of Montreal
Jul. 20th, 2010 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davemerrillThis past weekend Shain and I drove to Montreal to see the North American premiere of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO RESURRECTION at the Fantasia film festival. This is our story.
So I got out of work around 3pm on Saturday and I zipped home, we loaded up the car with our stuff and hit the road. Montreal is about 500 kilometers from Toronto, that's five or six hours depending on traffic. We got lucky and traffic was all heading the other way. After passing the big apple and Kingston we got dinner in a truck stop in Cornwall and soon we were over the border into Quebec where it's St. Huberts instead of Swiss Chalet. Downtown was very crowded - there was a fireworks display over the water and the crowds were surging every which way while we tried to find the hotel. Of course immediately upon finding the hotel the sky opened up and down came a sudden downpour, but it didn't last long. We checked in and went back out onto the streets to reconnoiter the movie location, four or five blocks up the street. Even at midnight after a shower the streets and restaurants were full of loud merry-makers - Toronto seems busy at night compared to Atlanta, but Montreal makes Toronto look like Atlanta. (However, Tokyo makes Montreal look like Atlanta, too.) Anyway we picked up our tickets for tomorrow's show and went back to the hotel, where after a 3:00am call to security to inform them that gangs of shrieking teenagers were running up and down our hall, we slept.
Next morning we got up, checked out, got a great parking spot in front of the Concordia University hall where the film was being shown, and even though there was an hour until showtime, the line had already started. I got in line and Shain got coffee. Here's a fake panorama of the line:
At about 20 minutes til showtime Fantasia volunteers came out and gave us free hats, which was appreciated in the sunshine.
The line continued to grow until it stretched up the next block.
I honestly did not know what to expect, whether we'd be alone in the theater or it would be jam packed. I don't know how popular Yamato was in Quebec. Popular enough, I suppose. The theater wound up being 80% full.
We filed in, fiddled with our chair-desk things, and waited. Eventually a Fantasia director came out and gave a welcome speech in French. Another Fantasia guy gave out free t-shirts to whoever would take their shirt off. Another guy gave a short talk about Yamato and Starblazers and Japanese animation, in French. I began to worry that the film was going to be subtitled in French.
But the film started with that ethereal Starsha vocal and I knew that no matter what language this thing was in, it was going to be a Yamato picture and everything was going to be all right. And it was - subtitled in English, that is.
The movie is a good solid Yamato picture, the animation is great and the CG works well with the traditional animation. The character designs have a real Tekkaman Blade- Tatsunoko look to them, but hey, it's 2010. Kodai still looks like Kodai, Sanada still looks like Sanada, and the rest of the original crew isn't shown, so who knows what they look like. Well, Tokugawa has lost his baby fat, that's for sure. At any rate, if you've been paying attention
you know this movie is about a menacing black hole that is shooting right towards Earth and about to destroy the human race, and Nishizaki finally gets to have his fleet of space arks rescuing mankind. Trouble is a legion of alien worlds has decided Earth's refugee fleet is actually an invasion fleet and is blasting them out of the sky. Only the rebuilt Yamato can save the day! There are noble villians, evil villians, a super space fortress with ultra-weapons, powerups for the Yamato, a new crew of hotheads and determined young astronaut soldiers. There are gorgeously animated scenes of galactic vistas and the outer space-as-ocean metaphor is right there front and center in a few really amazing sequences involving black holes and sub-space. It really does need to be seen on the big screen, kids, if you get a chance to do so, do so, even if it involves driving five hours.
So after the movie ended, we walked out into the bright sunshine, hopped in the car, and drove around looking for Schwartz's the famous Montreal smoked meat deli.
Well, not so famous, as they are not in the telephone book and nobody we spoke to seemed to know what it was or that it ever existed. So we headed off to an antique store called Retroville, which is now closed on Sundays. And then we left town, vowing to return with more time and better language skills. We got on the highway out of town and then got right off it and stopped off in Saint-Anne de Bellevue for lunch and scenery. We got back on the highway for a bit, got off somewhere near Lancaster and just followed the St. Lawrence for a good long ways through tiny towns and bucolic countryside. And the Auto Wonderland.
This apparently is an abandoned automotive-themed roadside attraction. I didn't see a "keep out" sign, so in we went for pix!
Decrepit, weedy, forlorn, not even any grafitti. What wonders did Auto Wonderland once autowonder?
We didn't find out, as I'm OK with mere tresspass, but breaking and entering is not my style. Behind the building, however, is an actual automobile.
