| 1. | (15 posts) | What's Lupin Driving? |
| 2. | (13 posts) | Studio Ghibli Remakes |
| 3. | (21 posts) | Costume Ideas |
| 4. | (4 posts) | DVD Availability |
| 5. | (3 posts) | Princess Mononoke Returns to Japan |
We looked at 178 posts by 43 different contributors.
Another busy week, though there were a few huge off-topic threads that obviously won't be covered. This issue is being posted a little early (Friday) since I have intermittent internet access on the weekends - and I don't think anything (hopefully) huge will comeup in the few hours time gap.
David Mankins wondered, "Isn't Lupin's car a Deux Chevaux (spelling?)?" Michael Johnson replied, "Clarisse's car was a Renault in Cagliostro." Greg Barrandon-Cova disagreed with Michael:
<Ahem>Kenton Knop did some research (via Gran Turismo 2!) and said, "I've concluded that Lupin's car in the movie is a an old 1969 Italian-made Fiat 500 R." Fukumoto Atsushi concurred with Greg and Kenton:
Clarisse's car was a Citroen 'Deux Chevaux'
(trust me on that, I'm french (^_^) )
Lupin's car is FIAT 500. FIAT 500 was a car of Ootsuka Yasuo, the head animator of the Lupin series. Miyazaki once wrote an essay about Ootsuka and his FIAT 500 for Ootsuka's book ("SAKUGA ASEMAMIRE", Tokuma shoten Animeeju bunko, 1982, ISBN4-19-669504-3).Miyazaki apparently has a thing for the 2CV according to Ryoko Toyama, "Miyazaki-San was still riding 2CV when he made "Cagliostro". It was his 4th 2CV."Clarisse was using Citroen 2CV. Citroen 2CV was Miyazaki's first car. He once wrote a 7-pages manga about it for a car magazine NAVI ("KAKERO 2BARIKI, KAZE YORI HAYAKU", NAVI 1989 December issue.)
A thread centered around books that people thought might make for a good Ghibli film, nominated were:
Diana Wynne Jones is being offered what is apparently an inordinate and unreasonable number of yen -- which turns into a sensible amount of sterling when you take off several noughts -- for the film rights to *Howl's Moving Castle*. Among the bribes she has gleefully accepted from the prospective director are merchandising from previous anime films of his: a stuffed toy black cat with large eyes who now answers to the name of KiKi (Ed: Should be Jiji, but <shrug>), and a grey creature called Totoro who has taken up neighbourly residence in her basement.... Japanese views on Calcifer (*) apparently chime with those of the Author: "No Gas Board advertising rubbish here!" says Diana, presumably thinking of cute little blue flames with eyes, nothing like a fallen star at all.(*) reference to Howl's Moving Castle.
Jason Brinkerhoff tossed out a costume idea, "i was thinking of making a Nausicaa costume for Otakon 2000. The only thing is I need to find a girl/woman to wear it! I would wear it but i fear that I am not all that feminine as my dear brother pointed out. Perhaps i will wear it anyway ^__^;" This spawned a number of responses, some serious, some humorous, and some that defy categorization, like this one from Noel Vera:
The ultimate challenge would be dressing up as an Ohmu, and all fourteen of your eyes can turn red when your date pisses you off. You can charge the buffet table and when you get there, spread spores (a bubblemaker? A portable fog machine?) in the air.David Athay brought up Totoro, but inquired, "where am I going to be able to find a nice big leaf?" Joe Curzon suggested, "Make one from felt, they will last longer and not rot." Lee Amizadai advocated a more natural approach, "sweet-potato plants have nice big leaves. But I must warn you, their sap causes rashes. . .We tied the leaf (which was about half a metre long) round his torso for a competition, and halfway through, he started to swell. We won, though. :)" Large objects seemed to be in vogue, with the blimp from Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle Cagliostro from (duh) Castle of Cagliostro receiving nods. Some people have gone beyond the planning stage, like this San (pic #2, #3)Or a life-sized God Warrior, complete with extendable 'wings,' poisoned halo, and melting limbs. For the party's climax, you can fall apart.
Or as Laputa, complete with (literally) forestlike headgear (bonsai might do nicely). At midnight, the lower half of your costume collapses into rubble.
Hoan Pham asked, "DOES any body knows whether or not Kiki and Totoro will come out on DVDs. Because I just bought Totoro and Kiki on videos." I responded with a negative, but added, "your investment in the VHS tapes is safe as neither appears to be heading to DVD anytime in the near future." Tom Tanida is dedicated to DVD but, "I will say that Ghibli films are the ONLY films I even consider buying on video tape, and it still bugs me that Disney and/or Tokuma are behind the curve on getting the films out on DVD."
Princess Mononoke is playing in Japan. Yes, the English version shown in the US is making the rounds in Japan with added subtitles. Kinda weird, but Joe Monson took the plunge, "Anyway, about the film: We liked it. A lot. It was great to see it on the big screen as there were many details we had missed before when watching the video edition. The mini-documentary before the film was very interesting, too. It showed Miyazaki-san and Suzuki-san as they went from Toronto to New York to Los Angeles. I hope they include it on the DVD release as it was very interesting." Mike Arnold also saw the film and posted a review.
Christian Link is selling used Studio Ghibli tapes and comics, Hitomi Gehrig spotted a pic of the Princess Mononoke cover, Bill Plympton mentioned Miyazaki in an interview with The Onion
Some clarification, the Princess Mononoke DVD has no release date (covered in MML Traffic #3). Retailers with the July 9th date (Amazon, Bigstar, etc) are incorrect. Team Ghiblink is in contact with BVHE and will post all info on the MML. Bigstar has a listing for the VHS, but no confirmation from BVHE.