Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Anime At The Movies
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isaacada1
 Posts: 779 Location: Snohomish, WA |
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Great article Mike! This is definitely a subject that's been under reported.
Galaxy Express 999 was the first anime movie I saw in a theater. I saw it in a double feature with Popeye(bizarre double feature I know). After that, it would be well over a decade before I would see an anime film in a theater. My college got the ability to screen some of the Studio Ghibli films(Totoro, Laputa). I remember watching a press screening for X in either 1999 or 2000. Seeing the premier of the Disney dub of Kiki's Delivery Service at the Seattle International Film Festival was probably the highlight of my anime screenings. Especially afterwards where a bunch of anime fans(including Nausicaa.net reps) were there to talk with the Buena Vista representative there about the future releases of Studio Ghibli films in North America. Fun times. The recent string of anime films here in North America has been a nice change of pace(First Strike, Summer Wars, Redline, Evangelion 2.0, etc...). Lets hope it continues well into the future. |
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boojitsu21
Posts: 4 |
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I've seen these movies in theaters (ROUGHLY in order... i think)
- Princess Mononoke (twice in theaters) - Final Fantasy: Spirits Within (yeah... but it SEEMED like a good idea at the time) - Spirited Away - Howl's Moving Castle - Ghost in the Shell 2 - Ponyo I don't think I've seen any other animes in theaters besides at conventions, which are almost 5x better than a normal theater with the right crowd in my opinion. 
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14758 |
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Hahahaha! So it wasn't a fluke then! 
As I wrote here a couple months ago:
That's a bit misleading. Disney made a deal with Tokuma; they didn't acquire it.
Hahaha, I remember a Japanese foreign student friend and I coming out of the theater in wolf and "god" deer masks (t'was almost Halloween) being handed survey forms by the film reps.
Guess not enough good surveys came back - there were a lot of kids watching too (they got some giggles out of our masks - I'd dig my old old usenet post about the whole experience if it wasn't time-consuming, though I think Nausicaa.net retained a copy of it also).
Fritz the Cat didn't exactly work out, and that "movement" died in the 70's. Heck, animated film on the big screen almost died in N. America in the 80's! Until Disney revived it into a special family event with The Little Mermaid. So yeah, Akira on N. American theaters would be quite a hard sell then.
"Semi-wide" - it was over 600 theaters at one point (better than what we get nowadays). But you're right, Disney promised "wide." But ya can't blame them too much: when they signed the deal with Tokuma, they expected a family-friendly film - yet look at what they got! And that's why it took them so long - they didn't expect to get that and wasn't prepared what to do with it. Eventually, they settled on Miramax releasing Princess Mononoke because obviously, ya can't have the Disney label on such gory violence. And they never marketed such an animated movie before. In the end, convincing 600 theaters to screen it was as good as they can get. IIRC, Disney did release it wide in a test market: Minneapolis, MN (apparently, it's supposed to be a good example of typical America, like Ohio in Presidential Elections). It did good but not overly well-enough over there to convince them to expand much more.
It took Cartoon Network too many months to animate and release the Powerpuff Girls movie that by the time it came out, the popularity of the TV series was already on the wane. That's an advantage of the quickly animated and relatively short (~ 1 hr) anime movies that Japanese studios release while the show is still popular. BTW, don't forget a big reason the first Pokemon movie was a big success in America was because of the special Pokemon card give-away. IIRC, after the first weeked, after the kids had gotten their cards, its % weekly gross change dropped precipitously. It's like kids cared more for the card then forgot about the movie.
Yeah, that stems from the anime club viewing experience too, if you belonged to an anime club. Especially for comedies, somebody always shouts something funny that makes the accompanying scenes funnier or something you didn't even think of (like discussions in a book club). The film+comraderie combination makes the viewing experience more memorable. As for the noise, you should see The Rocky Horror Picture Show during Halloween! Everybody speaks along all the lines and sings along all the songs!
We saw Ponyo in a theater filled with young moms and their young children. Is that the right crowd?