I didn't even know "Fargo" pickup trucks even existed, but there's proof! Further behind the Auto Wonderland there's a serene frog pond bisected by an overgrown dirt road.
And beyond that, a deer.
Even as a dead attraction I recommend Auto Wonderland, if only for fifteen minutes of listening to frogs and watching the deer. Anyway we got back on the road, went past old Seaway locks and parks and tiny towns, went over to the 401 when it got dark, sat out a powerful rainstorm in a gas station, and made it home before midnight. And that's our voyage beyond the dark nebula and through the Third Absolute Defense Line! Stay tuned for our next big trip in two weeks.
So I got out of work around 3pm on Saturday and I zipped home, we loaded up the car with our stuff and hit the road. Montreal is about 500 kilometers from Toronto, that's five or six hours depending on traffic. We got lucky and traffic was all heading the other way. After passing the big apple and Kingston we got dinner in a truck stop in Cornwall and soon we were over the border into Quebec where it's St. Huberts instead of Swiss Chalet. Downtown was very crowded - there was a fireworks display over the water and the crowds were surging every which way while we tried to find the hotel. Of course immediately upon finding the hotel the sky opened up and down came a sudden downpour, but it didn't last long. We checked in and went back out onto the streets to reconnoiter the movie location, four or five blocks up the street. Even at midnight after a shower the streets and restaurants were full of loud merry-makers - Toronto seems busy at night compared to Atlanta, but Montreal makes Toronto look like Atlanta. (However, Tokyo makes Montreal look like Atlanta, too.) Anyway we picked up our tickets for tomorrow's show and went back to the hotel, where after a 3:00am call to security to inform them that gangs of shrieking teenagers were running up and down our hall, we slept.
Next morning we got up, checked out, got a great parking spot in front of the Concordia University hall where the film was being shown, and even though there was an hour until showtime, the line had already started. I got in line and Shain got coffee. Here's a fake panorama of the line:
At about 20 minutes til showtime Fantasia volunteers came out and gave us free hats, which was appreciated in the sunshine.
The line continued to grow until it stretched up the next block.
I honestly did not know what to expect, whether we'd be alone in the theater or it would be jam packed. I don't know how popular Yamato was in Quebec. Popular enough, I suppose. The theater wound up being 80% full.
We filed in, fiddled with our chair-desk things, and waited. Eventually a Fantasia director came out and gave a welcome speech in French. Another Fantasia guy gave out free t-shirts to whoever would take their shirt off. Another guy gave a short talk about Yamato and Starblazers and Japanese animation, in French. I began to worry that the film was going to be subtitled in French.
But the film started with that ethereal Starsha vocal and I knew that no matter what language this thing was in, it was going to be a Yamato picture and everything was going to be all right. And it was - subtitled in English, that is.
The movie is a good solid Yamato picture, the animation is great and the CG works well with the traditional animation. The character designs have a real Tekkaman Blade- Tatsunoko look to them, but hey, it's 2010. Kodai still looks like Kodai, Sanada still looks like Sanada, and the rest of the original crew isn't shown, so who knows what they look like. Well, Tokugawa has lost his baby fat, that's for sure. At any rate, if you've been paying attention
you know this movie is about a menacing black hole that is shooting right towards Earth and about to destroy the human race, and Nishizaki finally gets to have his fleet of space arks rescuing mankind. Trouble is a legion of alien worlds has decided Earth's refugee fleet is actually an invasion fleet and is blasting them out of the sky. Only the rebuilt Yamato can save the day! There are noble villians, evil villians, a super space fortress with ultra-weapons, powerups for the Yamato, a new crew of hotheads and determined young astronaut soldiers. There are gorgeously animated scenes of galactic vistas and the outer space-as-ocean metaphor is right there front and center in a few really amazing sequences involving black holes and sub-space. It really does need to be seen on the big screen, kids, if you get a chance to do so, do so, even if it involves driving five hours.
So after the movie ended, we walked out into the bright sunshine, hopped in the car, and drove around looking for Schwartz's the famous Montreal smoked meat deli.
Well, not so famous, as they are not in the telephone book and nobody we spoke to seemed to know what it was or that it ever existed. So we headed off to an antique store called Retroville, which is now closed on Sundays. And then we left town, vowing to return with more time and better language skills. We got on the highway out of town and then got right off it and stopped off in Saint-Anne de Bellevue for lunch and scenery. We got back on the highway for a bit, got off somewhere near Lancaster and just followed the St. Lawrence for a good long ways through tiny towns and bucolic countryside. And the Auto Wonderland.
This apparently is an abandoned automotive-themed roadside attraction. I didn't see a "keep out" sign, so in we went for pix!
