A Problem with Art Criticism and Ranking Works

What is your favourite [fill in blank]?

It's a question you may have been asked so many times you have lost count. I bet many art critics get asked it so many times that they have developed a default answer to which ever subject it is.

For example, movies can be placed on this hierarchical pyramid I just made up.

Here's its breakdown.

1. Kane's Podium. Named after the protagonist of "The Greatest Movie of All Time." These are the movies you'll find in any critic's Top Ten Favourites. 
2. Near Masterpieces. Those movies that are beyond "good" that can be considered "masterpieces" or "classics." Most high brow and art house movies can be found here.
3. The Good Movie bundle. Movies that are not good enough to be near masterpieces, but good enough to be worth seeing in a multiplex. If it appeared on TV, you might consider watching it.
4. Multiplex Filler. Movies you only remember as posters on the walls of multiplexes while going to see a "good movie" or only saw because the "good movie" you wanted to see was sold out or not on a convenient time. Also commonly seen on TV A LOT.
5. The Direct-to-Video Bargain Basement Bin. It doesn't need explaining.

Now, I know some will question where some of the movies I have chosen to feature are placed on this graphic. But it was made in a bit of a hurry, so shot me. But your disgust proves my point I am making. Also, consider this question.....

Where would you put Star Wars on this pyramid? 

Many would place A New Hope in the good movie bundle, due to snobbery against everything sci-fi. Some would place it on Kane's Podium (and defend it with their lives). Only ill-educated morons (and I use these terms very broadly) would place it below the "good movie bundle."

And that's just factors present-day opinions. An opinion of something can change over time, due to many factors that one can't just out, because the relationship between a fan and a work of art can be as complicated as one between two human beings.

You see the problem?

Art (like politics) is a very subjective subject. Every person has their own definition to what is considered "art" or what is a "masterpiece." Its something many people know and don't know at the same time. They know "everyone is entitled to their own opinion" but they will get angry anyway when they hear someone say "I like Digimon/Hollyoaks/James Blunt." You can't win against everyone, no matter what you like. Even if the thing in question is brad new or something that has been part of the wallpaper for centuries.

That's why, if you ask me "what is my favourite [insert thing here]?" my answer may be different every time. It could be because of who is asking or how I feel at the time.

Honestly, I find finding favourites very hard. I find it easier if I'm asked for a "top 3/5/10" of a thing. As long as I can have them in order of what I think of first. No hierarchy. No number 1 top of the pile choice. Just a small chosen selection.

20 Years and we are still trying to catch'em all! - Why was Mewtwo created?

We all know the story that Mewtwo is a clone of Mew commissioned by the (initially) orange-suited power-hungry Svengali figure that is Giovanni and created with the cloning skills of Dr Fugi. But how many of you know of the real reason how Dr Fugi got involved in this project? Are you aware of the extra 10-minute short that was added to the start of the first movie after it's first release? Like me, you may have already seen the first few minutes of it as an added extra on the film's first VHS/DVD release in late-2000, the scene where the scientists find the Mew fossil in Guyana. What happened in the remaining seven minutes is (SPOILER ALERT) tragic.....

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Dr Fugi's main motive to work on this project was to aid his personal project to clone his dead daughter. It was like what happened to Shou Tucker in the 2003 version of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. He had successfully made a copy of her conciousness (in the form of a holographic cloud) inside a tube (I think he planned to make her body after working out the kinks in the making of Mewtwo.). The interesting thing is that in the lab Amber (the dead daughter) and Mewtwo (in an infant stage) communicated telepathically. During their correspondence Amber showed Mewtwo the outside world through her (child-like) memories. But during so her concious in a tube began to die in the lab. As she began to fade from Mewtwo's mind Mewtwo started to cry. Been the first time he ever cried he was puzzled by the liquid coming out of his eyes. Amber said they were called tears and said....

"They say living beings only cry when their bodies are in pain. Humans are the only ones who let out tears when their sad. ... Thank you. Thank you for your tears. But please don't cry. You're living! Stay alive okay? I'm sure it'll be fun." 

Then she disappeared. But Mewtwo couldn't stop crying.

"The tears aren't stopping! What should I do? Answer me Amber!"

