Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2000. That movie is "Escaflowne: The Movie".
Now, I didn't watch "Escaflowne" when I was a kid. In fact, I didn't know even about this series existence up until a few years ago. I discovered it when I had watched a video on YouTube, where someone was talking about English dub openings. And they mentioned "Escaflowne" when talking about it's English opening. And the opening to that song was...not all that memorable. In fact, upon further research, I found out why I never watched it back when I was kid.
You see, when this anime was first brought over to the US, it was originally dubbed by Saban Entertainment. For the few of you who may not know, Saban was responsible for bringing over "Power Rangers" and "Digimon" to the US. Two very prominent franchises from my childhood that I still enjoy to this day. Well, the early stuff they produced anyway, but I'm not gonna get into that. So, they produced those goldmines. But Saban also produced duds such as "Masked Rider" and "Escaflowne". "Masked Rider" was, basically, Saban's attempt at bringing "Kamen Rider" over to the US, and, from what I heard, die-hard fans of "Kamen Rider" fucking despised that series. And then there's the subject of tonight's movie. The original airing of the "Escaflowne" anime only lasted 10 episodes on the "Fox Kids" programming block, before it got pulled off due to low ratings. So, you kinda have an idea as to why I never heard of "Escaflowne" up until a few years back. That, and again, from what I heard, "Escaflowne" was definitely not meant to be a kids show. So, I'm not totally sure WHY Saban thought it would be a good idea to turn a series like "Escaflowne" into a children's show, but they tried to do just that. And it totally backfired on them because of their foolish attempt.
But instead of me rambling on about what happened to the anime series, I should probably get into what I know about tonight's movie. And the one thing I can tell you right off the bat is that this movie is a retelling of the entire 26 episode series, after it was moved away from Saban's hands. And...I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it leaves me concerned about what exactly they're covering in terms of the content. Like I just mentioned, this movie is attempting to adapt that series of 26 episodes...in about 96 minutes. I have no idea how the hell they're gonna do this, because I know that the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy tried to adapt the original "Berserk" series within 3 movies. Mind you, the original "Berserk" anime only lasted 25 episodes and they STILL had to cut shit out. And it wound up being a little bit of a mess. The difference here, though, is that, unlike the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy, where it had 3 movies to flesh out it's story, "Escaflowne" only has one shot to tell it's entire story within the short amount of time that it's given. And I don't know if this movie is gonna be able to accomplish that.
On the other hand, since I never watched "Escaflowne" in it's hay day, I really don't have to worry about making any comparisons with what happened in the series to this movie. I'm just gonna go into this thing as blind as possible and see if it's able to stand on it's own or not. And who knows? If it is any good, I might just have to watch a few episodes of "Escaflowne" and see if I missed out on anything as a kid. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Escaflowne: The Movie".
12 minutes later
Well, guys, while I can't really say much about the story so far, I can say that the dub here is a little bit lifeless, and the editing, at least in this scene, is shit. I'm kinda hoping this movie will get better soon, and hopefully the story will start to make more sense. But, so far, we're off to a little bit of a rocky start.
8 minutes later
So wait a second here. This guy is claiming Hitomi as this "Wing Goddess" without even asking who she is or what she's doing in the Escaflowne armor. I'm sorry, guys, but if I saw someone just pop out of the armor like that, I wouldn't be claiming them as a goddess of any kind without asking the simplest of questions first. It just seems really odd to me, you know?
3 minutes later
Wait, so instead of hearing Hitomi's side of the story, Van decides that he's gonna kill her because he thinks that she's a spy or something. And now he's fighting a different sword user who's trying to make some sense out of all this by NOT killing her. My God, Van has barely showed up in this movie, and I already fucking despise him. I'm hoping, maybe, he'll get better as the film goes along. But, as of right now, I'm kinda having my doubts.
