If you’ve been lucky you may have missed – buried away amongst all the other media hype and internet buzz – the controversy over Disney’s decision to re-record the Ponyo theme tune. I first found out about it over at The Ghibli Blog, and I have to say I was pretty shocked. The original is a cheerful, simple nursery rhyme sung by a child – reminiscent in many ways of the My Neighbour Totoro ending theme – and always makes me smile when I hear it, if for nothing more than it reminds of visiting Japan last year, where it was still being played wherever you went.

It’s hard to imagine a piece of music more suited to the children’s fairy tale that is Ponyo, but apparently Disney reckon they can. And that involves taking the original, speeding it up and drenching it in bad synth riffs, generic beats and – shudder – auto tune vocals. The song has been re-recorded by Disney engineered celebrity fetuses Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas – who also provide the voices for the two child protagonists on the English, and according to most reports do a great job with the script, despite being so recently ejected from the Mouse’s secret talent-birthing lab. Don’t get me wrong – I can understand why Disney have made this move – as an attempt to introduce Ponyo to their legions of pre-pubescent fans – but the manner the have gone about it seems ill-advised, and the result like the punchline to a tired, unfunny joke. Sure, the song needed translating for the dub – but could it have not retained it’s original production style?

You can check out both the versions below and make up your own mind, but coincidentally I was reading Miyazaki’s essay collection Starting Point: 1979-1996yesterday and found this quote – from his production plan for Totoro, written in 1986 – that seems hugely appropriate:

Animation theme songs are frequently used to promote pop idols. This may be trendy, but these singers lack vocal ability, and the current narrow range of song stylings does not capture the hearts of children.

What children long for are songs that they can sing by opening their mouths wide and raising their voices.

Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if Disney COO, Ponyo dub producer and Miyazaki fanatic John Lasseter has read that? I’d hope so, as it’s from a book he wrote the foreword for.

One of the most common misconceptions about us Brits is that we don’t indulge in displays of emotion. It’s not true – in fact it’s a trait limited only to our gangly, socially-inept ruling classes – you know, the ones we would have eradicated if we’d had a proper revolution – and spread around the world by the constant stream of Jane Austen adaptations we shit out and the inexplicable popularity of ‘stars’ like Hugh Grant. Anyway. I can assure you right now I am displaying emotions – several in fact – but actually the dominate one is so typically British. It’s disappointment.

Some news was circulating this week about about the UK release date for Miyazaki’s Ponyo and frankly, it was such bad news that I had to get it confirmed myself. A quick email to distributors Optimum – who have the license for Ghibli product in the UK, not Disney – triggered this response and my worst fears:

Hi Tim,

Ponyo will be released in cinemas nationwide on February 5th 2010. The DVD will be released in mid June 2010. Whether or not it will be released on Blu-ray is yet to be confirmed.

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

Nice Optimum PR Person

February? And no UK DVD until June next year? Ouch.

Hugely disappointing, especially as us poor Ghibli-loving limeys have been soaking up all the hype about the film and Miyazaki’s appearances in the US. Not that I’m blaming Optimum for this – I have no knowledge of the behind the scenes legal, economic and political dealings that have lead to this decision – plus they have always provided first class products with all their previous Ghibli releases. In fact – unlike Disney – as they have no fear of releasing un-dubbed versions, we actually have had some titles released over here that have yet to surface in the US – Tales of Earthsea and Only Yesterday being two great examples. The flip side is that the ones that Disney do want to honor with a dub seem to be delayed, as though we’re getting the Mouse’s second pickings. Like I say, I can’t claim to know the in and outs of whats happening behind the scenes, but it does leave a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth.

As for the DVD release date, well that just seems like an unfeasibly long way off. Presumably it’ll be out on DVD in the US by year end, and most likely on Bluray too. Either way, it doesn’t seem like a particular helpful delay for an industry trying to fight off internet piracy. I’ve actually got hold of a copy of the Japanese DVD release, but was holding off watching it, hoping that I’d be able to see it at the cinema first. As you can imagine I’m not waiting until February now, so that’s something to do this weekend. Look out next week for a full review.

Not that I expected him to win, especially in the year that Academy darlings Pixar released what is arguably their finest work to date, but I have to say I was surprised and disappointed he didn’t even get a nod when the nominations were announced today. It’s especially confusing when only three films where put forward, and one of them was the decidedly average Kung Fu Panda (I haven’t seen Bolt, and can’t honestly say I’m that bothered either).

What is interesting is that all three films are completely CGI productions. Is this the death of ‘real’ animation? In the US perhaps, where the success of Pixar and the cost effectiveness of digital production seems to have killed hand-drawn animation. Certainly Disney doesn’t seem to be bothered with it anymore. Not that I’m an anti-CGI snob at all, it just seems sad that the art form has been all but abandoned by the large Hollywood studios.

Ah well, there’s always next year. Perhaps Oshii will have another chance with Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, or Miyazaki will be back to grab his second with Ponyo.

Or it’ll be Pixar. Again. Sigh.

You’ve probably heard the news already.

