A Tale of Shimakita

Shimakita (島北, Shimakita), known internationally as A Tale of Shimakita is a 2003 anime film directed and co-written by Osamu Dezaki and produced by Toei Animation, the first in three films he would direct for the studio, followed by the adaptations of Air in 2005 and Clannad in 2007, and the only one not to be based on a pre-existing work. The story is set in the fictional Japanese town of Shimakita, and it remarks a story about one of it's residents, Hideki Komatsu, and how he becomes involved in a mystery regarding an artifact after he learns about it from a girl he meets in town.
The film was released in Japan by Toei Company on February 8, 2003. An English dubbed version featuring the voices of Hilary Duff, Mark Hamill, Bill Pullman, Keith David, Toni Colette, Wallace Shawn and Jason Bateman was produced by LIVE Entertainment, as their first anime license, and was released to US theaters by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films on March 5, 2004. It received positive reviews from both Japanese and Western film critics and grossed $126 million worldwide, with $72.4 million coming from the US box office, becoming the second highest grossing anime film of all time in the market, after Pokémon: The First Movie. The film's success led to Paramount and LIVE Licensing forming a distribution partnership afterward which still goes on to this day.
==Plot==
Coming soon!
==Cast==
Character 	Seiyū 	Dub Actor
Hideki Komatsu 	Hiro Shimono 	Bryce Papenbrook
Ryoko Nakayama 	Ai Shimizu 	Hilary Duff
Kazuki Miyata 	Sōichirō Hoshi 	Eddie Frierson
Shin Yoshino 	Jūrōta Kosugi 	Mark Hamill
Tetsuya Anzai 	Yasunori Matsumoto 	Bill Pullman
Mitsuru Furuya 	Chiwa Saitō 	Mae Whitman
Stewart Watkins 	Kōichi Yamadera 	Keith David
Raiden Mano 	Toshiyuki Morikawa 	Andrew Philpot
Mariko Sekiguchi 	Yūko Minaguchi 	Toni Collette
Yoichi Nishimura 	Kanichi Kurita 	Wallace Shawn
Rokuro Sakamoto 	Issei Futamata 	Michael McShane
Hideki's Parents 	Mami KoyamaChafurin 	Grey DeLisleDavid Rasner
Ryoko's Mother 	Tomoko Ishimura 	Wendee Lee
Katsuo Yoshihara 	Hōchū Ōtsuka 	Taliesin Jaffe
Shin's Associates 	Toshio FurukawaMitsuo SendaUnshō Ishizuka	David RasnerJohn DiMaggioAlex Fernandez
Suzume Sawaya 	Yukari Tamura 	Kari Wahlgren
Shop Owner 	Kenyū Horiuchi 	Dwight Schultz
Teacher 	Nobutoshi Canna 	Roger Jackson
Police Captain 	Chō 	John DiMaggio
Officer 	Masato Funaki 	David Rasner
Female Voice 	Kaori Mine 	Candi Milo
Narrator/Adult Hideki	Takayuki Sugō 	Jason Bateman
===Additional Voices===
*David Arnott
*John DeMita
*Andrea Taylor
*Richard Steven Horvitz
*Stephen Apostolina
*Jack Fletcher
*Julia Fletcher
*Dee Bradley Baker
*Sirena Irwin
*Melissa Fahn
*Roger Jackson
*Joshua Seth
*Taliesin Jaffe
*Scott Menville
==Soundtrack==
The original soundtrack entitled Shimakita Film Soundtrack was released in Japan on March 28, 2003 by Frontier Works. The soundtrack contained one disc with twenty-three tracks. The first twenty-two tracks are the background music played throughout the film composed by American composer James Horner, in his only anime credit. According to Dezaki, the reason for why they decided to get Horner to do the score was due to his involvement in Titanic in 1997. The final track on the CD, Hitoshizuku by TONE, served as the movie's theme song, and had previously been used as the theme song for the Japanese release of Ice Age.
Sire Records released a variation of the soundtrack in the United States on March 1, 2004. This soundtrack is mostly the same, but replaces Hitoshizuku with Someone's Watching Over Me by Hilary Duff and Happy by Sita, as both songs were used in it's place in the English-language release of the film.
==Release==
===Japan===
Shimakita was first released in Japan by Toei Company across 120 theaters on February 8, 2003. It would later expand to 200 theaters during it's release in the country.
The film was later released on DVD in Japan on August 6, 2003, and was released in three editions: the Collector's Edition, the Special Edition, and the Regular Edition. The Collector's Edition was sold as a specialized box set including, with the film DVD, a separate DVD containing four promotional images and four television commercials advertising the film. A 402-page booklet was included in the box set containing detailed storyboards, and a draft of the film's scenario. The Special Edition was similarly released in a box set containing the film DVD, along with the film's soundtrack. The Regular Edition contained no special features and was sold in a normal DVD case containing only the film DVD.
===United States===
Shortly after the film's release, it was licensed for release in the United States by Nightstorm Productions (later LIVE Entertainment) via their newly established anime licensing arm Nightstorm Licensing (later LIVE Licensing), with plans for a 2004 release. For their release, the company produced an English language version of the film; it was co-produced and written by Garrett Fredrickson, directed by veteran voice director Jack Fletcher and featured the voices of Hilary Duff, Mark Hamill, Bill Pullman, Keith David, Toni Colette, Wallace Shawn and Jason Bateman. The dub was recorded at Studio E! Productions, edited at Danetracks, Inc. and re-recorded at TODD-AO Studios West.
After presenting the film to a few distributors such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and MGM, the film was ultimately picked up for distribution by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films, after winning over David Gale, who worked for the latter company. The film opened in a wide release in the United States on March 5, 2004 (with a $15 million marketing cost) under the title of A Tale of Shimakita. During it's US theatrical run, the film opened at number three behind Starsky and Hutch and The Passion of the Christ with $21.6 million. The film ended up grossing $72.4 million in the United States, greatly exceeding Paramount, MTV and LIVE's expectations and becoming the second highest grossing anime film of all time in the market, after Pokémon: The First Movie. The film's success in America not only led to Paramount and LIVE Licensing forming a distribution partnership afterward, but also Paramount opting to release the film in select international countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
A Tale of Shimakita was released on VHS and DVD in the United States on June 1, 2004 by Paramount Home Entertainment. As with the original theatrical release, the film's release on home video formats proved to be successful, with Paramount earning $30.2 million in home video sales for the film. The US DVD release features both English and Japanese soundtracks with optional English, Spanish and French subtitles, along with a behind-the-scenes featurette on the English dub, an interview with Osamu Dezaki and the U.S. trailer for the film. The film would later be released on UMD Video format in 2005, on Blu-ray on May 5, 2009 and on 4K UHD Blu-ray on March 7, 2023.
Category:2003 anime films
Category:2003
Category:2003 films
Category:Anime films
Category:Toei Company
Category:Toei Company films
Category:Toei Animation
Category:Toei Animation films
Category:Frontier Works
Category:LIVE Entertainment (Garrett Fredrickson)
Category:Paramount Pictures
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Paramount Pictures animated films
Category:MTV Films
Category:MTV Films films
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