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Urusei Yatsura - Movie 2 - Beautiful Dreamer (Collector's Series) Director: Mamoru Oshii Number of Items: 1 Format: Animated, Color, Dolby Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Wea Corp Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2004-06-08 Buy from Amazon

From Amazon.com Originally released in 1984, the second Urusei Yatsura feature offers characters created by Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2) and a screenplay and direction by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell). As the perpetually lecherous Ataru and his friends prepare for a carnival at Tomobiki High School, they gradually realize the days are literally repeating themselves. Any effort to break the pattern dumps them back where they started. They later discover their town has been reduced to a circle of land a few miles across, poised on the back of a gigantic sea turtle--a reference to "Urushima Taro," a Japanese Rip Van Winkle story. Takahashi and Oshii weave elements from other Japanese folk tales into their science fiction adventure. Although she's described as an alien princess, Lum has many of the attributes of an oni (demon), including horns, the ability to fly, and a tiger-skin costume (although hers is a bikini). The character designs reflect an interesting moment in animation history, when the influence of Western TV shows was giving way to the familiar anime style. Lum has large eyes and long viridian green tresses, but Ataru and his pals sport more Caucasian-looking hair and features. Unfortunately, the good-natured story runs out of steam after about an hour, and the film falters to a conclusion in an annoying series of false endings. Unrated; suitable for ages 12 and up: minor nudity, profanity, and cartoon violence. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 45 Average rating: 5.0 "Speechless" This was one of the first anime I'd seen... years ago, before I became a huge otaku... I was completely unfamiliar with the series, the characters, or the plot. Needless to say, I didn't get it upon the first viewing, but I watched the movie several times, until I finally got a grasp on what was happening. I have to say that even though the animation is not the most detailed - certainly no Jin-Roh or Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door - on every viewing there were details, shots or scenes that I hadn't noticed before... All in all, every time you watch this bittersweet movie you will see more of its beauty, its nostalgia, its humor, its philosophy, and its strangeness. And herein lies its brilliance. --- Bonus points for the amazing soundtrack by the Grand Daddy himself, Kenji Kawai ("Ghost in the Shell," "Avalon," "Vampire Princess Miyu," "Patlabor" movies... need I go on?) "Still Riding the Turtle's Back......................." I'm not a huge anime fan, but there was some great imagery here. Scenes linger in your mind, touching on some great memory you know you had but can't remember. You will begin to care abou the characters, and yearn to be part of their "perfect world." Dealing with how to cope with a natural (or unnatural, in this case) calamity is what makes this a survivalist's story: the ability to live and have fun doing it. Whoever made this needs to be acredited with making a modern masterpiece, because the experiance of watching Beautiful Dreamer is inspiring and intense. If you close your eyes you can almost see the broken ruin of Tomobiki high. I could see myself under the big sun above Tomobiki, listening to funky 80's japanese pop while taking in a beefbowl with a smile on my face, waving to Lum and Ataru as they tear up the lake in their Kawasakis. "this ones interesting...." this move needs to be wacht more than once to git all the stuff thats going on but is well worth all the seans of lum flying around thow i think the aritst needs to spend more time on the guys in the move most of thim look very fake but the girls are grate. if you wont to talk with me about anime my neopets username is san2000221 "Dream, dream, dream..." "Beautiful Dreamer" is the second Urusei Yatsura movie, and universally accepted as the best UY movie of them all. While not my favorite UY movie (that honor goes to "Only You"), I still throughoutly enjoyed "Beautiful Dreamer", and am glad that it's a part of my collection. Comedy wise, this movie is full of the wacky antics we've come to expect from UY. Fans of Mendou will probably enjoy this movie a lot, since he gets plenty of screen time. Two scenes of his that especially stand out are: 1) where