Oi! All Aussies out there!

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Laputa: Castle in the Sky was awesome steampunk goodness. It appeared to be a mixture of the Indiana Jones/Jules Verne/Disney type. Very good quality.
My only complaint is that I don't really enjoy the Miyazaki-look of character's faces (very simple and early Disney-style). But other than that, it was great. Especially all those rotor-bladed aircraft and dragonfly style jetski plane thingys! (lol)
A true classic. Quite innocent and a lot of fun - one of the best G rated (and any other) movies I've ever seen!

[Zane]

I taped it, but havn't watched it yet... I'd better hurry up, running out of videotape space. But I did watch GitS episode 4, the one with the laughing man. And that was pretty good, and it hasn't concluded yet but continues next week, I love those ones that do that.

Looking forward to Nausicaa, should be good.
And yeah all the girls have the same simple face of the curved nose and black eyes. Myaziaki seems to do this offen, and like in mononkoe, most of the minor charcters are very identical. ie pirates in porco rosso, the ppl in mononokoe.

[Anime Dad]

Bah, I started taping Laputa: Castle in the Sky but my wife turned the tape off without me knowing about 20 mins in Hopefully i'll have more luck this week.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

It was the complete Nausicaa version I think. It was around 116 mins. Once I got past the ridiculously low frame-rates I really begun to enjoy the movie. A very good steampunk tale and the Princess sure had attitude! I loved the designs of the planes, ohms and everything but as with most Miyazaki films I don't go for the very basic character designs. On the whole I enjoyed it immensly. I was suprised to find some parts were strikingly similar to the novel I'm writing at the moment.
Does anyone know the budget Nausicaa had? And what other anime movie's frame-rates were in the early to mid 80s?

Thanks!

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Kiki's Delivery Service was a very good movie. Very sweet, very innocent. I've never seen anything like it. Miyazaki has real talent to keep the viewer captivated for 100 minutes where there is no 'real' crisis. Masterful storytelling and a breath of fresh air!
As relaxing as a walk in the park and very encouraging too.
Highly recommended.

[Zane]

I still have to watch Kiki, but I'm up to date with the other stuff now. Nasicau was really cool, and Laputa was also great fun. I had no idea what could possible happen once they made it into Laputa, like there was no obvious forseeable outcome once they landed there. And Tin, was Laputa really rated G?
Because it did have alot of good violence, gun shots and alot of people falling to their deaths, and Pado (forgot his name) had a bullet clip his cheek after all. The bad guy tried to kill both of them several times with near misses.

I like that in Miyazakis films, looks of good fun gun-fire. The dubbin was also done well. And GitS the laughing man thread is still going and the last episode had some pretty cool fight scenes in it. But I'm finding it pretty hard to follow with the plot development and stuff. Its good though.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

The Laughing Man episodes were much better (I felt than the 1st and 3rd episode of the series).

Yes, Laputa is G in Australia, but PG or the equivalent of PG everywhere else in the world. Weird huh? The only other movie I know that has rating similarities to that is Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal. That was G, but the scariest, darkiest G movie I've ever seen!

I have Spirited Away on DVD but it only has the Japanese language with English subtitles and I'm curious to hear the dubbed version so I may tape it.

I have to say I'm really enjoying the Miyazaki season! A great way to see some great anime works without paying. (lol) I'm thinking of hiring Princess Monoke and some others that weren't shown.

[Zane]

Definatly, the free screening of anime, particularly Miyazakis stuff, the "Disney of the east", has been great. The dubbing for Spirited Away was pretty good, Chihiro's voice isn't overtly annyouing, but matches her age very well.

Princess Mononoke is closest to Nausicaa, wth the environmental themes, but be prepared Christian, its alot more violent and bloody then you'd expect watching Kiki and Laputa, plus the eastern religious influences were abit too much for me, but the animation is great and it is enjoyable.

And Tin, you have like nearly 2 grand worth of posts... where are you psoting all this stuff

[Hephzibah]

I keep forgetting about this stuff until its too late XD What's on this week?

And Tin, you have like nearly 2 grand worth of posts... where are you psoting all this stuff

I don't know... but he's beating me now! Nooo! I must beat him

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Zane, I've mostly posted in General and In the Spotlight threads I think. But also some others.
Yes, I've heard Princess Monoke is a bit 'raw' in violence but I watched Akira recently (some parts good, some parts sickening and some parts weirded me out). Anyway I don't go for heaps of violence in anime, but I should be able to handle it. I'll give it a go. I don't recommend Akira by the way, too dark even for me!

Talame, Spirited Away is on this week!

[Hephzibah]

Zane, I've mostly posted in General and In the Spotlight threads I think. But also some others.
Yes, I've heard Princess Monoke is a bit 'raw' in violence but I watched Akira recently (some parts good, some parts sickening and some parts weirded me out). Anyway I don't go for heaps of violence in anime, but I should be able to handle it. I'll give it a go. I don't recommend Akira by the way, too dark even for me!

