The cult 1988 anime taught western film-makers new ideas in storytelling, and helped cartoons grow up
Internet lore has it that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas turned down the chance to pick up the rights to the exalted 1988 anime Akira, believing it to be unmarketable in America. Twenty years later, something had changed: Spielberg and DreamWorks were in production on a live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell, perhaps the next-biggest crossover anime title, with the beard buttering it up in the press as "one of my favourite stories". But he missed the chance to be there at the beginning for artist-director Katsuhiro Otomo's earlier masterpiece – 25 this year – when its enervating hyper-realism left retina burn in the eyes of action fans and film-makers worldwide.
Akira swiftly became midnight-movie fodder in the Us, on a small release through Streamline Entertainment. Its dynamism and attention to detail – honed by Otomo in the...
Internet lore has it that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas turned down the chance to pick up the rights to the exalted 1988 anime Akira, believing it to be unmarketable in America. Twenty years later, something had changed: Spielberg and DreamWorks were in production on a live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell, perhaps the next-biggest crossover anime title, with the beard buttering it up in the press as "one of my favourite stories". But he missed the chance to be there at the beginning for artist-director Katsuhiro Otomo's earlier masterpiece – 25 this year – when its enervating hyper-realism left retina burn in the eyes of action fans and film-makers worldwide.
Akira swiftly became midnight-movie fodder in the Us, on a small release through Streamline Entertainment. Its dynamism and attention to detail – honed by Otomo in the...
- 7/10/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
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