Jon I always felt that rape scene in Ninja Scroll only stayed because of what happens afterwards

also, the Street Fighter animes are quite weird... not as bad as the Van Dam though. :/

¬_¬ that trailer used to give me the creeps! I have the Guyver on 12 videos... and a double VHS version of Akira that advert haunts me :K (sadly my VHS doesn't work )

Great review, Sophie! 


That's exactly how I felt when I first saw it. And when I finally watched it again after some years just recently for that review, but for the umpteenth time anyway, it was still an exhilarting experience. Those opening scenes are sublime.

I have a couple of anime soundtracks, this one included. Well worth tracking down. It's absolutely nuts, but addictive! 

The Manga is huge, like many. The Japanese think nothing of publishing a book the size of a telephone directory for a relatively tiny price! I read it some years ago because it was serialised in a magazine called Manga Mania that exploited the new craze for a few years. Oh, yeah, that reminds me; I have a feeling I can make you quite jealous. That magazine ran a competition once in which I was a runner-up and I won...

Spoiler (hover to show)

Four original Akira painted cells with underlying sketches... 

 

 

I wouldn't have thought so, because these are simply character frames, so there would have been hundreds of them. And they were picked at random, so some people might not find them interesting (though I suspect I'm not alleviating your desire! ). They're full size cells, but with a relatively small image, so no background. Still, I find them more interesting, because it's part of the real animation process. Each one has a paper underlay with a sketch version of the image, and one includes a sketch of the next frame on the underside. I assume that's where the animator can keep flipping the corner to check the progress.

I'll try and take some pictures of them one day and tease you further... 

Up




Year: 2009

Director(s): Pete Doctor

Run Time: 96 minutes

Plot: By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn't alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

Cast:
Edward Asner – Carl Fredrickson
Cristopher Plummer – Charles Muntz
Jordon Nagai – Russell
Bob Peterson – Dug/ Alpha
Delroy Lindo – Beta
Jerome Ranft – Gamma

DVD Extras:
•   “Dug’s Special Mission” – Short Film
•   “Partly Cloudy” – Short Film
•   Adventure Is Out There
•   The Many Endings Of Muntz
•   Disney DB Live
•   Global Guardian Badge Game
•   Married Life
•   8 All- New Documentaries
•   DVD Feature Film

My Thoughts
This is not my favourite Pixar film but it sure is close. As usual Pixar deliver another solid winner with Up. This film contains some of the most heartbreaking scenes I have seen in any film, animated or not and that is just in the first 20 minutes. The film is not all tears and sorrow though as it also delivers some unique and quirky characters who provide some of the funniest scenes I have seen from Pixar. However the balance between happy and sad is managed exceptionally well. The emotional impact throughout the film is undying however and how they manage to capture so much within a wordless montage is just another example of why Pixar are at the top of their game.

The film is visually flawless and like all other Pixar films carries small jokes and references to their other films without which is always a fun feature in each one. The thing that really gives this film it’s spark is the mismatched team of lead characters; A grumpy old man, an 8 year old explorer, a rare giant bird and a talking dog. Very few storytellers could take such a random group of characters and make it work so well, yet in Up everything fits perfectly together and I am at trouble finding even one flaw within the film. The musical score was amazing and so vivid and prominent throughout the film that it was almost a character itself. I cannot wait to watch the special features of this DVD and go behind the scenes yet again of one of my favourite filmmaking companies in the world.

My Rating

Hope you don't mind me butting in, but I thought this a nice place to post something of interest to you animation geeks...

This is a fairly interesting, if cursory history of some of the scandals Disney has faced in regards to various films. Strange, they don't include the Jessica Rabbit one. 

Empire: Disney Controversies

I thought most people were aware by now that The Lion King "sex" thing actually said SFX (which it clearly does) and that the special effects people put it in. They also edited it out in recent DVD releases.


Thanks for the list Jon, some of those such as The Song of the South and The Rescuers one I haven't read before so it was interesting to see.

..Yeah... it didnt actually say anything.... it was pure coincidence it even said SFX...

...I thought they would have added seeing as they had the "good teenagers take off the clothes" and the "little mermaid priest incident."

Mulan



Year: 1998

Director(s): Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook

Run Time: 88 minutes

Plot: To save her father from death in the army, a Chinese maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroes in the process.

Cast:
Ming-Na – Mulan (voice)
Lea Salonga – Mulan (singing voice)
Migual Ferrer – Shan-Yu
Harvery Fierstein – Yao
Eddie Murphy – Mushu
Pat Morita – The Emperor

DVD Extras:
•   Lyric Book
•   Music Modes
•   Downloadable Song

My Thoughts
It has been quite a long time since I have watched Mulan, and while I have always loved the film I seem to have forgotten just how fantastic it is. I watched it tonight for the first time in a long time and was truly blown away by it. Mulan is one of Disney’s most daring stories, especially considering that it is based off a Chinese legacy and China has known to be quite touchy about these controversial topics. When I say legacy I refer to an ancient Chinese poem about a girl named Mulan who follows a loosely similar journey to the character in the film, to this day however no one is sure if the poem is factual or not. After researching a little I found out that Mulan did have a very limited release in China however I didn’t find what their actual reception to the film was. Either way watching this film is still a fantastic viewing experience.

Considering most Disney films are made with a young audience in mind they did not really hold back with this one and that is something I admire. While it may not be overly violent some scenes are still quite haunting, such as images of villages in flame and battlefields strewn with the bodies of hundreds of dead soldiers. Aside from that the film is filled with scenes of stunning beauty, such as the wonderfully drawn landscapes of ancient China. And then there is the sublime, the massive Hun army charging down a snowcapped mountain on horseback, the leader of the Mongolians holding the Emperor hostage in The Forbidden City with thousands of Chinese citizens looking on. These images are both memorable and amazing for the sheer scale of them achieved within hand-drawn cell animation.

Another high point of the film is the music, and not only the fantastic songs, as like most Disney films this is a musical, but also the beautiful score that can be heard throughout the film. This Eastern inspired music delivers the perfect background for the film and enhances the atmosphere to a large extent. The films story of a girl breaking out in a male-dominated society and proving her worth, even though it could cost her life is admirable, and for the most part I feel told quite well. It really is a film for empowering young girls and women into believing that they are strong and can be whatever they want to be. While this message may not be as relevant today in most Western countries I still feel this is an important film for both young girls and boys to watch.

While I have to admit that some parts towards the end of the film, when all the men learn their ‘lesson’ about treating women equally did come off as a bit cheesy, the message is still there however and it’s a good one. While the film obviously has quite a serious plot and many darker moments there is still humour here, most of which is provided by Eddie Murphy’s character ‘Mushu’. I feel that the humour is well timed and even had me laughing out loud a fair few times, as well as feeling as if it added to the film, rather than cheapening it as these ‘clown’ characters sometimes can. Although the exception to that being the ‘ancestor party’ scene towards the end of the film which I did feel was a bit cringe-worthy and unnecessary.

My Rating