| 1. | (3 posts) | Sprucing up your Audio Player |
| 2. | (8 posts) | EW Mononoke Review |
| 3. | (14 posts) | Anime and the American Mindset |
| 4. | (8 posts) | Kiki on Leno (sort of) |
We looked at 108 posts by 45 different contributors.
A healthy week on the list. Hey, there's some Quickies this week!
Bleah! It seems that my final update didn't catch (or I overwrote it with an older revision), anyhow, things should look normal.
Sean Gibbons wondered, "anybody know where I can get some Ghibli Winamp skins or something of that sort?" Robin Casady replied, "I've been playing with a design for a SoundJam MP skin using the web images at www.princess-mononoke.com. . . The point of the skin would be to promote Princess Mononoke among SoundJam MP users. It would have URL buttons for the Mononoke site and Nausicaa.net. While the music is playing, the skin would show a slide show of some of the web images. . . the design of the skin will be fairly limited in size and shape. I'm still trying to come up with an interesting design that has a small footprint and no jaggies." Sounds neat. Robin will probably post an announcement when the skin is ready for public consumption. Here's a Laputa skin for Winamp - don't expect too much however.
Zach B posted the video review of Princess Mononoke from EW (with Survivor on the cover). It received a grade of "C+". Tom Wilkes wrote, "EW's Ty Burr gave _PM_ an A in November. . . too bad Mr. Burr didn't write the video review <sigh>...." After several messages of "who's the reviewer?" Dave W reported that it was Marc Bernardin.
Michael Johnson put forth, "While I find it disturbing that Disney thinks of the label "anime" as a stigma, and that Disney's marketing department is part of the problem instead of the solution by perpetuating and not correcting the public's opinion in the long term, what they're doing makes good business sense in the short term." He went on to list the problem (public perception of anime == porn and/or violence), the cause (market is dominated by people who make decisions based on public opinion), and reinforcement of the problem (anime distributors have done little to counteract this stereotyping of the "anime" label. . . some of them are thriving exactly because of the controversy ).
No one came out in disagreement, but the thread wandered after Tom Tanida wrote, "I think it was a MAJOR mistake on the part of Ghibli/Tokuma not to grant merchandising rights to Disney. Merchandise connectivity to films is simply how the US industry works today. . . By keeping the rights, Ghibli themselves guaranteed limited releases of their films in North America, unless they believed that Disney was going to promote their films out of charity towards their art." Gary McAllister replied, "I can't remember a successful animated movie in the last 20 years that hasn't had an accompanying rush of merchandise. In fact, the merchandise is part of the marketing. . . On the other hand, the idea of a fast-food marketing blitz with product tie-ins doesn't fill me with pleasure."
David Athay added, "I think we have to look at this from Miyazaki's, an artist's, point of view. . . Each of the works I have seen has had excruciating detail and consistency. Why do I point that out? Because an artist, or any one for that matter, who puts such effort into a project is doing so without the bottom line in mind. . . Yes Miyazaki could have made a fortune in the US and yes he would have gotten more publicity with a McDonald's tie-in but for him I think it would have been a hollow victory. . . PS. This doesn't mean that I don't want a Teto plushy or a Totoro pillow though =^)" A Totoro pillow eh? I bought a Totoro beanbag chair that turned out to be more of a pillow, pictures coming One Of These Days. Later in the thread, Tom corrected part of his original post, "I failed to include in the message that Ghibli simply might not want to maximize distribution by compromising their art, even if Miyazaki has acknowledged every artist's desire to have their work seen by as many as possible. :-)"
Tom Tanida mentioned that Kirsten Dunst (voice of Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service) appeared on Jay Leno, "She was talking to Jay and mentioned that her nickname given to her by friends & family is "little Kiki". Jay seemed intrigued and she basically said "Oh, not many people know about that." I was kinda hoping she'd explain the reference out loud for the benefit of the viewing audience but no such luck..."
Not much else of importance came out of the thread other then Mike Unverzagt noting, "Kirsten was Amy in the "Little Women" movie. In the "Little Women" anime series by Nippon Animation the character designer was Yoshifumi Kondo. Yoshifumi Kondo was also Animation Director in "Kiki's Delivery Service" Far shot? Perhaps, but hardcore fans recognize also these small deatails ;-)))"
Slackjaw15 gave the lowdown on the number of PM copies at Blockbuster. Mark Yates put together a montage from his shopping excursions in Tokyo. Michael Johnson gave some (non) news on Castle in the Sky.
The Princess Mononoke VHS is in stores for rental, go get your copy!
