Enterprise Notches Two Hugo Noms

[taichidave]

Is Spirited Away good? I've seen previews, but that's about it.

My wife and I loved it, but we like Japanese animation to begin with.

I heard it described as "Alice in Wonderland on an acid trip." I can't sum it up any better.

Though Disney distributed it (in the US at least), it's about as far away as you can get from standard Disney fare and still be family friendly.

The pacing can take a while to get used to; Miyazaki is far more comfortable than most Western animation directors to let a scene develop atmosphere without action, just establishing a mood for a minute or so.

It explored economic and environmental ideas more than a typical Disney feature, which ususally re-tells a fairy tale or some such very well with style and flash, but there's rarely much in the way of depth.

I think it's worth seeing just to get an idea of what is possible with the medium while staying within the PG realm.

 

[Lyta]

I just saw it because the hubs and I finally got around to watching the DVD we purchased a while ago. I wish I had gotten around to see it in the theaters though.

As usual, the Japanese version is better than the English dub. The dub isn't all that bad but I thought the two main characters should have had voices that were closer to the age they were supposed to be in the film. Oh well.

I did think it was very odd to start with and I wasn't sure where it was going at first. I guess part of that is because I knew next to nothing about what the movie was about. Even so, I thought it was a different kind of Miyazaki film but still being very Miyazaki overall.

I didn't mind the environment/economic messages in this film as much as I did with Mononoke because I thought they were more subtle and it was the story that really took front stage.

I loved the little soot creatures (Makkuro Kurosuke from Totoro) and the little rat and fly as well!

 

[ElScorcho]

Judging by Enterprise's competition, Im assuming that the Hugos areen't limiting themselves to scifi. And as they've split the category, there's precious little to choose from. It's hard to find a scifi tv series that hasn't been cancelled.

As for the films, I'd have to choose Minority Report. I know Tom Cruise being in it takes away some genre cred, but it's the best that I've seen out of the bunch. No offence, Tolkien fans.

Unfortunately, the quantity of quality scifi has become abysmal lately. All the good blockbuster slots are being taken up by franchise sequels and comic book adaptations. Star Trek flounders and Star Wars doesn't live up to its standards plotwise anymore. Matrix 2, X2, T3 - all promising films, but none of them originals.

Thank god for DVDs.

 

[Strifeguard]

As for the films, I'd have to choose Minority Report. I know Tom Cruise being in it takes away some genre cred, but it's the best that I've seen out of the bunch. No offence, Tolkien fans.

Star Trek flounders and Star Wars doesn't live up to its standards plotwise anymore.

You raise some great points here. I'd also go with Minority Report over The Two Towers. I'm not trying to offend Tolkien die-harders or anything, I just didn't like the latest movie as much as the first one.

Frankly, the battle of Helms Deep just seemed wrong on too many levels. First, it looked like the entire battle was fought between 4 elves, 3 humans, and 10 billion orcs. Yeah I know that extras can be expensive, but there could have been a few more. That and when Gandolf leads the knights right into the orc spears. We learned what's supposed to happen in horse-verse-spear combat from Braveheart...

That said, I was also less-than-pleased with minority report. While I thought it was an incredible movie, certain scenes seemed entirely unnecessary or just out-of-place. Why, for example, did he have to go through the eat-the-rotten-sandwich-drink-the-bad-milk scene? I think I stand more beheind Phillip K. Dick than I do behind Spielberg on this one. (I would have loved to see Ridley Scott direct instead, it's not that he's better than Spielber in general, this movie just would have been more his style)

As for slumping SciFi. I couldn't agree with you more. Nemesis was a joke. As for StarWars, however, I'm uncertain. Yes, there's no question that Episodes I and II had AWFUL scripts. But, did the original movies have anything special in terms of writing? I mean, they blow up a big sphere, include two main characters who essentially don't speak, and end when a tribe of Carebears take down the Imperial Army.

So why were episodes IV, V, and VI so good? I think the answer is fairly simple. Episodes IV, V, and VI starred Mark Hamill, Carie Fischer and Harrison Ford. They even had James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader. While Portman and McGregor definitely have acting ability, I think we can all question Christensen's performance. Luke, Han, and Leia just had a chemistry going which I don't see between Annakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan.

 

[Chris Springob]

These nominations are for anything that first aired in 2002, right? The fact that Farscape's "Into the Lion's Den, Part 2" didn't even get nominated is a travesty.