Forum - View topicWhy do studios reuse old art from anime series in films?
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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There is one thing I do not understand. The anime industry in general has always been praised for the outstanding visuals it always utilizes in feature films, but it seems to me that the studios become rather lazy when doing film versions of certain popular anime series. For example, the Gurren Lagann movies and others such as the Macross Frontier films all utilize old footage from the tv series all while adding in some new animations, while the new animation is nice, it is rather disappointing to see old footage instead of new footage that could have taken its place. While some of these scenes have been edited to become more consistant as a movie(ie Frontier's reused art work was rather consistent with the films), I do not understand why they use the old footage. Are they just lazy or something? This also becomes rather jarring for other film adaptions such as the Zeta Gundam trilogy. First you'll have beautiful new artwork, then it switches to the old footage. I feel that this method is rather cheap and I do not understand why they can't just spend more time making the film adaptions in to more proper ones instead of just reusing old footage. Any thoughts on why?
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Kruszer
 Posts: 8016 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Because those films are made for the sole purpose of milking money out of fans and they can make more profit if they can use pre-existing footage and make you watch the same old crap you already watched rather than spend money creating new stuff.
So yes they're being totally cheapass. It must be a cultural thing because notice how few of those things ever get over here. US companies only do it when they're trying to do the same exact thing and milk a franchise for money, because over here that kind of stuff doesn't usually sit well with the smarter fans and they complain or don't buy it. |
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wanderlustking
 Posts: 449 Location: Bozeman, Montana |
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There are some cool bonus material in Tweeny Witches that talk about why studios do this. A friend of mine who works for a small studio explained it to me like this. In the corporate world, at the end of the financial year, if a company has any money left over in its budget, they will do anything to make sure that money gets spent; even if its on completely useless stuff, like hiring a butler, or more realistically, updating computers and software that isn't really outdated (this happens a lot). This is because any money that you don't spend, will be taken out the next years budget, even if the money was only saved due to a freak occurrence.
In animation (and production in general), when companies cut corners to save money, or produce works on small budgets, producers think that everyone should be able to work with that same budget. The effects of this isn't really seen within the larger publishers and studios, such as Squre Enix, Bones, and Gainax. Smaller studios get hit pretty hard by this, and are constantly being forced to work with smaller and smaller budgets. The animators use a lot of tricks to reduce the amount of new frames they need to animate to a bare minimum. These include using flashback scenes as exposition, using scenery that doesn't move around a lot (animators hate city scenes, because of the sheer amount of motion. Cars and people all need to be animated, and in the hundreds), using still frames, or animating details on only the vital characters in a scene and using silhouettes for everyone else. Tweeny Witches focused as much attention on the mostly still scenery, and would often go to extreme lengths so that characters didn't move during dialogue; like viewing it from a distance, or very close up so you couldn't see the characters mouth moving. It all boils down to animation being really bloody expensive, and animators trying to save time and money, while hoping the viewer doesn't notice. We usually do though. |
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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All that I could say about this topic has already been said, though. This **** is expensive, so they have to take shortcuts every now and again while just hoping that we viewers either don't notice, or aren't too taken back by it. In the above example I provided, I really didn't mind it since it still looked beautiful and all. Besides, Bones makes damn good animation most of the time(and that movie itself was gorgeous), so I didn't mind at all. |
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Darksorrow29
Posts: 412 Location: United States |
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Nerv1... if I'm understanding this correctly you're talking about some movies that are compilation movies. Not too surprising if they have some reused old footage at least in reference to Zeta and Gurren Lagann.