12 minutes later
Guys, I know you can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this song here...kinda sucks. It's partially because of this weird quacking sound that's going on in the background and it's becoming really distracting. Mind you, the movie hasn't made a ton of sense so far, and this song here is not helping it's case.
7 minutes later
I've found a problem with this movie, guys. This movie is giving us a lot of exposition and we're not getting ANYTHING resembling a backstory. I swear, guys, this movie's story is so fucking rushed that anything involving character development and backstory is just completely nonexistent. I guess this is what happens when you only have 1 movie to tell it's entire story, but I'm gonna talk more about that when this movie is done.
19 minutes later
Wait, so when Lord Folken asked this, I'm going to assume, princess earlier that if the Wing Goddess was here, she said yes. And when he asks her again later on, and she says yes for the second time, he's going to grant her a new power in order to go find her. Then why the fuck didn't you do this earlier when she said yes the FIRST time?! Jesus Christ, this movie is not making ANY sense. And I am just becoming more lost with each passing moment that this movie goes by. And honestly, at this point, I can't wait for it to end.
10 minutes later
You know, guys, I will give this movie one thing. The animation during this battle sequence is REALLY smooth and really well done. I will totally say that much, when it comes to this movie.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Escaflowne: The Movie". Let me shut that off...OK. Um...good god, where the hell do I even start? Well, I guess I should say that, going into this thing, I was expecting a lot better from it. But with what it is, it's...Jesus Christ, it's terribly disappointing.
Now, I totally understand that I haven't seen the "Escaflowne" anime series. So, I have no idea what exactly they changed or cut out from that series in order for this movie to be made. But even with that said, as someone who hasn't seen "Escaflowne", even I can tell you that movie is so god damned rushed that it's not even funny. And I understand that when you're making an adaptation of something, be it from a comic book, video game, or whatever, you're bound to take certain liberties in order for your adaptation to work. But that also doesn't mean that you should skip out on certain things, such as character depth or backstory, because that's, like, the core element to help make your movie stand out. Now there are some exceptions to this, but since we're working with a fantasy film, you REALLY need that for your movie. Now I'm sure that if I watched the "Escaflowne" series, I'm bound to find more character and backstory in that show. Because this movie strips out ALL of that. And what we ended up getting was a shallow, piss weak, attempt at adapting an entire series into a movie. Which is, honestly, this movie's biggest problem. I was worried about how exactly this movie was going to take 26 episodes and adapt it into an entire movie. And unfortunately, it didn't work. I know already used the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy as an example earlier of how they adapted their series into 3 movies, but I want to use a different example. There was one person who tried to adapt two of the "Lord of the Rings" books into one animated movie, and that would be legendary animation producer and director Ralph Bakshi. He took the first two "Lord of the Rings" books and adapted them with his style of animation that he did back in the day. And I'm gonna tell you this, even though that movie went through production hell, Bakshi was still able to make it kinda work. And he was able to tell a decent story with what he was able to adapt from those books. "Escaflowne: The Movie" does not have that luxury. It's like someone, either, took pages from the manga, or copy and pasted some scenes from the TV series, and tried to stitch it together in hopes that they could make it work. Well, guess what? It didn't. And this is what we ended up getting in the process.
