Archive for August 20, 2009

Laputa: Castle in The Sky Movie

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is an animation film by Hayao Miyazaki released in the United States in 1986; the movie film takes its distant inspiration from a novel by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, where Laputa is a floating island peopled by superior creatures. The story of this castle in the sky proves one more time that people remain fascinated with the sky and what is out there so little accessible to us without the intermediary of technologies. The plot starts from the premises that there is still a hidden flying city camouflaged behind clouds; to some characters this remains fiction, while others seek to find the hidden fortress. Laputa: Castle of the Sky has to reveal its secrets!

This castle in the sky surely belongs to a parallel Earth with an alternate history since none of the regions or place names that we come across in the film corresponds to real geographical data.

The creator of Laputa: Castle in the Sky says to have been greatly influenced by the architecture of a mining town in Wales, and this model was used for the design of the buildings of Laputa. The release on video and DVD took place only in 2003 as the project had been postponed several times before. During that year, Laputa: Castle in the Sky became the second-best selling DVD distributed by Disney after Spirited Away.

Various distinctions set apart the original and the English dub, but the effect of Laputa: Castle in the Sky was not diminished by such differences. The soundtrack is a bit different so as to make the animation more accessible to wider audiences since Westerners are usually expecting rich or substantial musical support as part of the accompaniment. Moreover, all the alterations received the approval of the makers although some fans disagreed with some of the decisions. In Japan, Laputa: Castle in the Sky got numerous awards among which Best Film of the Year as well as Best Anime at the 9th Anime Grand Prix.

Sailor Saturn in Sailor Moon Series – A World Savior

A main character in the Sailor Moon meta-series, Sailor Saturn, alias Hotaru Tomoe in her civilian appearances, is a schoolgirl touched by a serious health problem. Besides the seizures specific to the ailment, Sailor Saturn is the last of the solar system soldiers to discover the amplitude of her powers. She makes a great team with Chibiusa and Usagi, two other main characters, who are her best friends. In day-to-day life, Sailor Saturn is not on good terms with her classmates, both because of her seizures and the strange powers she has. Sailor Saturn is present in the manga and the animated series of Sailor Moon. Sailor Saturn and details on her life are usually revealed in the manga form preponderantly rather than in the animations.

If in one version she has cybernetics attachments on her body, after her rebirth in the animated versions, she is completely human. Differences in plot and character evolutions vary from one presentation form to another; thus, Sailor Saturn fluctuates in terms of age for instance. First she is 13 then she gets reborn and is pictured as a five-year old girl, only to grow into a 13 year old all over again. As for her hidden powers, Sailor Saturn finds revelation only when Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto use their talismans together and make her resonate.

Though possessing a planetary destructive weapon, Sailor Saturn is a world savior and a redeemer, allowing mankind to get reborn by putting an end to the destructions caused by the Silver Millennium kingdom. After the rebirth and the assumption of a new life, Sailor Saturn is a lot more vivid and definitely happier. She wants to be a nurse some day, particularly as she has minor healing powers. In philosophical terms, Sailor Saturn stands for the all necessary doom: without death there can be no rebirth, thus, her weapon, the Silence Glaive can throw a world into complete destruction or annihilation only to be reborn a lot purer afterwards.

As the manga series advances, Sailor Saturn gains more and more powers every day. Her uniform seems to reflect the changes in her statute, since after each major event, a detail is added to indicate the modifications. It surely takes one a lot of patience to follow episode after episode, particularly since one can easily lose track of the events with all the things happening in this world of super heroes that are anything but common. Present in Japanese and English versions of the series, Sailor Saturn makes the picture of this entertainment form complete.

Star Wars Episode iii: Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars Episode iii: Revenge of the Sith brought a new revelation in the chronological history of the space saga, Star Wars. Directed by George Lucas, this last episode of the film followed the Clone Wars, another new episode that revealed to the public how Anakin Skywalker the future Darth Vader grew up. Star Wars Episode iii was released in May 2005 and enjoyed great reviews from critics, breaking the box office during the first week after the launch. The series has always occupied a unique place in the history of cinema, which is why everybody was anxious to see how it all started.

The reason for which there was room for chronological additions is that George Lucas only outlined the basic plot in the 70s at the time of the project conception. Back then, details came second on the priority list, and the major actions were the ones to count in the development of the series. Episode iii Star Wars underwent several scene changes before it was released, as the director worked on editing, scripts and scene making equally. Nevertheless, the result was worth waiting for, since Episode iii Star Wars speaks about more than just the beginnings of the galactic empire, the public is confronted with the corruption and pervasion of evil.

Once the screenplay for Episode iii Star Wars got ready, Lucas focused on the design. The art department would work on hundreds of patterns that were supposed to appear on screen. During the film making, they even turned to pre-visualization techniques to see how the scenes and the characters would look like. Steven Spielberg also assisted the making of the Revenge of the Sith, witnessing all the work that Lucas and his team devoted themselves to for the analysis of every sequence. Stunts were extensively used, particularly for the fighting scenes; thus, the famous duel moment between Anakin and Obi-Wan was filmed at the speed at which it actually took place, with very little cuts used to increase velocity.

Star Wars Episode iii was shot almost exclusively on the stages of the Fox Studios in Sidney, Australia, although various backgrounds were later shot for the purpose of creating practical environments. Thus, the eruption of mount Etna in Italy was well integrated in the economy of the film in the final scenes on Mustafar planet. Star Wars Episode iii: Revenge of the Sith also had a theatrical counterpart that was released almost in the same time with the movie. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2005, without entering the competition, while the play came out four days later.