Forum - View topicANNCast Classic: Macek Training
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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To quote Corn Pone Flicks regarding the VZI International dub opening of Harlock:
"Who can forget Disco Captain Harlock?" Here is the link featuring the legendary opening sung by none other than Disco crooner, Mark Mercury: Harlock dub opening |
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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That's is true while coming into this and wonder why he did what he did (or see how they could screw him over like on Lady Death). You can blame him for this though... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vslzh_jTmEE
You do learn a lot and have a different opinion on Macek before coming in.
I had already became Facebook pals with him but never thought to ask him anything I might have about what he did over the years. I've had plenty of others who passed away after Macek where I felt the same way as well, at least I had a chance to be Facebook pals with them for a short time.
Sure didn't, had he not done what he did, they'd still be in their basements.
At least you get it.
Had the US not been as tight with how many episodes could be syndicated, Captain Harlock could at least get a shot somewhere, like on the weekends. Not sure how they handled it up in Canada where it's French version, Albator, did see airings on Radio-Canada. Of course ZIV International wasn't any better themselves, but that's another story.
That's ZIV International again.
Actually, the ZIV dub of Harlock was split up between who dubbed the four episodes. The 1st and 9th episodes were done by one group who tried to do justice to the series the way those episodes were done, while another team had episodes 2 and 3, which gave Harlock the Mighty Mouse shtick. http://www.cornponeflicks.org/harlock/ZIVharlock.html
They should pin it on Irv Holender of ZIV for not trying hard himself, but what could you do there.
And yet I love that song, I wouldn't have mind playing that over and over when I was 5 (had said program showed up on day on TV50). Of course Harlock had it's share of different theme songs in other countries. French Italian German Spanish By the way, BUY UNCLE CARL'S STUFF! Tell them Jimmy the Idiot Boy sent you! |
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Mr. sickVisionz
Posts: 2173 |
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This was a pretty amazing interview to listen to. This guy seemed to have a pretty sound plan, saw really good success with his plans, got hated out of the game by new people who had no clue what they were doing, and then saw those new people proceed to completely destroy the industry with their opposite of Macek approach.
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Irv definitely should've had more of the blame but Macek was an easier scapegoat. For the record, I loved Macek's Lupin dubs. It's a shame that legalese forced Lupin to be called "Wolf" in certain episodes. |
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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Even if we never saw the remainder of Zillion, he tried his best there.
Nothing more to say there really. In some way you could say Macek was a perfectionist in his craft. I sorta put him up there with the likes of those like Giorgio Moroder when he tried pushing his version of Metropolis on the MTV generation. Not everyone got their piece of cake, but to those who got it, it suited them well and help to interest a lot of unsuspecting people into something they hadn't seen before or perhaps cared to.
That's true, Macek stuck his neck out where it needed to be (at least he gave us the live child birth he was so glad of).
I did too. The characters just suited fine for the 2 movies and two episodes they did of the second series. I still enjoy what I saw of Calgiostro the first time I did from a crappy EP-recorded version of the film I picked up at a video store one day.
That was a shame. Could've been worse, they could've called him "Cliff" if it came to that. |
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Ha ha ha! Cliff Hanger! Oh man, now there was a "game"!
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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You'd be surprised how several familiar anime classics found their way to the arcades in such an odd manner as that. Genma Taisen ("Harmagedon") Galaxy Express 999 |
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medama_oyaji
Posts: 99 |
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Wow great episode! Thanks for reposting!
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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Now you know, the rest of the story! |
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EricJ
Posts: 876 |
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I have to admit, even though I played the exercise in futility that was Cliff Hanger: the Game, I DID NOT KNOW about the Galaxy Express Movie game. (I remember Astron Belt using all the spaceship footage from Message From Space, but that doesn't count as anime.) |
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MetalUpa1014
Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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Streamline's dubs were occasionally good , but like many I didn't' care for their liberal interpretations of the script. Other companies that took their properties and re-dubbed them did a way better job.
Still, I have a lot of respect for Carl Macek since he's the reason we have anime in the U.S. to begin with. Always wanted to play Cliff Hanger, but could never find a ROM of it. |
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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That honestly depends on which generation you're referring to. |
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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It wouldn't, though I've heard footage from a Star Trek movie also showed up in that game too! And this is why it's important to remind ourselves of how we had it back then. When it was that easy to ruin these things.
