DC Animated and an Anime lesson for Twitchy and Jeff.

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

From Newsarama:

Quote:

WONDER WOMAN

On the mystical island of Themyscria, a proud and fierce warrior race of Amazons have raised a daughter of untold beauty, grace and strength – Princess Diana. When and army fighter pilot, Steve Trevor crash-lands on the island, the rebellious and headstrong Diana defies Amazonian law by accompanying Trevor back to civilization. Meanwhile, Ares (the god of War) has escaped his imprisonment at the hands of the Amazonians and has decided to exact his revenge using the mystical “Hand of Rage,” an ancient artifact with the power to raise armies from the dead and infuse them with a thirst for blood. Ares intends to start a world war that will not only last for centuries – but will wipe out every lving being on the planet, starting with the Amazons! It is up to Princess Diana to save her people and the world – by using her gifts and becoming the ultimate Wonder Woman!

Target: Males 18+, women 18+, and girls 9-17.

Proposed rating: PG-13

DVD street date: Q4 2008/Q1 2009

Based on the Perez relaunch of Wonder Woman.

Quote:

BATMAN ANIME

Targeted Audience:
Dual: Core fans and tween boys
Rating: PG-13 (anticipated)

Release:
2-4 weeks in advance of The Dark Knight film release.

Overview:

Set in the period between BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT, this brand new adventure follows BATMAN as he unravels a mystery over six original stories done in the style of Japanese Anime. Each of the six original stories has been written by a highly respected screenwriter or comic book creator. The talent includes Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen (The History of Violence), screenwriter of the Blade films and Batman Begins David Goyer, and famed comic book writer Brian Azzarello, among others.

The Batman Anime DVD is viewed as a perfect companion piece to BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT. The original stories introduce a number of classic characters from the DC Comics BATMAN universe as well as following up on characters and storylines that were introduced in BATMAN BEGINS.

Sounds very cool.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=123595

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

The WW one sounds good, hope they stick with the original intent to make the animation look similar to the artists style. The Batman one...zero interest, can't stand anime. The writers sound good, but I won't subject my eyes to that crappy style.

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

Jeff wrote:

The WW one sounds good, hope they stick with the original intent to make the animation look similar to the artists style. The Batman one...zero interest, can't stand anime. The writers sound good, but I won't subject my eyes to that crappy style.

You do realize there about 20 different "anime" styles, right?

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

Yeah -- 20 different styles of crap! :yay:

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

You're 20 different styles of crap!!!!

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Monk wrote:

Jeff wrote:

The WW one sounds good, hope they stick with the original intent to make the animation look similar to the artists style. The Batman one...zero interest, can't stand anime. The writers sound good, but I won't subject my eyes to that crappy style.

You do realize there about 20 different "anime" styles, right?

It all looks pretty similar to me. Some have more "realistic" hair, settings, everything like that. They all have the big eyes, "flying kick" moving backgrounds with stationary figures, etc, etc. Besides, I'm sure when they say that in the blurb, they're talking about what most people think of when you say "anime".

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

Jeff wrote:

They all have the big eyes, "flying kick" moving backgrounds with stationary figures, etc, etc.

Alright, you've obviously never seen Ghost In The Shell, Akira, or Princess Mononoke.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qT_SLtKoeVY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qT_SLtKoeVY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

Monk · 19 Jun 2006

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Monk wrote:

Jeff wrote:

They all have the big eyes, "flying kick" moving backgrounds with stationary figures, etc, etc.

Alright, you've obviously never seen Ghost In The Shell, Akira, or Princess Mononoke.

Bits and pieces, and all of Akira. All about the same. Some more realistic looking than others, but still sharing the traits that don't endear it to me.

Ross · 03 Jun 2007

Jeff you need to acquaint yourself with Miyazaki NOW!

