WB to Release a Live-Action "AKIRA" (1 Viewer)

[Ted Lee]

why would this be such a bad idea? if properly done, i bet it would kick ass. i know it's a big if, but you get my drift...

didn't the w brothers (not even gonna try to spell it) who did the matrix state they were influenced by anime? look how well that movie did.

if we can mimic comics (do i even need to list?), then why not animation?

akira is a great story...i just hope they don't chunk it.

 

[Terrell]

There's a big difference Ted. The Matrix wasn't a widely acclaimed and popular anime film, that was remade. It was an original film. Akira would be a live action remake of an anime film. I can only see a complete butchering at this point. I never cared for Akira, but many do. And I'd hate to see them butcher it for those fans.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Can someone help me out here? Can anyone think of one scene in Akira that was not better handled in animation than it would have been as live action? Even the fight between the gang and the clowns was better suited as it was. I mean, can you imagine how fake looking Tetsuo might get to look when they get around to the colliseum sequence? The street riot? The satellite? The airbikes?

This seems like such an uncreative exercise that has its work cut out for it. I would love to look back on my words and be proven wrong, but they are going to have to get so much right to have this not fail in comparison.

 

[Terrell]

You're right. Ican't see this film looking to great, and coming off without a hitch as a live action film. I say the same thing about DBZ. If they're going to make a DBZ film, make one CGI animated in the same vein as Toy Story, but with a bit of added realism. Forget the live action stuff. I don't believe they will pull off either film and have it live up to the anime versions.

 

[Peter Overduin]

I am not an anime expert like some on this forum (Guys like Jeff Kleist, for example). However, with even some of the mainstream anime titles like Akira and Princess Mononoke, among others the effect, presentation and story itself is not lost on me. These two titles alone eclipse anything done by Disney, esp in terms of depth of the material. I believe these stories would only be cheapened by live versions.

I see no correlation here with Spiderman, et al. These comic book characters were just that, comic book characters that were also at some point, Saturday morning cartoon characters. As much as I like Titan AE, Final Fantasy and other Hollywood attempts at producing animated features, there is much work to do.

I suppose we aren't wothout hope. The North American car manufacturer woke up in the 70's and realized that thier vehicles were complete garbage compared to japanese vehicles, and while that hasn't changed much, at least some progress has been made. Can we hope the same for Hollywood?

 

[Terrell]

Peter, surely you are not saying the American film industry is garbage compared to the Japanese film industry, are you? That's a very flawed comparison, and statement, if that is indeed what you're saying.

As for Disney, without them animation might not even exist....period! And that includes anime.

As for animation, I'll take Snow White, Monsters Inc., Toy Story, and many of Disney's early classics over any anime. And I certainly wouldn't call american animation crap. In fact, there is plenty of garbage anime. And there is good anime. The same can be said of American animation.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Terrell,

No, he's saying that the depth of story and character is much deeper in anime, which is true

Miyazaki has 10x the talent in his little finger than all of Disney animation does today.

Walt was a master, but Miyazaki is his heir apparent, taking things far beyond where Walt stopped while the company Disney founded treads water making the latest fodder for Toys R Us

 

[Terrell]

Well, I don't watch a lot of anime. I do hold the opinion that as far as the quality of the animation goes, Disney, and American animation in general are superior to anime. Although good anime has a unique and catching look to it. But Peter's car comparison seemed to imply that he thought American filmmaking in general, not just animation, is far behind these Japanese. I'm not sure if that was what he was saying, but if so, I'd disagree.

But I do take offense when people slam Disney and belittle their accomplisments in comparison to anime, especially considering they pioneered animation. As well, anime probably owes much of it's existence to Walt Disney. As far as Myazaki, he is definitely a talented man. But I don't hold his accomplishments in as high a regard as I do for Walt Disney's accomplishments. Although from what little I know of him, he is definitely a pioneer in anime and Japanese filmmaking.

I don't mean to belittle anime. But there is good anime and there's bad anime, just like any form of filmmaking. Same goes with American animation. The fact is Disney makes what sells. Try selling a Myazaki anime film to American audiences and see what happens. Not because it's bad, but because American audiences don't want to see that. Personally, from what I hear, Disney has two very good animated films coming out in Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. Let's hope they are.

Yes, I'll admit Disney has gotten slack over the last decade in the creativity department. Hopefully they will snap out of it.

One last note, I personally think Pixar films are easily as good, or even better than much of the anime I've seen. And I don't just mean quality of the animation, but the story and character depth as well. I've seen Akira, Outlaw Star, My Neighbor Totoro, and Mobile Suit Gundam. I've also seen countless anime shows on TV, and curiously my favorite is a rather shallow series called Dragon Ball Z. Maybe I'm not the best and most educated person to talk in depth about anime. But I'm not it's biggest fan aside from a couple of films. I'm just trying to give my feelings on Peter's post.

