Disney in 07

[Sharktopus]

    To take this back to Pixar and John Lasseter in particular, when TCM showed a pile of Miyazaki movies last year,  Lasseter co-hosted the series and had footage of his visits to Miyazaki and Ghibli Studios so I could understand if he had an interest in getting back to some 2D animation.
    While I don't generally go in for conspiracy theories, I do want to explain my theory that Disney got the distribution rights for Miyazaki's films in the US  just so they could screw them up.  After some half-hearted attempts at distributing Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, they seemed to make little effort to get Howl's Moving Castle into theaters.  I eventually had to go to a little hole-in-the-wall theater to see it, even though I thought the story had much more potential to connect with American audiences.  Disney seems content to make money on DVD sales of these films while making sure their own toons get preferred treatment in theaters.  That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it.

I think it just comes down to the American movie-going public in general being even more apprehensive of anime movies now that they've been exposed to crap like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. No amount of Disney marketing will get John Q. Dumbass to dissasociate Howl's Moving Castle from Dragonball Z. They're both just stupid Japanimation to him.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

think it just comes down to the American movie-going public in general being even more apprehensive of anime movies now that they've been exposed to crap like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. No amount of Disney marketing will get John Q. Dumbass to dissasociate Howl's Moving Castle from Dragonball Z. They're both just stupid Japanimation to him.

Thats becoming less and less true over time i have noticed.  I think pokemon(for good or worse) has really got the ball rolling.  go look at suncoast.com and see how much anime is on the MAIN page.  we are no longer shuffled to the back, they know anime is a major major money draw.  Borders and other book stores as well.  The manga wall is huge anymore.  its biger than the scifi wall.

[Sharktopus]

think it just comes down to the American movie-going public in general being even more apprehensive of anime movies now that they've been exposed to crap like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. No amount of Disney marketing will get John Q. Dumbass to dissasociate Howl's Moving Castle from Dragonball Z. They're both just stupid Japanimation to him.

Thats becoming less and less true over time i have noticed.  I think pokemon(for good or worse) has really got the ball rolling.  go look at suncoast.com and see how much anime is on the MAIN page.  we are no longer shuffled to the back, they know anime is a major major money draw.  Borders and other book stores as well.  The manga wall is huge anymore.  its biger than the scifi wall.

Anime is definitely huge now, but it's still a niche market. But all the anime DVDs and manga digests are being bought by the same obsesed core of people, and there's just not enough of them to to make a wide theatrical release worthwhile, at least in the eyes of studios like Disney. Someday the time will come, but not until Walmart has a dedicated anime section, and not just the Fullmetal Alchemist movie.

[daltysmilth]

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but I'm going to say it anway: A lot of anime is total crap. 

Now let me explain:  when you read what I just said, keep in mind that there is A LOT more animation produced in Japan than in the US.  A LOT.  In fact, I don't think it would be totally inaccurate to say that animation is the prevailing method of storytelling in Japan.  They have live-action shows, sure, but they have a lot more animated shows.  And it just seems logical that with that much animation, there's going to be a high ratio of crap for all the actual genuinely good shows produced.  Just to pull some numbers completely out of my rear, for every Cowboy Bebop, there's probably about five boring, derivative shows featuring giant robots.  For every FLCL, there's five Super Milk-Chan shows.  I'm not saying there's a huge rift between good anime and bad anime.  Fullmetal Alchemist, for instance, is well done and interesting to watch.  But I wouldn't say it's particularly innovative.  If I were being uncharitable, I would call it "A Trigun ripoff with alchemy".  Still, its worst episodes are better than the best episodes of say, CSI: Miami.  Anyway, that's all I have to say for now.

[J-Proof]

Back to Pirates:

I have an acquaintance through the web of friends who said Mr. Depp was the coolest/most honest person he got to talk to in the Pirates 2 production (this acquaintance was an extra of some sort).
Bloom I don't know about, but he looks an awful lot like Val Kilmer, and my cousin (ex-Hollywood bartender) says that Val Kilmer is a total dooosh.

Anyway - I admire Jack most even if he is a captain made to be mutinied upon. He has that personality that's just fun, and I'd actually trust him more than any other captain we've seen (and he's not an ass like Norrington).

[Minnesota]

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but I'm going to say it anway: A lot of anime is total crap. 

Now let me explain:  when you read what I just said, keep in mind that there is A LOT more animation produced in Japan than in the US.  A LOT.  In fact, I don't think it would be totally inaccurate to say that animation is the prevailing method of storytelling in Japan.  They have live-action shows, sure, but they have a lot more animated shows.  And it just seems logical that with that much animation, there's going to be a high ratio of crap for all the actual genuinely good shows produced.  Just to pull some numbers completely out of my rear, for every Cowboy Bebop, there's probably about five boring, derivative shows featuring giant robots.  For every FLCL, there's five Super Milk-Chan shows.  I'm not saying there's a huge rift between good anime and bad anime.  Fullmetal Alchemist, for instance, is well done and interesting to watch.  But I wouldn't say it's particularly innovative.  If I were being uncharitable, I would call it "A Trigun ripoff with alchemy".  Still, its worst episodes are better than the best episodes of say, CSI: Miami.  Anyway, that's all I have to say for now.

Sorry gotta put pirates on hold for a second:)
agreed, good anime is rare. Allthough I haven't really been exposed to  much anime there are only a small handful of shows that I like.

