The Studio Ghibli masterpiece Only Yesterday is finally being released in North America 25 years after its Japanese debut thanks to the folks at GKids. Rather than the fantasies of Miyazaki which Studio Ghibli is famous for, this one is one of the sumptuous slice of life presentations of co-founder Isao Takahata. GKids financed a whole new English dub of the film, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley to voice Taeko, the heroine of the story. It is on the big screen today, January 1st, in NYC, and come February it will get a wider release to the rest of the continent. I can not think of a better way to start off the New Year than with a Ghibli film I have never seen; what a treat!
Terrestrial Human
2015 was a great year with some excellent films, and 2016 looks like it will do just as well. Zootopia is an example of one of the ones I am waiting for, filled with the kind of animals-as-humans animation Disney is famous for and looking quite tasty in the second trailer for the film. This will be hitting the big screen on March 4th, and has an amazing cast doing the voice overs. Other movies worth checking out in 2016 include La belle et la bête, The 5th Wave, Ip Man 3, Kung Fu Panda 3… and that is just in January!
New York City is rolling out its LinkNCY FREE Gigabit Wifi access points, which take the place of existing phone booths. When they are done they plan to have 7,500 public hubs throughout the city, each including USB charging ports and a touchscreen web browsing display for those without tablets or smart phones. To defray the cost of this free public service they are using two 55-inch advertising displays at each hub site, which they estimate will generate more than $500 million in add revenue over the next dozen years.
On December 21st SpaceX made history by bringing the first stage of a rocket launch safely back to Earth, as part of a mission that put 11 satellites in various orbits. What makes this important is the fact that being able to reuse the first rocket stage reduces the cost of going to space to 1% of its current price tag. Check out the article about reusability on the SpaceX web site for their take on the topic. The Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral and the first stage landed back there as well. There is an excellent article about the mission at MIT Technology Review if you would like a few more details. Besides covering the launch and landing the video also covers the satellite launches.
If Anomalisa waits for Friday it will not be eligible for the upcoming Academy Awards round, so it is launching on Wednesday, the 28th. As far as I know it is not genre, but it is animated and it has gotten some excellent critical reviews. I have every intention to see this one on the big screen so I will know whether or not to cheer it on for the award.