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Voices of a Distant Star Directors: Makoto Shinkai, Steven Foster Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color Running Time: 30 minutes Studio: A.D. Vision Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-06-10 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.0 "Brilliant in the time alloted....." WOW!! Who would have ever thought that you could have a movie so replete with genuine emotion in the time span of 25 minutes. This is worth buying, and I don't use the "buy" recommendation lightly. Some of the previous reviewers were dead on. One of the prior reviewers talked about how shortly after viewing this movie, that he immediately went on a vigorous search for the music that accompanies the menu screens. I immediately was laughing because thats exactly what i wound up doing... I used to think that an hour and a half was the minimum in order to create some sort of bond with characters, but this DVD proved that theory archaic. I predominantly prefer any sub to dubs when it comes to anime, but the dub version on this was actually better!! This is a rare case!! The voice actor on the English dub were very heart-felt, i just dont like the way the girl cries. Anyway, buy this, or at least rent it. "poignant + great extras" this 25 minute animation ranks pretty high on my list, and it easily out-strips movies 20 times this length. the premise is simple, two lovers are seperated by the span of light years and the only means of communication is via text messaging; however, the implications of the myriad of emotions the two must endure: feelings of loss, hope, despair, love... is captured in a beautifully backdropped package rather compactly. the viewer can see the logical progression without feeling as if the production were rushed or dumbed down. as some other reviewers have been so clamorous to point out, the running time IS only 25 minutes. i bought it thinking it would be a feature length movie but the fact that it is so short leaves THAT much more to the imagination. the impact is powerful, and while sometimes i do wish it were longer, its open-endedness has left me many sleepness nights of dreaming up my own endings. i recommend viewing this feature in the original japanese language with subtitles (i don't understand japanese either) because the english voiceovers seem a bit unenthusiastic. a lot more meaning comes out from the original inflections. plus, the extras bundled along with the main feature are great as well. watch She and Her Cat on the 3 minute version, it is not so short that you feel bereft of meaning and not so long that it becomes garbled. if you dig poetry, the lines speak like poetry. the interview with the creator was fun too, he's passionate about his work and its inspiring that he created all this from his home computer. perhaps one of the best things about this DVD is its replay value. with every viewing, i notice more details and catch a bit more of the underlying subtleties. it is fun popping it in when you're bored or want a quick animation fix and it's something i wouldn't mind taking a couple minutes to show a friend and then having a discussion about afterwards, because these kinds of clips BREED discussion. if you're looking for mindless action sequences, slapstick comedy, or half-naked fembots then this probably isn't for you. but if you're looking for something more thoughtful, a break from "everything else"... then i recommend it 100%. hope this helps, goodnight. "deeply moving" I've had the pleasure of seeing this little piece of animated art on the big screen during an Anime convention. I knew it was the project of 1 man and that it had won an award . I therefor expected an artsy kind of story. But what I didn't expect was a look that would resemble a big budget movie. I was amazed. Yet only for a minute since by then I was drawn into one of the most tragic love stories I had ever seen... by the time it ended I felt tears in my eyes. Do yourself a favor, see this. I may be short but it's beautiful... Sad yes but with a hint of hope... "An epic love story, in under 30 minutes...." If you were ever looking for an anime that could be used as an introduction to the world of Japanese animation, look no further than Voices of a Distant Star. I will not give away too much of the story other than the basic plot of the movie. First off, if you are looking or a big mech fighting melee, look somewhere else. Not to say that there isn't any of that, it is primarily a love story about two people torn apart by war. This film has just the right amount of mech fighting to balance the whole thing out. The story is told entirely through the two main characters, one from the soldier traveling light years through space, and one from the man that she left behind back on earth. Now, enough of the story, now onto the details of the film: The DVD Menus: This is one of the cleanest DVDs I've seen in a while, no excess junk on any of the menus. I'm a firm believer in the whole "less is more" concept, and this DVD adheres wonderfully to that. From the minute I put the disc in, I found my self hunting through the menus so I could listen to the music clips that were on each one. The Music: From the music on the title screen, you will be hooked on the perfectly fitting piano score selected for this story. Throughout the entire film the music changes to help with the emotional direction of the story. Even the battle theme managed to turn a soft piano song into a believable fight song. I found myself scouring the internet trying to find the music for download. The animation: The animation on this DVD is mostly computer generated. The character designs look a little choppy compared to the 3D rendered mechs, buildings, and spacecraft scattered throughout the feature. Still, they don't look out of place at all. A lot of complaints I've seen were about the lack of actual animation and the excessive use of still images. There is still a lot of animation, and the still images in no way take away from the film. In most cases, I believe it just adds to the story, it also gives you time to sit and stare at the awesome use of color. If only the real world looked as nice as this. :) The voice acting: This is one of the few Animes where I can honestly say that the English voices are WAY better than the original Japanese tracks. The voice actors hired for this did a top notch job and really brought forth the emotional impact to this film that I felt was missing on the Japanese track. You can truly hear the pain in the voices on the English track. Even though I don't understand any Japanese other than "hello", it just seemed to be lacking any emotion. DVD Extras: There are quite a few extras on this disc that will keep you from feeling that you wasted [$$] on a 30 minute DVD. There is another feature by the creator called "She and Her Cat" and an interview with the creator. Japanese trailers for Voices of a Distant Star, and a few other trailers of other releases from ADV Films. After watching this DVD once, it has towered over all of my other Anime movies by far. Do not hesitate to add this to your collection. "A great story told in less than 30 minutes!!" I happened to come across a review of this short film in many of the Anime Magizines I read. My first thought was that it couldn't be that good, it's only 30 minutes, however, since the review priased it very highly, I decided to fork out 10 bucks to buy it. This short story is like no other anime I have seen yet, it takes what could be a 10 - 20 episode series and compresses it into a 30 minute short film. Though all the character development is absent, this Voices of a Distant Star is a great concept. Someone had mentioned that Makoto Shinkai, was great in the way he tells short sories, now I can see first hand just how good he truly is!! I would love to see more of his works, it would also be interesting to see what this new comer to the world of anime can do with a full 10 - 20 episode series. I highly recomend this DVD to any anime fan, it is under 15 bucks, how can you go wrong!!