1/28-30 Weekend Box Office
Inkan1969
couple of months. Right now though I have the time to catch up. So
here are the weeks I missed. Pardon the number of posts.
Information taken from Brandon Gray's BoxOffice Mojo.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2011&wknd=04&p=.htm
13 11 Tangled $2,526,561 -18.0% 1,589
-271 $1,590 $189,576,785
24 21 Megamind $493,135 -13.6% 300
-20 $1,644 $146,961,444
33 39 The Illusionist $133,988 +66.2% 25
+10 $5,360 $537,590
59 38 Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance $9,888 -88.3% 2
-13 $4,944 $105,317
71 93 Howl $4,512 +330.1% 3
+1 $1,504 $613,986
75 61 My Dog Tulip $4,423 -38.2% 4
-1 $1,106 $194,661
96 Nine Nation Animation $567
1 $567 $19,087
"Evangelion 2.0"'s release was pretty much a one-week deal. In
it's second week it nearly disappeared from theaters, leading to a
plummet at the boxoffice. Since then, it's been around in
only one or two theaters. Funimation may be thinking more about its
DVD release, but I think th
is is a crock. I wanted to have the opportunity to see this film on
the big screen.
This was the weekend "Summer Wars" opened in Atlanta, where I was
able to catch it. It became my second favorite animated feature
officially released in the U.S. in 2010.
SPOILER WARNING
What left the biggest impression on me actually was the film's
accessibility. The plot is pure fluff: a group of tech savy
characters use avatars to battle a rogue program that's causing
chaos on the internet. In fact, the plot is exactly the same as that
of the second Digimon movie
. (I think Mamoru Hosoda himself directed some Digimon movies.) For
the matter, the character designs have the same mushy style of the
Digimon movies. But unlike that second Digimon movie, "Summer Wars"
came off as compelling and entertaining.
The film had a lovable cast of characters with believable
motivations. The diverse Jinnouch
i clan included tough and combative eldest son Mansuke, angsty but
brave great grandson Kazuma, ostracized and mysterious son Wabisuke,
and wise and inspiring matriarch Sakae. And for all of those
characters and nearly every other clan member I could see the clan's
strong bond of love they all contribute in their own way. This family
was how the Robinsons SHOULD'VE been like. :-) The movie is nearly
two hours long, but I never stopped paying attention to the story
because I respected the Jinnouchi family members so much.
I thought this character design style was so sloppy in the second
Digimon movie. But the characters have a lot more visual appeal this
time around. Maybe because Hosoda had a better control over animation
quality than he had for his Digimon work? Coupled with the real world
characters were the imaginative and visually breathtaking designs of
the Oz world avatars and landscape.
Like I said, "Summer Wars" was my second favorite cartoon feature
of 2010. I would've picked this movie over "The Illusionist" for the
Best Animated Feature nomination. But the movie got so few openings;
I was glad it still got to Atlanta. I really think this movie had the
potential to appeal to U.S. general audiences the way a "Pokemon" or
Yu-Gi-Oh" (or "Digimon") movie could. "Summer Wars" had a couple of
curse words, and one or two cultural issues to clear up such as
communal bathing. But with a mainstream advertising push, and maybe a
fast food tie in and a hanafuda video game release, I really thought
this film could've have a much wider U.S. performance.
- Inkan1969
Paul S. Person
<jlar...@charter.net> wrote:
<snippo>
> This was the weekend "Summer Wars" opened in Atlanta, where I was
>able to catch it. It became my second favorite animated feature
>officially released in the U.S. in 2010.
>
>SPOILER WARNING
>
> What left the biggest impression on me actually was the film's
>accessibility. The plot is pure fluff: a group of tech savy
>characters use avatars to battle a rogue program that's causing
>chaos on the internet. In fact, the plot is exactly the same as that
>of the second Digimon movie
I would describe the plot as "a teenage girl bamboozles a teenage boy
into pretending to be her fiance at a family reunion; problems ensue",
myself, but the stuff you describe is certainly present and arguably
equally part of the plot.
<snippo>
> The film had a lovable cast of characters with believable
>motivations. The diverse Jinnouch
>i clan included tough and combative eldest son Mansuke, angsty but
>brave great grandson Kazuma, ostracized and mysterious son Wabisuke,
>and wise and inspiring matriarch Sakae. And for all of those
>characters and nearly every other clan member I could see the clan's
>strong bond of love they all contribute in their own way. This family
>was how the Robinsons SHOULD'VE been like. :-) The movie is nearly
>two hours long, but I never stopped paying attention to the story
>because I respected the Jinnouchi family members so much.
The DVD (yes, it is out on DVD) has an interview with the director
which suggests that the film originated in his experience of getting
married and finding himself suddenly a part of a very large
multi-generational family -- the situation faced by the math nerd.
