Spirited Away Finally

[Skeeter Muppet]

Well... they only released one over here, and it did quite poorly

That's because the Digimon movie that was released over here was a complete hack job of the first three movies, the third of which wasn't even related to the Digimon Adventure canon.

I'd better shut up before I start ranting.

Disney's connection to the film is explained in the featurette. They basically just released it and provided the translated track. That was my point. I would like to see them involved in some of the character animation in a future project. They would keep it from being quite as stiff. I felt at arms length with the lead character because her face wasn't that expressive - barely even blinked. Disney has brilliant way of communicating a character's feelings with subtle facial gestures. Miyazaki lacks this skill, but has many others, as you will see in the film.

You have no idea how hard I am biting my tongue right now. Countless anime fans are big fans of Miyazaki's work and would shoot down what you said. I, for one, think Miyazaki does wonderful work with his characters.

-Kim

 

[frogboy4]

I know. I explained that this is my view as an animation fan and that I am not a fan of anime for that very reason. It simply cannot be stated that the girl's face was very expressive. It wasn't.

Watch Belle or Ariel's eyes and the subtle facial gestures Compare them to the rigid deadpan faces of most of the characters in Spirited Away. I honestly think it's due to a cultural divide. It must be intentional because such attention to detail is shown in all other parts of the film. The faces were just so stiff. The characters themselves were rather colorful despite the rigid nature of the 6-frame non-blinking faces.

There is some expression through body gestures, but the faces (for the most part) really are lacking. I enjoyed the film, but felt at arm's length with much of it because of it. It's actually a very common view of anime's critics. Anyway, I think you missed the point - I liked the film. It just could have been a little better.

The old woman was the ony main character that I could relate to because she showed emotion in her face. No Face had a lot of body gestures that communicated a great amount of emotion as well. It's mostly the facial expressions that I find cardboard. Disney is really the best at that. If only they could take a Miyazaki story and style and add some Disney faces for the close-ups and animate the whole picture in 24 frame animation, they would have something untouchable.

 

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by Skeeter Muppet
That's because the Digimon movie that was released over here was a complete hack job of the first three movies, the third of which wasn't even related to the Digimon Adventure canon.

I'd better shut up before I start ranting.



You have no idea how hard I am biting my tongue right now. Countless anime fans are big fans of Miyazaki's work and would shoot down what you said. I, for one, think Miyazaki does wonderful work with his characters.

Well, since you like Digi, and I never got into it (not getting any further) I'll take your word.

But I gotta say, I know you're an animation buff Frogboy... but I say, this is one time you do not follow your own advice... apples and oranges.

It's unfair to judge something like an anime film up against an american film.. it's a cultural gap. American cartoons are more in your face type of full body animations, while Anime is like an animated comic book, and very cinematic...

But there's beautiful anime (like Miyazaki's) and clunkier animated TV ones like Pokemon...

But still, tyo each his own... I didn't get into Anime until I started college, myself!

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

Originally posted by Drtooth
But I gotta say, I know you're an animation buff Frogboy... but I say, this is one time you do not follow your own advice... apples and oranges.

It's unfair to judge something like an anime film up against an american film.. it's a cultural gap. American cartoons are more in your face type of full body animations, while Anime is like an animated comic book, and very cinematic...

Well put, Drtooth.

-Kim

 

[frogboy4]

Yeah. That was just one part that under whelmed me in an otherwise overwhelming movie. I don't see why paying more attention to the facial gestures would be such a bad thing. They masterfully accomplished it with the old woman. That's why I think it's a deliberate stylistic or cultural choice in japanamation/anime. I find that part isolating. Disney's work on facial expressions creates an incredible subtext for the character that transcends dialogue. But, of course their films are mostly formulaic and not as imaginative of innovative as Miyazakis work from what I have seen. I would like to see a real collaboration between the studios. Combining both strengths would be very interesting. I know Disney would bite, unfortunately I doubt Miyazaki would.

 

[Mark Filton]

I thought there would be some collectibles for the movie since it had disney backing, but there are not very many. too bad

 

[frogboy4]

I checked out ebay and there were a few, but most were overseas. I'm hoping that this is the cautious beginning to a new enterprise at Disney. You can bet that there will be more stuff now that it's won an Oscar, although I am surprised there was no Happy Meal tie-in. I don't think they even mentioned the Academy Award on the packaging.

Found this stuff on the web.

 

[Mark Filton]

Jamie are all of these things permanent on your website? Mainly it sems to be a portfolio. Still many more than I knew of

 

[frogboy4]

I just uploaded this stuff to a seperate folder on my domain. The purpose of my domain is to show my portfolio, but there aint no law that says I can't use it to share pictures I find. However, I will probably take them down in a while so you might want to save them to your computer.

 

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by frogboy4
I checked out ebay and there were a few, but most were overseas. I'm hoping that this is the cautious beginning to a new enterprise at Disney. You can bet that there will be more stuff now that it's won an Oscar, although I am surprised there was no Happy Meal tie-in. I don't think they even mentioned the Academy Award on the packaging.

Mayhaps, a trip to the Anime store may be fruitful. You could find some stuff there.

Anyway, Disney's thinking is not short of absolutely rediculous!

I mean, we have junk like Bambi 2, and Jungle Book 2 getting a national release and plastered everywhere (Actually... if they just rereleased the first jungle Book and made the toys anyway, I'd be happy) but, there are somethings they don't care much about.

You'd think that after this film gets recognition there'd be at least a T shirt, or something..

of course, I also expected the rerelease of Roger Rabbit would bring a Roger Rabbit happy meal, and new bean bag plushes.