News - by Ian - November 12, 2009 - 20:59 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
In various parts of the country, film festivals are carried out and enjoyed by thousands of people with discerning tastes. This year’s Leeds International Film Festival will be airing some amazing films but also some amazing anime films.
These films are as follows:
Ponyo
“The greatest living film animator and storyteller, Hayao Miyazaki transforms The Little Mermaid fairytale into Ponyo, a magical and universal cinema experience that shines so bright all else seems grey. Ponyo is a little goldfish with a girl’s face who escapes the underwater home of her sorcerer father to explore the surface. She is discovered by Sosuke, a 5-year-old boy living on the top of a cliff by the sea. As Ponyo grows closer to Sosuke, her desire to become fully human strengthens. Screening in the original Japanese language version with English subtitles.”
Screening:
22nd November – 1100
22nd November – 1600
Angel’s Egg
“Unseen in Europe for over 20 years, Angel’s Egg is a hauntingly beautiful animation with a heartbreaking story, a forgotten masterpiece from Japanese anime legend Mamoru Oshii. Mystical, minimal, and musically mesmerising, Angel’s Egg is like nothing else in animation, with the stunning video game ICO its closest relation. In the shadows of a vast abandoned city a mysterious girl protects a giant precious egg. She meets a lone soldier and they share occult secrets. Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D artist Yoshitaka Amano designed the characters.”
Screening:
19th November – 1800
20th November – 1400
Summer Wars
“Astounding anime… dazzlingly imaginative… the future king of Japanese animation may be with us’ – The Japan Times. Summer Wars is the captivating and spectacular new animated feature from Mamoru Hosoda, director of The Girl who Leapt through Time. Millions are addicted to the vast online world of Oz. Maths genius Kenji tears himself away from Oz to escort his crush Natsuki to her formidable Great Grandma’s 90th. The family gathering is not what Kenji expected and soon he is the brains of a kindred force out to defeat the Oz-invading, Earth-ending Love Machine virus.”
Screening:
18th November – 2030
20th November – 1600
22nd November – 1330
Angel’s Egg is an incredibly rare film that’s not been seen in the UK for more than two decades, which is more than the lifetime of the average Naurto fan.
The Leeds International Film Festival is a well known event and it can be found at:
Leeds Film
Town Hall
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AD
UK
You can purchase tickets from the above or online here.
News - by Ian - November 8, 2009 - 14:53 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
In an interview with UKA, Manga Entertainment have confirmed that their up and coming release of Evangelion 1.11 – You Are (Not) Alone, will be available in both Blu-Ray and DVD upon release. In the same interview Manga have also confirmed that they the rights to the theatrical release of the film, Evangelion 1.01, although there is currently no confirmation as to whether this will reach a DVD release.
Evangellon 1.11 is the first in a planned quartet of films retelling the original Neon Geneis Evangelion series. Currently there are three versions of this film, 1.0, 1.01 and 1.11, all of which are exactly the same but with each version fix errors or enhance the visual quality of the film. The exception to this rule is 1.11, which contains a further three minutes of footage.
Source: UKA
News - by Ian - October 19, 2009 - 15:28 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Today it’s been announced that The London Children’s Film Festival is back for the fifth consecutive year in a row and will be bigger and better than ever before. With literally some of the biggest names in Children’s television and the biggest kids film to be released next year – Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea due for showing.
With special events such as [Tim] Burton’s bedtime stories – Pyjama Party, Inside the world or Merlin (BBC show) and a Q&A with Frank Cottrell Boyce about the TV adaptation of his book Framed.
As mentioned, Ponyo will be making an appearance and so will Mai Mai Miracle and Snow Prince.
So between the 21-29 November, these events will be taking place. For even more information, check out their site here.
News - by Ian - September 24, 2009 - 20:34 Europe/London - 3 Comments
To celebrate the up and coming theatrical release of Ghost in the Shell 2.0 on the 2nd October, and the DVD and Blue Ray DVD is due out no the 26th October, we’ve been sent a trailer of this brilliant production.
