×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
The Mike Toole Show -The Astro Boy Next Door


Goto page Previous  1, 2

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 12:09 am Reply with quote
It really annoys me that neither the 2003 TV series or the 2009 movie garnered much love here. I especially loved Pluto in the 2003 TV dub, both in voice and design.
Back to top
residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 6:39 am Reply with quote
@EricJ2 This is how i got here:
Quote:
This was smack in the middle of a period when colorization-- taking old black and white film and TV and adding color to the film to make them seem like they're IN LIVING COLOR-- was really in vogue, which was fascinating to watch unfold because colorization is generally a hideous and destructive process. My favorite example is the “Moroder cut” of Fritz Lang's legendary Metropolis; sure, the soundtrack is great, but the attempt to color this classic of black and white cinema looks like crap.

Colorization is the worst but i liked the washed out colors. The Tezuka manga and the Madhouse movie have nothing to do with it btw.
Fun fact: George Lucas spoke out against altering films in 1988:
http://www.slashfilm.com/george-lucas-speaks-altering-films-1988/ Ah the irony...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 8:07 am Reply with quote
residentgrigo wrote:
My favorite example is the “Moroder cut” of Fritz Lang's legendary Metropolis; sure, the soundtrack is great, but the attempt to color this classic of black and white cinema looks like crap.

Colorization is the worst but i liked the washed out colors. The Tezuka manga and the Madhouse movie have nothing to do with it btw.[/quote]

Oh, that--WHY are people still psychologically convinced the "color" on the Moroder Metropolis was some kind of "heretical graffiti" on the movie (apart from just their other gripes about the music and their frustration at Ted Turner), when mood tinting already existed in the days of silent movies, to establish mood (blue for night, red for fire/battle) and ease the audience's eyes on B/W.
Go watch any professionally restored silent movie. ANY of them. In fact, go watch the Kino restored Intolerance, with a different color for each historical era, that'll teach ya. Razz

Yes, has nothing to do with Astro, but it's been thirty years, somebody either slap this urban legend on a couch and give it a month of therapy, or bury it with a wooden stake!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Maokun



Joined: 11 Nov 2004
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 10:36 pm Reply with quote
omnistry wrote:
I'm surprised that you didn't mention the new Astro Boy Reboot cartoon being made: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z240pys_D4A


I came to post exactly this. As I was reading the article, I looked forward to read Mike's take on the somewhat controversial visual style changes.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Levitz9



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: Puerto Rico
PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 11:44 pm Reply with quote
Ah, the many Astro Boy cartoons... I have to be honest, I've only seen the 2003 version, but that show is beautiful--and it lended the designs to the phenomenal Astro Boy: Omega Factor on the GBA! That game got me excited over Pluto and the World's Strongest Robots--and with folks like North and Atlas and levels titled "The World's Greatest Adventure", it's hard not to get excited.

It's a shame that the 2003 cartoon didn't do very well.

Also, are people still claiming Lion King was a Kimba rip-off? C'mon, take off the tinfoil hats, people.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 1:44 am Reply with quote
Levitz9 wrote:
Also, are people still claiming Lion King was a Kimba rip-off? C'mon, take off the tinfoil hats, people.


It was meant as an illustration of Old Fogey Syndrome that got us all those Speed Racer, Gigantor and Astro Boy movies in the US in the first place--
According to legend, Disney was in Japan during the '87 20th-anniversary hype for Jungle Emperor, back when most people literally didn't know Japan had an animation industry.
And so, like cultural Commodore Perrys, US baby-boomer Disney execs in their 30's and 40's get their first look at Akihabara: There's Doraemon, there's Lum, there's Hello Kitty, there's Nausicaa...And who do they immediately recognize?
"Look!--It's KIMBA! I remember that from when I was a kid! Very Happy "

(And that set the tone for Hollywood's attempt to cash in on "the Japanimation (sic) craze" for the next twelve years....
Of course, that didn't start it, that would be when Carl Macek kept putting the original 60's Speed Racer back in theaters to remind us of what we associated with anime.)


Last edited by EricJ2 on Tue May 19, 2015 9:04 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Apollo-kun



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1213
Location: City 7, Macross 7
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 2:07 am Reply with quote
Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one that remembers how WB treated that show back in the day! I was about 11 or so when that came out, and I loved the ever-loving crap out of it. I even had a few of the excellent toys that Bandai put out. It was pretty upsetting to watch it get yanked so quickly.

A while back, I managed to snag the boxed set of it that Sony put out. It has all the English-dubbed and altered episodes (outside of the Peter Pan one,) and I enjoyed that just fine. It's a bit of a shame that we have to rely on more, erm, illicit means of watching the show in its entirety. It's quite a good program.

