So I just saw the trailer for the live action Space Cruiser Yamato movie that's coming out in Japan later this year, and I have to ask myself...why? Why do people feel compelled to remake animated properties into live action films? I've always been bothered by that, because to me it basically shits on animation as a storytelling medium, and says that unless it's a Hollywood style blockbuster, it's not really worthy, or epic. Fuck your little cartoon that captivated the entire nation of Japan in the 70's. Hollywood has shown us the way, and the light and the truth. A live action Akira or Evangelion....so what? Can either of those projects possibly captivate the way their animated counterparts do? I seriously doubt it. Then again, Japan has pulled off watchable live action versions of anime properties before. The Cutey Honey movie was fun, and the Death Note movies were supposedly pretty good. Miike's Yatterman is definitely one I want to see. With the right cast a Gatchaman film could be fun, but Gatchaman was essentially an animated version of a sentai program to begin with. Remakes and nostalgia go a long way for film fodder, and most attempts at any sort of new Yamato anime have royally sucked. I hope that Leiji Matsumoto got cut a big fat check for this. Check it out for yourselves. I must admit, I dig the sort of retro-tech feel it seems to have, but this seems like a winner as cosplay that's going to fall short as a film adaptation. Notice they don't show you Desslok or the Gamilons, because they probably look ridiculous.
I'll give this a shot. I'm not quite as down on this stuff as you are and here's why. Pretty much all movies are based on books. 99% of the time people will tell you the book was better. Of all the comic book movies, how many have been good? Hell most anime come from manga in the first place. It's very unusual for an original anime to be green lit in Japan and when you look at the source material, 9 times outta 10 it's better than the next version.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's hard to really qualify "better". Is it just that we fell in love with that version of the story? As a hardcore eva fan I've been completely uninterested in the new movies. I wasn't even a fan of the additional material they grafted into the anime...part of the creativity and impact of the show was the way they conveyed emotion through extremely simple camera work and stills...
This is not to say that I didn't despise the Gundam live action film but the Casshern film was awesome and had little/nothing to do with the original material...
At the end of the day, I think every story can have many points of entry. I also think each point of entry should be taken on it's own merit. I know that the graphic novel/comic I am working on for BPRE has stuff that totally wouldn't work in a live action/animated film. If I ever get the opportunity to produce either of those, I will probably diverge wildly to take advantage of what those medium offer me as a creator :)
Food for thought amigo :)
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I forgot all about Casshern. But maybe that was as good as it was because it used the source material as a jumping point, and not as something that needed to be retold by actors? As good as the last 2 Batman films were, I prefer all the animated versions of Batman to any of his live action adventures. But you're right, projects should be judged on their points of entry and their own merits and not so much on my own personal connections to the source materials. It does seem like they have nailed the feel of Yamato to an extent. The guy playing Kodai looks pretty badass in his jacket and goggles firing the wave motion gun. I think an important caveat to what you said about points of entry is that creators then need to make the projects their own, because that's when they can really shine.
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