That that was when his brainwaves spiked alerting the scientists. Because it was too early for him to be awake, they induce deep sleep through a tranquillizer. And during that sleep his memories of Amber were "forgotten."  But were they? During their first communication Mewtwo wondered if he were a human or a Pokémon. Amber's comment about him crying adds fuel to this question of his identity. So by the time he finally woke up he was already confused about his purpose in life. But as the scientists treated him as a "final product" of a long R&D session in fossil genetic cloning, Mewtwo went ballistic and blew up the lab. Seeing the destruction, Giovanni saw all he needed to see to know if his project was a success. Very soon after the destruction of the lab he offers Mewtwo the chance to learn ow to focus his power. He agreed and spent some time in a suit of armour (as he did when he battled Gary). After a few weeks of this Mewtwo still questioned his purpose in life, but Giovanni made the mistake of coming clean and telling him that he was a "tool" made for his selfish means. Mewtwo went ballistic again and ran away back to New Island and vowed to take his revenge on humankind for his slavery and the supposed slavery of all Pokémon. Then the opening titles roll.

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Most of us who saw the first movie when it first came out, we only saw from the part I made bold above. In fact, (according to Takeshi Shudō) the original plan was not to reveal Mewtwo until Ash reaches the island. The prologue was not planned, but the hiatus of the TV series caused by the exploding missiles incident forced the animators to make them, as they originally planned to hint Mewtwo's existence in these three episodes, which only finally aired after the film premiered (ouch). Although the original film was a good "fate of the world in the balance" story for kids, I feel that the additional ten minutes added more maturity and not-subtle foreshadowing in the story. Maybe the idea of a reviving a dead child may have been considered "scary" for kids in the late-1990s (years before the pandemic of superhero movies forced the creation of the 12A/PG-12 rating). Despite the fact that (SPOILER ALERT) in the finale of the film, Ash "dies" in the crossfire in the battle between Mew and Mewtwo... and then is revived by the tears of all the Pokémon present (clone and original). Did Mewtwo really "forget" about Amber's words? There's something to think about. (More so than the fan-theory that Team Rocket were actually good guys and was trying to stop Mewtwo themselves after he escaped, so that they can use him for their "actual" purpose - defeat Teams Aqua, Magma, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare.)

With its plot featuring a very powerful Pokémon and a fate of the world in the balance premise involving it (with some deep exploration of humanity's relationship with nature and the environment), Mewtwo Strikes Back set the template for all future feature films. 

20 Years and we are still trying to catch'em all! - Opening Anime Doors

And now another old man who'd also didn't get it - the late Roger Ebert said this about the first movie.

Roger Ebert and Joyce Kulhawik's review of Pokémon: The First Movie (1999)

This review hits on something I think is important when talking about the cultural impact of Pokémon. Ebert compared it to My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, two noted works of the great anime director Hayao Miyazaki. Although at the time Ebert dismissed it as just part of a big marketing pitch (as, I imagine, many adults also did at the time), what adults failed to notice at the time is the seeds of curiosity the TV show and movies planted in their kids minds. 

The Pokémon series can be credited to introducing anime to a whole generation. When the kids who watched the show learn of the show's Japanese origins, they instantly learn that animation isn't a Walt Disney monopoly. In fact, just the show's aesthetics alone show this show is from another world (let alone the plot). Compared to most cartoons made in the US (like the works of Hanna-Barbera) the appearance of the human characters look more comparative realistic. To me at the time that was incredible. It was like when Bob Dylan was converted from gas to electric (I know that sounds like an over-exaggeration, but that's how revolutionary it was to the 11-year-old me, who was fed regularly on Dick Dastardly and Muttley ... and practised drawing them). The show had an exotic factor to it. Although other shows that were made in Japan had been on US TV before Pokémon (Astro Boy, Gigantor, Battle of the Planets and Sailor Moon, to name a few), a number of them were highly altered before it hit the airwaves (this was particularly true for Battle of the Planets, which began life on its home turf as Gatchaman). Even though the Pokémon TV series was altered during the English translation, the alterations were generally done well enough to match the actions on screen with little need of scene removal, becoming a bit of an exception when it came to 4Kids Entertainment's reputation (but it hasn't stopped fans from complaining!). Despite the alterations there was enough on screen for kids to see that this show was not an American product, such as the presence of rice balls (or "doughnuts" they were called in one early dubbed episode), occasional signs of Japanese script, traditional clothes and architecture. This was from a different world. A cartoon parallel universe, you could say. But the creators of the series (in the beginning) didn't see it like that, so what happened next must have been a surprise for them...