Talame, Spirited Away is on this week!

I've seen the last half of Akira, and I think it is WAAAAY overrated.
*hides from all the Akira fans*

anyway, I'm not too sure if I want to watch Spirited Away... what is the religious content like?

[Anime Dad]

I've seen Spirited Away on video, I thought it was great (Dubbed version)
I have also seen Akira, or most of it anyhow, but it was a very poor copy and I didn't enjoy it much. If I can find it on DVD, it may be better

[Zane]

Oh Mononoke isn't a quater as bad as Akira, from memory. I've not seen Akira, only the starting motorbike scene, and the dude getting slaughtered while trying to hide the child, i've looked at some of the manga and it looks pretty sick really. Mononoke has from memory only a guy getting his head shot off with an arrow, and thats from a distance, oh and someguys arms are shot off aswell. It won't be the violence that will put you off, but the giant animals being called gods. My mate said though that by god all they mean is that these larger animals are superior to humans, ie more powerful etc.

Good to see you drop by again Talame. Spirited away is good fun, though there are "spirits" and various monster/demons. But if you can look past that it is a pretty neat little movie. Very similar to Howl's Moving Castle, if you've seen that yet, that was also cool.

[Sammy Boy]

The Chinatown in Sydney has the whole Studio Ghibli stuff in a boxed DVD set. But I think the subtitles are in Chinese. I'll have to check that first..

[Zane]

you wouldn't want to accidentially buy a whole box of chinese sub and jap dub DVD's now would you. Unless you can understand either of course.

[Sammy Boy]

No you wouldn't wanna do that. LOL.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that it's an overseas import, so you need a DVD player that can play all region DVDs.

But even for HK imports with English subtitles .. I can't guarantee that they'll be good. For example, I have the Record of Lodoss Wars DVD set, but the English subtitles are just shocking (grammar, spelling, and the fact how the characters' names change with every episode!).

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Sounds like pirated editions.

[Sammy Boy]

No I'm fairly certain the one I got is legit. When I went to Hong Kong a few years ago I specifically asked a local friend to take me to a 'proper' store where they only sold the licenced stuff. The price tag matched what you'd expect for a licenced version too.

But the English subtitles was just bad. Or maybe my local friend got conned as well.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Good news guys and girls!

8th December - Thursday, 10:40pm - 12:35am (SBS)

MOVIE - ANIMATION - COWBOY BEEBOP: THE MOVIE

Based on a successful Japanese TV series and set on Mars at the end of the 21st century. The crew of the spaceship Bebop - Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein, the corgi data-dog, arrive on mars just as a tanker truck is blown up in the middle of a busy street, and a deadly viral infection is released with the explosion. The Bebop crew are instantly after the culprit when the reward of 300,000,000 woolongs is announced. But the case gets stranger when the cold-blooded Vincent Volaju, who supposedly has been dead for ten years, seems to be the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Spike encounters the dangerous Electra, who is also after the madman. Voice overs by Steven Blum, Beau Billingslea, Wendee Lee, Melissa Charles, Jennifer Hale, Darran Norris (Vincent) and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe.
(From Japan, in English) (2002) M (V)



15th December - Thursday, 10:30pm - 12:15am (SBS)

MOVIE - FANTASY - AVALON

From renowned Japanese animator Mamoru Oshii, comes this unique and visually exciting film that is part CGI live-action, part animation, where fantasy and reality are fused into one. In a future world, young people are increasingly becoming addicted to an illegal and potentially deadly battle simulation game called Avalon. Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak), a professional Avalon super warrior, has access to the top-level, which is only accessible under very specific conditions. Once a player is inside, they can only stop by winning the game. When Ash hears rumours that a more advanced level of the game exists somewhere, she gives up her loner ways and joins a gang of explorers. Even if she finds the gateway to the next level, she may never be able to come back to reality. Also stars Bartek Swiderski, Jerzy Gudejko and Dariusz Biskupski. (From Japan, in Polish, with English subtitles) (2001) M (V)



29th December - Thursday, 11:20pm - 11:50pm (SBS)

MOVIE - ANIMATION - VOICES OF A DISTANT STAR
A romantic and ethereal animation, a sweet, touching tale of a love struggling to survive the distance across time and space. Voices by Sumi Muto and Chihiro Suzuki. Created entirely by director and sole animator, Makoto Shinkai, on his home computer.
(From Japan, in English) PG

[Sammy Boy]

Woot! I have not seen Avalon, but I saw both Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Voices of a Distant Star.

I think Voices is worth getting on DVD if you can spare the change. I've been told come Jan of 2006, Madman will release Shinkai's newer title "The place promised in the early days" (Yaku soku no ba ..).

For Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, just note that there is one scene in which Faye is topless (not the scene when she is in the shower, which you see only the shower curtain and her face), but it is covered and you actually never seen any nudity. The scene only lasts for around 1 sec, but just make a mental note in case there are kids watching it with you.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Ok thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
I haven't seen any of the three, so I'm in for a treat I think.