 

[Peter Overduin]

No, he's saying that the depth of story and character is much deeper in anime, which is true

Without a doubt, stuff like Bug's Life, Final Fantasy, Titan A.E,. and others are beautifully done. However, when I look at a full two-hour feature length film like Akira, I can find on equal in Hollywood. Disney, Dreamworks, and Pixar have done some really amazing stuff, and Final Fantasy is what I would call a beginning for US anime in the sense that they truly tried to make a feature length anime film. There was a real attempt there to build character and a meaningful story and I hope there are more efforts like it.

So, I will continue to watch Disney animated features; I will be buying 'Ice Age,' and look forward to the brilliance of Spielberg in "Minority Report," the ultimate in Hollywood flair in "SW Ep 2." But nothing in Hollywood animation seems to rival "Grave of the Fireflies." There is a maturity in films such as this that brokers no equal.

Again, I apologize if I offended anyone and hope that this clarifies where I am coming from.

 

[Terrell]

No need to apologize. You didn't insult anyone. I just wasn't sure of what you were saying. As far as anime having a deep story and characters, again, the only full length anime films I've seen are the ones I listed above. The rest of my anime experience is from TV, with my favorite being DBZ. So I'm not necessarily the most intelligent person to discuss anime. As for the anime film you mentioned, I can't comment because I haven't seen it.

As for Disney, I think their early works, their classics and much of the stuff done under Walt Disney was pure brilliance. Admittedly, they have been lacking in creating original and deep animated films. As I said, hopefully Lilo & Stitch will be very good films, and different from the standard fare over the last decade.

 

[Ted Lee]

maybe i'm just excited about seeing a live-action version of akira or any other anime...even if it's only "based upon"....
i think the correlation between comics is valid. the conceptual concept (if that makes sense) is the same. take a proven story and develop it into a movie. heck, we're even doing it with video games.
most of the US population probably wouldn't even know this was based upon anime unless told so. to them, it wouldn't make any difference. if the live-action can have some great action sequences, some loud explosions and some hotties they'll like it. if it can live up and be "faithful" to the story, then we'll (presumably) like it.
on a side note, i think american animation can stand on it's own, but for different reasons and stylistic flairs. i enjoy watching toy story, final fantasy, and iron giant (all different "styles") just as much as akira, ghost in the shell or even (to a lesser degree) dbz or even (yikes) pokemon!
ack! did i just admit that i watch pokemon? ugh...i'll deny everything!

 

[Oscar]

SCREW WB AND FOX!, I dont understand how come they want to turn anime films into live action ones, it just wouldnt work, of course it might, but its going to look stupid just like the Chinese Live action version of Dragon Ball

 

[Terrell]

I love DBZ. I despise Pokemon with a passion. I'd like to see a CGI version of DBZ with the story written by the creator of the series. I think it could be flat out awesome. But a live action version would seem as silly as the live action version of Street Fighter. But then Street Fighter didn't have a story to being with. DBZ does.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

DBZ does

So how could they make an original movie without using the story from the show?

If they took a "saga" and turned it into a movie, lord knows it would run on forever (with those 8 episode fights with 90% "powering up" and trash talk that goes nowhere).

I despise DBZ and Pokemon. Low quality in every way besides the marketing.

 

[Terrell]

So be it Morgan. Yours and my tastes don't run hand in hand. But it could easily be done, if handled right. The same way they took a gargatuan book in LOTR and translated it into film. And there is nothing about DBZ that's low quality for a TV series on the Cartoon Network. It's 10 times better than most of the garbage on there, other than Looney Tunes. Obviously you don't know the entire story arch of the characters. It's pretty deep, especially for a cartoon series.

 

[Max Leung]

But nothing in Hollywood animation seems to rival "Grave of the Fireflies." There is a maturity in films such as this that brokers no equal.

