TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/4/11

 

Cliched though they may sound, "rollicking" and "rip-roaring" are pretty good descriptive words for director Satoshi Nishimura's TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE (2010), an eye-pleasing anime that's bursting at the seams with fast-moving action and comedy.  A feature-length version of the manga by Yasuhiro Nightow and the popular television series, it's a dense conglomeration of sci-fi, steampunk, Westerns, and various other genres with energy and style to burn.

The film opens with hulking outlaw Gasback and his three henchmen robbing a fortress-like bank but then having a falling out over Gasback's tendency to invest all their spoils in bigger and more elaborate robberies, which is his sole motivation.  Before the three traitors can kill him, however, he's rescued by Vash the Stampede, who values all life even more than he values fun, adventure, and donuts.  Unfairly regarded as a villain and bearing a sixty-billion double-dollar price on his head, Vash (known as "The Humanoid Typhoon") is a wanderer who only wants to help people and have a good time. 

Gasback, meanwhile, has patiently waited twenty years for his former allies to rise to positions of wealth and prominence, so that his revenge will be even greater.  After destroying the livelihoods of the first two, he's on his way to Mecca City to bring down Caine, who is now the mega-wealthy owner of the town's massive power plant.  News of Gasback's impending arrival has drawn hundreds of bounty hunters from all over, including the beautiful Amelia who has some unfinished business with him.



Jittery insurance agents Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, old friends of Vash, are also in town to protect Caine's giant bronze statue of himself, which their company has insured for five billion dollars.  And mysterious clergyman Nicholas D. Wolfwood, another of Vash's past acquaintances, shows up as Gasback's current bodyguard, fulfilling a debt to him with the help of his huge cross-shaped rocket gun.

With its sleek character design and detail-packed backgrounds, TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE is a constant joy to look at.  Along with a colorful vehicular caravan, the bounty hunters travel to Mecca City aboard a huge steamship that hovers across the desert and serves as the setting for some lively encounters between Vash, Amelia, and some troublesome competitors.  The city itself is a clever combination of modern and Old West design, where the main characters engage in an old-fashioned barroom brawl before Gasback's attack sparks a spectacular battle sequence filled with sound and fury.

With so much explosive action going on, the body count in this bullet-riddled but lighthearted tale is practically nonexistent.  Much of the emphasis is on comedy as Vash courts an unwilling Amelia, who is literally allergic to men, while Meryl and Milly work themselves into nervous fits worrying about the fate of Caine's big, gaudy statue. 

Even hardbitten characters like Gasback and the hordes of bounty hunters out for his head contribute to the story's often deadpan-comic atmosphere.  The story isn't all fun, however--surprisingly, things get a little emotional now and then, particularly when we learn of Amelia's tragic origin and at least one of the main good guys bites the dust. 



Before the dust settles over the ravaged Mecca City, the action heads out into the desert as the bounty hunter caravan pursues Gasback in a thrilling sequence heavily inspired by THE ROAD WARRIOR.  Later, a final showdown between the good guys and the bad guy revels in heaping helpings of Spaghetti Western goodness, with Sergio Leone's influence nicely recycled into over-the-top cartoon visuals.  Here, all the various threads of the story are neatly tied up with a satisfying conclusion that extends through the closing credits crawl. 

The DVD from Funimation is in widescreen with English and Japanese Dolby 5.1 sound and English subtitles.  Disc one is the movie and some Funimation trailers.  Disc two contains a number of bonus features including several lengthy, lively cast-and-crew panel discussions at various locations including the film's premiere.  There's also a post-recording short, promotional clips and trailers, and other assorted tidbits.

Like an old Mad Magazine comics panel from the 50s, TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE is so richly detailed that it bears repeat viewing just to take in everything you missed the first time.  But most of all, this seriocomic burst of creative energy is just a ball to watch.

TRIGUN: BADLANDS RUMBLE -- DVD Review by Porfle

GHOST IN THE SHELL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/27/14

 

Visually stunning and thematically complex, 1995's intensely cinematic GHOST IN THE SHELL (Anchor Bay, 25th Anniversary Edition) is the kind of dazzling, "hard" sci-fi that doesn't hit the screen very often, and when it does it's often in the form of anime.

While obviously influenced by such films as BLADE RUNNER and that other anime classic AKIRA, GHOST has its own style and ambience that are often mesmerizing. After a pre-titles action sequence that's like something out of a futuristic Bond movie, the main titles show our young heroine, Major Motoko Kusanagi, during the laboratory creation of her cybernetic body in a womblike pool of chemicals.

She then rises naked from it as a sort of placental crust cracks off her body, while Kenji Kawai's ethereal musical score begins to weave its web. And thus we're given a preview of the mind-expanding artistic potential the film will go on to almost effortlessly fulfill.

As with a lot of serious anime, the overly-complicated and sometimes hard to follow plot is mainly a springboard for wildly imaginative, often impressionistic flights of artistic fancy along with some thought-provoking ideas. Set in 2029, the story concerns two secret government agencies whose conflicting agendas will clash in potentially devastating ways.

Major Kusanagi of the Internal Bureau of Investigations is tasked to track down a mysterious villain known as the Puppet Master, a kind of sentient computer virus who can infiltrate the mind of any human whose cyber-enhanced brain is hooked into the system, taking over their will and giving them false memories.

Major Kusanagi is aided in her mission by a hulking, gray-haired mentor named Batou and brawny but easygoing Togusa, who all take part in a frentic chase scene early on which explores just how imaginatively this medium can be used in depicting bullet-riddled vehicular mayhem with the power to thrill in ways that live-action films rarely can. (THE MATRIX and THE FIFTH ELEMENT, on which this film is a distinct influence, come close.)

