| 1. | (17 posts) | "Spirited Away" Advertising Poster |
| 2. | (3 posts) | Disney's Approach to "Spirited Away" |
We looked at 188 posts by 93 different contributors.
Another week dominated by the "Sen" DVD color issue. In fact, over half of the posts this week were about the DVD! Larry Greenfield wrote up a good summary of all the debate, thus I can conveniently ignore all of the threads!
Raz Greenburg kicked off an interested thread by noting, "Ain't It Cool News have posted a review of the Japanese "Sen" DVD, and included an image of the American promotional poster for the movie. . . it seems obligatory for any company that distributes an anime movie to American theatres to put a praise by James Cameron on the poster" Click here to view the poster.
Michael Rieper commented, "the first thing that jumped out at me about this "poster" is that it has the Walt Disney name on it. If it's true it seems to be an interesting departure from the release plans of the other films. Kiki landing on BVHE and Mononoke being handled (for all
the obvious reasons) by Miramax, without a mention of the Disney connection.
It almost seems as if the mouse would like to be associated with "Spirited Away" but perhaps I'm just being too optimistic again.
I also noticed how the poster and writing of "Spirited Away" seemed very similar to the Mononoke theater poster. Solid black background and the same title with overhead line. The inclusion of Chihiro is nice though over the oft-criticized San "coin" image.
Robin Casady wrote, "The thing that jumped out at me was that Sen is frowning and looking sad. It is highly unusual to use a sad face in advertising. I find it surprising for such a cheerfulness obsessed company as Disney. From Disney, I would have expected a scene with Sen ridding the dragon.
People have an emotional response to expressions whether they are consciously aware of it or not. What kind of impression do you think people will get from this poster if they have never heard of the film? Will they think it is a melancholy tragedy about a sad little girl?
The poster's authenticity fell into doubt after Lee Johnson posted, "I think the poster is excellent, with the exception of the J.Cameron quote at the top. I have nothing against the use of quotes from any sources, but this quote is out of context. I picked up the Metropolis UK DVD this week and it features the same quote. . . Now, either J.C. is repeating himself, or is being quoted out of context - massively out of context. Anyone know which one is the reason?"
Hanno Mueller commented, "Or this is just a mock-up poster, a premilary design, with random text used by the designer to fill the blanks for the real text that will be there later.
Or it's just a fake. I wouldn't be surprised, with AICN's credibility.
Deborah Goldsmith hedged, "The logo matches the one on the Viz book covers recently discussed here. I think that really is the final logo."
Larry Greenfield disagreed, "Though keep in mind that the audience that reads Viz already is familiar with what the product is, and most likely has heard of Miyazaki." Jorge argued, "Maybe that's precisely what they are having into account, and want to force people to recognize that name afterwards if the movie goes well and they prepare to release the rest of the movies the Disney-Tokuma deal covers ("ooh, this whoever Miyazaki again, whose film was so enjoyable...")."
No final word as this issue went to press.
German Gomez wrote, "I haven't seen Sen but it seems to me it has a very weird story line, and not very accessible to western (read Disney) audiences. That is fine with me personally, and I know that is part of the appeal to many fans. But Disney can't be too happy about it. Who exactly is their market for it? (from their point of view), it will probably get handled (marketed) worse that MH was."
Deborah Goldsmith replied, "I took my kids and my sister-in-law to see it in San Francisco. My sister-in-law thought it was weird but enjoyed it. My kids thought it was great, one of their all-time favorites. As my daughter (13) said, "I liked it because you couldn't tell what was going to happen next."
I've no doubt it will be a harder sell than "Scooby Doo" but I think it has much more potential than Princess Mononoke did in the US. "Spirited Away" is very kid- and family-friendly and while some of the cultural references will go over people's heads, they aren't necessary to enjoy the film.
Chris Wallace added, "Compared to Monokoke-hime, I believe Sen has a better shot at succeeding. It is a very "Japanese" film, but I do not think a lack of knowing Japanese mythology will hurt an audience. It has bright colors (no red tint joke threads, please) and a heroine who evolves during the course of the film and shows her inner strength, which should help. . .
It is, at it's most basic level, a fantasy film with girl-empowerment tones. A contemporary live-action film would be "Labrynth".
However, I agree with those that say "Kiki" would have been the no-brainer to release to start forming a market. And then launch "Castle" six months after "Treasure Planet".
I think Disney, like most studios, is hoping that the "big hit" in one market will be the "big hit" in another market. When MH busted the bank in Japan, they hoped it would do the same here. I expect the thinking is the same with "Sen".
Stuart Gale typed up a list of the VAs used in the (old) English dub of "Laputa". Chris Kuan spotted three articles on Japanese Animation from various Japanese government sources. Marc Hairston announced his planned appearence at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design's Anime Workshop. Akito T explained the New Japan Philharmonic. For those who can't get enough of the "Sen" DVD controversy, Paul Mayer posted a massive technical breakdown. Warren Savage put in his two cents worth. Werner Geeroms noticed the Belgium release date for "Spirited Away". Tom Tanida saw a "Castle in the Sky" mention in the Wall Street Journal. Justin Derringer will attempt to write a Studio Ghibli fanfic (degree of difficulty: 5.6). Gregor Menasian does a R2/R3 features comparison of the "Sen" DVD. David Mankins thinks the MML follows certain patterns.
I think everyone got the red out of their systems this week.