I completely agree with this. In fact, I'd say very very few Hollywood films reach the maturity evident in "Grave of the Fireflies".
Terrell, you absolutely must see Grave of the Fireflies. Comparisons with Schlinder's List are not unfounded. In fact, it predates Schlinder's List by a number of years. GotF was released in 1988.
I think it is one of the greatest films of all time. And hey, Ebert agrees with me...it is listed in his "Great Movies" column.
Not all anime is about giant robots and cheesy martial-arts combat. Think of anime as just another film medium. You have action (Ninja Scroll), sci-fi (AKira, Ghost in the Shell), comedy (Ranma 1/2, Kimagure Orange Road), drama (Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue), etc.
Right now, I think Disney is playing catch-up with the anime industry. Notice the borrowing of anime styles and character design in Atlantis? Disney's animation studio clearly caters to the rated-G crowd. If there were more animation studios in Hollywood, I'm sure we'd see a much better variety of animation than what we see now. The lack of competition in the 60s and 70s is apparent in the shoddy work Disney put out in that period. The popularity of anime here in North America is a good kick in the pants for Disney. I hope to see better work from them in the future!
Luckily, Ghibli Studios puts out such great work ("Spirited Away" just won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear award for best film..the first for an animated feature) that Disney will have no trouble borrowing from them for decades to come!

 

[Allan Sampson]

Yeah! How about George Clooney as "the character based on Kaneda" and Jim Carrey as "the character based on Tetsuo"? Jon Peters and the director of Blade! With a pedigree like that how can it fail? I smell marvelousishness!
Reality check: Give up on any actors of Japanese descent being in it. There will be no traces of the story's Asian heritage, including the name of the film. Do you actually think they'd call it something as inaccessible as "Akira"? This film won't be for anime or Otomo fans any more than "Batman and Robin" was for Batman fans -- they'll cast the widest net possible with the most opportunities for Burger King promotions possible. C'mon, this is WB and Jon Peters here. This is the guy who wouldn't make Roger Avary's "The Sandman" unless the movie opened with The Sandman beating the shit out of the bad guy Arnie-style. I only hope they can afford Akiva Goldsman after that "A Beautiful Mind" thing.
As for pointing to "The Matrix" to illustrate WB goodness, remember it was made in far-flung Australia with little studio interference by film-makers of the highest integrity. It's the exception to the rule. It was made by people who wanted to make it because they had a personal vision and it was cool, not because "we need another project in the pipe and hey, it's a story and the rights were available." Now if the Wachowskis were attached to this movie then I'd be excited.
Sorry for my cynicism, but it's not without grounds. Now I'll get back to my "Batman"/"Batman Returns"/"Batman Forever"/"Batman and Robin" marathon.

 

[Peter Overduin]

The Matrix was being put together at the same time as Wild West with Will Smith. WB, believing that film would clean up at the box office, chose to go it alone from start to finish. The Matrix was never expected to be much of anything and thus WB shared the whole experience and basically with little interest. This was, and is not uncommon. If a studio thinks a film is going to be a major hit, it will often elect to fund the entire project, and thus the profits, itself. 'Sharing' a film with other studios, especially smaller film companies allows it to take less of a hit when a film flops. Of course, we all know what happened to Wild West, as well as to the Matrix. Not the first time a studio mis-read things.

I just watched Grave of the Fireflies last night with my 12 year old daughter. She bawled her eyes out, and I dare say no parent will watch it without choking up. It is a profoundly impactful film that any 'live-action' remake would only desecrate. The music is among the most melancholic I have ever heard.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Disney sure likes anime in general, and Miyazaki in particular! Why do anime-hating Disney fans have to fart in every anime thread?
1) Disney buys worldwide home video rights to Miyazaki/Ghibli back catalog.
2) Disney buys theatrical rights to Miyazaki's 'Mononoke Hime'.
3) Disney rips off 'Nadia' anime series (stongly inspired by Miyazaki) for 'Atlantis'.
4) Disney rushes to buy theatrical rights to Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away' before Dreamworks does.
5) Disney heavily rips off Miyazaki's visual style for 'Treasure Planet'.
Hey, I'm looking forward to 'Treasure Planet', it's a real shame they didn't make it 2.35:1 (blame this lame new IMAX trend). But most Disney animated films pale to good anime in terms of having unique character development and story; Disney has come to rely on formula and high frame count.
Treasure Planet trailer:
http://www.trailersworld.com/movie.asp?movie_id=1623
ps DragonBall Z is the worst anime I have ever seen. I'll take almost anything on Cartoon Network over DBZ any day of the week. DragonBall Z makes 'Samurai Jack' look like 'Citizen Kane'.

 

[Juan Castillo]

Don't forget what the link mentioned. Do you actually think Hollywood will leave the story intact, and true to the anime? They will do their best to add/subtract/alter/destroy the original, and change it to mainstream garbage in order to attract all kiddies, not just the anime cult that saw the original.. Mass marketing will not allow a film to be made based on a cult following of a cartoon. Unless it is a low budget POS.. Take for instance.. Fist of the North Star..

And not all anime is comparable to Disney, infact none of it is close to Pixar.. The artwork necessary to pull off some of these films is astonishing, leaving all disney in the dust.. Anyone seen Ninja Scroll???