Disney Releases Trailers for Ghibli Films

From AnimeNation:

Buena Vista Home Video now hosts a streaming trailer for its upcoming American DVD release of Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, and The Cat Returns. The trailer includes spoken English dubbed dialogue from all three films, featuring celebrity voice actors including Patrick Stewart as Yupa in Nausicaa, Michael Keaton as Porco in Porco Rosso, and Cary Elwes as The Baron in Cat Returns. The trailer is available on all three product pages. [Source: Nausicaa.net]

On a side note, The Cat Returns is actually a sequel to Whisper of the Heart -- another Ghibli film which, so far as I know, has never been released in the US.

Search for Anime Video

Yahoo! has a new Video Search Function (beta) that looks for video on the web (duh). I'm not sure if you could find full-length anime episodes (you'd be better off with BitTorrent), but at least you can browse for some cool clips if you have nothing better to do.

More Appleseed?

According to AnimeNation:

Variety Magazine has announced that Los Angeles-based Axis Entertainment has contracted Japanese production company Micott & Basara, one of the main sponsors of the full digital animation Appleseed movie, to extend the Appleseed franchise. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the follow-ups may come in the form of a television series and one or more film sequels. Coming Soon reports a possible live-action feature. [Source: Jagged Team]

This is somewhat surprising considering the lukewarm reviews I've read thus far [review 1, review 2]. They basically say that the visuals were awesome, but the story was somewhat lacking. (Of course, that's not to say that I won't be one of the first ones in the theatre when the movie does eventually reach Michigan.) My guess is that the producers are going to try to capitalize on the popularity of the Ghost in the Shell movies and TV series (since Masamune Shirow was the author of the both original manga).

The Appleseed movie is scheduled for theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Miami on February 14, 2005.

Mobile Suit Gundam Live Action Movie

According to Ain't It Cool News a "big Hollywood studio" has a deal with Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to produce a live action version of the popular Mobile Suit Gundam anime series.

I have never really gotten into the series myself (mostly because there is just so much of it with all the spin-offs, that I just didn't want to get so caught up in a single series), so I don't have much more to say. But if you want find out more about what the series is all about, try out the Gundam "Official" site.

So there's going to be a Watchmen Movie too?

More big news! Alan Moore's phenominal superhero comic Watchmen which some argue is the greatest graphic novel of all time, is on it's way to becoming a new film produced by Paramount Picutres.

According to ICV2, the movie was first announced back in July. The first I heard about it was an artile today stating the the original director, Darren Aronofsky, has pulled out of the project and been replaced by Paul Greengrass of The Bourne Supremacy. Greengrass will be working with scriptwriter David Hayter of X-men and X2.

So what is Watchmen?

Here's a summary from Wikipedia:

The title is a reference to the Latin phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes", often translated as "Who watches the watchmen?". The story postulates a world, parallel to ours, in which superheroes actually exist; Alan Moore explores their impact on this society, and postulates a situation where unaccountable supermen arrange the lives of common people...

Plot: A right-wing extremist vigilante, Rorschach, investigates the murder of The Comedian, another costumed adventurer. This triggers another investigation that causes him to track down and interview his former associates, whom he believes are being targeted by an enemy who is out to eliminate the superheroes. In a world that has been drastically changed (Nixon is still President, the Vietnam War was won by the U.S., etc) by the superhuman powers of another adventurer, Dr. Manhattan, the team members start to reconsider who they are in the midst of a complex situation that seems to push events even closer to the brink of an impending global disaster.

It would suck if this movie turned out like the hack-jobs done to Moore's other graphic novel works -- From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Considering how complex and detailed the novel is, Paramount really has its work cut out for it.

And just in case any of you are wondering how this all connects to anime/manga (not that that stopped me from posting about the Sin City movie), Darren Aronofsky -- the guy who was originally supposed to direct Watchmen -- is set to direct a Lone Wolf and Cub movie.

OMFG!! James Cameron finally confirms BATTLE ANGEL ALITA movie!!

