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REVIEW: Ringing Bell DVD


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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2382
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:12 pm Reply with quote
I love this movie! I first came across it on ANN's Buried Treasure article some time in 2009, and ever since then, I've been hooked! I even bought a bootleg DVD (which I will soon chuck once I get the official DVD). I definitely plan on getting the official DVD soon. Movies like Ringing Bell, Dog of Flanders, and even movies from kids franchises like Pokemon and Pretty Cure take their audience seriously and still try to churn out engaging stories that teach good lessons to kids, but don't go too overboard with it depending on the execution. Movies and anime like those don't care about the whole "protect the children" idea unlike America (heck, I'm very much convinced that Precure All Stars New Stage 3 is a thinly veiled potshot against soccer moms who preach protect the children and revile at anything and everything)!
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Angel'sArcanum



Joined: 02 Sep 2010
Posts: 303
Location: Toronto, Ontario
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 1:48 am Reply with quote
Didn't know it had already come out, I should snatch it up soon.
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jtron



Joined: 03 May 2012
Posts: 183
Location: Chicago
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:59 am Reply with quote
Hey, good review of a classic I've never seen, glad it's been rereleased...

...oh, there's a Mike Toole commentary? SOLD
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:55 am Reply with quote
Great review Theron. I really love this movie. I've discussed it in other threads in the past, but to summarize, I think it is a fantastic tale of corruption of innocence due to thirst for revenge. It's almost a kind of "what if" story where Bambi goes out for revenge against those who killed his mother rather than growing up in his natural environment and maintaining his inherent goodness. This "corruption of innocence" narrative is one that is relatively rare I think in most animation, and it is particularly rare in the manner it is used in Ringing Bell - taking us from the highest highs of fluffy, cutesy baby animal innocence, to the lowest lows of terrifying, bloody monstrosity. Personally, I do think it is a classic that any anime critic or lover of anime should watch and own.
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Ortensia1980



Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 803
Location: some town near Amsterdam
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:51 am Reply with quote
I've never heard of Ringing Bell, but it sounds really really good. After reading this review, I'm definitely buying it.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:14 am Reply with quote
WOW it's on DVD!?

Never thought I'd see the day. This was probably the most powerful 48 minutes of animation I've ever seen. Really leaves an impact on you. I think I spent three days thinking about it after watching it.

So freaking depressing...but I respect creators who are able to get that strong reaction from you...and in so little time at that. They know how to do their jobs and they do them well.
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kevinx59



Joined: 27 Jan 2012
Posts: 959
Location: In sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 1:40 pm Reply with quote
I hear a lot of good things about this movie, but I also hear it's really depressing. The fact that it's also an older piece of work means I'll probably find it even more depressing. Such a misleading cover. I may check out some clips of it. The story sounds pretty interesting, and I want to see how good it's animation is.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:21 pm Reply with quote
I don't think this is a spoiler since it is something that is discussed in all the reviews, but I'll tag it as a spoiler anyway... But if you wanna know how depressing the movie gets, this image pretty much sums it up:


spoiler[ Picture ]


Interestingly, one thing that I think is rarely discussed in any of the reviews is the fact that Chirin's bell stays on him the entire time, even through his relatively demonic transformation. You have to wonder what significance the author was going for? A last remembrance of his lost innocence? The memory of his mother that he retains somewhere inside himself, even when he's been corrupted? Some kind of haunting token of his suffering? There are so many amazing ways to think about it.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 3:48 pm Reply with quote
Wow this seems to be getting quite the positive response. Guess I'd better add it to my list.
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StudioToledo



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 847
Location: Toledo, U.S.A.
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:22 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Gregg Berger, the voice of Chirin as a ram, is much better-known as the “voice” of Odie in the Garfield cartoons, for instance

Also the voice of Orson Pig on U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm from the classic "Garfield & Friends" series.

Quote:
Extras include the English opening and ending from the original VHS release (this one retains the Japanese versions)

As cheap as they were, it's fun to look back at a time when simple superimposition of titles from some other film source prepared ahead of time through video post-production makes it all the more nostalgic to those of my generation.

One thing to point out (though I'm sure Mike Toole goes into this in detail in his commentary) was how this came at a time when the founder of Sanrio got this idea to make movies that would be big in both Japan and the US. This led to the setup of a studio in the US that animated one such feature film called "Metamorphoses", as well as an interest to publish a US version of it's "Lyrica" magazine. Animation historian Fred Patten has a great article on the rise and fall of Sanrio's potentials in this article.
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/sanrio-and-me/

Back in Japan, a secondary studio was setup that Masami Hata often supervised the work on projects like the Unico pilot film (the animation in that was pretty similar to "Ringing Bell"), as well as the later "The Sea Prince & The Fire Child". The first such animated Sanrio film produced that was a featurette was a piece based on another of Takashi Yanase's stories called "Little Jumbo", another such film called "Joe & The Rose" followed as well. In 1978 "Ringing Bell" itself (running at 48 minutes) was double-billed with the release of an American film Sanrio bankrolled, based on Russell Hoban's book, "The Mouse & His Child", this film was animated at Murakami-Wolf Films and released in the US a year earlier, though much like Ringing Bell, also had a lot of hidden moral lessons a child could pick up on as well. Too bad this isn't out on DVD here at all (had to pick up a Japanese version which sadly lacks an English track). Needless to say in 1983 an English dub was sought for "Ringing Bell" alongside several other Sanrio titles that saw releases either on Pay TV (HBO, Disney Channel) as well as home video through RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. Why and how that came to me I'll never know, but I'm glad it happened anyway.

