From: conty@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (OtakuRoach)
Subject: Re: Anime Reviews for the Tokyo Area  (ver. 2.1)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 19:53:05 GMT

In article <BvzAsI.C2M@jrd.dec.com>, currmann@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Curtis Hoffmann) writes:
> 
> Flanders no Inu:
>    This is one of the new anime series, but I haven't been able to watch
> it for more than a few seconds.  It seems to be a badly animated girl's
> show about a dog in the old west wilderness (ala Grizzley Adams.)

This is either a remake of the old THE DOG OF FLANDERS anime, or a re-run of
the original.

>    Minky Momo:

And again I say:  the first season of this show was GREAT!, and it went
downhill ever since.

>    The Little Prince Thing:
>    Actually, I have no idea what the real title is -- I keep missing it.
> The hero is a small boy, drawn in a Tezuka-style, with jagged yellow hair,
> a sailor-type tunic, and a short sword.  He has a cutsty green lizard thing
> (a green and brown "dog" with a spike on its nose) as a pet.  He's on a
> quest (I think to either find his mother, or revenge her death,) and he
> travels to far lands, and fights Greek-mythological monsters along the way.
> The main villian seems to be a Medusa.

TRITON OF THE SEA, if my memory doesn't fail me.

>    Omoide Poroporo (Remembering in Drops):
>    This is one of the most spectacular films I've seen so far.  The
> background artwork is absolutely stunning, and the animation is very
> fluid, at times.  The music and special effects animation are both very
> good.  Given that the story is nothing more than "a woman visits the
> countryside and remembers her childhood," it is a very captivating film.
> Produced by Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro,
> and Porco Rosso,) it was directed by Isao Takabatake (friend and
> collaborator with Miyazaki.)

Ah, that's "Isao Takahata".  Either that or I've been spelling it wrong
all this time. :-)  Takahata has produced all of Miyazaki's recent films,
is the other half of Studio Ghibli, and directed GRAVE FOR A FIREFLY.

>    Poroporo is a beautiful, but flawed film.  When Taeko Okajima (the
> main character) flashes back to her childhood, we get: children with
> toothpick legs that don't match their bodies, faces that are straight
> out of a Miyazaki film and look more "cartoony" that the adults' faces
> do,

Actually, I think this was on purpose.  In part to differentiate between
Taeko's memories and the "present" (which, BTW, happens in 1982), and in
part because the 1966 sequences are based on the original OMOHIDE POROPORO
manga, with cleaned-up character designs.

>    One of the biggest problems, though, especially for the adult animation,
> is the way characters move and react facially.  Animation is
> traditionally a caracature form, so that people's bodies and movements
> are distorted a little to make them seem more natural.

That's an interesting choice of words.  :-)  You distort a caricature in
order to make it look more realistic.  Heh.

Actually, the whole point was to make the "present" sequences more realistic.
BTW, head models of the major characters were comissioned to a sculptor,
and those were used to help when doing the actual drawing.  The Ghibli
folks also used the Disney trick of making the animated character look
like the voice actor for the part (like the way the teapot in BEAUTY AND
THE BEAST looks like Angela Landsbury).  Toshio looks just like his voice
actor.

> By keeping to a
> more realistic rule for movement and shading, Isao has created the
> impression that his adults have all been rotoscoped -- this is NOT a
> good thing (just ask Ralph Bakshi.)

Ah, they didn't look rotoscoped to me.  Maybe half-rotoscoped, which
is not a bad thing in my book.

> I'd kill to get some of the artwork from Poroporo, and I will do my
> damnedest to get a subbed copy on videotape, or LD.

Well, I have a LD of it, the Roman Album, and a very detailed synopsis.
If you can find an English script, or a subbed copy, I can give you a list
of 20+ people who are interested.  :-)

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