The animated feature film The Wild Life is the story of Robinson Crusoe as told by the Parrot and other animals who were living on the deserted island at the time. It looks quite amusing, and I expect to be in the theater for it. The other film this week is Demon, about a bridegroom who gets possessed by something supernatural at his own wedding. Not being a horror fan, I will be opting for the animated comedic fantasy.
Movies have the live action version of The Jungle Book hits the shelves this week, bringing home the latest incarnation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic story. TV’s Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season Two really ramps up the action in the animated battle for the fate of the galaxy.
Anime did better this week with When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace: Complete Collection getting my vote for best title. A variation on Magical Girls, the one boy in the school club with powers is pretty unimpressive. Doamayger-D is a tip of the hat to old-school Mecha shows from the 70s and 80s, right down to the animation style. The episodes are very short, weighing in at 3 minutes or so each, and the premise is a bit goofy; the giant Mecha fights the monsters by creating elaborate deserts. When the monsters eat the deserts they turn back into human beings. Beelzebub Part 1 is the first 30 episodes of this 2011 series which has not been previously released in the US as far as I can tell. It is about a delinquent who finds a mystical baby who makes his life difficult by doing things like throwing lightning bolts around.
I am going to be seriously disappointed if this one never gets made, if only for the excellent cartoon versions of each of the characters Stephen Byrne managed to create. That can’t be too much of a surprise, since he is one of the artists actually doing the Serenity comic book with Joss Whedon. I don’t seem to be alone in that opinion; as Grasshopper said in the YouTube comments: If this isn’t real so help me I will hunt you down and MAKE YOU MAKE IT!!! Another good clue might be that Nathan Fillion immediately started following him when this video was posted; we might actually get some new stories out of this!
Kubo And The Two Strings looks like the winner this time around, with some excellent animation and a great vocal cast. Kubo needs to find a magic suit of armor to defeat a vengeful spirit. Some towns and theaters also get Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is more about empires at war than the personal battles of the first film. But it is also animated, although in the Machinema style rather than Kubo’s stop-motion style. Finally, there is a documentary that looks pretty interesting: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, with Werner Herzog’s exploration of the Internet. I like all the choices, I will definitely be at a minimum of one of them this weekend.
The live action remake of Pete’s Dragon could be quite amusing. It certainly benefits from the advances in CGI animation and compositing that have been made over the last several decades. If you are in the mood for something less family friendly, the animated film Sausage Party features a sausage trying to discover the truth about his existence, and what he learns is terrifying. I don’t know that I find either of them compelling enough to make me actually part with my money to see them in the theater.
Tales of Zestiria the X jumps straight into fantasy statecraft and combat, right from the beginning of episode 0 (yes, this series starts at the actual first integer of any numeric sequence). The artwork and animation are both quite good, although so far not spectacular except for a few fleeting scenes. The characters and dialog introduce what seems to be this series strong suit; its densely layered plot elements and action sequences, weaving together to form the basis of an excellent story, and story telling environment. Like all the other shows from this season, it is only 4 or 5 episodes along at this point, so there is no way to know if this is going to end up being one of the classics or an also ran. But I really like what it has shown us so far, and will keep watching it to the end of the season if only to find out if they can keep up the quality throughout, and deliver on the implied promise. I have high hopes, since this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tales Of family of animations, with this being the latest.
I am watching this series on Daisuki, which has a number of shows you can’t see anywhere else, which makes sense; they are a consortium of Japanese Anime creation companies, and not a North American distributor of Anime, after all. They have just entered the Premium Subscription phase of a streaming services life cycle, and I am happy to report they are following the Crunchyroll Anime Business Model. In other words, your free registration with them allows you to watch everything the paid premium service gives you, with 3 differences:
1) Premium watches 1 hour after it airs in Tokyo, Free sees it 1 week after.
2) Premium has limited commercials (Free’s more numerous commercials are currently only promos drawing you into other anime shows they are running, but that won’t last once they can market it).
3) Premium can watch in true HD, as can Free. Guest (you didn’t sign up for a log in) tops out at SD.
That last point is different than Crunchyroll, which does not differentiate between unregistered and registered free, as far as I can tell. And the second point reminds me a bit more of Hulu rather than Crunchyroll, come to think of it, because there are NO commercials on Crunchyroll Premium. And all of these differences between providers explains why I watch it on Daisuki rather than Funimation, even though I have a Funimation Premium account which I really enjoy. For the most part, they only let you watch a few episodes of any given series until you sign up for the Funimation Premium account. I understand the business model, but would rather support the others, which are more appealing to me as a consumer.