"Things like Japanese writing appearing in the background on signboards or uniquely Japanese family settings are a distraction for American kids, preventing them from really becoming absorbed in the fictional world of the series." - Kubo Masakazu, executive producer of the Pokémon TV series (quoted from p85 of Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon (2004))

It was such an action-packed visual delight that kids didn't want to miss an episode. So much so in fact that many kids from this generation (including me) learnt how to program a VCR (These were the days before TiVo, remember. and schedulers placed episodes (and other animes) in weird times, like very early in the morning.).

But what happened next caused a thunder shock attack throughout the whole anime industry. Those fans found out that they were "lost episodes" (episodes 4Kids didn't bother to translate because they thought it would be "too Japanese" for American audiences, such as the "Beauty and the Beach" episode). And when they did they began to demand 4Kids to air those episodes! And they did (eventually). this had never happened before, a distributor receiving demands to air episodes they initially thought would confuse audiences .... and giving in to those demands. This never happened when Sailor Moon first aired on US TV half a decade earlier (an endeavour well noted for its high level of censorship, which led to whole episodes (and a whole season) been removed). So what changed? Simple - the internet. Many kids were accessing the internet for the first time in the late-1990s and one of the first things those kids tried to look up was Pokémon. And in doing so found web pages listing the episodes of the series and discovered the inconsistencies between the list of episodes aired in Japan and whose aired in the US.... and felt cheated. They wanted to see the whole story and felt that, by holding back whole episodes, they were going to miss something important... or incredible. So they took their anger online and started "The Lost Episodes Campaign," leading to 4Kids and Kids WB been bombarded with e-mails, letters, phone calls and faxes demanding the airing of those "lost episodes."Another fan campaign I can think of that was that successful (or even more so) was what happened when NBC tried to cancel Star Trek. 

Since then translators have made less effort playing down the show's Japanese origins, as pretty much everyone knows that fact now and attempts to do so look pathetic to viewers. Its like the 2012 remake of Red Dawn. (Originally the story involved the US been invaded by the Chinese, but worries that the film won't sale in China (duh!) forced the producers (after filming everything) to change every reference to China's army to change the invading force to North Korea in the hopes not to offend Chinese cinema-goers. The film was panned by critics (surprise, surprise).)

After enjoying the multiple sights of Team Rocket been blasted off again, a number of these kids (including me) began to wonder... What other cartoons like this exist? By then, Pokémon was getting competition, with the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh!,  Digimon, and (later) Beyblade, so kids were confronted with a lot of evidence that Japan produced a lot of cartoons. 

As those kids got older and went to high school they meet up, discuss the show with an air of nostalgia and then... one of them discovers something one day that'll blow their minds. How they uncover this truth is non-important. But what is, is its impact on those kids. Those kids discover that Japan has a massive animation industry, which crank out a lot of toons. But not only that, a great number of them (not all of them, as some people who have only seen the Hammer horror equivalents like to exaggerate) contain things that'll make parents and teachers scream with horror - ninjas, Tarantino-style violence (including lots of blood), character designs that arose the viewer and (for the pubescent young males (admit it)) glimpses of girls underwear! To those kids, whose idea of a cartoon was, basically, a risk-free sitcom with added slap-stick, this was a revelation. There were cartoons out there that'll make South Park look like the Teletubbies. 

What I just said there is an exaggeration - based on an actual truth. The kids who got interested in the Pokémon anime (and others at the time) as a kid later found out (as they got older) the existence of more mature animes and (if it was possible) watched them, becoming true anime fans. But this not only happened to kids... it happened to grown-ups too, who watched the series with their kids. The curiosity about anime generated in kids (and adults) by Pokémon can be observed by the sky-rocketing attendances in anime conventions in the early-2000s. 

The first Anime Expo in Los Angeles in 1992 had only 1,750 attendances. By 1996 (the year the first Pokémon games were released in Japan) attendances barely reached 3,000. In 1998 (when Pokémon was introduced to the US) attendances nearly reached 5,000. In 1999, 6,400. In 2000, 9,700. In 2001... 13,000! In 2003, 17,000! In 2005, 33,000! That an over-two-third increase in five years!

