Matthew Mccullough
New member
Man, this brings back memories. I remeraber, after the big fiasco of how the show was cut up (if you look at the character with the facial scar, watch how it moves from the left side of his face to the right and back again all throughout), I hunted down some episodes of this show in its original Taiwanese format.
Well, by episodes, I mean the episodes of the very first series, released waaaaay back in the 1980s (I think). The puppetry back then was...crude, and the special effects were laughable, but it was so gosh-darned charming.
The current Pili series, of course, are much more sophisticated. I especially love the opening and ending to Pili: Apocalypse. It's such a shame that this series has two big things going against it in order for it to be properly localized: 1) the stories were more dramas than action shows, so there was a lot of talking, and 2) each episode was about an hour long. Of course, some would say that the fact that this was a puppet show was the biggest thing going against it, but I'd like to think people are more open-minded than that.
Of course, the original did have one big obstacle, at least for me: there is only one voice actor in the entire series. Seriously, every puppet in the Taiwanese version is voiced by one guy. I know this is part of palm puppet tradition and all...but I think that's one tradition that can be excused.
PS - I have the Pili movie on DVD, and though I understand nothing, it. is. AWESOME.
Well, by episodes, I mean the episodes of the very first series, released waaaaay back in the 1980s (I think). The puppetry back then was...crude, and the special effects were laughable, but it was so gosh-darned charming.
The current Pili series, of course, are much more sophisticated. I especially love the opening and ending to Pili: Apocalypse. It's such a shame that this series has two big things going against it in order for it to be properly localized: 1) the stories were more dramas than action shows, so there was a lot of talking, and 2) each episode was about an hour long. Of course, some would say that the fact that this was a puppet show was the biggest thing going against it, but I'd like to think people are more open-minded than that.
Of course, the original did have one big obstacle, at least for me: there is only one voice actor in the entire series. Seriously, every puppet in the Taiwanese version is voiced by one guy. I know this is part of palm puppet tradition and all...but I think that's one tradition that can be excused.
PS - I have the Pili movie on DVD, and though I understand nothing, it. is. AWESOME.