So, seeing as how this movie was a rushed product, our characters are all shallow and lifeless. What bits of character that IS told is still half hazard and rushed. First of all, and this is just a minor thing, even though our main male character's name is Van, it's pronounced like his name was Vaughn. I don't know why they couldn't just spell it like that, but it's not really a huge deal. So anyway, we're told that Van is suppose to get revenge against his brother Folken, because he's the guy who killed his family and people, and that Van is suppose to become a king and rule his people or something. I may have mis-remembered something, but I honestly couldn't tell you what, because they just tell you that he's wanting to kill his brother, but we don't get any backstory about it until very late in the film. And again, what little they show of it is very rushed at best. Hitomi is, honestly, the only one who has any semblance of depth. Which isn't saying much, mind you, but it's still somewhat there. She's this lonely depressed girl that feels like she has no reason to live and just wants to die. So, she ends up getting transported to Gaea, which is the fantasy world that we focus on in the movie. And she ends up getting inside the Escaflowne armor for a while before she's released, and she somehow ends up getting labeled as the Wing Goddess. Although, and it might just be my poor hearing, I could've sworn that some of the characters refer to her as the "Wind" Goddess. Again, it might just be me, but I seriously could've sworn that some characters refer to Hitomi as a "Wind" Goddess instead of "Wing" Goddess. But honestly, that's just me nitpicking there. And there's suppose to be a relationship developed between her and Van, but the chemistry between them doesn't exist in this movie. They interact with each other ONCE when Van accuses her of being a spy for the Black Dragon Clan and tries to kill her without hearing her side of the story. And then they don't meet each other again, until she gets kidnapped by this animal creature, who I'll talk about in a bit. And after some events, Van ends up getting injured after saving Hitomi, to which they end up in some peaceful village where she and Van are resting to heal their wounds. And because this movie isn't allowed to have any down time, Van gives out a brief exposition to Hitomi about what I just discussed earlier involving his brother and all that. And all of that takes five minutes before they're back out on the road to reunite with their companions. You see, THIS is what I meant by earlier when someone from production decided to take some scenes from the anime series, and just stitched it together in some half assed way in order for it to work with this movie. It's so lazily done that I'm almost shocked that they went through with this in the first place.
Now, to add on to why this thing felt rushed, there's even more stuff that I could mention that might've been from the anime series that got either condensed, or just flat out cut entirely. I briefly mentioned it a moment ago, and I'm gonna try to explain more of it here. As I mentioned earlier, Hitomi gets kidnapped at one point by this creature that's sort of a mix between a raccoon and a jaguar. And when Van catches up to him, he asks the creature why he and his clan are taking part in this war, despite knowing that his clan doesn't usually get involved in human wars. To which the creature explains that his village and home were destroyed by the Black Dragon Clan. And they also captured most of their clan. So, in order for the creature to see his people freed, he, and the rest of the survivors, made a deal with the Black Dragon Clan that they needed to capture Hitomi and bring her to them. And that if they succeed, the Black Dragon Clan will release their people. And I would probably care more about this, if this was developed more, but it's not. We're just given mountains of exposition, and I don't feel anything for this creature, even before he got killed. Spoiler, in case you really cared. Now, I don't know, MAYBE it was explained more in the anime series, but that's the problem with this movie when it decided to tell it's story in one shot. Now, could this movie have been fixed better? Oh, most certainly. The best thing that this movie could've done was do what the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy did. Take certain arcs from the series, and develop each arc within 3 movies. That way, you would have a little more leeway in trying to develop our characters and give more time to flesh out our story. Now again, the "Berserk: Golden Age" trilogy wasn't perfect, what with the horrendous cell-shaded CG and them cutting out certain story elements from the "Berserk" anime series, but it was still halfway decent. If this movie wanted to go the route in where it had 3 movies to develop it's story, then this would've been a LOT better. Unfortunately, being that this movie only had one shot to tell it's story, it's so poorly done and the results just didn't mesh well at all. And I'm somewhat curious to see how exactly the anime series handled telling it's story, when compared to this movie. Probably a lot better, but that's just a guess.