The Pokémon anime (and the games, trading cards and other stuff) entered the Western world at a decisive moment in cultural history - the founding years of the internet known as the "dot-com bubble." As people began to log on for the first time in their millions (while a high number of tech-savvy entrepreneurs tried to work out how to make money off them), many aspects of "nerd culture" were gaining mass-popularity in the late-1990s - some of which was fuelled by the internet itself, thanks to early-adopting "nerds" who populated the forums before the coming of the great unwashed. This was the time when the first truly commercially-successful MMORPGs appeared (such as Nexus and Ultima Online). Fantasy fiction received a boost in popularity when the first Harry Potter and Game of Thrones books were published (and would later get a bigger boost when the former and Lord of the Rings were adapted to film in epic fashion, pushing CGi to its limits). And it was a defining/disastrous time to be a Star Wars fan too, for reasons I don't need to say.

“The changes that Pikachu wrought are only the beginning of fascinating new trends in role-playing games, video games, cartoons, and toys and the accelerated spread of such fads via the internet.” – Ellen Seiter, author of Sold Separately; Children and Parents in Consumer Culture (from the back cover of Pikachu’s Wild Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon (2004))

18 years after Pokémon left its home shores to conquer the world, Japanese cultural exports and memes are everywhere in the West (and not just online on 4chan). Manga (translated and natively made) can be bought in any high-street book store. Aesthetic traits from anime and manga can be found in a lot of Western visual media since 1998, from The Matrix and Avatar: The Last Airbender  to the video for 'Breaking the Habit' and Big Hero 6. In the 2010s a stand-alone anime convention (and not a generalised comic con) could be found been held at least once a year in any major city in the UK (Glasgow held one in March, which I attended). It is impossible to ignore anime today. Although Akira is widely credited for introducing anime to the West (despite the efforts of Astro Boy and Speed Racer), the Pokémon anime (the kid-friendly show that was targeted at the pre-teen demographic) was the real bringer of change to the world of animation. Many will say that computer-generated graphics was the biggest thing to happen to the animation industry in the 2000s. But I think the increasing awareness of anime was really the biggest thing to happen to animation. It destroyed the American monopoly on the say what animation is and what can be done in the medium, seriously challenging the once-wide-held relief that animation is "just for kids" and its all slapstick comedy. Although many creators had challenged this before (Ralph Bakshi (for example) made the first X-rated animated film back in 1972) it wasn't until the increasing interest in anime bought on by Pokémon (which sometimes did push some barriers in the early episodes) that more people were exposed to the counter-arguments. And with the help of DVDs (featuring the ability to switch audio tracks to English dub) those people curious enough can buy/rent the works of Miyazaki (and others) and watch them in their own accord without any hindrance. And to me it was a good thing. As people in the animation industry in the 2000s thought that 3D all the way was the future the latter half of the decade was plagued with a lot of crap CGi films. If it wasn't for Pokémon koisking the West's interest in anime, showing millions of people that 2D animation is awesomely expressive (and proving that a good story can sell regardless of what tools were used to animate it), we will have still been plagued by bad CG films... and 2D animation will have been forced into the fringes. 

Thank god for Spider Pig.

Although Pokémon saved animation from the "hi-tech is best" trap it also partly caused some of 2D animation's downfall ... on TV.

In April 2016, Tom Ruegger, the creator of 90s childhood animation staples Tiny Toon Adventures  and Animaniacs, revealed (in a Reddit AMA) that the Pokémon TV series was responsible for the decline of Warner Brothers cartoons (the makers of Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs). So what did Pikachu do to the Warner Brothers... and the Warner Sister? Well, 4Kids made a deal with The WB network, which aired the Kids' WB  programming block, which was where the output of Warner Brothers animation was aired. The deal meant that the WB bought the Pokémon TV series at a very cheap price (compared to their in-house creations). You have to remember is that when this deal was made (sometime before September 1998) no one in the US really knew how popular this show was going to be. So when WB saw the show's massive ratings it made the bosses of the WB to think "we can save a lot of money by just airing these cartoons instead of making our own." This idea gained more water as the 2000s continued .... and legislation was introduced to restrict what can be advertised during kids programming. (It is this legislation that is the main cause of the disappearance of cartoons from TV in Saturday mornings. In trying to combat childhood obesity (the main reason for the legislation) the do-gooders unintentionally destroyed a cherished institution. I know that some of you will shout out "they got dedicated TV channels now," but its not the same. The idea that grown-up TV decided to dedicate a few hours of airtime a week to provide entertainment for kids at the start of their weekend off school says to kids "I know been a kid is tough, so here's some well-deserved effortless fun time." Its even more powerful when that kid has no access to cable or satellite TV or a games console (or was not interested in games at all... like I was). You can really tell that I really miss the Saturday morning cartoon slot.) With legislation eating away their advertising revenue the WB made the tragic decision to stop making shows themselves. The last show Ruegger worked on for the WB was the "highly educational" comedy that was Histeria! It was a highly-ambitious production, which went way over-budget, leading to a reduction of planned episodes and the use of recycled segments. The show first aired on 14th September 1998 (one week after Pokémon's début). With these facts we can easily say that the problems involving Histeria! were fresh in the minds of the executives when they made that deal with 4Kids.