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vapwaazu
 Posts: 115 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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These are the ones I've seen in theatres
- Pokemon: The First Movie - Spirited Away - Howl's Moving Castle - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Interstella 5555 - Pokemon: Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai - Fist Of The North Star Zero Legend Of Kenshiro - Ponyo (both Japanese and English dub) - Summer Wars - Redline - Evangelion 2.0 - Time Of Eve - Tokyo Marble Chocolate - Oblivion Island I think that's everything |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I was at the first European screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya at a local independent cinema in Edinburgh, who still occasionally put on weekends of practically back to back anime. There was one this weekend but I missed it because I was working. I can't imagine the Odeon just down the road from them supporting such a thing though.
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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I recall seeing Alakazam the Great in the Senator Theater in Chico California when it came out. Great theater, art deco exterior and wonderful murals inside.
I can honestly credit that film for opening my eyes to Asian folklore, tho' I did not know what that was when I was 10. All I knew is that I really liked what I saw and I wanted to see more. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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As I read the column, my mind started pulling extracts of my historical life events as I tried to recall all the animation I've seen in a theater which was not stamped with a Disney label:
Transformers - Yeah, Optimus bit the big one (and started a chain reaction of biting it from then on), but one of the most freakish scenes was watching Autobots get thrown into a smelter. Actually, it was worth the ticket price to see it. Powerpuff Girls - Oh, hell yes! I also own it on DVD as well as the entire collection. I love this series. So campy. So awesome. The theater trip was mandatory. Cowboy Bebop - Of all the (true) anime movies released, this is the only one I've ever seen and it was only thanks to a re-release (which was scheduled along with Blade Runner). That's it. Those are the only three animations I've seen. Despite the "experience" out, I've reached the point in my life nothing beats my comfortable couch, low-cost snacks, and a TV wide enough I need not worry about the message "This program has been formatted to fit the screen". I'll take this any day over the trip to the theater, where walking in the aisle to sit down always removes at least one shoe. Seriously, if they marketed that stuff, it would give Super Glue a run for its money. The article was nice. Brought back some fond memories of other trips to the theater, the last being the release of The Dark Knight. My next trip: 2012, when the 3rd Batman movie from Nolan (oh thank goodness he's directing again) hits the big screen. I'm saving the for the cost of popcorn now (and hope I can swing a large). |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Aside the first Pokémon film, the only anime I have seen on the big screen is Mardock Scramble: The First Compression. (It was a projected DVD source, though enjoyable nonetheless.)
When last I resided in London, I let the opportunity pass to see my favourite anime at a special showing. This was intentional: some viewing experiences are better enjoyed without company. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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When I went to see Tokyo Godfathers in a theater it was a movie I had watched several times before and liked, but after seeing it with an audience it went from merely liking it to loving it. The audience added so much energy to it. Not because of the others opinions but, just being more involved with the movie because there is a whole group cheering and laughing with you.
Now if you don't like people and dealing with them fair enough, but I totally get the crowd ads energy to a movie you might have not felt otherwise. |
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gatotsu911
Posts: 457 Location: US of East Coast |
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Aside from the first three Pokemon movies, the only anime I've ever seen in theaters was Evangelion 1.01 back in 2009, for which I had to travel across multiple states just to get to one screening. Boy was it a hassle, but it was worth it - seeing the movie in a theater was a blast. I completely agree that the Rebuild of Evangelion movies especially are practically designed for theatrical viewing - without a crowd to cheer at the action, laugh at the fanservice and gasp at the plot twists they risk coming off as hollow due to their comparative lack of substance when held against the original series. They're big, loud, sociable moviegoing experiences, not films to be watched in silence and pensively meditated upon, which is something I would never, ever have expected from Hideaki Anno prior to seeing them with my own eyes. Anyway, back on topic, I recall theaters near me have had special events for the Bleach and Eureka Seven movies, but I never attended them. Are anime movies more or less marketable now than they were back during the height of the anime boom in the mid-2000s?