As far as I'm concerned this is bigger -- yes I said BIGGER -- news than the Sin City movie. After years of rumors and speculations, James Cameron finally publicly confirmed to NPR that he will in fact be directing a live action movie version of Yukito Kishiro's awesome manga and my all-time favorite comic/manga/story ever: Battle Angel Alita!

"The film will feature a fully CG rendered protagonist and the film itself will be filmed in 3-D." What the difference between CG and 3-D is, I am not entirely sure, but hopefully it will not be an entirely CG movie like Final Fantasy. To me, it just seems like having a CG character would minimize the emotional impact that the story should have.

I first caught wind of this 2 or 3 years ago when 20th Century Fox bought the www.battleangelalita.com domain name. Then, every so often, Cameron would hint at wanting to work on a BAA movie, but never actually confirmed when/if production would begin. Now, he says that production will begin this upcoming summer.

So what is Battle Angel Alita you ask?

Here's the word strait from Yukito Kishiro's official site:

Tiphares, the gigantic and mysterious mid-air city, covers the sky. Underneath, junkies and cyborgs live in the ruined city known as the "Scrap Yard".

Within the giant pile of ruble cast off from the city in the sky, begins the story of a girl.

One day in the Scrap Yard, and ex-Tipherean citizen and cybernetic doctor named "Ido" finds the partially destroyed body of a young cyborg girl. He names her "Alita".

Even after being restored by Ido, Alita has no memory, so she fights to recover her true self that is hidden somewhere inside her body. While helping Ido against a powerful enemy, Alita's ability to use the "Panzer Kunst", a long lost fighting technique, returns.

By fighting through various encounters in this sci-fi action epic, the cyborg girl, Alita, grows as a human being.

The original manga (known as "Gunm" in Japan) concluded after 9 volumes. Kishiro proceded to worked on a few decent projects including Aqua Knight and Ashen Victor. Then, in 2002, Viz released the english version of the sequel -- Battle Angel Alita: Last Order -- which is currently on the fourth volume. The sequel is actually a very extended alternate ending to the original series (as Kishiro was never fully satisfied with the original ending).

There is also an anime OAV called Battle Angel. The anime loosely covers the first 2 volumes of the manga. It is very good, and relatively popular in the US. But unfortunately what is popular in the US isn't necessarily so in Japan, so follow-up animation was never made.

As you might be able to tell, I am psychoticly in love with this series, so just like with anything else, I am praying to God that Cameron does this manga the justice it deserves.

Yet again...The Sin City Comic Con Trailer

Since the link to trailer that I posted before seems to be down, here is another link to the trailer which is hosted on another site. Plus, here's a cool little image [edit: changed image and description] from Sin City: That Yellow Bastard. As always, enjoy.

Stand Alone Complex Rocks the Cashba'

According to Anime News Network:

Saturday's premiere of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex ranked #1 against all ad-supported cable broadcasts among "persons & males 12-17, 12-24, 12-34 and 18-24." Cartoon Network saw an impressive jump of 294% among adult male viewers 25-49 during the broadcast, versus the same time slot the previous week.

If you missed out on Saturday and want to see if it's really as great as all that (which it is), the first episode will air again tonight at 1:00am.

New Howl's Trailer and Review

I'll make this one quick:

Dark Horizons has a new (XviD encoded) extended trailer for Howl's Moving Castle. And Ain't It Cool News has a somewhat positive review of the movie.

Enjoy.

Samurai Champloo Teaser Trailer

This is definitely a title that I am looking forward to: Samurai Champloo which is Shinchiro Watanabe's hip-hop martial-arts follow-up to the jazz martial-arts western sci-fi tv series Cowboy Bebop.

GATV is hosting a new teaser trailer for the show, and from the looks of it -- coupled with the latest early reviews (if that's not an oxymoron) of the show -- this is going to be a breakout hit when is reaches US shores. The first volume is scheduled for release January 11, 2005.

Broken Saints DVD Release

According to the Broken Saints website the DVD version of their 24-chapter ground-breaking flash-based internet epic will be on sale November 12.

If you have somehow not seen or heard about it, you can still view the entire series via their "classic" site. Otherwise, check out the very impressive trailer for the DVD.

