Anime movies. (A.K.A. What's wrong with hollywood)

OK.

So if you didn't know, I'm a pretty big fan of Anime. (Japanese Animation)
And i say that in this manner, I like allot of Anime, Not all, and not all in Subtitles. I'm not a fanatic or a Webo [Look it up on Urban Dictionary]

And if you didn't know there are at present a Slew of Anime's being made into Live Action Movies (Or VERY high budget) CG movies by Hollywood. This is for most anime fans news that causes dread. Why you ask? Because Hollywood has a bad track record with anime movies.

In the last year and a half Three Anime movies have come out. Two that were Horrible and one that was surprisingly passable. I am about to explain why. [Or at least why i think so]

First lets explain the examples.

Speed Racer. [Directed by Andy and Lana/Larry Wachowski] (I say Lana/Larry because Larry Wachoswki had gender reassignment surgery)
[Cost:$120 Million, Made:93.945 Million] For a loss of $26,055,000.

DragonBall Evolution. [Directed/Produced by James Wong & Stephen Chow]
[Cost:Ether $100 Million, or $45 Millon; fox is to embarrassed to say which]
[Made:57.497 Million] For there 42ish million lost or 12ish million made.

Astro Boy. [Directed by David Bowers] [Distributed by a US company, but was made in Hong Kong] [Cost:65 Million, Made:28.815 Million]

It's also important to note that Transformers is a Anime, and that the first movie was good and made allot of money... the Secont movei sucked, and made allot of money.

OK so all Failed to make money. (The true goal of any film)
Before these three movies were made i thought there were only three ways to make a cross over movie. That is a movie adapted from another medium. (TV show, Cartoon, Book so on)

Stay the Coarse.
The first idle is to stay as close to the original idle of the anime as you can with the budget and technology can allow. As of yet we have not really seen this, but Transformers comes much closer to the idle. The up side to this is that your base, the people who have seen the original medium of the story will stick with you and like it. The down side is that your not going to get that many new people, because they need to have so much explained to them, and because some anime just does not lend itself well to movies.

Fishing for a new audience.
This idle simply try's to keep close enough to the idle of the story that the Base will be OK with it, wile adding enough exposition and new stuff that the people who have not seen the base medium will like it as well. So far this has been a total failure.

Keep to the shallows.
This idle is that the Base are going to watch and like it regardless of what it's like, so they do every thing they can to make new people like it, the problem is that this is MUCH more likely to make the base hate you. And has so far failed Abysmally.

So like i said i thought those were the only three ways to make a movie out of anime, but the Wachowski's prvoed me wrong with there way of make a movie.

Damn the Torpedo!
This is were you go.. Screw it, lets put as much flashy explosive sword wielding stuff into this movie as we can.

_
So like i said.
No one has tried to stay that close to the base idle. Michel Bay. (Who i generally dislike and would knife just for making pearl harbor) Did the best job by keeping to the basics in the first transformer movie. (Not that the idle was that hard to follow in the first place) And even if he did go a little A.D.H.D. Over board in the 2nd movie, its still not THAT bad.

With Speed Racer the Wachowski's picked a Old anime, that's barley know in the US, Generally disliked in Japan and honestly just not that good. And just went crazy with it, Now in there defense they did say even before making the movie that they were doing it just for fun. And they did pay for a good part of it there self. (Matrix / V for Vendetta money anyone?)
So that just goes down to bad planning.

Dragon Ball on the other hand is HUGE! In Japan its like Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles + G.I. Joe + He Man + EVEY OVER SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON you can think of rolled into one. The only show to rival it in sheer kid/teen age/big kid fan base is Sailor Moon.

So its a good pick, and it the US it has a large fan base as well, the largest of any anime in fact.

So why the flop? Because not only did they keep to the shallows, they were fishing in a rubber kiddie pool. It was (I don't care what they say) Under Funded. (I go for the 45 million, not the 100 million) And it lacked everything that made the anime cool.

If you have ever watched the final fight in the Matrix Trilogy, THAT is what i should have been like. Not what we got.


And as for astro boy?
Well honestly it got the best ratings, and did Alright in china.
It was a kids show made into a kids movie.
It was Done with CGI making it well funded for its type of movie. And it was actually not that bad if you had not seen the Anime.
But that's just it, you were better off not having seen the movie.
Making a Astro boy movie is like making a Bugs Bunny movie.

The people who know and love the character are old or they only know him is passing.
And the People who know him ether love him or hate him.
So really it was a bad pick for a movie in the first place.

_
Well that's all for now.
I will be posting about the Up Coming Anime Movies soon.
And my idle of what would make a good movie for anime.