As the secrets behind the Puppet Master unfold (which I can't reveal without spoiling some of the film's most compelling surprises), GHOST IN THE SHELL offers a seemingly endless procession of eye-pleasing and mind-expanding sci-fi sights, sounds, and concepts. Every once in a while, there's a montage of images that the viewer gets lost in, or a deep, intimate conversation about mortality that can only be engaged in by a couple of cyborgs whose consciousness resides within cybernetic brains.

Kusanagi is particularly contemplative regarding identity since both her body and brain are almost entirely synthetic. Is she even human at all anymore? And since she's connected to the 'net like any other computer, her mind is vulnerable to being hacked by the Puppet Master at any time--if it hasn't been already.

How does she know her memories are real, or that what's she is experiencing at present is really happening? Her potential invasion and subjugation by an unseen force is one of the film's major dramatic concerns, which will eventually lead to an ending which, while somewhat unexpectedly low-key, is intellectually stimulating to say the least.

Directed by Mamoru Oshii (AVALON, ASSAULT GIRLS), the visuals are the work of animators from Production I.G. (BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, KAIDOHMARU, KILL BILL). The story is based upon Masamune Shirow's original manga. While I usually prefer straight cel animation to a cel-CGI mixture, the digital stuff is used sparingly--mainly for computer readouts and such--and the overall effect is just so eye-pleasing and finely-rendered that it's visually irresistible.

The Blu-ray disc from Anchor Bay and Starz is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 English and 2.0 Japanese audio and English subtitles. The disc is barebones with no bonus features. The disc case contains an illustrated booklet with a Mamoru Oshii interview and two essays, "The World of Ghost in the Shell" and "The Impact of Ghost in the Shell."

Not a children's "cartoon" by any means (it, as they say, "contains violence, nudity, and adult themes"), GHOST IN THE SHELL lavishes the viewer with moments of beauty and contemplation which explore the emotional limits of animation while also generating explosive, edge-of-your-seat action. Like all really good science-fiction, it's both visceral and sublime.

GHOST IN THE SHELL 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

Originally posted in 2017

 

Futuristic sci-fi thrillers such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER, and the more recent THE FIFTH ELEMENT used to amaze and astound us with their eye-popping visuals and stunning practical effects. Nowadays, such fare is so overloaded with CGI-generated artificial wonders jam-packed into every frame that we tend to get numbed by it all. 

GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)--a live-action adaptation of the original manga by way of the excellent 1995 animated version--starts out that way, cluttered with too many whiz-bang visuals that don't always seem to exist in the real world, with the ever-present advertising motif of BLADE RUNNER taken to new extremes and a sort of architectural imagination gone mad.

As the film progresses, however, we settle in and adapt to this frenetic, plastic vision of the future, mainly because the theme of the story is technology gone too far--people becoming willing cyborgs for vanity and convenience and all connected body and mind to a central core--and the main characters are meant to feel alienated by it as well. 

Our heroine, Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) of the anti-terrorist group Section 9, is especially attuned to such feelings, being that she is the first successful fusion of a human brain with an entirely robotic body (i.e., a "ghost in the shell") and thus constantly conflicted as to how much of her humanity remains and what percent of her is pure machine connected to the company mainframe. 

Her inner conflict is heightened when her group's newest nemesis is a cyber-criminal named Kuze who can hack into any system including all cyborgs--meaning just about everybody to one degree or another--and service robots. 

His goal is revenge, which he wreaks to the extreme in some explosive action setpieces.  But exactly why remains a mystery until Mira and her team manage to fight their way right into his sinister clutches and discover the truth behind not only Kuze but their own organization.

Scarlett Johansson strikes the right balance between robotic demeanor and inner conflict, which she underplays until it's time to delve headlong into her action scenes.  These lack the angular inventiveness and quirky choreography of, say, THE MATRIX, but are still packed with satisfying excitement in their own way, replete with gunplay and hand-to-hand combat with sci-fi elements such as invisibility and advanced weaponry. 

"Beat" Takeshi Kitano (BATTLE ROYALE, VIOLENT COP) lends his considerable presence as Mira's boss, Aramaki, as does Juliette Binoche--who will always be Catherine Earnshaw of 1992's WUTHERING HEIGHTS to me--as Dr. Ouelet, the head scientist who created Mira and regards her as a daughter.  Pilou Asbæk is also good as Mira's partner Batou, a gruff, bearlike agent who's just a regular guy beneath it all. 

Mira's quest to find herself, to uncover suppressed memories of her former life and get to the truth of why and how she was created, eventually takes GHOST IN THE SHELL to a place that's both powerful and tragic, lending emotional depth to its final chaotic showdown between good and evil (traits which will shift their meaning considerably before it's over). 

The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set from Paramount is in 1080p high definition (DVD is widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs) with Dolby 5.1 stereo and subtitles in multiple languages.  The DVD contains the feature film only.  The Blu-ray disc contains the feature plus three bonus behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Visually and emotionally compelling, the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL never quite reaches the sublime beauty of its animated predecessor but tries its damndest to do so.  In this, it succeeds in being a lively, thought-provoking, and often dazzling entry in the dystopian-future sci-fi genre which fans won't want to miss.