Other than Casshern, more of the same...

IGN.com reports that Casshern, the live-action adaption of the 1970's anime Casshan: Robot Hunter, has been aquired for US distribution by Dreamworks. I've seen positive to mixed reviews for the movie. Regardless, after seeing at the beauty of the trailer, it's hard to not get excited about this one.

In other news, Anime News Network reports that the Appleseed movie will see limited theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Miami on February 14, 2005.

According to it's official website, the Steamboy movie will hit US theatres on March 18, 2005.

Disney's February 2005 DVD release of Miyazaki's Porco Rosso, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and My Neighbor Totoro has been delayed yet again until some date not yet known.

And last, but definitely not least, don't forget that Fullmetal Alchemist and Stand Alone Complex are going to be airing on Cartoon Network this Saturday, November 6, at Midnight and 12:30AM respectively.

More Live Action: The Initial D Movie

Yet another bit of live-action adaption news:

Apparently there is going to be a live action movie adaption to the extremely cool Initial D series. I haven't been able to find much in terms of a definitive or official site for the movie, but in a short search I was able to find a few references -- most of which are from AnimeNewsNetwork:

• Initial announcement
• Director changes hands
• Making-of featurette movie
• Some pictures from movie

I've read some rumors about this for a while, but I always thought it was a hoax. (There actually was a "hoax" out there for a while in the form of a poster parodying Initial D as the 3rd Fast and the Furious movie. But this is totally different.) I'm definitely interested to see how this turns out.

FullMetal Alchemist Website

The highly anticipated Fullmetal Alchemist just opened up its official website with a countdown to its premiere on Cartoon Network. It will be premeiring on November 6 at midnight alongside my current all-time favorite TV series ever Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex which is showing at 11:00pm but is currently available on DVD.

Renting Anime

I was poking around the AnimeNation forums (which I haven't done in a while) and I found an area dedicated to this site called RentAnime.com. It's obviously a anime dvd rental site and, although I haven't actually used it yet, the site appears pretty well-designed and user-friendly. It looks like the rental program works very similiarly to NetFlix (which also has an anime section, though probably relatively limited) where you pay a monthly fee and can rent an unlimited number of DVDs (though only 3 at a time) and you don't have any designated return date. Here's what the site has to say about it's free 2-week trial membership:

Rent as many DVDs as you want for free! After your two week trial ends, you'll pay only a small monthly fee. For only $19.95, you can keep a revolving library of up to 3 DVDs at a time and exchange them for new available DVDs as often as you like. If you don't rent a lot of DVDs and are looking for a plan that is more affordable, try our 1-at-a-time plan for only $9.95.

On the down side, it looks like it takes up to 6 days to get your videos. Though that may vary by location.

Now, I'm not paid to endorse this site or anything. I just happend to stumble upon it and figured it might be useful to people with an under-funded anime obsession. Especially since there are not that many rental programs dedicated to this one genre.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Trailers

Okay, so maybe I'm just catching up on all the stuff that I've seen before I ever got this blog thing, because here's another oldie but goodie.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a movie which is a sequal to the FF7 video game. From all the trailers that I've seen, it looks promising. (Although I never actually finished the game itself, so I might be a little lost as far as knowing the background of the movie. Maybe I'll try going back and work my way through it again.) As of this typing, the official FF7:AC site is down, but you can still find all the trailers at this fan site.

The DVD is supposed to be released some time this year, but some film festivals have already been showing the first 30 minutes of the film -- most recently Montreal's Festival Nouveau Cinema.

There is also a review of this initial screening, from when it was showing at the Venice Film Festival.

Appleseed Movie Site

And in another attempt to add a new posting with old news, here is the Official Site for the Appleseed Movie.

The movie is making its US premere at the Boston Film Festival on Saturday, October 16 at 7:30 pm.

And lastly, here's a very short review of the film off of Slashdot.

Disney Sets Release Date for next Miyazaki DVDs

So apparently now -- according to UltimateDisney.com -- Disney is going to release Nausicaa (1984), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and Porco Rosso (1992) on February 22, 2005.

