| 1. | (12 posts) | Totoro and Sesame Street |
| 2. | (9 posts) | YAMR (Yet Another Mononoke Review) |
| 3. | (4 posts) | Licensed Fansubs |
We looked at 92 posts by 46 different contributors.
All that waiting for this?!?
Michael Johnson found an article favoribly comparing "Sesame Street" and "Totoro" on Slate and commented, "I think that people in the United States instantly recognize Sesame Street as quality children's television programming, so linking it positively with _Totoro_ should leave a good impression with readers."
Dorothy Harpley wondered, "I do agree with you on that subject, but by linking Totoro with Sesame Street, I fear it will be pegged (as always) as a movie strictly for children."
David Athay commented, "I think that it is interesting that she called Totoro a "great movie". Not only is it now tied to arguably the best "edutainment" program ever but it is deemed as "Great". . . Sesame and Totoro share a lot. Both are childlike but both have stuff for adults to relate to. Sesame is full of jokes and innuendo destined for the parents instead of the kids. . . All in all it did my heart good to see Totoro cast is such a favourable light, and with such esteemed company."
Mike Arnold tossed out a different opionion, "Isn't it safe to just admit that Totoro is a movie for kids? Heck, most of Miyazaki's work is arguably "for kids,". . . Fans often get too caught up in trying to defend certain titles from perceived western prejudices and end up making more stereotypes about anime genres instead. It's all mature! It's all for adults! There shouldn't be anything wrong with admitting that Totoro is a movie for children, even if we adults want to watch it."
Michael Kerpan replied, "After all, Huckleberry Finn was "just a kid's book". Same for Little Women.
Great art always "speaks" to far more than the initial target audience."
Chi Chung Tse added, "No need to fear, most of the Maya-san's movie ARE kid's film. . . Only his kid's film are super intelligent so the adults could appreciate them too (like us) without being insulted. He also said good kid film is much harder to be made than the adult film too, since its have to be simple enough yet intelligent at the same time."
Miyazaki and PBS were formative experienes for Dean Parris, "Two of the most formative influences of my early childhood were Sesame Street and Nausicaa. . . Sesame Street, and later The Electric Company, gave me rudimentary language and math skills Nausicaa birthed my mythic imagination."
Joe Curzon gave a UK perspective on "Totoro", "I doubt it would be called a Kids movie, it would be put in the same category as Wallace and Gromit, the BBC Narnia series and many others. Totoro would probably be classed as a "Family Movie". . . They are films the whole family can enjoy, as mentioned before, on many levels."
Marc Hairston tossed in a quote from C.S. Lewis.
Gears switched when Larry Virden posted, "I would appreciate private emails of URLs to sites which review other Japanese movies in this category. Just this past weekend at church I was discussing with another dad the fact that films like Totoro and Kiki are a bit difficult to locate"
I replied, "The best Parent's Guide to Anime is (not surprisingly) "A Parent's Guide to Anime"."
Andrew Osmond posted a review (originally from raam) from "Sound and Vision" magazine. He commented, "It is, however, a bit depressing..." The following quote explains his attitude:
If you're a fan of anime, then Princess Mononoke will
doubtless thrill you; it's easily the best thing of its kind since
Akira. Others, though, may be disappointed. As visually impressive as
some of it is, mostly it's the same old out-of-whack perspective,
characters with unnaturally large eyes, and cheap-shot visual
shorthand for explosions and the like -- all familiar to TV viewers
since the days Astroboy.
Memnon found the full review on the S&V website.
David Athay wrote, "This reviewer is obviously not an anime fan and entered this review with that bias. So instead of "What the hell?" I am more inclined to say "who cares what this guy says!""
Lee Johnson added, "If the reviewer feels the need to point out the appearance of the characters "unnaturally" sized eyes, then the review can be immediately discredited on the fact that the reviewer knows jack-all about the subject under review. Another good indicator is "akira effect". i.e: the reviewer feels the need to mention "Akira" to give the impression that he/she knows something about anime when they actually do not."
Slithy Tove (the original poster to raam) tossed in, "If he didn't like the movie, by all means he should tell us about it. But Steve Simels clearly didn't like PM very much because he just doesn't like anime, and doesn't know very much about it. . . Has the reviewer really seen no other anime? Not even any other Miyazaki? And what in heaven's name is "out-of-whack perspective"? Or "cheap-shot visual shorthand for explosions and the like"? Has anyone heard PM criticized for this before? Does anyone even know what this guy is talking about?. . . No anime fan cares what this guy thinks, of course. But the purpose of a review is to help readers who are unfamiliar with the work to decide whether or not to see it. It's just unfortunate that this fellow's ignorance and dislike of the genre may discourage potential viewers who might enjoy MH."
Bruce Jones took a stab at the "cheap-shot visual shorthand for explosions and the like" question, "One of the scenes I think this refers to is where Eboshi and her men lay a trap for the poor boar, and all the boar get blown to hell :( (it's so sad). The scene seemed a little oddly drawn to me the first time I saw it, the explosions seemed comically large. On repeated viewings it didn't seem to have the same effect on me, and I now think it's one of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the film."
Karl broached an interesting idea, "Could those of you in the position to influence the *powers that be* tell me if there's _any_ possibility of a licensed, *limited release*, multi-DVD collection of fansubbed masters... those who originally best provided the subs working in concert to bring this body of work to percolate thru the public."
Reaction was uniformly thumbs-down. Chris Wallace replied, "A licensed release? Not a chance. No licensee is going to want to undercut their own product by allowing a competitor to release their own competing product. And neither Studio Ghibli or Tokuma Shoten will ever license the rights to a fansubber studio to undertake such an endeavor."
Hanno Mueller added, "These fansubs were illegal to begin with and I doubt that "masters" exist - the "originals" were probably done with two video tape recorders and a genlock subtitling computer. . . The one thing they can do, however, is use the existing translation for their own release and/or pay the original fansubbers for their work, if they really want to give some credit to the labourers of love... It'd be cool if they did that, though I doubt they will."
Michael Johnson noted, "From the point of view of Disney, "licensed" and "fansub" do not belong in the same sentence. From the point of view of some fans, "licensed" and "fansub" might only appear together in complaints against commercial anime companies who used fansubbers' scripts in their commercial releases. . . Even *if* (hypothetically speaking - I do NOT speak for Disney) Disney agreed to such a plan, Tokuma International would very likely not. It is not in Tokuma International's interest to see anyone promote an unofficial translation of any Studio Ghibli film."
It's true! Teto is making an appearance in Disney's "Atlantis". On a related note, Marc Hairston announced the completion of his "Atlantis" comparison page. Last week's ST:TNG thread caused Ryoko Toyama to post this picture. Heedra in a Capcom videogame. "Sen" is going overseas (eventually). Larry Virden is looking for the English script to "Castle in the Sky". German cinema owners take "Mononoke" behind the woodshed. Pre-order the R2 DVD of "Kiki's Delivery Service" at CD Japan.
I hope to be punctual next week.