Street Date:      July 7, 2017 (Digital HD) July 25, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD) 
U.S. Rating:    PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images
Canadian Rating: PG, not recommended for young children, violence


Read our original coverage

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted in 2016

 

I watched an awful lot of afternoon TV back in the 80s, but I somehow missed out on "Transformers."  (Although I did buy my nephew one of the toys for Christmas once.) 

This half-hour cartoon series--some would call it an extended toy commercial--about the never-ending war for planet Earth between two opposing factions of intelligent shape-shifting robots named the Autobots and the Decepticons, who can all turn into various high-powered vehicles or cyber-creatures, ran from 1984-87 and garnered a fervent cult following for which it rated a feature-film treatment in 1986. 

Thus, THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) (Shout! Factory and Hasbro Studios, 2-disc Blu-ray) is a great way not only to catch up on what all the nostalgia's about but also to see it at what I assume to be its very best.

Even for a "Transformers" novice like myself, the 80s nostalgia that this rollicking animated space adventure radiates is intoxicating.  It's old-school anime-style cel animation without the CGI gimmicks.  Even if it sometimes betrays its TV origins, it looks fantastic.  And it has a voice cast that's to short-circuit for. 

The film opens with a pretty spectacular sequence in which a renegade planet-sized robot named Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles in his final film appearance) attacks a peaceful world populated by robots and ingests it for fuel.  The artistic depiction of this massive global devastation is stunning, the first of several more upcoming scenes that will dazzle the viewer.

After a "Superman: The Movie"-style main titles sequence featuring the show's familiar theme song, we then settle into the story proper as our mechanical heroes, the Autobots, thunder into action to stave off an attack from the evil Decepticons in the far-off year of 2005.

No sooner is this action-packed battle over than Unicron shows up and transforms some of the surviving Decepticons into his own personal army with which to defeat the Autobots and steal from them an all-powerful device known as the Matrix of Leadership.  Leonard Nimoy himself provides the voice for Unicron's duplicitous number-one, Galvatron (formerly Megatron), who covets the Matrix for himself.

An interesting side note: the deaths and transformations of several regular characters during this sequence are a result of the scripters' instructions to retire the old line of toys and replace them with new ones for young viewers to covet.  This proved to be more traumatic for fans than anyone expected, especially the intensely dramatic death of the Autobots' leader, Optimus Prime, who passed the Matrix on to new leader Ultra Magnus (voiced by Robert Stack.) 

The rest of the film is a robot vs. robot free-for-all with several cool detours along the way, including a visit to a junk planet with "Monty Python" alum Eric Idle voicing a comedic bot named "Wreck-Gar" who listens to too much Earth television, and an encounter with a race of grotesque mecha-beings whose main form of entertainment is to conduct kangaroo courts in which to sentence strangers such as Hot Rod (Judd Nelson) and Kup (Lionel Stander) to "death-by-sharkticon."

Dealing with these foes leads to the ultimate battle with Unicron (who turns out to be one huge transformer himself) and his dark forces which provides the film with its thrilling finale. By this time, I was finally starting to sort out all the many characters including good guys Hot Rod, Kup (he turns into a pickup--get it?), female robot Arcee, human Spike and his plucky son Daniel--both of whom also get to be transformers by wearing exo-suits--Bumblebee, Blurr, and the diminutive Wheelie.

Much comedy relief is provided by the Dinobots, who lack all social graces, talk in Bizarro-Speak ("Me, Grimlock, want to munch metal!"), and live for the times in which old soldier Kup regales them all with oft-told war stories ("Tell Grimlock about petro-rabbits again!") The Decepticons are also good for a few laughs when their inter-family squabbles escalate into all-out fights for dominance among the different robot clans. 

Character design is good and the backgrounds are often beautiful.  The musical score is okay when we aren't assaulted by bad 80s arena rock (I did enjoy hearing "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Dare to Be Stupid" at one point).

Dialogue ranges from likably dumb ("Your days are numbered now, Decepti-creeps!") to quite good, as in the numerous exchanges between Welles and Nimoy.  Celebrity voice talent also includes Scatman Crothers ("Jazz"), Casey Kasem ("Cliffjumper"), Clive Revill ("Kickback"), Norm Alden ("Kranix"), and Roger C. Carmel ("Cyclonus"). Legendary voice performer Frank Welker takes on no less than six different roles.

The 2-disc Blu-ray set from Shout! Factory and Hasbro Studios gives us both the 1.85:1 widescreen version (disc 1) and the full screen version (disc 2) with English stereo and 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Remastered from a brand-new 4k transfer of original film elements.  (A steelbook edition and a single-disc DVD edition with only the widescreen version plus digital copy are also available.)

Special features include a lengthy and highly-informative behind-the-scenes featurette entitled "'Til All Are One" (the segment on voice talent is especially fun), several other short featurettes, animated storyboards, trailers and TV spots, and an audio commentary with director Nelson Shin, story consultant Flint Dill, and star Susan Blu ("Arcee").  The cover illustration is reversible.  Also contains the code for downloading a digital copy.

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) is good old bombastic meat-and-potatoes space opera for kids and adults alike, with a welcome anime flavor.  It should rocket original fans of the show right back to their childhoods (or teenhoods, as the case may be) while gaining new ones such as myself who just love a good mind-expanding sci-fi adventure.  

Street date: Sept. 13, 2016

www.shoutfactory.com
www.hasbro.com

Images shown are not taken from the Blu-ray disc.

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

FLCL: PROGRESSIVE & ALTERNATIVE COMBO PACK -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.)  

