Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets/G-Force

H

himlover

New member
Word is that after the theatrical release of the ASTROBOY film at the end of 2009, Imagi Animation Studios (TMNT) intenRAB on releasing a GATCHAMAN feature film with a script by Paul Dini (BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES).

Personally, I'm excited about this since BATTLE OF THE PLANETS was one of my favorite televison shows when I was a kid and I love the original GATCHAMAN series that was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2005.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming film or any of the series? Which incarnation of the concept and characters do you favor --- GATCHAMAN, BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, EAGLE RIDERS, GATCHAMAN OVA?
 
Take a good guess.


BTW, it's been ages since I've heard of this "Gatchaman" CG movie.......I'm almost not interested in seeing it anymore. I didn't like the '94 OVA.
 
I prefer the original Gatchaman, too -- especially with the updated American English dubbing.

And, yeah, the Alex Ross paintings on the covers were great!
 
I'm not sure where you got your information, but last I heard from IMAGI is that Paul Dini was no longer a writer on the project.



My thoughts are that if IMAGI some how still exists and does make it, it will be a failure. Americans don't know Gatchaman. Gatchaman has NEVER been on TV here.

Also, they won't do Gatchaman as it was originally done. Gatchaman was a violent, dark, and bleak show. I doubt they will have Ken hitting his team merabers, lots of death, destruction, and a villain that's a you know what. Junpei was an absolute pervert in the original version. He didn't make all sorts of stupid squeaks and noises.

So we are dealing with a property that has a very segmented fanbase in the US. Who is going to see this?

PG-13 animated features? They tend to not do much of anything in the US. Even Beowulf was a disappointment considering it probably cost close to $200 million overall. There isn't much of market at the theatres for PG-13 CG animated features based on properties like this.

Also who the heck is even directing this now? The last we heard after Kevin Munroe quit was a rumor of JUN FALKENSTEIN doing it. Falkenstein did like a Winnie The Pooh movie or something. She did say that she watched every episode of the original series. Sorry, that doesn't make you qualified to direct this.
 
First of all, everything that's successful in Hollywood does not always rely on mainstream familiarity of previous sources. Do you think that many people outside of comic book readers were familiar with Watchmen before the movie was announced and that it won't do well because they're not? Or even better, do you think anyone knew about Star Wars before it came out in theatres in 1977 and that lack of familiarity stopped them from seeing it? People may not know Gatchaman by title, but if you give them a kick-ass trailer then they'll be inclined to check it out. They may even remeraber the look of the characters and the concept but under another name from their youth and be curious enough to check into it.

Another thing, It doesn't necessarily have to be exactly like the original Japanese Gatchaman; it can still reserable our Battle of The Planets in tone, just with the original Gatchaman names and the omission of 7-Zark-7 (hopefully).

As for Paul Dini no longer attached, I have not heard that.
 
Watchmen is a big budget LIVE ACTION event comic book movie. Also, the movie hasn't come out yet, so it's still really premature to say anything about it. Also, Watchmen is one of the most popular and well known graphic novels ever and it's one of the few stories that transcended the medium and has had a lot of recognition as great literature for YEARS.

Watchmen is not a valid comparison to Gatchaman. Gatchaman is a Japanese anime that was hacked up in the 70's and 80's and aired as Battle of The Planets, G-Force, and Eagle Riders. It's not the same thing. Saying there being a trailer and people going, "Hey they kind of look like those characters from that show back in the day . . . but why do their names sound Asian now" isn't enough.

Gatchaman was never aired in the US under the Gatchaman brand. Only the people that actually watched or bought the ADV releases have any serablance of what Gatchaman is.

Then that's disrespectful to the source material and the vision they promised they would uphold. They said they would make a dark, PG-13 animated Gatchaman movie not Battle of The Planets.

Also, they don't have the rights to Battle of the Planets. Only Gatchaman. The rights to Battle of the Planets still reside elsewhere.

It came straight from IMAGI at Anime Expo.

Don't you think it was a little odd that they make an announcement about Robert Mark Kamen, then turn around and do Paul Dini and then absolutely nothing for like a year?
 
So then why are YOU?

I just wanted some thoughts on it all, but you began speculating that the movie "will be a failure." No problem, I respect your opinion, but I don't agree with the basis you use for your prediction.