1. Gungrave is the best anime ever,

1. speed racer is also the best ever (don't make me decide between the two )

2. Trigun was the first anime I ever saw but I gotta admit that its still pretty cool

3. then you have ninja scroll which is damn cool,

4. and another fav, the wonderfully violent Rurouni Kenshin (samurai x)

[gammer]

You can totally tell that Jack would be an awesome guy to sit down and drink some 'booze' (rum) with. It would be a real hoot, and you'd probably end up laughing at him stumbling around singing stupid pirate songs.

[Minnesota]

Back to Pirates:

Anyway - I admire Jack most even if he is a captain made to be mutinied upon. He has that personality that's just fun, and I'd actually trust him more than any other captain we've seen (and he's not an ass like Norrington).

wait what!? didn't most of Jacks crew get killed?
Never trust a pirate

[J-Proof]

I'd rather die than become a barnacle (davy jones) or wind up a zombie with the inability to feel ANY sort of pleasure (barbossa) =)

[Sharktopus]

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but I'm going to say it anway: A lot of anime is total crap. 

Now let me explain:  when you read what I just said, keep in mind that there is A LOT more animation produced in Japan than in the US.  A LOT.  In fact, I don't think it would be totally inaccurate to say that animation is the prevailing method of storytelling in Japan.  They have live-action shows, sure, but they have a lot more animated shows.  And it just seems logical that with that much animation, there's going to be a high ratio of crap for all the actual genuinely good shows produced.  Just to pull some numbers completely out of my rear, for every Cowboy Bebop, there's probably about five boring, derivative shows featuring giant robots.  For every FLCL, there's five Super Milk-Chan shows.  I'm not saying there's a huge rift between good anime and bad anime.  Fullmetal Alchemist, for instance, is well done and interesting to watch.  But I wouldn't say it's particularly innovative.  If I were being uncharitable, I would call it "A Trigun ripoff with alchemy".  Still, its worst episodes are better than the best episodes of say, CSI: Miami.  Anyway, that's all I have to say for now.

I agree that there's a whole lot of truly shitty anime, but Fullmetal Alchemist isn't innovative? I must admit that I haven't watched much anime, but FMA is one of very few that I've felt compelled to watch all the way through. Can you honestly say you saw any of that crazy shiznit coming? I'd call that innovative. I also agree the Cowboy Bebop and FLCL are exceptions to the rule.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Anyway - I admire Jack most even if he is a captain made to be mutinied upon. He has that personality that's just fun, and I'd actually trust him more than any other captain we've seen 

Thats because we KNOW the other pirates are evil, with jack its mildly ambiguous. which is a damn good phrase for his charectar.

[daltysmilth]

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but I'm going to say it anway: A lot of anime is total crap. 

Now let me explain:  when you read what I just said, keep in mind that there is A LOT more animation produced in Japan than in the US.  A LOT.  In fact, I don't think it would be totally inaccurate to say that animation is the prevailing method of storytelling in Japan.  They have live-action shows, sure, but they have a lot more animated shows.  And it just seems logical that with that much animation, there's going to be a high ratio of crap for all the actual genuinely good shows produced.  Just to pull some numbers completely out of my rear, for every Cowboy Bebop, there's probably about five boring, derivative shows featuring giant robots.  For every FLCL, there's five Super Milk-Chan shows.  I'm not saying there's a huge rift between good anime and bad anime.  Fullmetal Alchemist, for instance, is well done and interesting to watch.  But I wouldn't say it's particularly innovative.  If I were being uncharitable, I would call it "A Trigun ripoff with alchemy".  Still, its worst episodes are better than the best episodes of say, CSI: Miami.  Anyway, that's all I have to say for now.

I agree that there's a whole lot of truly shitty anime, but Fullmetal Alchemist isn't innovative? I must admit that I haven't watched much anime, but FMA is one of very few that I've felt compelled to watch all the way through. Can you honestly say you saw any of that crazy shiznit coming? I'd call that innovative. I also agree the Cowboy Bebop and FLCL are exceptions to the rule.

I haven't seen a lot of anime either, but I'd wager that I've seen more of it, or at least a larger variety of it than a lot of people.  But let me say that I really really like FullMetal Alchemist.  I wish I had Adult Swim so I could watch it.  Heck, I'd be willing to go out and buy the DVD collections if I knew where to find them.  But I still stand by my comment that it's not very innovative.  Yes, it does have quite a few really well-done plot twists.  Plot twists that I didn't see coming, but looking back, they made actually made sense.  Which is a big deal by itself.  A lot of shows/movies have plot twists that you don't see coming, but they don't make sense.  Or they make sense, but you see them coming a mile away.  It's very rare that you get a plot twist that is both truly surprising and makes sense.  That doesn't make the show innovative.  It makes it well-written and logical. 

[J-Proof]

I'll say this for anime - the Japanese do one heck of a lot better producing the genre that they produce, than American animation companies do.

Sci Fi/Action cartoons for the US include "Teen Titans"...... and (?)

Actually I take it back, the US did a good job with Batman TAS

[mrbasehart]

I just have no interest in anime at all. The problem is that the premise is nearly always too bizarre or uninteresting to begin with. They're always "A cute mouse has a bloodlust and likes to kill space vampires with his magic ninja-sword-chuks" or "a girl with enormous eyes and breasts in a mysteriously unexplained schoolgirl outfit turns out to be the princess/savior of the kingdom/universe, and she rides to justice on her unicorn motorcycle."

That sounds awesome! 

[Pak-Man]

If you take a good hard look at the numbers, you'll find that you have about the same chances of finding good anime as you have of finding good American TV. Maybe better. :^)