Originally posted on 1/27/20

If you like frenetic science-fiction-based anime with an emphasis on quirky teen relationships amidst a visual cacophony of robotic, city-smashing chaos, then Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's 2-disc Blu-ray FLCL: PROGRESSIVE & ALTERNATIVE COMBO PACK (Blu-ray+Digital) should keep you happily occupied for more than a few hours.

It's a two-season sequel to the original 2000 series about a wild young minx named Haruko who rides a Vesper and wields an electric guitar that doubles as a chainsaw, sledgehammer, and various other weapons and devices. 

Young people in her vicinity tend to suddenly sprout raging robot monsters from their foreheads, which Haruko gleefully engages in battle with the fate of everything and everyone around her in the balance.

Season two, FLCL: PROGRESSIVE, gives us an appealing new cast of typical middle-school teens of the kind that will be familiar to anime fans, including pretty but pensive Hidomi, her eventual love interest Ide, and his pals Mori and Marco. 

Hidomi is never without her headphones, which help block out the world around her, although they also have another, more mysterious purpose.

Into their everyday world blazes Haruko in the guise of a teacher, seducing Ide and drawing Hidomi under her influence to be used in bringing out inter-dimensional robot monsters for her to battle.

This time she has an alter ego in the form of super-cool Jinju, and they share a secret desire to somehow facilitate the return of a powerful being named Atomsk.

Meanwhile, weird things are going on in Hidomi's hometown, particularly a giant flat iron that's parked on the edge of town which will eventually be put into motion by a giant hand from above, mowing down and flattening everything in its path.

This all has to do with a struggle between two forces known as Medical Mechanica and Fraternity, agents of which are at work trying to either cause or prevent various disasters from occurring.

But for all its sci-fi sound and fury, the likable teenage characters are what give FLCL its heart and maintain our interest.  Even as the story charges irrevocably toward its catastrophic finale, the emphasis is as much on Hidomi, Ide, and their friends, whose interpersonal relationships we follow even as they begin to play key roles in the impending battle, as on the freaky warrior chick Haruko and other combatants.

FLCL: ALTERNATIVE continues with the return of Haruko, still on her no-holds-barred quest for whatever (it ultimately doesn't really matter), and a timid, insecure young girl named Kana who continually seeks acceptance from her close circle of female friends, each of whom has her own problems. 

But even as Haruko somehow stumbles into the role of mentor for this young girl, she also uses her potential mind powers to kick-start Armageddon all over again, this time on a level more cataclysmic than before.

If all this sounds complicated, it's because it is.  In fact, I pretty much gave up trying to keep up with all the different plotlines and such, and just started holding on for dear life as this dizzying succession of eye-candy animation and swirling, surreal imagery went rushing by like a river of watercolors.

Most impressive are the intricate, exquisitely-rendered artwork and full animation, which looks just like traditional cel animation but with digital enhancements.  Character design is semi-realistic for the most part but full of cartoony manga-like silliness and exaggerated reactions, all of which adds to the fun.

As for the battle sequences, the artists and animators let their imaginations run wild with some of the most surreal and dazzling imagery you're likely to see in a series of this kind. The combination of such startling visuals with the sometimes childlike, sometimes mature story themes remains compelling throughout.

Both seasons offer satisfying final episodes, yet FLCL: PROGRESSIVE & ALTERNATIVE COMBO PACK ultimately leaves the door open for more adventures of guitar-slinging wild girl Haruko and another hapless group of youthful protagonists enduring the vagaries of adolescence while caught in a colorful clash of powerful opposing forces.



BLU-RAY COMBO PACK SPECIAL FEATURES

    The Making of FLCL: Progressive & Alternative: An in depth look behind the scenes featuring interviews with the cast and crew.
    Meet the Creators
    The Pillows
    English Voice Actors
    Production: Behind-the-Scenes

FLCL: ALTERNATIVE DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

    English Voice Actors
    Production: Behind-the-Scenes

COMBO PACK INCLUDES ALL 12 EPISODES

    RE: Start
    Freebie Honey
    Stone Skipping
    LooPQR
    Fool On the Planet
    Our Running
    Flying Memory
    Grown-Up Wannabe
    Freestyle Collection
    Pit-a-Pat
    Shake it Off
    Full Flat

DIGITAL
FLCL: Progressive & Alternative Combo Pack is available to own on Digital. Digital purchase allows consumers to instantly stream and download all episodes to watch anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices. Digital movies and TV shows are available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu and others. A Digital Copy is also included with the purchase of specially marked Blu-ray discs for redemption and cloud storage.

BASICS
Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates: February 4, 2020
Blu-ray and DVD Presented in 16x9 widescreen format

BLU-RAY COMBO PACK
Price: $44.98 SRP ($52.99 in Canada)
Running Time: Feature: Approx. 264 min
Enhanced Content: Approx. 35 min
2 BD 50s
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – English
UPC# 883929707584
Catalog#1000757643

FLCL: ALTERNATIVE DVD
Price: $19.99 SRP ($24.99 in Canada)
Running Time: Feature: Approx. 132 min
Enhanced Content: Approx. 10 min
2 DVD-9s
Audio – English (5.1)
Subtitles – English
UPC# 883929707577
Catalog# 1000757642

See our original coverage

FLCL: PROGRESSIVE & ALTERNATIVE COMBO PACK -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

WOLF CHILDREN -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/26/13

 

Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, SUMMER WARS) opens WOLF CHILDREN (2012) with a scene reminiscent of Miyazaki's KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE--a young girl gazing up at the sky while lying in a field of grass that's gently swaying in the breeze. 

