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Ghost in the Shell Actors: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi Director: Mamoru Oshii Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Animated, Widescreen, Dolby Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 115 minutes Studio: Palm Pictures/Manga Video Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 1998-03-31 Buy from Amazon |
 "Dub Taints the Experience..."Rather than offer another version of what's already been said, I'm going to focus on the one part that, in my opinion, put a big gash on an otherwise beautiful, intelligent anime. I'm not a fan of having to read movies, so enjoyment of an anime hangs in the balance of whether or not it's dubbed well. In the case of Ghost in the Shell, there's some very good dubbing (Richard Epcar as Batou) and some efficient dubbing (Abe Lasser as the Puppet Master and William Frederick as Aramaki, to name a few). However, the movie depends mostly on the voice of the Major, and Mimi Woods was (no offense) a terrible choice. Motoko Kusanagi is practically a perfect cybernetic being, so one might think she'd have a beautiful, almost mystic voice to go with her looks and personality. Woods, however, sounds unrefined...natural, but too simple and out-of-character. If you close your eyes and try to picture the Major through Mimi Woods' voice, you don't. You can't. And everything she says loses its strength because the voice just can't deliver it with the thoughtful tone it needs...and since most of the insight revolves around her character, that leaves a big dent in the strength of the film's philosophical core. If you hate all dubs and are strictly a "subbed" person, then enjoy; otherwise, be warned: with that dubbed voice, the Major's credibility only hangs on by its teeth.  "BOOO!!!!!!"This is probably the worst anime i have ever seen, and i have seen a lot. If you are thinking about purchasing this movie think again, it is HORRIBLE. If you want to see a good anime movie go out and buy "AKIRA" that was an amazing movie.  "the movie that started it all"This is the movie that got the Americans to be inspired by that's why they made to movie (The Matrix). This movie takes place in the future were a government uses cyborgs or ones that look like humans do undercover work. Motoko the main cyborg with a female model looks like a porn star. She gets caught in a web when trying to search for a superhacker called "The Puppet Master". This movie is better then the (Ghost in the Shell [Stand Alone Complex]). "It has come out of it's shell!"First let me make one thing clear:I HATE anima! But Ghost in the shell is just so cool that I forgot how much I wanted to get my hands around the necks of the creators of shows like Pokemon, Dragenball Z, and Rave master. I inserted the DVD into my PS-2, and for the next 82 minutes, my faith in anima was restored! The story line is uniquely intelligent but confusing. I had to watch the whole movie twice to figure out what was going on. The voice acting--both for the original Japaneese and the English translation--is superb. The animation is silky-smooth with great character designs and well-modeled 3-D backgrounds. The themesong is well writen but in Japaneese. And, most importantly, it is full of fast-paced, high-octane action. All in all, Ghost in a Shell is a cinamatic masterwork!  "Motoko..."It's everyone's favorite sythetic lesbian ghost hacking whore's big screen debut! How can you not get excited over that? And if that offends you, don't worry, there's none of that in this movie (the whoring part that is...). Ghost in the Shell is a cult classic among many, many anime fans, but to be honest, I'm not sure why. I've seen Ninja Scroll, Evangelion, El-Hazard, Princess Mononoke, Patlabor, and more - so I think I'm sufficiently experienced to say: Ghost in the Shell ain't all that. Even though the animation is incredible (even by today's standards), what this boils down to is a high tech animated cop drama. The entire Ghost in the Shell world revolves around a cyber cop (the woman on the cover, Motoko Kusanagi) and her team of investigators (called Section 9) as they track down cyber-criminals and hackers. Aside from the glorious animation, that's not enough to keep me thrilled. The characters aren't as deep as I would have hoped, and they all seem a tad bit dull, in terms of personality. Some of the people who rant and rave over GITS may have more experience with the Ghost in the Shell manga (on which this movie was based). Perhaps their love of Motoko is deeper than mine will ever be, and perhaps they understand the Ghost in the Shell universe better than I do. But the fact is, just watching this movie by itself won't do much to draw you into the world of Section 9. It's almost as if you need to know about Ghost in the Shell's world before watching this movie, because the creators don't take the time to explain everything to you. |
