Warren Ellis and James Jean oh my!

Its awesome to see movies, comics, and games rolled all into one package.

excellent

I’m a fan of all three: Ellis, Jean, and Castlevania. But never would I believe I’d see them all in the same sentence. This is freakin’ awesome!

well, here’s to having no hope that it’s good, then, when i see it, hopefully i’ll be pleasantly surprised…

Well…I’m actually beginning to think it might be good, heh. I had hoped, of course, because Castlevania has the potential to be an ass-kicking movie.

So very glad it’ll be animated as well. Trying to think about live-action Castlevania, I thought it would end up being schlocky or something. Now all they need is permission from Konami to have a remix of Bloody Tears in the movie somewhere and they’re good.

James Jean is amazing.

I hope it is anime.

Looks to be based off of the Castlevania III cast, which is a good thing.

Just to clear some stuff up:
- This is NOT the Castlevania MOVIE. This is a separately developped Castlevania ANIMATED film. The live-action movie is still in production, though the name of the director escapes me at this time.
- The ANIMATION will not be Japanese Anime style, but ’standard’ American style. I’m personally glad about this. I’ve gotten my fare share of big-eyed, androgynous characters with hair that rises up to the atmosphere.

If it’s not anime, it’s screwed. America has produced how many respectable animated works that deal with anything remotely PG-13+? Less than five that I can think of. And that concept art, incredibly detailed though it may be, is dreadful, all ugly proportions and mismatched hues. The movie would have been much better off in the hands of the people who did Vampire Hunter D. The artwork in Castlevania hails from some common Japanese pop art styles anyway, so a Castlevania movie would really be more fitting as an anime…but, who knows, the American animators could surprise us and actually create something that rivals anime.

On a side note, there’s no such thing as a specific “Japanese anime style,” nor is there a certain “American style.” That’s only an illusion for people who just look at the shallow surface of animation as a medium.

did warren ellis write transmetropolitan, or am I crazy?

You are right, Ellis started Transmetropolitan. It’s one of his many great works in comics.
He also did the wonderful work in Hellblazer, Planetary, Scars, and even an episode of Justice League Unlimited animated show.

North and South America have produced many wonderful works of animation, so I have no idea what you are talking about Jim.
Now I will admit it is the popular thought to believe that nothing good animated wise comes from the United States, Canada, or Mexico, but it does.
It’s just not big news anymore nor do people pay much attention to it. Once Disney stopped promoting 2D art, it fell by the way side.

Believe what you will, but I have good hope for this animated movie.

Oh and anime are cartoons, cartoons are anime, animation is just animation and that’s how it is.
You can use an imaginary diffrence, but I won’t, and those of Japan do not as well.
There are diffrences, but there are similarities, and it’s animation no matter how you want to call it.

Oh well, at least people in the U.S. aren’t calling it Japanimation anymore. What a silly name that was.

“And that concept art, incredibly detailed though it may be, is dreadful, all ugly proportions and mismatched hues.”

LAWWWWWWWWWWL

I will admit that Jean’s style doesn’t lend itself well to animation at all, though.

I’m a bit conflicted. I love Castlevania (have since the original title came out for the NES and I was scared of the box art). I also love Warren Ellis. Yet I don’t know if they should be paired together. Warren doesn’t really strike me as having any connection to videogames (well, he wrote the story for a few games, but I view those as relatively isolated incidents) and the mopey, gothic, bishounen nature of many recent Castlevania installments isn’t the area he tends to work in.

It might really suprise me and regardless of playing to his strengths he is a truly excellent writer. I just have my doubts that he was really the best choice.

Ken, I never said the Americas were lacking in stellar animation–’cause they do have lots of great stuff (as does Europe, of course). I said that they are lacking in stellar *PG-13+* animation. A Castlevania movie, to even remotely do the franchise justice, must have a rating higher than PG, and American animators have not proven that they can do this.

Though I won’t say something generally stupid like “anime is better than American animation,” you must concede that Japan has created numerous fantastic animated movies (and T.V. shows, for that matter) that would be rated PG-13 and R. It’s just a matter of experience. Americans haven’t yet fully arrived at the idea that animation can be a “mature” work not created just for kids, families, or pure humor. My only hope for the film is that it becomes one of the first to shed this archaic American paradigm, and if it does, I will be pleasantly surprised.

Oh, and Bacon, if you’re going to lol at what amounts to just an opinion and constructive criticism, could you please point out to me some positive aspect of that concept art other than the great detail (which I admitted that it has)?

To throw a stone in one’s own garden. Martin.