Each girl is about to mature beyond her placid childhood existence, but the differences between that chipper coming-of-age tale and this sometimes tragic, sometimes soaring ode to the love and self-sacrifice of a single mother for her "special" children" soon becomes heartrendingly apparent.

The girl in this high-stakes "coming-of-age" story,  Hana,  will meet a mysterious older boy who's sitting in on some of her classes at school.  A long getting-to-know-you period allows us to settle into everyday urban life in Japan (Mamoru Hosoda has a keen eye for the mundane) as the two of them fall in love.  Then comes the shock: he reveals to Hana that he is, in fact, a "wolf man" who can change into feral form at will. 

Not only does Hana's love for him hold fast, but they're soon expecting a baby girl whom they deliver themselves to avoid "surprising" the maternity doctor.  A baby boy follows soon after, and the couple are happy in their modest lives as apartment dwelling parents.   Then, in the film's first emotional shock, the Wolf Man meets a tragic fate, leaving Hana to raise their increasingly unusual children by herself.

With the older child, Yuki, becoming more and more wild--she loves to switch from human to wolf form in order to run rampant through the apartment or throw tantrums--and even her more timid and humanlike younger brother Ame becoming harder to pass off as "normal", Hana moves the family to a secluded old house in the Japanese countryside.  Here, she believes, Yuki and Ame will be free to decide which life path they want to take, whether it be human or wolf.

At this point WOLF CHILDREN takes on some of the attributes of another gentle, pastoral Miyazaki tale, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, with the two curious children exploring unfamiliar natural surroundings while their single parent gets help settling into country life by a group of kind and sympathetic neighbors. 

But this film lacks the more fanciful elements of TOTORO despite its premise.   (No cat-buses or cuddly giant forest gods here.)  Her wolfishness being an unsubtle metaphor for adolescence, Yuki finds herself longing to attend school and mingle with other children as her human side comes closer to the fore.  It's a transition which will have its share of dire consequences, and we don't know if she can pull it off.

Ame, on the other hand, begins to overcome his timidity and get in touch with his feral side.  To evoke Miyazaki yet again, Ame's excursions into the wild to commune with its denizens in an increasingly profound way recall the title character of PRINCESS MONONOKE, with a similar artistic evocation of nature's insistent lure.

With the opening segment--a mini-movie in itself made all the more devastating by the matter-of-fact portrayal of the Wolf Man's demise--we know we're in for a potentially painful experience.  One, in fact, that I feared would be as bleak and intensely downbeat as the notorious GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, which it very well could have been since the viewer is just as emotionally invested in  these characters as those in the earlier film. 

Yet instead of trying to put our feelings through a ringer, WOLF CHILDREN is a gentle and sensitively told narrative with moments of joy as well as melancholy and brittle nostalgia.  And it's surprisingly mature, appealing as strongly to adults as well as children and perhaps even more so.  This is Hana's story more than anything else, and her experiences will no doubt be easy for many parents to identify with as she struggles to raise her children while dreading the day they will leave her.

The subtlety of expression and "acting" by these animated characters is impressive.  Hosoda uses fairly realistic character design in the adults, but is a bit more fanciful in depicting the wolf children who are comically drawn during their toddler stages and boast a potent mix of human and animal "cuteness."  It's interesting to watch them grow as fear and uncertainty, as well as increasing awareness, begin to creep into their expressions.

Certain sequences, such as Hana and her children running happily through a snowy forest or a lone wolf racing up the face of a mountain amidst misty waterfalls, are exhilarating achievements despite the mix of traditional animation and CGI.  I feared that the use of digital animation to augment the cel work would mar the film but quickly became accustomed to it. 

Much effort is expended by the animators in depicting mundane, everyday images of life which are also reminiscent of Miyazaki--Hosoda and his artists seem to revel in such throwaway sights as bicyclists passing by and pedestrians going about their business in the backgrounds.  To animation fans, of course, such lovingly-rendered detail is irresistibly immersive.  Other scenes achieve the kind of visual poetry that gives anime its own unique beauty.

The Blu-ray/DVD combo from Funimation is in 16x9 widescreen with Japanese and English soundtracks in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.  Subtitles are in English.  Extras include an actor and staff commentary (U.S. version), several stage appearances by the cast and crew, a live performance of "Mother's Song" by composer Masakatsu Takagi and singer Ann Sally, and a variety of promo videos and trailers for the film.  Feature and extras are combined on one Blu-ray and two seperate DVDs for a total of three discs.

It's been a while since I shed tears of joy over a movie, but the indescribably lovely finale of WOLF CHILDREN reaches a crescendo of genuine emotion and beauty which afforded me that welcome catharsis in a big way, and for that I'm grateful.    Even listening to the exquisite theme song during the closing credits threatened to get me going all over again.  Being given such a feeling by a movie is rare, and I cherish it.

WOLF CHILDREN -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

MY TOP 20 FAVORITE CARTOON MOVIES! by Porfle

This is just for good old-fashioned actual cel-animated cartoon movies that contain little or no CGI.

MY TOP 20 FAVORITE CARTOON MOVIES! by Porfle

DURARARA!! PART 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/9/11

 

Based on the manga, which was based on a series of Japanese light novels  by Ryohgo Narita, the TV series DURARARA!! (2010) starts out slow but definitely gets better as it goes along.  By the end of the second episode, when things start to come together, I was pretty much hooked. 

The main character is a naive country teen named Mikado Ryugamine who moves to Ikebukuro, Tokyo to attend school and seek adventure.  There, he hooks up with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida, who is worldly and self-confident.  Masaomi introduces Mikado to his circle of friends and clues him in on how to get by in the big city, including who to avoid and how to stay out of dangerous situations.  This, of course, ain't gonna happen.