This deal may not be unique. From 2000 to 2010 anyone watching a kid's cartoon slot/channel on TV will have noticed an increase in imported shows from Japan and an decrease in natively-made shows. It's not cheap making an animated TV show, requiring thousands of man-hours to create the "illusion of life." As advertising revenue falls as the number of channels available increases (reducing the number of eyes looking at that commercial) TV stations were increasingly tempted by the "cheap" imports. And the fact many kids wanted to watch them made the decision easier. Until the technology became so cheap one can start an animation company in their bedroom (saving a lot of money for commissioning TV companies), the local cartoon industry (outside America) experienced a sort of decline in the 2000s, evident with the ending of a number of animation divisions in the decade, which include Warner Bros. and (in my native UK) Cosgrove Hall Films (the makers of Danger Mouse). Although I may be wrong about what I have just said in this paragraph the fact remains that during the 2000s stuff created in Japan were becoming a staple in kids lives, from Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to Beyblades.

Many have said that Pokémon was the stimulus that made Westerners (and their children) curious about (and want) Japanese cultural stuff, such as fashions, product designs and... cartoons. But I disagree. Thinking that Pokémon alone started all this ignores the fact that long before the 1990s Westerners had been exposed to and consumed some bits of Japanese culture since the Meiji period. Japanese woodblock prints and traditional fashion and crafts picked up a lot of interest in many European artists in late-19th century. Monet alone had a collection of prints, and had a Japanese-inspired wooden bridge in his garden that he painted (on canvas) in his later life. He even painted a portrait of his wife dressed in a kimono. But this craze kind of ended with World War I and only truly picked up again in the 1950s, when Japan began to export cars, motorbikes, toys and electronic devices. The country's "economic miracle" after World War II sky-rocketed Japanese culture (classic and modern) in the late-20th century. By the 1980s the average yuppie could be seen reading business books about the Japanese style of management, eating sushi and murdering classic tunes with a karaoke machine. At the same time, kids were playing Pac-Man and (after the crash) games on the NES. The works of fashion designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo were populating the catwalks. And in Hollywood films George Lucas took inspiration from the works of Akira Kurosawa in making Star Wars, while Ridley Scott took modern Tokyo as inspiration for his dystopian future Los Angeles in Blade Runner. 

If you want one artefact from this time that definitely proves this infusion of Japanese memes in the West you can find no better example than the promo for the 1981 remix of the Philip Lynott's single "Yellow Pearl" (British readers will know this remix better as the theme tune to Top of the Pops in the early-1980s). How more 1980s can you get? And the song is about Japan's invasion of the West through their technology. What a better fit can you find when talking about the importing of Japanese stuff in the 1980s. Way better than "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors.

Phil Lynott "Yellow Pearl" (1981 remix)

Let, most Westerners at the time barely noticed this infiltration of Japanese culture. They will have noticed the increasing presence of Sony Hi-Fis and Toyota cars and been worried by Japanese businesses taking away local jobs (or giving them in local factories built to avoid import tariffs), but almost all their culture was local (with some servings of Americana). The main worry for cultural commentators at the time was the invasion of American culture through their TV screens, in the form of Dallas and Cheers. Almost none of them noticed the imports of (then untranslated) manga volumes and anime videos that were beginning to to be shipped in to specialist boutiques in major cities. Japanese culture to most Westerners then was like many still see their tea ceremonies - mostly high-brow stuff that you had to acquire to appreciate, in the same way as opera and wine. The closest thing the average Joe got to embracing Japanese culture then without intimidation was rescuing Princess Peach. 

But this changed in the 1990s. As said earlier the success of Power Rangers proved that Western kids will buy Japanese kids stuff in the same way they can buy into He-Man and Care Bears. It can be argued that Power Rangers was the real Malcolm Gladwell tipping point for the mass consumption of Japanese cultural stuff by the West...

.... and Pokémon was the heavy-weight Snorlax that sky-rocketed everything else off into the stratosphere. 