This might sound weird, but while we're on the topic of "lost anime," I was wondering if you'll ever do an entry in your series on Speed Racer. That show has a pretty weird history to it in terms of licensing and release, and that's not even touching the lost 90's reboot or the weird Fred Wolf version that got put out. I'd love to see a pro's take on the franchise, especially considering it has somewhat of an enduring legacy.

Anyway, awesome post as always! I look forward to seeing what you put together next week, and what you and the other people behind Anime Hell put together for Animazement this weekend!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Apollo-kun



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1213
Location: City 7, Macross 7
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 2:09 am Reply with quote
Levitz9 wrote:
Ah, the many Astro Boy cartoons... I have to be honest, I've only seen the 2003 version, but that show is beautiful--and it lended the designs to the phenomenal Astro Boy: Omega Factor on the GBA! That game got me excited over Pluto and the World's Strongest Robots--and with folks like North and Atlas and levels titled "The World's Greatest Adventure", it's hard not to get excited.

It's a shame that the 2003 cartoon didn't do very well.

Also, are people still claiming Lion King was a Kimba rip-off? C'mon, take off the tinfoil hats, people.
Well, to be entirely fair, there's a lot of common knowledge that supports it being a rip-off, and in fact, a lot of stuff points to it originally being an unauthorized adaptation before someone was like, "hey, wait, this isn't ours." But that's just my two cents.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 11:44 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Mike fires up the jet engines in his behind and goes on a journey through all the different anime versions of everyone's favorite superhero from the 50's


(And not to quibble, but Astro had jet engines in his feet, and guns in his behind.
As the Imagi movie helpfully took the trouble of pointing out in every trailer.) Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 12:12 pm Reply with quote
Oh, the 2003 version was shown out of order? No wonder I couldn't make any sense of it. I'd bet the kids trying to watch it couldn't make sense out of it too, as it felt somewhat more serial than the other versions I've seen. I remember seeing the very same thing happen when Toonami made its way to Kids' WB!, and they then aired Dragon Ball Z out of order. (Well, KTLA did anyway.) It would be completely natural that Kids' WB! would have aired another anime out of order.

See, that's why serial children's entertainment has never taken off in the United States. Everything's rerun out of order, and in this case, premiered out of order. You practically have to give the episodes to the networks week by week to get them to put something in the order you want them to be in. It always bugged me: Why do they do that? There are a few cases where I can see why (most notably holiday episodes rescheduled to actually premiere right before that holiday), but there's no real reason I can find otherwise.

I actually quite liked the IMAGI Astro Boy movie. The trailers played the whole guns-in-my-butt thing ad nauseam though, almost as bad as "That's a woman!?" in the trailers for The Lorax. I heard that Dr. Tenma was one of the dream roles for Nicolas Cage, having long been a fan of Astro Boy. If it's true, it shows: He gave his all for that movie.

In any case, Toonami's Tom said it outright: "Astro Boy gets no love from the Americans." He said it to kick off his review for Astro Boy: Omega Factor, which, true to what he anticipated, wound up in the bargain bins of GameStops and Toys R Us stores everywhere for $5. It was one of the few games to survive two post-Christmas clearance sales, putting it in the same league as AMF Pinbusters.

EricJ2 wrote:
Also that we would never have gotten any series tribute as laid-back, thoughtful and canon-friendly from any other studio--I'm at looking at YOU, Dreamworks' Mr. Peabody, and shifting a furtive eye toward Disney's Big Hero 6.
It actually won me over to watching the 00's series on Netflix, which is the first job of a TV-series feature done right.


If you thought DreamWorks's Mr. Peabody & Sherman was unfaithful, you should take a read at William Steig's Shrek. They are completely different in story, and Shrek's swamp is the only thing to have remained intact. The ridiculous success of the movie, however, pretty much convined the guys at DreamWorks beyond any doubt that they don't have to be faithful to the source material to print money.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
F-Man



Joined: 18 Sep 2013
Posts: 111
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2015 3:28 pm Reply with quote
From CDJapan, it was just revealed today that Little Astro Boy and most of the rare theater shorts from Kyoto Tezuka Osamu World are finally coming to DVD!

Little Astro Boy
Tezuka Osamu Sakuhin Shu - Kyoto Anime Theater Hen -

EDIT: From Happinet's site, Little Astro Boy will be bilingual!
EDIT2: Only the first 2 Astro Boy shorts will be in the Kyoto DVD, and not the 3 directed by Osamu Dezaki.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group