's obviously a required vent and forum for dealing with such issues in the otherwise unbearable pressure cooker that is Japanese culture. But such things are driven primarily by the subconscious. Miyazaki is waaaay beyond that. Miyazaki is mature in that he works with great skill from the conscious level. He knows what he is doing, and why. He is one of those creators who is in fact able to speak to the subconscious.
A good measure, for me anyway, of a film's worth is whether or not I notice my bum beginning to hurt in the theatre chair. If I do, then obviously I'm not entirely engaged by the film. This is a great, 'benchmark', (sorry), particularly with films which are as long as Spirited Away. Almost three hours!
An interesting experiment you might try is this. .
Rent Raiders of the Lost Ark and watch it. If I am not very much mistaken, then I expect you'll find it to be a rather slow, almost boring film. Amazing, considering that in the eighties, it was one of the fastest, most exciting bits of movie making ever made. I believe that this is an indicator both of just how much the speed of culture has increased, and the level of competition amongst movie makers to make each successive film more exciting than the last. A fine example of cultural programming and de-sensitization.
-Fantastic Lad
Wow! I'll finally be able to see it in theatres just DAYS before its release to video (April 15th, I think, is its video release date.) When spirited away was first being made, I read a lot of things about Mayazaki on the internet, and those things inspired me to write my own anime-based fiction. It's the most popular movie EVER in Japan, so it's a good bet that SPIRITED AWAY will be in North American theaters for a VERY LONG TIME, and hopefully it spawns anime to be on prime-time TV. If NBC, CBS, UPN and FOX, would each have one anime program in their weekly prime-time line-ups, the world would be a much better place. Knowing FOX, they'd be the ones to show RANMA1/2 which is quite possibly the best anime ever made for TV...heh heh.
So yeah, it didn't fail because of ME, but with 8 times as many screens and several million dollars' worth of free advertising on Oscar night, it should do pretty well anyway.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Who are "we all" and "everyone"?
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
Heck, even the nomination helped. Look at Blue Sky. After Ice Age was nominated for an Academy Award, the CG house finalized a multi-picture deal with Fox (which includes films such as Robots and the Ice Age sequel).
Incidentally, if anyone knows a theater in Denver or Boulder showing it, Please tell me!
I do security
Man, you'd think you'd be done by now.
OK. I am fan of beautiful movies. I especially like beautiful Japanese movies, and, especially, ones done by Kurosawa. Nothing beats the way Kurosawa could paint the whole world with a few horses, a rainy day and a long focal length shot. As geographer, I personally think Derzu Uzala (yes, technically a Russian film) is the best landscape cinemaphotography ever. John Ford's stuff is a hard second -- very hard.
That being said, I just don't understand anime. Admittedly, I haven't watched much. Mononoke is the one that always stuck out in my mind. But still it wasn't just BOOM like all of my anime fans talk about. They say Spirited will change my mind. So I am will ing to give it a shot.
I still can't get past a little prejudice I have about anime fans; that being they are all a little too enamored with Japanese culture. As someone who speaks Japanese -- not because I wanted to -- I learned quickly that nothing brings the Japanese into hysterics quicker than an American man who ends sentences in ne or uses slang picked up from anime.
So riddle me this, what turns everybody on about anime? What is so great about it as a genre? And why should a non-anime fan pay attention?
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
In any case, I think Disney failed at marketing a fantastic film. Makes me wonder if Disney buying the rights to distributing Ghibli's films were a Good Thing or not. Then again I guess Pixar and other companies do the same thing. Companies as big as Disney kinda scares me, though.
He's jesting that Evangelion is intelligent. Its funny, laugh.
It comes down to the power of iconography and the way the brain works.
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I'll try to sum this up quickly.
See, in the West, people program their brains from an early age in the art of drawing. Everybody does this in primary school, learning how to push a pencil through all the 26 letters of the alphabet. And that's where it ends. Once we learn the basic alpha-numeric symbols, we never need learn how to draw another new picture again.
By contrast, in Japan and other Asian nations, (as I am sure you are aware), the written language contains thousands of characters. --I don't believe a student is allowed to graduate in Japan until s/he has memorized and mastered the ability to perfectly reproduce somewhere in the neighborhood of around 2000 different pictographs. In China, that number is multiplied several times.
Now in young, still-forming children, this kind of repetitive hand-eye training does things to the way the pathways in the brain are shaped. I strongly believe that it goes a long way to shaping behavior patterns and different ways of approaching problem solving. And since every Japanese person must go through this process, the end result is a culture which is literally wired differently from the ground up than the cultures of Europe and America.
And when it comes to the graphic arts. .
There are dozens of ways this affects the animation/comics industry in Japan. For one thing, all the artists and animators over there have been forced to practice a very tightly controlled form of graphic expression from a very young age. It seems to me that these patterns must indirectly result in a strong measure of conformity throughout many creative endeavors involving pens, pencils and paint brushes! Anime and Manga all look very, very similar, regardless of the artist or the studio, whereas in the West, different production houses come up with radically different approaches to solving the graphic problems as presented by comic books and animation.
