Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - The Dog of Flanders
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petran79
 Posts: 122 |
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the movie is good because it doesnt limit itself to sentimentalism and melodrama. It is effective because it shows how Nello and Patrasche died, from the cruelty they faced from the society they lived in.
If you consider how life in the farms and fields was back then, the movie looks mild in comparison. I have the unedited Taiwanese release. Actually the animal cruelty scenes are only apparent in the TV series. In the movie there is also a dialog alluding to a love relation between Nello and Allois (in the book they're older), that was removed in the English dub. It is also available in German, unedited I think. It shows from where Studio Ghibili movies were influenced, namely from Nippon Animation TV series that adapted some of the best books of Western and Eastern literature Also I would be interested to watch the TMS adaptation of 1992. Though from the first episode I saw the direction was a little sloppy and melodramatic, the final episode I heard was more intense (it shows Nello's burial). If somone can upload it subbed or dubbed (it is available in Tagalog) it would be a nice addition |
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nebbo
 Posts: 11 Location: Sweden |
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I've had this title on my to watch-list for a long time, thanks for bringing it to my attention again
 Too bad there's no subbed dvd release, I'm sort of low on ntsc vcr's... 
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I've gone and read the plot synopsis of the original book on wikipedia. I feel sad already.
A lot of anime makes me cry and the skin around my eyes have got quite dry recently. Is there anything remotely positive to obtain from watching this? I don't want to be reduced into an emotional wreck without there being something for the viewer to embrace other than pure sadness. |
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belvadeer
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I've heard of the original story, but never knew it was made into an anime. Sad America had to ruin this one as well with its usual "We have to protect our children!" crusade.
It's nice to see Japan appreciates a classic so much to make into a movie and TV series. I'm pretty jealous I'll never see this. What surprises me is that the dub is called a hack job when I see so many famous and prolific voice actors for it. That makes me cry. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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petran79 wrote:
Fair game to enjoy the movie but I'm not sure you can claim it avoids emotional excess, it's melodrama so thick and contrived it can almost form a solid mass on your screen. I'm also not sure anyone's going to peg pastoral life in Antwerp in the 19th century as a montage of suffering, it's not like Roman farmers living under Lombard rule. belvadeer wrote:
Like above, fair to like the book, but it's not exactly what one would normally call 'a classic'. It was a rather maudlin work that basically found fervent appreciation in Japan, which has a bit of a cultural affinity for the material. There's really no great 'message' contained in the suffering of the main characters (it's kind of an emotional exploitive affair actually) so I'm not sure if you can blame folks 'softening' it up to sell in a culture where unrelenting suffering for sufferings sake isn't usually fun for the whole family. Zin5ki wrote:
No, this is a dozy of a weeper plain and simple. If you aren't particular to that sort of thing theres no 'higher message' hidden within, so it may not be your cup o' tea. Some people will undoubtedly reply entertainment needn't always be comforting and upbeat which is absolutely true, but contrived tragedy in and of itself is not meaningful either. * Sadly grim 'Dog of Flander's' fact: Jan Corteel, the man referenced in the article as the Antwerp 'mega-fan' who marked sites for Japanese tourist, murdered his Japanese wife in January. Even fans can't have happy endings with "Dog of Flanders'. |
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therealssjlink
Posts: 118 |
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On a japanese TV show I saw on Youtube, their was a poll for the best anime ending of all time.
This was the number 1 ending and a lot of the people watching it were crying. Mobile Suit Gundam was 2nd (no idea why) with Ashita no Joe as 3rd (should have been second). |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Holy crap! I just found a news posting. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. That story is one I stumbled upon while researching this piece, and was a whole aspect to this I had no idea existed. What a strange, dark twist. Terrible shame. I'm meeting the Belgian documentary director in Tokyo in a few weeks. I'm very curious to hear what he as to say about the matter. |
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Porch
Posts: 1 |
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http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/code-c/section-anime/pid-1003913479/
The above looks to be the only version on DVD with English subs available. I am guessing it's not the uncut version since it's not the US release. |
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petran79
Posts: 122 |
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Actually Roman farmers lived relatively better. they werent in such danger to lose all their property to debts As for melodrama it really depends how you view animation. Actually this movie was intended for people who watched some basic WMT titles, so I can understand that not everyone will like such movies since those titles differ from most anime titles and genres in quality and direction |
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Wapiko
Posts: 7 Location: NL |
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The filmmakers also wanted us (me) to push the documentary here in Holland and to our contacts in Japan as according to the filmmaker, the title is hugely popular in Japan. However, nobody I know in Japan is a fan of this movie or of the TV series. This includes, as far as I know, dog fanatic Oshii Mamoru. Nobody I know in Japan has ever mentioned liking the film. So I was a little sceptical about the filmmaker's claims. We did therefore not push or give publicity to the film in The Netherlands. Niels Viveen Stichting Promotie Japanse Popcultuur |
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belvadeer
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Geez goodpenguin...
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I agree with all you said. I read the story over on Project Gutenberg (it's public domain). It is a typical late 19th c children's story, a sentimental overwrought piece of crap focusing on angelic children and death and melodrama, at least in prose form. It was probably intended to stir the hearts of those who read it to charity, since children's works of that era tended to have religious messages. What the animator did was spin crap into gold. This is one case where the movie is far better than the book, and it's the movie that's the classic, not the original. |
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petran79
Posts: 122 |
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I agree with all you said. I read the story over on Project Gutenberg (it's public domain). It is a typical late 19th c children's story, a sentimental overwrought piece of crap focusing on angelic children and death and melodrama, at least in prose form. It was probably intended to stir the hearts of those who read it to charity, since children's works of that era tended to have religious messages. What the animator did was spin crap into gold. This is one case where the movie is far better than the book, and it's the movie that's the classic, not the original as for the book, it was actually the first dog story, preceding works such as Call of the Wild, Wild Fang, Lassie etc Considering also the obsession the Japanese have with dogs, it is not surprising it met more success there. The director Y.Kuroda made also a short animated film in the 2005 movie "All about my dog". Really this movie is more for people who have or had dogs |
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UtenaAnthy
 Posts: 694 |
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I want to see the movie, but the book sounds rubbish.
I have a dog, I don't know how that will affect my viewing of this movie. |
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StudioToledo
 Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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Who knows. I still don't understand why they needed to have a "Family Entertainment" label at all if it resulted in stuff like this getting such a stupid release (Pioneer used to be such a great company before that point).
At least they bothered subbing it at all.
Is it online or do I have to weasel it out of somebody like the good 'ol days? 
you make me feel guilty I never did pick this up a decade ago on the shelf (though I was still naive then and wasn't quite up-to-snuff on the ways of the anime fan)!
Best we ever got were one or two shows that passed through like Adv. of Tom Sawyer on HBO. |
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