Rather than charging out of the gate right away, DURARARA!! takes its time introducing the many characters and their backgrounds, and laying the foundation for what promises to be a slowly unfolding network of interconnecting stories.  During most of the first episode, you might think you're watching a flashy little youth drama about inner-city kids and their quirky misadventures.  It even seems a little pedestrian at first.


Before long, however, various conflicts begin to come into play.  These involve volatile gangs such as the Yellow Scarfs and the Dollars, musclebound behemoths like a black Russian sushi chef named Simon Breshnev and the mysterious blonde brawler Shizuo (who has a penchant for hurling vending machines at people), and Izaya Orihara, a droll opportunist-manipulator who enjoys toying with the lives of others and may be responsible for a rash of suicides. 

Best of the supporting characters is Celty Sturluson, a black-garbed motorcycle rider who works as an underworld courier while cruising the city in search of her head.  This enigmatic urban legend, whose neck ends in a swirl of black smoke, is a supernatural superheroine who intercedes in the lives of the other characters at crucial moments.  Episode four details her origins and how she came to be hooked up with the young renegade doctor Shinra Kishitani, who shares her secrets and yearns for a more intimate relationship.  For me, this is the most interesting segment of the first five.


Meanwhile, Mikado and Masaomi become enamored of a beautiful bespectacled  schoolgirl named Anri, forming a love triangle which promises to become more complicated in later episodes.  This is only one of the many subplots begging to be explored, but DURARARA!! is in no hurry to do so.  The spotlight shifts seamlessly from one character to the next with equal emphasis and one can only guess how all of the various plot threads will eventually weave themselves together.


The series is beautifully drawn and colored--characters are expressive and attractively designed, and backgrounds abound with exquisitely-rendered urban landscapes that sparkle in the daylight and glow with neon at night.  The stately, contemplative pace of the stories gives us time to appreciate the show's rich visuals along with the stylish and cinematic direction.  The musical score is bright and evocative, with a cool opening song and an even better end titles tune.

The 2-disc DVD from Aniplex is in 16x9 anamorphic widescreen with Japanese and English Dolby Digital 2.0 sound and English subtitles.  This set contains episodes 1-9 of 24 (total runtime approx. 225 minutes) which will be continued in two subsequent volumes.  Five collectible postcards are included.  I received a screener with the first five episodes only and thus am unable to comment on the set as a whole.

With just five episodes to judge by, I can only guess how good this series will eventually turn out to be.  But based on what I've seen so far, DURARARA!! promises to deliver some top-notch anime entertainment. I look forward to watching the rest of this provocative saga. 

DURARARA!! PART 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

K-ON! VOL. 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/20/11

 

Four bubbly high school girls join the Light Music Club and provide light entertainment in K-ON! VOL. 1 (2009), Bandai Entertainment's first DVD volume of the Japanese anime series based on a popular manga. 

Yui, a clumsy, scatterbrained girl who's easily distracted, freaks out on her first day of high school because she can't decide what club to join.  Meanwhile, Mio and Ritsu are crushed to find the Light Music Club is disbanding since it lacks the minimum four members.  They persuade pretty blonde rich girl Tsumugi, a talented keyboardist, to join, but are still one member short.  Desperate, they cajole a reluctant Yui to complete the foursome as lead guitarist of their band even though she can't play a note, and afterwards spend most of their time in the music room gorging themselves on gooey pastries and cakes. 

That pretty much describes the first episode, "Disband the Club!"  K-ON! (from the Japanese word keiongaku, meaning "light music") is a frenetic series of mildly comic situations done in a colorful, breezy style that doesn't place all that much emphasis on plotlines.  Basically, it's a "hang-out" show--once you get to know these characters and their particular quirks, it's fun just to hang out with them, enjoy their girlish antics, and groove to the eye-pleasing artwork and animation.



The four lead characters are your standard cute young anime schoolgirls.  Bass-player Mio is, in Yui's words, "tall and pretty, and gives off a real 'cool, grown woman vibe'."  Before long, however, we discover that she's a bundle of debilitating phobias and neuroses and often goes blank from fear of things like strange people and barnacles.  Her friend Ritsu, the band's drummer, is "a cheerful girl who's full of energy" but is also a hyperactive ditz.  Much of the show's slapstick humor comes from anger-prone Mio whacking Ritsu over the head and raising cartoony egg-shaped knots.  Mild-mannered Tsumugi, the pampered princess, is funny because of her inexperience and is thrilled when asked if she "wants fries with that" during her first trip to a fastfood restaurant.

The simple plots take a single idea and follow it to the end with all the light-comedy embellishments, screwball physical humor, and sight gags, with frequent use of fantasy interludes and flashbacks.  The second episode, "Instruments!", is all about finding an affordable guitar for Yui, with the girls taking temp jobs to help pay for it.  At first, the motivational message here is about being selfless and helping others, but eventually it becomes "you can afford that expensive guitar if your rich friend's dad owns the store." 

"Cram Session!" finds Yui barred from membership in a club after failing mid-term exams.  The girls urge her to study for her makeup test, but she just can't keep her mind on her books and off her cool new guitar.  Dropping by to help out, the girls have their usual sugary snacks and meet Yui's little sister Ui, amazed to find her vastly more polite and mature than Yui. 