Sorry, we got a bit off topic here. Back to the first movie. Despite what the critics said (who mostly didn't get it), Pokémon the First Movie was a huge success in the US, making over $10million on its first day alone. It briefly held the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a animated movie (which was quickly taken by Toy Story 2 two weeks later). It was also (by default) the highest-grossing anime film in the US at the time and the highest-grossing film based on a video game in history (until Angelina Jolie stole it off them when she played Lara Croft in that Tomb Raider movie).

My thoughts about the Live Action Pokemon Movie

This is a post I made on Facebook exactly one month ago, regarding plans to make a Live-action Pokemon movie. (Just before I left to go on holiday.)

Before I leave the internet for a while here's a long post concerning recent developments in popular culture.

You all be aware of the sudden reemerging of Pokémon in the general zeitgeist (as a result of the vast popularity of the Pokémon GO augmented reality game … and the chaos it’s causing). Some of you may have been aware of the news of a bidding war in Hollywood for the rights for a live-action movie adaptation of said franchise. It’s the latter I want to talk about.
A lot of the talk I have seen online about this has mostly been about who would win this bidding war (with Legendary Films been the bookie’s favourite). But I have seen little of something much more important…. Which storyline are the filmmakers going to choose?
For those unaware, the Pokémon franchise is a vast universe of possibilities (just look at the library of spin-off games alone and the various manga adaptations). But for most of us they are just two narratives -
1. The main game’s narrative, which involves Red (or later protagonists) trying to catch’em all for Professor Oak (or later tree species) for their Pokedex, who has a rival who is usually a bit ahead of him (or her, since Crystal) and (for a while) decides to compete in a league whose entry involves beating eight gym leaders in a region. Along the way he (or she) encounters a criminal organization doing bad and (somehow) defeats them single-handedly. (It’s been adapted before, as the Pokémon Adventures manga and the Pokémon Origins four-episode mini series).
2. The anime’s narrative, which is pretty much the same thing – except that the protagonist is the beloved never-aging, Goku lookalike that is Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu (which could all be just a coma fantasy, according to some fans).
I can imagine that (if this live action movie gets green-lit) there is going to be a lot of debate online in the next few years about which of these narratives the filmmakers are going to choose, who’s going to play Ash/Red, why he/she shouldn’t play that role, who’s directing, why should the lead character be a boy…. Blah blah blah lackedly-smichedy. So before all that really kicks off here are my thoughts about how this possible future film should be approached by whoever gets to make it.
First off it’s worth remembering that it’ll be a few years before we get to see this movie and that means that by the time of its release in cinemas it’ll be the end of the upcoming Gen VII era or the beginning of the next era of the franchise’s history. A while ago I shared a YouTube video here of a detailed fan theory that may prove that Pokémon may be due to a massive reboot after Gen VII. If proved true this film will have to reflect this. So whoever gets to make this film they will have to factor this timing of seismic change.
Because of this it may be a good idea to consider the vastness of the Pokémon universe (and its many possibilities for stories). There is no excuse here for bad storytelling. With that, my big idea about this film will be this – do something completely different. Don’t follow a pre-existing storyline. If you do, you’ll be very constrained (and have fans online complain about every little thing you do). But I know this will be wishful-thinking. Movie studios prefer tried-and-tested formulas (which is why our multiplexes are infested with sequels, prequels and remakes today). However, Nintendo is a big guy (and once took down Universal Studios in court over Donkey Kong in the 1980s), so there is a possibility that Nintendo will force who makes this film to do the “unthinkable” – give the director total free control!
But whatever happens politically inside the studio or how much freedom the director gets or what narrative they choose there is one thing thy have to get right – audience and property approach. This can easily go two ways.
1. The movie is made with great respect to fans and the intellectual property.
2. The property is messed with by the director or studio to make it appeal to a bigger audience just to make a lot of money (and to sell toys).
You all probably all get what I am talking about. But for those who still don’t, let me explain.
They are a lot of examples of the latter, films of big franchises where the studio/director messed with the original material for shocking reasons. But examples of the former are few. Fortunately, the best examples of both can be found in one series of films, which are from my childhood. What happened to this series of films (in hindsight) I can credit for me turning away from the superhero genre entirely. Since then my attitude to superheroes is “been there, done that” – and these films are the reason why. I am talking about the Batman films of the 1990s. The first two (directed by Tim Burton) were great (and, if they appear on TV, I am ok watching again). The director did a good job depicting the darkness that exists in the original stories (and was a huge step away from Adam West). But in the mid-1990s Warner Bros thought that Batman Returns (despite making a good profit) could have made more money. They concluded that the film was too dark for kids to stomach and the villains were too scary to be made into toys. So they got a new director (Joel Schumacher) and the results were two batman films that were more comic and colourful. They succeeded in been kid-friendly (leading to the making of many toys) but the true essence of Batman (as Tim Burton truly captured) was gone. Although they made a profit, the last film (Batman & Robin) is now seen as the worst superhero film ever made.
This is the situation the proposed Pokémon film could face. This is a project that can easily become another Batman & Robin style cultural disaster. Can it be prevented? I think it can. They are two recent examples of great franchise films made in the past few years, which people can learn from - The Lego Movie and The Muppets.
It’s hard to believe today, but from 1992-2004 Lego was in decline, reporting financial losses from 1998. But this trend ended after a shake-up in 2004-5 and became the strong toy brand it is now. The Lego Movie can be seen as a triumphant return from grace for Lego, with a story that explores the toy’s core concept – you can build anything you want (and no Mr Business can force you to do otherwise). The proposed Pokémon movie could do something similar – a protagonist that explores the world to catch creatures to battle others. But that isn’t the true core concept. The catching and battling are just game mechanics that have been used multiple times before. The real core theme of Pokémon is something more thought-provoking – our relationship with nature. Think about it. Companionship, domestication, work animals, breeding centres, genetic manipulation, poaching, conservation, pollution, extinction, fossils, the debate of animal intelligence, etc. They are all there in the games and anime. It’s a lot there to inspire the filmmakers.
I choose the The Muppets movie from 2011 as another example because it did its franchise justice… and helped revive The Muppets fortunes. Before 2011 The Muppets were in a chain of TV movies and specials. There previous feature film was made in 1999. So The Muppets weren’t exactly “hot” for a while. Then came Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller – two 80s kids who had made a splash in comedy in the 2000s. They pitched the idea and wrote the script. With James Bobin as director (another 80s kid who had made a splash in comedy in the 2000s) the resulting movie was an incredible pan-generational comedy reminiscent of the original Muppet movies. That movie (and the sequel) revived The Muppets in our culture (they got a TV series again). Pokémon can follow this example by hiring filmmakers and writers with a comedic bent who were kids in the 90s (and ben a fan of the franchise helps too). If they do the resulting film could be a film that’ll appeal not only to kids and fans, but everyone who likes comedy and has a vague knowledge of Pokémon.
And on that last note, it’s worth noting that jokes can work on two levels. They are jokes that pretty much everyone gets (such as Jigglypuff’s squibbing on everyone’s face after hearing her sing) and they are jokes that only a few targeted people find funny, such as uber fans who know absolutely everything about Pokémon (such as Hot Skitty on Wailord Action (DON’T LOOK THIS UP!! For the sake of saving you from picturing a horrific sight when you find out what this meme is (especially if you are a regular viewer of IQ).)). Futurama is full of many examples of the latter type of joke (many of its writers have degrees in mathematics, so they are a lot of math jokes in the show that’ll tickle the funny bone of people who know math).
With The Lego Movie and the The Muppets as good examples to follow (if the filmmakers choose to follow their example) the resulting film will be very good. From I can work out from my own research about creator Satoshi Tajari, I think he’ll want this film to be like that – an adventure story (with a healthy dose of jokes for the fans) that explores our relationship with nature for a pan-generational audience.
So that’s what I think the film in general should be. But what about specifics? What would I like to see exactly in this proposed film? Epic battles? A plot that involving legendries? N? Something to please the various “shippers” in the fan-fiction forums? No. To be honest, I don’t care. As long as they do something interesting with it, I don’t care if the protagonist (Ash, Red, or whoever (a female, perhaps?)) kisses Misty, Leaf, Serena or whoever in this future film. They might even cross dimensions to our world if they wanted too (like Emmitt did in The Lego Movie).
I know that some of you will have thought of a list of things yourself, but the idea of a list of “things to put in this movie” sounds restrictive. It reeks of “focus group.” I honestly don’t like the test marketing of movies before they are released. That is responsible for many films in the past few decades changing their ending (Fatal Attraction and Deep Blue Sea are two examples I can think of right now). Their input may “improve” a film, but do they or do they change it to conform with the audience’s expectations? Should a director have the right to challenge the notion of the “Hollywood happy ending?” I think so, and so does Terry Gillian (Look up the making of Brazil). What I’m saying is I don’t want a “box ticking” plot - a plot that loosely allows the featuring of various things viewers want to see.
I think that’s everything I want to say. Wait! One last thing. If I was pushed to think of one thing I want this film to have in it, it’ll be this – if the film features a professor character (Oak or any other tree) that character should be played by a great improve comedian – as a tribute to Robin Williams. I heard that if a live-action film was going to be made Tajari wanted Robin to play Professor Oak. I know, finding someone who’ll do justice to fill his flubber-soled clown shoes will be hard, but if they manage to find someone who can do that, it’ll make my day … if this film gets made that this.

That is all from me for a while. If you want to comment, don’t expect a response from me as I’ll by away from the internet for a while. Good bye internet. I’ll be back soon to see the continuing carnage you have made.

UPDATE

Since I posted this Legendary Entertainment won the rights make the movie and we found out that the movie will follow the plot of the Great Detective Pikachu game and will be written by Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch. This promises to be a good movie alright. Please not screw it up. Read my words.

Act of Cultural Vandalism - Where I was on Saturday 26th

On Saturday 26th September 2015 I was in a very interesting place. A place so interesting it was worth mention on this blog.

On Saturday I was in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. Don't believe me? Here's proof...

Despite the tourist hype it wasn't that good.

Accommodation was basic.

The dining experience was... aesthetically pleasing in presentation...

But was let down by where we actually ate...

But the architecture was something else...

Transportation was interesting....

The trains were punctual with Japanese precision, despite operating on ancient technology.

Thsi was made more interesting when I found out that most trains here are driver-less.

Road transport was more interesting. 

Although a number of individuals owned flying cars...

Most still travel by bus. In fact, buses had to be modified for the high number of passengers.

The shops sold many interesting stuff...

But the wildlife was more interesting. I did see a unicorn, but it got away before I managed to get out my camera. But did manage to photograph some interesting wildlife 

(in their natural history museum).

Okay, I was actually not in Pyongyang. I was actually in Milton Keynes.

Really, that photo was taken from my hotel window in Milton Keynes.

Don't believe me...

You have to admit, if you ignore the large propagandistic monuments and institution-like buildings, Pyongyang does look like any new-town development - like Milton Keynes. 

Just look up images of the two places and compare.

The reason I was in Milton Keynes was to visit Francis Bacon's house in St Albans.

You would expect it to look like this...

But I found out that the original place was destroyed by Jacobites in 1715.

Okay, I was in St Albans ... for a bout an hour. 

But it was a brief break on the trip back to the hotel in Milton Keynes from this place....

Yes, that's where I was on Saturday 26th September 2015. Me and my mother were touring the sets of the Harry Potter films in the Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden.

Both of us had a great time. 

In the picture below is us in front of the model of Hogwarts used for the exterior shoots. Yes, they went practical with it (with some CG to enhance it). It's the last part of the tour for a very good reason... I won't say more, but seeing it overwhelming my mother so much she cried.

Although I am not exactly a fan (in the sense I can recite spells and the names of the creatures) I went because I love the process of making films. The number of people hired to make one fantasy-themed movie is huge. But this increases into the thousands if you consider that they were eight Harry Potter films. In fact, while we were there a spin-off film was in production on a lot a stone's throw away from where the tour is. It's only on a tour like this you'll get the idea of how much time and effort goes into making such movies.

There is the design of the sets.

The construction of such sets.

The lighting of such sets

The costuming of the actors

Making them up.

Accessioning them.

The design...

... and making of the props.

The special effects.

The animatronics.

And other things you might not have notices, such as the graphic design.

This point is hammered in more in this tribute....  The "corridor" between the Hogwarts model and the gift shop are lined by boxes of wands like Ollivanders shop. Each box has the name of someone who worked on the films labelled on it. 

The image quality doesn't allow you to make out actual names on the boxes (sorry).

Even if your not  a Harry Potter fan or someone who likes fantasy fiction, if you love film-making you must see this tour... or similar tours of film sets. Seeing it myself I gained more respect of the thousands of people who worked on these films. If you are going on this tour take the time to look at the names on those boxes and note that when constructing the set of the shop John hurt gave Daniel Radcliffe his wand each of the thousands of boxes that populate its shelves were individually handmade. Then remember that very set was destroyed by Death Eaters in The Half-Blood Prince. 

Think about that....