Next, because there exists such a culture-wide conformity in the approach to comics illustration and animation, and because it has existed for such a long time, the anmie/manga style has been refined into a very, very effective method for communicating ideas and emotions through simple icons.
In the West, there are a few similar examples. Bugs Bunny literally took decades to refine into the slick series of drawing solutions we see today. The Disney style is another example of a highly refined and effective set of graphic solutions to the problem of 'communication through drawings'.
But neither Bugs nor Mickey come from the same league as the machine which produces popular Anime characters! Where Disney is one studio trying to maintain a signature style, (with limited success, I might add!), every studio in Japan is part of the same force behind the continuance and slow evolution of the Anime style.
Now, as to why exactly so many Westerners find the Japanese style so powerful. .
I think it has to do with the fact that Westerners are, without massive training, simply not wired in the ways necessary to draw and express themselves through the Anime style. It seems to me that this highly refined, alien quality engages interest simply because it is something out of reach.
It is also a style which is driven by pop-art media. That is, manga and anime are fully caught up in that engine which specifically tries to refine itself so as to tantalize and lure and otherwise capture the attention of the viewer to the highest degree possible. And as we all know, viewers = profit.
Next, many of the stories told through in the Anime style are written by and for a youth market. That means, among other things, that sex and love and young fantasies of beautiful, exciting lives are the endless subject matter explored to a fever-pitch in the animated series and comic books sold throughout Japan.
When you combine all of th
As a person who has held an annual Disneyland pass since 1999, I take exception to your notion that I prefer anime simply because it's anime. I like Spirited Away, and other anime features, because they are generally better animated pictures than virtually anything Disney has EVER produced. (My favorite animated movie is Beauty and the Beast)
Spirited Away has depth...genuine character development, unusual new characters, an original storyline. So much of what Disney animation features do NOT have. Disney has "light action movies for kids" and nothing more. They're not INTERESTED in producing anything more.
If you had a magic crystal ball that could produce animated features that adults would enjoy with complex characters and stories and gave it to Disney and told them "just press this button" they would hand it back to you and say "nah."
Because their market is kids. Spirited Away, and lots of other anime features, reach higher than the 10-year-old intellect. They deserve recognition for that. The Academy gives awards for films that the members themselves felt were better films, not because their kids loved it, or a gazillion kids in America loved it. Head counts are not what awards are supposed to be about. If that were the case, we could just tally the books before and after the movie and automate the process.
Spirited Away won because it was better. Most anime is better.
No kidding! When it came out the first time, there were NO TELEVISION ADS, NO THEATRE PREVIEWS, NOTHING!
The only preview I saw was a quicktime preview on Apple's QT Movie page.
It was amazing that there was a movie poster by the box office!
I ended up seeing it in Vancouver BC whwn I traveled there on a business trip since San Antonio (1 theater for 2 weeks) or Austin (I think 1 theater for a month or so) didn't get a copy until much later in the run.
I'd say I would hold my breath for the TV ads, but I don't expect to see any, much less any other part of the Disney PR Hypemobile being rolled out for the movie...
My wife and I will see it again, regardless.
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hahah .. was that at the Academy 6 Theatre on Colorado? I saw it there too, and the theatre was awful. Even for an arthouse theatre.
Actually, It's been playing for the last few weeks at the Arclight Cinema near Sunset and Vine. They have much larger screens, and it may be a closer drive for you.
"Teachers leave us kids alone
I was just refuting the assertion that Disney was somehow contractually obligated NOT to promote the film. They did plenty of promotion for it, within the select markets they brought the film to, or at least they seemed to here in Canada.
We love MOVIES. What's wrong with that? We can love movies, and hate the business practices the studios and other hollywood industries practice. It's called being a consumer.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Actually they DID announce it as "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" when it won.
I for one just hope it comes somewhere other than the AMC way out in the 'burbs here, which was the only Ottawa theatre that had the first run.
In "spirited Away", it is not only focus on how pretty or complicate within the animation, it also contains a lot of messages to remind the world. Can't you catch it?
I'm missing the connection between Warhammer minitures and Anime. Maybe it's because I dont do a lot of miniture wargaming, you seem to know a lot about it, can you enlighten?
/. editor. Someone has to generate massive flamewars now that Katz is no longer published here.
Where do you live that news stands sell this kind of stuff?
If you have ever seen obcessive firearm nerds (who can be ethnicaly Japanese or not) they are just as bad as the Warhammer types you mention above.
As for Maddox, LOLROF. Seen his stuff before.
He clearly is turned on my male breasts (note how much attention he pays to them).
Rumor has it he named himself after an obscure Japanese cartoon in the hopes it would get him Leader status, why else would he be waiting in line to see Spirited Away.
I think Maddox dosent try hard enough on his website, sure he had the whole "provocative headline and text thing down" but a little more follow through and he can be "Uber 1337".
Maybe he can become a
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.