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animefan1238
 Posts: 299 Location: Ma |
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Great job Mike! Good to see someone in my neck of the woods writing on anime. I saw Paprika with my equally anime loving girlfriend and the Kendel Theater in Cambridge. It was a 3:30 show, mid week, and during summer time so the theater wasn't full by any means. But see it on a big srceen made it more enjoyable. I felt pulled in by the mastery of Satoshi Kon (may he rest in peace) and I didn't want the movie to end. I also saw Spirited Away about 40 minutes away from Boston in a cinema that had other movies showing too. I was very sick at the time and wanted to see this in theaters so badly. It was my mother, aunt and myself that saw it. Even they loved it and they aren't into anime at all, but the way it was drawn, the story and the characters is what made that movie different from all others.
I love going to the movies and look forward to Kon's last film and plan on see it that when it does get state side. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15298 |
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Actually, Box Office Mojo says the highest number of theaters it got was 129. Ponyo's got the highest # of theaters for a Ghibli film released in stateside theaters, while Spiried Away comes second.
Not to mention that it would've definitely been R-rated if Disney wasn't good at buying "general audience" ratings.  I mean, the content is not significantly friendlier than in Akira or Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and yet Urban Vision couldn't get a PG-13 for the latter, as they'd hoped. And Di$ney buried a ton of Ghibli films which had wider appeal. They made the deal with Tokuma for that specific purpose-and to get a cut of the profits in Japan-and would've probably continued that policy, if Spirited Away hadn't netted an Oscar. And considering that the South Park movie managed to do alright in spite of its content, there wasn't any excuse for Der Mouse to shy away from PM, other than being paranoid about parent groups.
From what I heard, Harvey Weinstein did his usual "test screening fudging" bit where he came up with a dub even more unbearable than the one we got, and that's why it ranked so low at those MN test cities. See, Harvey hated good Asian(not to mention indie) movies doing well, unless he "discovered" them first, so he'd make them unrecognizable in post and then dump them in his basement, even if he was contractually obligated to go wide with them. That's why even his parents at Disney had to lean on him to give Hero a theatrical release after sitting on it for two years, even though it'd been nominated for an Oscar.
You could argue they came close with The Fox and the Hound and Black Cauldron.
Perhaps, but it should've made some money. Though, I guess compared to Pokemon 4Ever, you could argue it did.
Yeah, but everything Pokemon-related sold like hot-cakes back then. |
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Drac
Posts: 165 |
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The one and only enjoyable anime film I've seen in theaters was Spirited Away when it got an expanded release after winning the Oscar that year. The other two were the first Pokemon film and One Piece Movie 8 which were both miserable experiences for various reasons.
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Zenador
Posts: 10 |
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In order the anime movies I can remember seeing in theaters are
-Princess Mononoke at a special subbed screening at a university when I was faaaarrr too young for the movie and subs. It was great anyways! -Howl's Moving Castle at one of my favorite local movie theaters -Ponyo, again at a local movie theater -And Summer Wars, this one at a pretty small movie theater in San Francisco. In general I have to agree with the article in that watching anime at the theater is a completely different, and better, experience. On a small TV or computer screen it is harder to let yourself wallow in the movie instead of getting the sense of distance that appears when it is possible to pause, get up, and start up again. Specifically looking at my experience with Summer Wars, the only one I can actually remember well, watching in the theater was amazing. On Christmas morning me and my mom set out on BART to get to the city. We walk a couple blocks to the theater, and sit there for maybe 15-20 minutes waiting for the film to start. We don't say much, but the tension builds and i find myself getting all nervous and excited. At this point I feel I must say the that the theater is small and the screen to these days' standards is dinky, but despite this, by the time the movie is over, i felt so much more content and satisfied with the movie than i had on my computer months before watching horrible fansubs. The experience was wonderful, and I know for sure I much prefer it to watching at my house. |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1708 |
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Agreed. See, for example, page 9 of Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation: Films, Themes, Artistry. On another topic—for more on Jerry Beck's experience with Streamline Pictures, see "Anime: Hollywood's Invisible Animation Genre" from Animation World Magazine August 1996 Volume 1 - No. 5. (That issue is a gift that has just kept on giving to me—I keep referring back to it, ever since I found it.) |
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