I recall seeing an arcade machine when I was 7 but never thought to play it, either it didn't interested me or the look of it just put me off perhaps. it was an interesting time when these things started to show up and I had no idea what it was all about. Much in the way of discovering anime, it usually is by accident of having to see something on TV that looked a certain way and you enjoyed it for what it was. It wasn't until around 1990 when I saw a commercial for a comic shop that had "Japanese Animation" plastered on the screen with a shot of a planet earth for whatever show they ripped it from and nothing else. It was just sort of the thing that you either got into or not if you had the right mindset, mine just didn't came to me too early since I was still a kid in the 80's.
I'm sure it's me (anyone above 34 at this point). |
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doomydoomdoom
Posts: 278 Location: Michigan, USA |
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Actually, Macek had nothing to do with that first attempt at Harlock. It was a direct-to-video job from ZIV International, distributed by Family Home Entertainment in the early 80s (before the average consumer could afford VHS tapes, let alone VCRs). The first two episodes (1 and 9) were actually pretty damn good and it probably would have been successful if the whole series had been dubbed like that and shown on TV. Episodes 2 and whatever (3 I guess) had the extremely strange "comedy dub", calling Tadashi Daiba "Tommy Hairball" and saying things like "ONLY I DON'T THINK IT WAS A PERSON DAD...I THINK IT'S A WOMAN!" And that disco theme was horrifying. An insult to the original music, both themes were simply brilliant vs. that crap-trap. I'm almost finished with the original series, so much love for Discotek. Corn Pone, admirable as they are and as hilarious and informative as their "History of Harlock in America" pages are, got all stuffy about how everybody was only requesting Harlock fansubs and not their original work, so they weren't in the game for very long before stopping tape distribution. Also releases like the Malibu Graphics tape (a demonic re-release of the ZIV episodes) and the Harmony Gold mashup that couldn't get any distribution, certainly didn't do the franchise any favors. Think about it; the Toei streams and the Discotek set are the first time in the franchise's 30-year history that the original, untouched series has been given a chance of any kind. By now it's too late to say for sure what would have happened had there been a truly faithful dub. As for Macek...meh...before my time. I don't totally appreciate what he did, but at least it provided for some interesting history and anecdotes (gotta hand it to him for leaving all the stuff from Harlock in that he did). That's really all I can come up with. Too much is open to arguments, you could argue Macek could have done this differently or that differently, but it is what it is. Streamline's releases, in conjunction with the wave of Japanese video games and the birth of manga publishing in America, no doubt contributed to anime & manga fandom over here, to say nothing of the influence of Akira and 3x3 Eyes on Hollywood. And LOL @ the Cliff Hanger game. CLI-IFFFFFF THE 3RRRRRRRD. CLI-IFFFFFF THE 3RD. Ah that would have been funny. |
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StudioToledo
Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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My family had one in '82! They could've easily expose me to this show early on if they had.
I thought that way too, they at least kept the original music and whatever name changes had to be made, it still felt pretty much how they could've handled the show had it went this way. I think those two episodes were dubbed as a sort of stealth pilot they were shopping around to potential station clients but never happened. Seems like they had better success selling shows to Latin America or elsewhere.
I think the other two episodes had him as "Tommy Dexter", which sorta works I suppose if you had to Americanize the names.
That was something.
Sad we can't go there like other countries did.
No me, I was wearing Robotech PJ's to bed in the mid 80's!
Well at least you have an opinion. Not like he could've turned it down immediately and walked out of the whole thing and never talked about it again.
It was just one of those things with everything just sorta came to a specific point in time and made an impact at all.
There was a time in the 90's when TMS tried selling the show as "Cliff Hanger" I recall once seeing a webpage listing it in the 90's. While the show was called Lupin III in Italy where the first series was aired as early as 1979, France had to change the name to this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEqCyWBmVBA By the way, that "Freedom Fighter" game was rather pretty rare I've heard, though some may recall seeing a version of it later on as some company brought it to the Philips CD-I interactive player under the name "Escape from Cyber City". The game itself always seemed pretty odd to me as I personally wasn't sure what scenes were they from. They obviously look like the designs from the GE:999 movies, yet I don't recall those moments at all, possibly Toei produced these on commission for the game itself if that was possible, unless there was a later movie or OVA I don't know about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRhN1hxt57M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zg0NUPbAPA |
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