Sometimes this works to our benefit. For example Gundam Triology movie 0079 uses a bunch of old footage from the series... but guess what I have never seen the old series in japanese audio nor is it licensed (i think?). So the only way I could watch it was watching the movie triology. Another example is sometimes it's easier to rewatch a quick compilation of something compared to the whole show. Recently I just watched Crest of the Stars but am waiting for Bandai (who is taking forever) to restock rightstuf with Banner of the Stars. I can watch the compilation movie of Crest of the Stars to refresh myself for the sequel. I get your point though. If they're saying they're going to do a readaptation it would be nice if it was all new animation, but like some others have mentioned, it would cost way too much. |
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Nerv1
Posts: 601 |
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I was also referring to anime films that are "remakes" in a sense such as the Eureka 7 movie. Even though it was a retelling of the series, I did not understand why around 40% of the art from the tv series was reused in comparison to other works such as the Escaflowne film, which was created from scratch. I mean if the artwork is made consistent with the new footage, it could work well, but it just seems like a cop out since we already know the studios are spending large amounts of money making them, yet they still resort to using old footage instead of making new ones.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19155 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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That's because Escaflowne: The Movie was a complete reimagining of the story rather than just a compilation. Not the same situation at all. And although it's been more than a year since I've seen the E7 movie, I don't recall it having any significant amount of recycled animation. In general, though, I understand your beef with compilation films and usually don't watch them myself unless it's for formal review purposes. Occasionally such films do take significantly different slants on the original material while still mostly recycling things and/or put on new endings (see the Blue Gender and RahXephon movies), but only rarely does that make the title worth watching. And there's a Crest of the Stars compilation out there? Really? I hadn't head of one existing before this thread, but I guess we do have an Encyclopedia entry for it. |
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Sanosuke_Inara
Posts: 1662 |
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I mean, are you sure you've even seen the Eureka 7 movie? It sounds like your just pulling stuff out of thin air. 
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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COMPILATION MOVIES = MOVIES THAT COMPILE THE TV SERIES. They exist for the sole purpose of seeing some of better scenes of a TV show in a theatrical setting. Of course to you, the person unable to see these films in a cinema, they seem bad. But they certainly do have a purpose, they create more cash flow and keep interest in a title going. And there's a big difference between remakes, re-imaginings, and compilations. - A remake is taking the same story, trying to have the same plot and direction, but in a different (usually updated/modern) style. - A re-imagining would be taking the same concept and going in a completely different direction with it, to where it's very much unlike the original work, like Escaflowne: A Girl in Gaea , Macross DYRL, or others. Usually they'll have complete new artwork, maybe different designs. - And compilations are mostly just footage taken directly from the original work, maybe with a feeew slight extra scenes added, like the Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars movie, or the 0083 movie. Usually these are almost never worth the time to watch, the Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Trilogy being one of the only decent examples because it replaces a lot of show that doesn't need to be rewatched. But you can also have films like the recent Macross Frontier: The False Songstress, where it compiles actual footage but then completely goes on its own from there. Closer to a re-imaginging than a compilation, and the second film is looking to be even more original. Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Wed Nov 03, 2010 2:58 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 19155 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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And what in the quote you took from me gives you any indication that I'm saying that the E7 movie was a "retelling?" Read my review of the movie if you actually think that I am saying that. |
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Sanosuke_Inara
Posts: 1662 |
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But hell, whatever--if that's not what you meant and I just misunderstood, then my bad. And what's more, I remember reading that review after I had actually gone to see the movie. Didn't know it was yours, though. |
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poilk92
 Posts: 433 Location: Long Beach California |
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Is this a serious question? Because its easy and saves money. Honestly I want to make some sort of big revelation here but thats really all there is to it
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Nerv1
Posts: 601 |
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I wasn't just referring to compilation movies, but some other ones as well such as the Macross Frontier film. While the movie did use a lot of new animations, I was not particularly fond of seeing many scenes that were reused from the tv series. While it did blend in well and was enhanced, I just felt that the recycled scenes were a bit of a cop-out for a film that had stunning art. As for the Eureka 7 movie, I only said 40% of the art was reused was that I read about it somewhere ,but it did reuse a lot of old art though with the scenes of the Ezio being directly the same footage of the Coralians or whatever they were called in the tv series.
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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The MF movie had stunning art because they didn't have to animate 100% of it from nothing. Besides, it was ALWAYS billed as a compilation/re-imagining from the absolute very beginning. I'm actually happily shocked that it even had THAT much new animation, I was expecting almost a straight compilation with like 20-30% new footage. And I think you're confusing art with scenes, as the E7 movie was pretty much entirely new animation. The only things that get reused are character designs, ship designs, and other conceptual ideas. Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Wed Nov 03, 2010 6:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sanosuke_Inara
Posts: 1662 |
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