This release date has been pushed back a few times before (well, at least once), so hopefully this one will stick. Maybe they pushed it back to coincide with the theatrical release of Howl's Moving Castle.

Live Action Evangelion News Website

The live action Evangelion movie isn't exactly breaking news, and there really hasn't been much in the way of new information on the project since it's initial announcement (short of a few pre-production sketches by WETA). But if you are interested, there is a good website available where you can keep up-to-date on the lates developments relating to this slowly evolving movie. So enjoy.

Sin City Movie Clips/Trailer

Well, I found the trailer for the Sin City movie (and a very extended trailer at that). The movie seems like it's going to be an almost word-for-word and panel-for-panel faithful adaption of the graphic novels. Whether that's a good thing or not, I am not yet sure. Just because something works in graphic novel form, doesn't necessarily mean it will work in live action.

From what I have read the movie will be adapting 3 of Sin City's storylines: The original Sin City, The Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard. (Unfortunately A Dame to Kill For is nowhere to be seen. Maybe in the sequel?)

The trailer starts out showing an adaption of a Sin City short story which I think is called The Customer is Always Right. However, I am not sure if that short story is actually going to be part of the movie or if it was just made as a promotional item.

Anyway, enjoy the trailer.

WTF??!!! SIN CITY Live Action Movie???????

Excuse my language but Oh my f****** God! A live action Sin City movie??? I just saw this article on ICv2 saying -- in an all too casual manor if you ask me -- that Frank Miller's bad-ass comic book Sin City is going live action, and not only that, but said flick is set for release in April! And the biggest spin is that it is actually going to be directed by comics-god Miller himself. [edit: Miller actually has co-directing credits with Robert Rodriguez of Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids films, The Faculty, From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado] How did I not know this until now?

For anyone who doesn't know Frank Miller's work, he is the mastermind behind the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, which is credited with having brought Batman back to his dark ass-kicking roots. For more info, check out the following sites:

• USA TODAY article discussing Dark Knight Returns and it's recent sequal.
• Some summaries and images from the original Sin City graphic novels.
• Short biography of Frank Miller

There is also some info about the movie at TheMovieBox.net including a short clip from E!.

Am I the only one who did not know about this movie until now? I so hope this movie doesn't suck.

Dead Leaves Stream

According to Anime News Network:

Manga Entertainment will stream Dead Leaves on their website this Tuesday (The DVD is also released on Tuesday). The online stream will be free all day.

Matrix / Ghost in the Shell Comparison

So we all know that anime was one of the major influences behind the Wachowski brothers creating the Matrix movies right? Right??

Well if you don't or if there is any doubt in your mind, check out this side-to-side comparison of Matrix and Ghost in the Shell.

Preview: Howl's Moving Castle

Another Miyazaki masterpiece in the making. This one is based on a children's fantasy book called Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Ironically enough, the sequel to the Howl's novel is called Castle in the Air, which apparently has no relation to Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky. There seems to be no shortage of movies about mobile fortresses either, as the concept also plays a part in Otomo's upcoming Steamboy anime.

Anyway, Howl's got a good response at the Venice Film Festival where the crowd gave the film a five minute standing ovation.

The movie's coming to the US (through Disney) some time in 2005. Until then, check out these previews.

Cool Cowboy Bebop references

Check out this site and this site for cool details and cultural references in the Cowboy Bebop series and movie. Some things, like the session titles referring to songs/albums/movies are old news, but some of the little details and themes I would have never picked up on even if I was a pop culture guru.

First 8 minutes of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

First post is a goodie. 8 minutes of the soon-to-be-released-in-the-US Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. It's limited release starts Friday September 17. It'll be here in Michigan at the Royal Oak Landmark. I will be there tomorrow. I'll be interested to see how I like this one since I hated the original Ghost in the Shell movie the first time I saw it, but learned to love it after viewing it again years later (probably because I knew more of what to expect -- that and the fact that I actually paid attantion to what was going on).

And just to get your cajones raging for GitS and all the other big time anime hitting the US, check out this article about the three giants of anime bringing their art to the west.