FireChick wrote:
Movies like Ringing Bell, Dog of Flanders, and even movies from kids franchises like Pokemon and Pretty Cure take their audience seriously and still try to churn out engaging stories that teach good lessons to kids, but don't go too overboard with it depending on the execution.

In this case, no real graphic depictions of blood and gore makes it easier to accept I suppose. I recall the 1989 "Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli" often did that a lot to it's characters in the series.

Quote:
Movies and anime like those don't care about the whole "protect the children" idea unlike America (heck, I'm very much convinced that Precure All Stars New Stage 3 is a thinly veiled potshot against soccer moms who preach protect the children and revile at anything and everything)!

Since America has to be blamed for something.

ChibiKangaroo wrote:
This "corruption of innocence" narrative is one that is relatively rare I think in most animation, and it is particularly rare in the manner it is used in Ringing Bell - taking us from the highest highs of fluffy, cutesy baby animal innocence, to the lowest lows of terrifying, bloody monstrosity. Personally, I do think it is a classic that any anime critic or lover of anime should watch and own.

Me too. We outta thank whoever at Sanrio for considering this worthy of exporting to the US when they did, and for RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video for having put out that tape when they did before all the trouble started. Speaking of home video, Fred Patten wrote a doozy of an article for another Columbia Pictures release I also enjoyed.
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/anime-jack-and-the-beanstalk-1974/

ChibiKangaroo wrote:
Interestingly, one thing that I think is rarely discussed in any of the reviews is the fact that Chirin's bell stays on him the entire time, even through his relatively demonic transformation. You have to wonder what significance the author was going for? A last remembrance of his lost innocence? The memory of his mother that he retains somewhere inside himself, even when he's been corrupted? Some kind of haunting token of his suffering? There are so many amazing ways to think about it.

Moreso than the simple oddity that it's there at all (and the strap got bigger)! That is something to think about.

belvadeer wrote:
Wow this seems to be getting quite the positive response. Guess I'd better add it to my list.

You better! This may never happen again.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:41 pm Reply with quote
StudioToledo wrote:
(and the strap got bigger)! That is something to think about.

Perhaps it's made of elastic... Laughing
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jcaliff



Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 156
Location: Houston
PostPosted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:56 am Reply with quote
I actually bought this on region 2 DVD a while back. On the Sanrio Classics version it has Chirin no Suzu along with two other short films, Chiisana Jumbo (Little Jumbo) and Bara no Hana to Jo (Jo and the Rose). These two films are both also based on works by Yanase Takashi, and in the case of the two shorts also directed/co-directed by Yanase Takashi.

It sounds like the new DVD release has a lot of extras I might enjoy, so it looks like I might end up double dipping. Smile
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StudioToledo



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 847
Location: Toledo, U.S.A.
PostPosted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
StudioToledo wrote:
(and the strap got bigger)! That is something to think about.

Perhaps it's made of elastic... Laughing

I would think so, but it starts out like a piece of thread that becomes a thicker piece of fabric when you see Chirin become an adult in the process. Some things are just left out are never dealt it (in much the same people's nitpick at Mowgli having something covering his mid-section in many adaptations of The Jungle Book when he clearly shouldn't have any need or knowledge of concealment, those people can just shut up).

jcaliff wrote:
I actually bought this on region 2 DVD a while back. On the Sanrio Classics version it has Chirin no Suzu along with two other short films, Chiisana Jumbo (Little Jumbo) and Bara no Hana to Jo (Jo and the Rose). These two films are both also based on works by Yanase Takashi, and in the case of the two shorts also directed/co-directed by Yanase Takashi.

I recall that DVD as well. It was nice Sanrio released any of these at all when they did, I bought a few such as the two Unico films and "The Mouse & His Child" (though sadly lacking the English audio despite mentioning the US actors in the credits and even putting in scans of the the US presskit for the film). At least TMS left in the English audio for it's Little Nemo DVD I bought years ago as well.

Quote:
It sounds like the new DVD release has a lot of extras I might enjoy, so it looks like I might end up double dipping. Smile

Probably should, I don't recall Sanrio put much thought into those early DVD releases but at least they were pretty cheap to afford when I bought them. They definitely weren't aiming for collectors on those.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 1:43 am Reply with quote
StudioToledo wrote:

Also the voice of Orson Pig on U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm from the classic "Garfield & Friends" series.


Don't forget Grimlock from Transformers as well as his triumphant return for Fall of Cybertron as well as Tidus's dear old dad Jecht from FFX. Very Happy

Quote:
You better! This may never happen again.


Aye aye Captain Toledo. X3
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StudioToledo



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 847
Location: Toledo, U.S.A.
PostPosted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 3:13 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
StudioToledo wrote:

Also the voice of Orson Pig on U.S. Acres/Orson's Farm from the classic "Garfield & Friends" series.


Don't forget Grimlock from Transformers as well as his triumphant return for Fall of Cybertron as well as Tidus's dear old dad Jecht from FFX. Very Happy


Since I don't pay much attention to TF and FFX, thanks for filling me in there. Obviously they went with a good case of talented people on this at least.

Quote:
Quote:
You better! This may never happen again.


Aye aye Captain Toledo. X3

Glad to help.
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