he giggles like a madman while trying to find an exit; 2) where he suddenly prances around in joy, laughing and giggling "Oh, you really don't know??!" at Ataru. Both scenes are hilarious because they were unexpected YET expected -- expected because this is Urusei Yatsura, and unexpected because of how unpredictable the character of Shutaro Mendou is. Mendou aside, there are also many characters that get to showcase their unique personalities. Unlike the first movie, "Beautiful Dreamer" focuses on the humans rather than the aliens this time around. In fact, other than Lum and Ten (which are main characters, anyway) + a few other really small cameos, you don't see any other aliens in the movie. The spotlight is mostly put on Lum, Sakura, Mendou, Megane + Fan club, and even Onsen-Mark. Ataru Morobishi, the main character himself, gets a piece of the action during the last third of the movie. My only grip is that some of the other funnier supporting characters don't get much slice of the pie -- Ryuunosuke gets a few lines, but doesn't contribute anything and disappears early on; her father, Mr. Fujinami, gets about two or three lines at most, and isn't seen again. Worse of all, Cherry, of whom would've been extremely useful in regards to this movie's plot, goes completely AWOL for most of the film (which sucks, as I'm a big fan of the deranged monk). Anyway, moving on: the english dubbing is quite good. While there'll probably never be another person who can play Ataru as well as his original seiyuu, the english VA here comes very close. Vinnie Penna captures Ataru's sleaziness perfectly, and even adds another dimension to the character in some scenes. His Mendou is also great (especially at the comedy scenes mentioned above), although I personally would've given the character a slightly deeper voice. Marnie Head plays a PERFECT Sakura. I've always found the original seiyuu's voice to be a bit.. old, and thus slightly unfitting for a character that's supposed to be jaw-droppingly beautiful. Marnie's voice is younger, yet maintains the maturity and sophistication that we expect from Sakura. Honorable mentions are Megane, Mr. and Mrs. Moroboshi, and Mujaki. Unfortunately, the dub has its flaws. Lum's voice does not have the spunk that the seiyuu had; Shinobu sounds like she's supposed to be in college; Cherry's voice is too high (I personally WOULD give him a high voice, but not THAT high..); and Ten just sounds weird. The film's music is excellent. The score sets the mood for a lot of the scenes -- you have the bizarre music for the wacky scenes, cheesy music for the [intentionally] cheesy scenes, and happy music for the happier scenes. The ending song, "Ai wa Boomerang", is a catchy piece of pop music that'll stay in your head for a long time. Finally, if you're hesitant to pick this movie up because of its age, then let me tell you that it's really a non-factor. For a film that's about 20 years old, the animation here is superb. The quality is much better than the TV show (which, unfortunately, does show its age -- well, the early episodes, anyway), and it should certainly be able to satisfy today's anime audiences. "Wonderful movie, terrible DVD..." This is an awesome movie. Five stars, all the way. Unfortunatly, this DVD must have been taken from one of the worst film elements in existance. Three stars, at best. When this disc was first announced, I assumed that CPM would license the newly-restored, anamorphic widescreen video released on the Japanese R2 DVD. What CPM chose to do was clean up the cropped-to-fullscreen video from the original R1 DVD and release that for this edition. Proof? Check out the 2:15 position, close to the edge of the screen. That red dot that appears repeatedly throughout the movie was on the first release, too. Also note the hard subtitles for signs are same font/color as the older disc, while the soft subs have been improved for better visibility. Just to rub salt into an open wound, the original Japanese trailer on this disc *is* widescreen. Aarrghh! On the plus side, the ending is complete now, including the Japanese credits and the full version of "Ai wa boomerang." Sweet! I think the subtitle translation was updated, too. I was hoping for a new dub, but that was never going to happen. Not for a twenty year old anime movie with one U.S. release already. Even if the existing dub sucks. Even if the movie is the GREATEST film ever. Overall, if you have the first release, don't bother with this one unless you're obsessive and/or a rabid Urusei Yatsura otaku. If you don't have the original, buy it NOW. You'll enjoy it.