If you haven’t, well…it’s finally happened. After months of Hollywood rumours and speculation, Fox have confirmed that they have greenlit a live action version of Cowboy Bebop with Keanu Reeves taking the lead role of Spike Spiegel.

Not that I’m anti the idea of a live action, high budget version – in fact, it’s something I’ve daydreamed about for years now. Done right it could be a fantastic piece of sci-fi action cinema. But, like probably every other single anime blogger out there, today I’m just a little concerned about that piece of casting.

Not that I hate Keanu – he was fine in the first Matrix flick, and the beautiful, hugely underrated A Scanner Darkly – it’s just that he was never who I had in mind for the role of Spike. I think I was probably hoping for an Asian actor. In fact, my first choice had always been Stephen Chow. He’s got the subtly, charisma and humour to pull off the role – not to mention the stunt and martial arts skills. But it’s Reeves we’ve got, and that’s not going to change – it’s clearly the main reason Fox has agreed to greenlight the project in the first place. What’s more pressing now is sorting out the rest of the cast.

Casting Jet Black is probably going to be the easiest part. Ron Perlman would be a great fit – age, look and delivery wise. I always had Jean Reno in my head for some reason, but maybe he’s a bit too, y’know, French.

Finding a convincing Faye Valentine is going to be much, much more difficult. Casting the solar system’s sexiest 200 year-old compulsive gambler needs to be done carefully. Again, Christina Ricci pops into my head, but then to be fair she’s been doing that for years anyway. Joking aside, she’s a perfect fit for the role, in both terms of looks and attitude. As for casting Edward…well, I don’t envy that job. Child actors scare the life out of me. I know one thing for sure, it can’t be fucking Dakota Fanning.

Perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves here though – before a cast, we need a director. And a script. We’ve got a producer apparently; Erwin Stoff, who worked on the aforementioned A Scanner Darkly. Even more positively Sunrise’s Kenji Uchida and and the godlike genius of Shinichiro Watanabe will serve as associate producers alongside series writer Keiko Nobumoto. Series producer Masahiko Minami will serve as a production consultant. Hmm. Maybe there’s hope for this project yet.

Let’s pray so, because if you’re going to do it, you need to do it right, first time. Because you’ve got to convince the studio that it’s worth letting you do two more. That’s the only way to do the show’s characters, story arcs and pacing justice. One of the main reasons Bebop worked so well was how gently it eased you into the characters, revealing their back stories slowly over time. The audience needs to find out about Spike’s shady past, about how Jet lost his arm, and why Faye’s heart-wrenching history has turned her into such a bitch. Cramming all that into one movie just won’t work though. Bebop is big, and it needs space to breath…

Oh, and Fox? One more thing. Don’t mess the music up. Use Yoko Kanno‘s orginal funk-jazz-country-techno score. If you need more of it, then pay her whatever it takes to make more. Please.

Next Week: Tim shares his views on the Hollywood adaptation of Samurai Champloo staring Jason Statham and Masi Oka.

I was intrigued, because in a couple of interviews I read director/writer Andrew Stanton seemed to be going out of his way to play down any environmental message the film might have:

The most I do is recycle, and sometimes I’m even pretty bad at that…I don’t have a political bent, I don’t have an ecological message to push….I’m not stupid, I started to notice as this film was getting closer to being done the sort of issues that were out in the zeitgeist, but they were certainly not my intention. The last thing I’m gonna do is try to make a message movie.

At first I guessed (like Devin over at CHUD) it was just the Disney/Pixar spin machine whiring into action; while a kids film with an environmental message would actually attract audiences in Europe and Japan, in the neo-conservative US it’s a big no-no, where suspicion about the pinko liberal-media is rife, and most people seemingly still believe global warming is some kind of hippy propaganda.

But then, as I was walking to work this morning, I passed a massive billboard that made things a little bit clearer….

(I couldn’t find an image of the billboard…the above is a screen-grab from the Suzuki website)

Yep, that’s right – Disney/Pixar have signed an deal to use WALL-E in advertising for auto-manufacturers and CO2 enthusiasts Suzuki.

For fuck’s sake.

I’m a little lost for words, and hugely disappointed. I’m still looking forward to seeing the movie, but this has left a slightly nasty, petroleum flavoured taste in my mouth. At least Ghibli, who don’t shy from corporate sponsorship in Japan, and whom Pixar staff always point to as one of their main inspirations, would never try and play down the environmental messages that are apparent in pretty much every single film they make.

Shame.

Updated: link fixed, video working again…

The Americans are insisting on re-making the greatest British comedy series of all time, Spaced. And not just any American either, but the living, breathing, directing walking turd that is Joseph “McG” McGinty Nichol, the motherfucker responsible for those retarded ‘Charlie’s Angels’ remakes. Oh, and according to that wiki entry, he’s also in the process of further fucking up the already fucked up ‘Terminator’ franchise.

Plus he’s doing it without the permission or involvement of the original Spaced crew, who are understandably pretty fucked off themselves with the whole thing. Fantastic. Check out the full, horrible shit-storm over at Ain’t it Cool, including a script review of the pilot. But just try not to sob, or let it angry up the blood too much.