The episode gets off to a weird start as Yui becomes hypnotically fascinated by how squishy Mio's string-hardened fingertips are.  Meanwhile, the easily-annoyed Mio manages to raise at least two ostrich egg-sized knots on Ritsu's head this time out.  Typical of the series, the relatively realistic design of the characters becomes exaggeratedly cartoonish whenever they experience extreme emotions, resulting in some pretty funny-looking reactions. 

The most visually-pleasing episode, "Training Camp!", boasts some gorgeous artwork as Mio organizes a trip to the country so the band can practice for the upcoming Fall Festival.  They end up at one of Tsumugi's luxurious family vacation homes on the beach where Yui and Ritsu spend most of their time romping around in the surf while Mio tries in vain to get them to concentrate on their music.
 


Mio's first appearance in a bikini leads to a strangely comical moment with the two girls being stunned to discover that she has--BOOBS!  Later, a nighttime fireworks display adds even more visual interest to the episode while inspiring fantasies of the girls' most cherished ambition--to perform at Budokan before high school is over.

Mio is at her most freaked-out and violent in this episode, repeatedly whacking Mitsu over the head and going nuts after accidentally touching some barnacles.  In the last shot, she hoists Yui off her feet by the neck and strangles her for taking an uncomplimentary photo of her during their vacation.  The lesson here, I assume, is that even the pretty and seemingly self-assured girls in your school can be dangerously unbalanced.

The four-episode DVD (approx. 100 minutes) from Bandai Entertainment is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with both Japanese and English Dolby 2.0 sound.  Subtitles are in English.  Extras include a ten-minute interview with Stephanie Sheh, the voice of Yui in the English dub, and trailers from other Bandai releases.  Three more volumes of the series are planned.

Yui and her friends don't get very far musically in this collection, but the opening and closing titles feature two catchy tunes, "Cagayake! Girls" and "Don't Say 'Lazy'", which indicate that by the series' end the band will finally be ready for Budokan.  Till then, K-ON! VOL. 1 catches them doing what they currently do best--eating snacks, being kooky, and having fun. 

K-ON! VOL. 1 -- DVD Review by Porfle

DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/8/10

 

 

Four separate anime studios were brought together to collaborate on DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC (2010), and the result is a non-stop visual feast that takes us through all nine levels of Hell without spending quite enough time on the emotional level.

When young warrior knight Dante goes off to fight in the Holy Wars, Lucifer makes a bet with his beloved Beatrice that Dante will betray her. Figuring it's a sure thing, Beatrice takes him up on it and the next thing you know, she's in Hell. Dante returns from the war to find his loved ones dead by an unknown hand, and sees Beatrice's soul rise from her bloody body only to be dragged down into the pit.

Dante enters in pursuit and finds that he must fight his way through the nine circles of Hell--limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery--in order to rescue Beatrice's soul from eternal damnation. With guidance from the ghost of Roman poet Virgil, Dante slices and dices his way through hordes of infernal minions, only to find that Lucifer plans to wed Beatrice and make her Queen of Hell.

As this is based on a videogame from Visceral Games, both of which are to be released at the same time, Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell mirrors the progression from one level of gameplay to the next. Upon his arrival, animated by Film Roman studio, he and Virgil sport big, impossibly muscular superhero bodies and little heads, and Dante tends to fly around doing aerial flips just to emphasize certain lines of dialogue. When Charon, the demon boatman who transports newly-arrived souls to their destinations, orders Dante to begone, he hops about thirty feet in the air and does a somersault before telling him no. Charon, incidentally, gets to deliver the famous line "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" before doing battle with Dante.

This film is interesting to look at from start to finish although the frequent changes in character design and direction can be a little disconcerting. My favorite segments are the ones by the Manglobe studio, who give the characters a classical dramatic style and a beautifully baroque look. Manglobe handles the "Limbo" section--that ring of Hell which is home to virtuous pagans and unbaptized babies, souls which did not sin but lacked the required faith--which often looks like illustrations from some classic volume brought to life.

Here we're treated to the haunting sight of a hall of damned rulers and philosophers such as Caesar, Plato and Aristotle, their ghostly shells still endlessly engaged in pointless theological debates and the like.On this level Dante battles Minos, who judges souls and "sorts them out" to the various circles for their appropriate punishments. He also must flee from a bizarre, scuttling army of demon-babies with scythelike arms.

The most comic book-looking artwork and animation, which resembles stuff you might see in Marvel Comics or Heavy Metal, is done by Dong Woo studio and it's very dynamic. If I'm not mistaken, Dong Woo handled the "Lust", "Greed", and "Gluttony" segments, which take Dante through some of his most fierce and emotionally taxing confrontations. One of these involves his own father, Alighiero (Mark Hamill), whom Lucifer has promised a thousand torture-free years and endless gold if he will kill his son.

Flashbacks show Alighiero as a greedy, violent abuser who will eventually drive Dante's mother, Bella (Victoria Tennant), to suicide. Later, while traveling through the circle known as "Violence" (via JM Animation's lush, classic anime-style artwork), Dante discovers her in the Wood of Suicide, where, to his horror, her soul has been banished for doing violence to herself. "You must look into your deepest sin to save Beatrice," she tells him.

Also on this level he encounters the damned souls of fellow Crusaders including Beatrice's brother, Francesco, who lashes out at Dante in classic anime-style battle. Francesco blames Dante for his own damnation, and in some ultra-downbeat flashbacks we find out that Dante committed quite a few rather deadly sins during the Holy Wars--any of which would earn him a place in one of the circles of Hell through which he's just passed. In fact, the more we find out about his past, the more we're convinced Dante is destined to remain there for eternity unless he can redeem himself while he still lives.