<snippo, I'm not qualified to say anything intelligent about character
design and, to be honest, I don't really consider it in deciding if I
like a film or not>
> Like I said, "Summer Wars" was my second favorite cartoon feature
>of 2010. I would've picked this movie over "The Illusionist" for the
>Best Animated Feature nomination. But the movie got so few openings;
>I was glad it still got to Atlanta. I really think this movie had the
>potential to appeal to U.S. general audiences the way a "Pokemon" or
>Yu-Gi-Oh" (or "Digimon") movie could. "Summer Wars" had a couple of
>curse words, and one or two cultural issues to clear up such as
>communal bathing. But with a mainstream advertising push, and maybe a
>fast food tie in and a hanafuda video game release, I really thought
>this film could've have a much wider U.S. performance.
I think so also. I actually emailed a suggestion to the editors of
/Christianity Today/ that they review it; I think the strong family
orientation would make it quite appealing to that audience, cultural
bathing differences notwithstanding. I have no reason to believe
they'll do so, but it never hurts to make a suggestion to a magazine
editor.
I saw it in the theater in English (very well dubbed, by the way) and
in Japanese with English subtitles on the DVD. The foul-mouthed family
member is much less explicit in Japanese than I remember him being in
English, and one plot point was clearer in the subtitlted version, but
the dubbed version works fine.
--
"'If God foreknew that this would happen,
it will happen.'"
Inkan1969
wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:28:09 -0700 (PDT), Inkan1969
> > This was the weekend "Summer Wars" opened in Atlanta, where I was
> >able to catch it. It became my second favorite animated feature
> >officially released in the U.S. in 2010.
>
> >SPOILER WARNING
> I would describe the plot as "a teenage girl bamboozles a teenage boy
> into pretending to be her fiance at a family reunion; problems ensue",
> myself, but the stuff you describe is certainly present and arguably
> equally part of the plot.
Well, it wasn't like she wrote and set loose the virus. :-)
> The DVD (yes, it is out on DVD) has an interview with the director
> which suggests that the film originated in his experience of getting
> married and finding himself suddenly a part of a very large
> multi-generational family -- the situation faced by the math nerd.
Interesting. So that was the inspiration for the premise. Me, I
was imagining what an Americanized version of the Jinouchis would be
like. I was thinking of them as one of those big old money families
from the Deep South that you don't see much nowadays except in the
movies. They'd be going on about having ancestors who fought bravely
to defeat in Gettysburg rather than fighting Tokugawa up to defeat.
> <snippo, I'm not qualified to say anything intelligent about character
> design and, to be honest, I don't really consider it in deciding if I
> like a film or not>
Well, I'm not a professional either. I remembered finding the
character designs for the first few "Digimon" movies awful, because
they looked like flesh covered blobs. The "Summer Wars" characters
also had that blobby look to them, but I still liked the designs.
> I saw it in the theater in English (very well dubbed, by the way) and
> in Japanese with English subtitles on the DVD.
That was Dean Venture as Kenji, wasn't it? :-)
- Inkan1969
Paul S. Person
<jlar...@charter.net> wrote:
>On Mar 26, 10:40 pm, Paul S. Person <psper...@ix.netscom.com.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:28:09 -0700 (PDT), Inkan1969
>> > This was the weekend "Summer Wars" opened in Atlanta, where I was
>> >able to catch it. It became my second favorite animated feature
>> >officially released in the U.S. in 2010.
>>
>> >SPOILER WARNING
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> I would describe the plot as "a teenage girl bamboozles a teenage boy
>> into pretending to be her fiance at a family reunion; problems ensue",
>> myself, but the stuff you describe is certainly present and arguably
>> equally part of the plot.
>
> Well, it wasn't like she wrote and set loose the virus. :-)
No, she didn't -- but a member of her family did.
And the arrest is done by -- a member of her family.
And the evil threat eventually becomes -- an attack on her family.
In a very real sense, the entire film is about family.
>> The DVD (yes, it is out on DVD) has an interview with the director
>> which suggests that the film originated in his experience of getting
>> married and finding himself suddenly a part of a very large
>> multi-generational family -- the situation faced by the math nerd.
>
> Interesting. So that was the inspiration for the premise. Me, I
>was imagining what an Americanized version of the Jinouchis would be
>like. I was thinking of them as one of those big old money families
>from the Deep South that you don't see much nowadays except in the
>movies. They'd be going on about having ancestors who fought bravely
>to defeat in Gettysburg rather than fighting Tokugawa up to defeat.
And reminisce about the good old days, when they owned lots of land
... and lots of slaves.
On second thought, that might not be the best possible setting!
<snippo, not only am I not qualified, I don't understand character
design enough to discuss it>
>> I saw it in the theater in English (very well dubbed, by the way) and
>> in Japanese with English subtitles on the DVD.
>
> That was Dean Venture as Kenji, wasn't it? :-)
I have no idea who voiced whom, nor who Dean Venture might be. The
middle-school on-line fighter was, I think, dubbed by a male (he was
voiced by a deep-voiced female in Japanese, making him seem, if
anything, younger).