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

All of those Miyazaki films are in my blockbuster online queue. I'll see them. I'm sure the writing is good, the animation well-done, highly detailed, all that. It will still be sub-par (to me) to a Disney film, or Batman TAS, or Fleischer Superman. But I will still see it.

Something nearly all anime seems to have in common is an effort to become almost hyper-realistic in facial movements, and I find it distracting. I can't really explain it without showing you, so that's the best I can do.

Judge WAN · 01 Aug 2005

Hugh · 30 Jul 2005

I LOVE Miyazaki!
Nausicaa and Laputa are probably my 2 favorite films.

Ross · 03 Jun 2007

Hugh wrote:

I LOVE Miyazaki!
Nausicaa and Laputa are probably my 2 favorite films.

Hugh, what is Laputa, I am not familiar with that one - is that the full title? What is it about and when did it come out - I may have to pick it up! I love all his films, with Nausicaa and Mononoke at the top of the list.

Mike Nebeker · **Joined:** 11 Aug 2004 **Posts:** 2551

I would say there are no Disney films as good as Miyazaki's work, but there are some parts of Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast that hit the same level, except I don't think that would be true for all people who see it.

I do recommend that you start with Nausicaa, Totoro, Laputa, and Porco Rosso. The art style is all similar - Miyazaki style - but what is really important are the stories. If you are into the technical side of Animation, see Spirited Away.

Because most anime are drawn in assembly line manner with ten or twenty studios sometimes contributing (though now it's mostly one studio and a thousand Korean and Indian subcontractors) most anime produced around the same time will look similar. On top of that, studios have signature looks. Miyazaki films have similar character looks. Tezuka (Kimba, Astro Boy, Metropolis) films and TV shows look similar.

It should be noted that the early producers of Anime, like Tezuka, were highly influenced by Disney (hence the big eyes instead of more identifiably Japanese eyes) and that created many conventions still in place today.

Currently, the styles are all over the place. Because most Anime are licensed Manga stories, the art style of the Manga influences the animation style. There are popular art styles for various genres, too. But some directors are going into highly unique styles - last year an anthology series called "Ayakashi - Tales of Samurai Horror" animated its three stories with references to ancient Japanese artworks including wood cuts, watercolors and painted screens. This year a spin off series - Mononoke http://www.mononoke-anime.com/- continues with a style that looks like the figures are animated on rice paper screens.

If you are a bit-torrent type of guy, google up "Mononoke (TV)" as well as the dark comedy "Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei" to find the fansubbed episodes.

As with everything creative, the most important thing about Anime is not the animation but the story. For every really good story there are 30 generic, by the book, stories being done. And being Japan there are also about 10 more really strange, make no sense, or just plain "WTF???" stories. Japan is the only place with a successful animated porn industry after all...

Mike Nebeker · **Joined:** 11 Aug 2004 **Posts:** 2551

Ross wrote:

Hugh wrote:

I LOVE Miyazaki!
Nausicaa and Laputa are probably my 2 favorite films.

Hugh, what is Laputa, I am not familiar with that one - is that the full title? What is it about and when did it come out - I may have to pick it up! I love all his films, with Nausicaa and Mononoke at the top of the list.

It got released as "Castle in the Sky" by Disney here, because in Spanish la puta means "The prostitute" but in far more obscene manner. The island Laputa comes from Gulliver's Travels, which is where Miyazaki took his source.

Zaki Hasan · 11 Jun 2006

Looking forward to both of these. The Batman project sounds different...I'm intrigued.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

I make one snarky comment and get chastised for it in the thread title?

Cool! :yay:

Ross · 03 Jun 2007

Ah I see... well I own Castle in the Sky and it really has some beautiful scenes, I highly recomnmend it.

One of his that I have not seen is The Cat Returns - is it any good?

Paulie Walnuts · 31 Jul 2007

"Target: Males 18+, women 18+, and girls 9-17."

Makes one wonder...

DC Animated and an Anime lesson for Twitchy and Jeff.

Who is WANline