The "Fraud" level is where the brimstone really hits the fan. Beatrice, who has maintained a staunch faith in Dante through her many tortures, discovers at last how utterly he betrayed her trust while in the Holy Land and gives herself over to Lucifer as his bride. With JM Animation at the helm, Beatrice's transformation into the fearsome Queen of Hell (with an awesome rack) is pretty cool. This finally leads to the "Treachery" level (by Production I.G. studio), an icy wasteland which is "the furthest place in all of creation from the divine light of God." In the final showdown, Dante must face Lucifer on his own and discover the shocking truth behind his whole ordeal.

Through it all, DANTE'S INFERNO is an endless display of incredibly rich and dense artwork and imaginative animation. The subject matter gives the animators license to indulge in the most outlandish visuals they can muster (the "Lust" level, for example), with lots and lots of over-the-top action. So much so, in fact, that it tends to get a little tiresome after the umpteenth bloody-bladed battle with some raging behemoth or angry spirit.

The "acting", as it were, is a little hokey at times, especially in the introductory passage with its melodramatic line readings and character expressions. And for all of the drama and passion it strains to evoke, the story just isn't very emotionally involving. Mostly it's a lot of sound and fury, strident declarations and curses, blood and thunder, sex and ultra-violence--neat stuff, to be sure--without much going on underneath. But it's fun to look at.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 surround, with English and Spanish subtitles. Extras include some animatics and a game trailer.

While not a total success, DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC is still a pretty dazzling achievement that really does manage an epic quality. If you're a fan of animation in general and anime in particular, it's definitely worth checking out. But not quite worth going to Hell for.

DANTE'S INFERNO: AN ANIMATED EPIC -- DVD Review by Porfle

RWBY: VOLUME 5 -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 5/28/18

 

When I was a kid, it was Santa Claus and the county fair that gave me some of my best annual thrills.  Now, it's the disc release of each season of Rooster Teeth/Cinedigm's mind-candy American anime series, "RWBY", the continuing adventures of those four multi-hued heroines Ruby Rose (red), Weiss Schnee (white), Blake Belladonna (black), and Ruby's sister Yang Xiao Long (yellow)--the latest of which being the 2-disc Blu-ray, RWBY: VOLUME 5. 

Here's the backstory: after a catastrophic war that almost destroyed everything, the world of Remnant has been divided into four kingdoms dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations.  Also drawing them together is a common enemy, the Grimms, a never-ending army of terrifying supernatural beasts that constantly attack both urban centers and outlying villages, drawn by negative emotions such as fear, panic, and hatred. 

The main line of defense consists of hunters and huntresses, those born with various super-powers who train from a young age at special academies until ready to take on the Grimms.  This is where we first met Team RWBY shortly before their academy was attacked and virtually destroyed by a combination of Grimms and a group of terrorists known as White Fang, made up of human-animal hybrids called Faunus under the command of a secret cabal of sinister villains.

As season five commences, the mixed group of RWBY and JNPR (Juniper) team members have completed their arduous journey to the neighboring land of Mistral and its Haven Academy, in a quest to gather more huntsmen and huntresses for the battles to come.  But all is not well--the academy has been infiltrated by evil forces of both White Fang and the dreaded sorceress, Salem, and most of its best warriors murdered.

Meanwhile, Ruby's sister Yang is not only dealing with her new robot arm but must confront her own mother, Raven, now a renegade criminal with very dark dealings involving Salem and her minions.  These include vengeful Cinder and some of the worst members of White Fang, who are now targeting Blake and her family because of their efforts to establish peaceful relations between the Faunus and the human race.

It may sound complicated, but darn if all this drama and intrigue isn't just as riveting as the many intense battle sequences that occur during these fifteen serial-like chapters.  The characters are all fascinating and beautifully conceived, with scintillating dialogue that's either richly dramatic or breezily funny. 

This time there is, in fact, much more personal and political intrigue, now that more of a foundation for such plot complications has been gradually established over the previous seasons and our increased familiarity with the characters makes deeper explorations of them possible.  Both good and bad guys this time around are three-dimensional and increasingly interesting to observe. 

As always, the looks of the series is absolutely gorgeous--even moreso, now that the technology used in creating the digitally simulated "cel animation" look of the show has gotten better and better over time.  Never has "RWBY" looked this gorgeous, richly colorful, and stunningly designed.  The result is often breathtaking, and always a treat for the eyes.

As for the battles themselves, they're choreographed and executed for maximum drama and excitement, with new species of Grimm as well as new human and Faunus opponents.  In an early episode, Weiss takes on a swarm of Grimm resembling giant hornets who attack the transport she's using to get to Mistral.  In the thrilling finale, all the forces of good and evil clash in a prolonged battle that spans several chapters and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The 2-disc Blu-ray set from Rooster Teeth/Cinedigm contains the 15-chapter saga on one disc and special features on the other.  These include exciting character studies (deleted scenes), a "Five Years of RWBY" series recap, a collection of featurettes ("CRWBY") detailing various elements of the show's creation, and a manga booklet. Total story running time: 244 minutes.  Widescreen with English Dolby 5.1.  English captions are available.

As always, RWBY: VOLUME 5 kept me thoroughly, deliriously entertained and left me wanting more.  So while my younger friends are awaiting Santa's return, I'll be looking forward to my next annual wallow in the incredible adventures of my current favorite cartoon heroes. 

Release date: June 5, 2018

RWBY: VOLUME 5 -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle