METROPOLIS : 2001 109min. Dir: Rintaro.

[Flangepart]

Based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka. STUFF TO WATCH FOR ! :::: Ooooo! Aaaaahh!  <>  The Red Escalator treatment.  <>  Our heros, Dectitive Shunsaka Ban and his Nephew, Kinichi. I like these guys.   <>  Aaah! Asyemetric hair  doo!  <>  Robot fall down, go boom.  <>  Rock, our Villian's henchman..er...son. Hench son?  <>  Our Villian, Duke Red. 2 words : Nose Job . His honker is half the size of his head!  <>  Realy cool digs, Duke.  <>  Ya know, i'd be stareing at the fish too.  <>  Dr Jaekel?  <>  A hidden lab Dr. Morbius would envy.  <>  Don't suck your thumb. Other mad scientist don't suck their thumbs, do they?  <>  Rock has some Reeeele issues regards "dad".  <>  And a compulsion to shoot when angry.  <>  That blowed up good...  <>  Robokid.  <>  Robo fire hose.  <> Our heroine, Tima, the white Lio...er..android.  <>  Lethaly cheesed off robots!  <>  Aim high and left, Rock, thats a long shot for a hand gun.   <>  The 6 million $ robot killer.   <>  Fleeing rickshaw!  <>  Politics and biblical history. This movie has everything.  <>  What? A Nibelwerfer?  <>  Even android girls worry about thier hair...  <>  Should you take your pet duck to a riot?  <>  Do NOT trust a General with a S%#t eating grin like that.   <>  Oooh! Nut cracker sweet. Rock is a bad ass. Poor Kinichi,,,  <>  Cool Hand Luke Refrence.   <>  Tima has a reeeal obsession with Kinichi...  <>  Woah! Enough Carrosell cam!   <>  Uncle  Ban Breaks Rock's Stones!  <>  Plot point.   <>  Reboot! Nice work, McGiver-san.   <>  D'oh! Busted.  <>  An Artimus Gordon moment.   <>  Humm..left hand twist on that rifleing...  <>  Her throne's a transformer.   <>  Terminator mode. I had a girlfriend like that once...  <>  That blowed up even better!  <>  Ray Charles!? Well.....actualy...those lyrics work pretty well!  <>  And, Finaly(yea)....Boy meets girl, Boy looses girl, boy regains girl...well...her heart, anyway............  Flangepart says : Check it out! I love this movie! Squishy gave it good pub some time back, and when it came to the Grandview Drexel, i saw it. Subbed, not Dubbed! This two disc set has a dubbed version, but i prefer the original diologue track. ................This film has great color and design, and you realy get lost in this world. ..........;.....The characters are good,too. I liked uncle Ban, and the ending is a bit unclear as to Tima's fate, but it works well..............I loved the Dixieland music on the soundtrack.It fits this story in a way i hadden't expected. This movie is a keeper. What can i say? You will not be disappointed. If you can only afford a small amount of Anime, get this one for sure. I will ! Back to you, Andrew!

[Mofo Rising]

*Sigh.*  Nobody ever remembers my post on the subject from way back when. . .  (Cue the violins.)

Well, enough of that.  I was hugely impressed with METROPOLIS when I saw it in the theater.  In fact, I got all my friends and went back and saw it again.  I also bought the soundtrack off of eBay.  It's great, but features the notable omission of "I Can't Stop Loving You".  But that's alright, because it motivated me to go get some Ray Charles music, and you can't go wrong with that.

For anybody interested, the original Ziggurat was in the ancient city of Ur, located in Mesopotamia.  It's not really that tall compared to modern buildings.  The more famous Ziggurat, however, was located a bit away in the city of Babylon.  It's this tower that is said to have given rise to the "Tower of Babel".  METROPOLIS milks this connection for all it's worth.  Also, the Babylon Ziggurat was dedicated to the god Marduk.  Marduk is the name of the "secret police" in METROPOLIS, and is also featured in EVANGELION.  It's this Marduk connection that prompted me to look all this up.  I found the info here.

Oh, and Mesopotamia is believed to be where the first system of writing was formalized.  That marks the transition from pre-history to history proper.  Another connection no doubt widely used by the literary minded.

Anybody interested in Osamu Tezuka should know that Dark Horse is currently releasing all his Astro Boy stuff in small paperback editions.  I also hear Phoenix, another of his works, is due to be released soon, but have no information on that.

[AndyC]

I thought the Ray Charles music made the big climactic kaboom scene all the more effective. It was a very nice touch.

[Flangepart]

Nice post, Mofo. how did i miss it? Oh,well. The important thing is the movie. It rocks for me. I'm luckey to have seen it in the Drexel, as the old theater did it justice.