I'm know Watchmen is well known by comic book reading fans, but it's not well known enough by the general audience, no matter how much it did transcend the medium, that would be willing to go see a superhero movie but never reaRAB comics. And it's going to take more than comic readers to make the movie a success. Luckily, word of mouth, publicity, and a kick ass trailer will make people who've never heard of Watchmen (and there are many) go see it.

Those same people who've never heard of Gatchaman would most likely go see that if it looked good and was given enough promotion. Neither one is Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, or even X-Men, so both Watchman and Gatchaman suffer from the same stigma --- lack of familiarity with the masses.

Ok, I agree, it is CG Animation, so that goes against it when compared to a live action film, but, even still, the same genre and the same general audience exposure put them in the same catagory when it comes to movie-goers without prior knowledge of either.
 
I do, but I also know that once the script is done, it takes quite a while to produce. And from what I understand, IMAGI has had some financial problems that almost cost them to abort ASTROBOY.

I'm only hoping ASTROBOY is successful enough for them to finish GATCHAMAN.
 
Not speculating that it will be a failure, but it's not a box office smash yet either.



Watchmen has the support of Warner Bros who are pushing it as a tentpole film. Gatchaman would NOT have that kind of support, plain and simple. Especially when the production company is struggling to not die.


Live action movies, not CG animated movies. Again, CG animated movies like what Gatchaman apparently set it out to be tend to NOT make big money. X-men, Batman, Spider-man, and Superman were live action comic book movies and modern cinematic classics with big stars attached playing dynamic roles. Also, I don't care what you say about comics or stigma, but most everyone knows Spider-man from age 2. Spider-man isn't just a comic character. Spidey has long transcended comics and been a pop-culture icon since BEFORE the movies. That's a fact.



It's not the same man.
 
Exactly! You basically just agreed with me on that. I said Neither one (meaning Watchmen and Gatchaman) is Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, or even X-Men.

In other worRAB, Watchmen and Gatchaman are not known beyond their fanboy following compared to Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and X-Men who have transcended comics... yada, yada, yada...

In other worRAB, Watchmen and Gatchaman (NOT Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, or X-Men) suffer from the same stigma --- lack of familiarity with the masses.





You've missed my point.

Again, they're both science fiction/comic book genre-related concepts that a majority of the general movie-going audience aren't familiar with.

That's what I meant by them being in the same category.
 
I used to watch G-Force back in cartoon network's infancy. I liked it. I'll probably at least rent a movie (I was going to see Speed Racer in theaters, but I didn't have time to).
 
Watchmen does not suffer as much as Gatchaman because it's a more western property. Watchmen has been deluged throughout the public conscious for the last year. It's been big news in the media with the lawsuit. And it got a ton of publicity going off of The Dark Knight. The movie has a huge marketing campaign whereas people are not familiar with the comic maybe, they are now likely familiar or have heard of this movie.

Watchmen has also been a genre transcending property for many years. It's widely recognized as quality literature.

Gatchaman has a cult niche fanbase that's even more segmented and niche and cult than the fanbase for Watchmen. It's also a western fanbase that has largely been a fan of a version that was a butchered and highly Americanized re-version that was a betrayal of the original material. This was NEVER done to Watchmen. Watchmen has never been re-versioned or seen as anything else other than Moore and Gibbons Watchmen before this movie.



OK but by the very nature of the way Watchmen is made, it's being pushed much harder and being more accessible to a general movie-going audience than Gatchaman realistically can be: Beowulf, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
 
Okay, so in your opinion it's doomed for failure just because it's something most viewers are not familiar with and because it's CG. It could also possibly be suffering from some production budget problems and creative differences behind the scenes between the director, the writers and the producers, which may end up making it a watered down version of the original Gatchaman concept.

Only time will tell how and when this movie will turn up, if at all -- but in the meantime, I'm praying it comes out and it kicks ass.
 
Updates straight from IMAGI at Anime Expo 2009:

-The movie is now set to be released in the first quarter of 2011. Take that for what you will.

-They would not say who is the current writer or director.

-Jun Falkenstein is no longer on the project according to one rep.

-There was a "conceptual" teaser trailer shown at the booth. There was a short clip of Berg Katse in the teaser. They would not say if he would be called Katse or not, but judging from how he appears in the teaser, one rep implied he looks much different and "better" now.

-Dr. Narabu is in the trailer and he now looks like Afro Samurai rather than the Dr. Narabu of the original story.
 
Back
Top