So, the writing here is not very good. And with what I just mentioned, it makes this movie just a little bit worse. Now, we come to the acting. I opted to watch the English dub, and...the dub here is not that great either. Most of the acting ranges from being passable, to just being shit. Dishonorable mention goes to whoever voiced Lord Folken. Every time that this guy appears on camera, he always talks in this low-key gravelly voice that, sometimes, you can BARELY make out. At first, I thought the actor sounded like he smoked a ton of weed before recording his lines. However, that would be an insult to hippies, so I'm not gonna make that comparison. Honestly, he sounds like an even more bored version of Steve Blum, except with Blum, even though I've criticized his voiceover work in the past, CAN act when he wants to give a shit. This actor, however, doesn't sound like he fucking cares. So he just phoned it in and did it mainly for a paycheck. A paycheck that he honestly did not fucking earn, but whatever. The rest of the cast, like I said, isn't that great either. I have no idea if this is the same voice cast that was from the Saban dub, but if it is, then I can kinda see another reason why it was taken out of Saban's hands. But regardless if that was the case or not, the acting from this dub is just meh, at best.
The animation, however, is great. The characters all have a unique look to them, the backgrounds are amazing, color pallets are used very well, too, and it's a very well animated movie. My favorite bit of animation from this movie comes from the Escaflowne armor, as it was battling another giant armored mech of sorts. I brought it up earlier, but that animation sequence between the two looked incredibly smooth. And as far as I could tell, there was no CG in this movie. Everything was traditionally animated, and it looks great, especially knowing that this movie came out well over 20 years ago. And it still looks really good today, if I do say so myself. So yeah, the animation in this movie is great. And it's certainly one of the biggest positives that I can give this movie.
Sound-mix is here is decent. I want to talk about editing for a second, before I get into the music. There was one bit of editing that I mentioned earlier that could be attributed to the fact that this movie was rushed. So, way early on, Hitomi and her friend were discussing about how Hitomi missed a track meet. Now, I want you to note that Hitomi's friend was sitting on a small flight of stairs that were at the top. And Hitomi was standing at the second row of those flight of stairs. First of all, this scene with them talking about this missed track meet comes right the hell out of nowhere, because there was no buildup or any mention that Hitomi was part of a track meet. But that's honestly just more of a reason as to why this movie feels so rushed. So anyway, back to my point on editing. Hitomi's friend was sitting at the top of a small flight of stairs, and Hitomi was standing in the middle of the second flight of stairs. And as they're talking, suddenly, and for no reason at all, it cuts to Hitomi's friend being in FRONT of Hitomi, as she has her hands on Hitomi's shoulders. When the fuck did that happen?! At what point, during this conversation, did Hitomi's friend get up to go in front of her friend? I'll tell you that there was no indication of it whatsoever! It just...happens. And I don't know why that even existed to begin with. Were the animators just too lazy to animate Hitomi's friend getting up to get in front of Hitomi? Or did the people who edit this movie decided that this movie was too long as is, so they decided to cut it because, fuck you, that's why? I don't know. But it was really strange to me that that scene even existed. So, yeah...aside from that, everything else in terms of editing is fine. And the music is also really good, for the most part. Save for that one bit involving that weird quacking sound that happens during one point in the movie that I just mentioned during the reaction portion.
So, overall, guys, can I recommend "Escaflowne: The Movie"? Um...no. I honestly can't recommend this movie. If you really want to get into "Escaflowne", go watch the anime series. Or pick up any of the books. That's probably your best bet, if you want to get into the "Escaflowne" series. But as for this movie, do not waste your time on it. It is a lazy half-assed attempt at trying to adapt a series that was, probably, poorly handled in the first place by Saban. And if this movie wasn't able to do the series justice, then that's just a bad sign that the "Escaflowne" series is cursed. Now, I admit, I don't know how much of that is true. But regardless, this movie kinda soiled me on even trying to watch the "Escaflowne" anime series. Now if I'm really bored at all, I may go and watch a few episodes and see how exactly it was handled there, but I'm not all that keen on trying it. At least, for right now. What I AM interested in doing right now is to go watch something that I know is better. And seeing as how this movie was a fantasy film, I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Castle in the Sky". It has been a long time since I last watched that movie, so I'm gonna go and do that next. And as for this movie...well, I guess maybe this wasn't a good introduction for myself to get into the "Escaflowne" series. And I guess curiosity is really sort of a bitch, isn't it?
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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