Featuring the voice acting work of Richard Epcar, Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is already a well known and loved anime that’s only due to get more popular with time. After all, back in 1995 only 100,000 saw the film in cinemas, and this is well remembered by the creator:
“Only a hundred thousand people saw [Ghost In The Shell] in cinemas back in 1995,” remembers Oshii. “To this day, most people have only seen it on video. That’s why I really wanted people to have a chance to see it on the big screen, and I really hope they do. In terms of CGI, there are over 90 cuts that have been altered and enhanced. And with extensive use of filter effects and colour correction techniques throughout the rest of the film, it’s fair to say that pretty much the entire movie has been enhanced in some way.”
You can see the trailer below:
Reviews - by Ian - June 29, 2009 - 21:16 Europe/London - 1 Comment
There are few successful videogame to movie adaptations, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and that Mario film from years ago. Fortunately it would appear that videogame to anime films are far more successful as the Street Fighter 5 Disc Movie Collection features all of the anime films from this iconic series in one boxset.
In total there are three films, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha Generations and Street Fighter II, along with Street Fighter The Digital Comic. Street Fighter Alpha is the first film of the box set, although much like Star Wars it’s actually Street Fighter Alpha Generations that’s chronologically first in the Street Fighter timeline.
In Street Fighter Alpha Ken returns home to pay his respects to his late master and crops into Ryu. This reunion is better sweet as the pair have not seen each other in many years and they must together overcome a great evil that’s slowly taking over Ryu as well as the land. Ryu’s younger brother, Shun appears from no where and yet no one has any memory of him, whilst Ryu, Ken and Shun get to know one another the demonic power that lies dormant inside of Ryu starts to bubble at the surface and it’s soon apparent that Shun has the ability to utilise this power as well.
Street Fighter Alpha has decent voice acting in English and the Japanese voice cast is very well acted. Fortunately good casting and decent translating have managed to keep Street Fighter Alpha fighting back the easy trap that videogame to film adaptations usually fall into. The animation is very well done, there are a lot of muted tones throughout and the demonic scenes are dark and very distinct at all times. Unfortunately the storyline itself isn’t exactly amazing and for the most part is somewhat clichéd; however, the ending is very impressive.
The second film to be made is actually the first film in the series and Street Fighter Alpha Generations tells the story of Gouki’s defeat of Ryu’s master, leaving the village and falling into a very dark and evil life. Ryu returns to the village and dojo to pay his respects to his master. Ryu is plagued by nightmares of Gouki. He soon finds that his dojo has been left to ruin and starts training again to find the man who killed his former master.
Street Fighter Alpha Generations also has a strong voice-acting cast in both English and Japanese and for the most part is well acted. With some dodgy phases in the film it doesn’t sound as good as the first but the artwork is far more impressive. The character designs have changed a lot from the first film and although look more blocky and less impressive, are actually far more fluid with more impressive backgrounds. The muted tones of the backgrounds are strong contrasts to the much brighter, although still faded in comparison to the likes of Lucky Star; leave more of a lasting impression on the viewer.
Street Fighter 2 begins with Ryu and Sagat fighter at full strength whilst Cammie White, a former street fighter and a hired assassin are targeting Albert Sellers. The Interpol officer Chung Lee, manage to arrest Cammie White, unfortunately the Shadow Law managed to recruit many of the normal street fighters to act as assassins to destroy the Albert Sellers in London. Bison, the leader of the Shadow Law is planning on taking over the world and must be stopped and the person to do this is Ryu.
Along with the other films, the animation quality is very good, as is the voice acting and the translations a little hit and miss. This is the uncut version, therefore there’s the extended scenes of Chung Lee and all of the controversy that in modern society appears to be far minor than when it was first released.
Along with these films there’s a digital comic in the style of manga. This comic expands upon various aspects of the series and is well done, with brilliant drawing quality and is well scripted.
» Final Score
6
Ultimately Street Fighter – 5 Disc Movie Collection panders to Street Fighter fans wants and needs. For the most part the films are of a decent quality; however, they can be a little samey for non-Street Fighter fans. Yet overall these films are of a good quality and would be a good addition to anime collections, especially for £30.