Decrepit, weedy, forlorn, not even any grafitti. What wonders did Auto Wonderland once autowonder?
We didn't find out, as I'm OK with mere tresspass, but breaking and entering is not my style. Behind the building, however, is an actual automobile.
I didn't even know "Fargo" pickup trucks even existed, but there's proof! Further behind the Auto Wonderland there's a serene frog pond bisected by an overgrown dirt road.
And beyond that, a deer.
Even as a dead attraction I recommend Auto Wonderland, if only for fifteen minutes of listening to frogs and watching the deer. Anyway we got back on the road, went past old Seaway locks and parks and tiny towns, went over to the 401 when it got dark, sat out a powerful rainstorm in a gas station, and made it home before midnight. And that's our voyage beyond the dark nebula and through the Third Absolute Defense Line! Stay tuned for our next big trip in two weeks.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 04:02 pm (UTC)Eh, next time we'll have more time and I won't be so punchy from lack of sleep.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 03:38 pm (UTC)Hats, no pic of the hats? Was it a festival hat? A Yamato hat? Some frenchie french product branded hat?
Did Mike and Neal manage to hook up with you guys?
How were the subtitles? Any obvious "Oh, I KNOW they didn't say THAT" moments?
Statements:
WOW that's a clumsy poster.
I told Tim about this the moment I found out and he tried to contact the festival staff, I had hopes he'd get an introduction gig like Ed G. got. Sadly, not to be.
Auto Wonderl--- I would totally have risked going in there, but OTOH it looks like the kind of place where out-of-sight murders occur. It'd make a wonderful movie location.
I expect to see a glimpse of Bigfoot in that last deer picture.
That is all.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 04:05 pm (UTC)The poster is just the Japanese poster with English text instead of Japanese; it's not a great poster, but honestly, people are going to see this movie no matter what the poster looks like.
Subtitles were fair; a few typos, some fudging here and there, a slight glossing over specific planetary locations in the theme song. They were in English, so I can't complain.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 04:25 pm (UTC)Da HUUUUUUUN?
As in they couldn't figure out Iscandar? you're kidding me. As in whoever did the subs couldn't do 30 seconds of research or, like ASK somebody? Or am I just ranting now? :)
(not surprised. This is why...oh, dammit. Tim will probably say something.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 06:18 pm (UTC)OK, OK, I'm just raving. It's 90 damn degress in my place I'm sure it's melting my brain.
Altho I like the bizarre thinking of Nishizaki. There's no Isao Sasaki because supposedly he was reaching out to a more modern, younger audience, so he went with...The ALFEE, a group big....30-some years ago.
And I have no gripe with them, The ALFEE do a very decent job.
I am sad that both Miyagawa and Haneda had died before this got made, I can only imagine the epic original score that might have resulted.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 10:48 pm (UTC)I'm just thinking it's the 21st Century after all and shortcuts and mis-steps and "oh, it's good enough" really shouldn't be anymore, but hey. I'm a crazy man.
I'm glad you and Shain got to this. I'm very green with the envy.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 02:47 am (UTC)It's a pity there seems to be no plans whatsoever to run this in America. Oh, I expect it'll eventually pop up at Viz's little boutique theater in San Fran, where August Ragone and Patrick Macias will hold court and relegate Tim to a minor supporting role, and the oh-so hipster crowd will not have the proper love for it.
Rant rant ranty rant rant.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 04:50 pm (UTC)Well, maybe that new 'air mover' made by the Dyson people, but $300 for a fan is rather unreasonable.
I trick myself into thinking this is a 'sweat lodge' and I'm awaiting a vision.
Getting out doesn't help.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 05:21 pm (UTC)Honestly I think a roadshow type art-house to art-house release is the only release this film is ever gonna get over here, until it's out on the DVD.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 09:46 pm (UTC)Matt Murray
Date: 2010-07-21 07:32 pm (UTC)Re: Matt Murray
Date: 2010-07-21 08:07 pm (UTC)All together now, "Nobody can f**k up a Japanese cartoon like the Japanese themselves"
I know, as Dave says, thems what were going knew what it was, the poster had no 'sell' value. But, Japanese thinking, once it's done, that's what it is. So this is now the official English release poster, now and forever more amen.
See also 'Young Astronaught Soliders' (which, interestingly enough, WAS corrected in the Star Blazers film comics Books Nippan released.)
Re: Matt Murray
Date: 2010-07-21 08:44 pm (UTC)Hey, why wait? Be among the first! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!
See? Feels good...doesn't it?
-Tim