Hey oh y’all,
Today I got to go on a date with Sumi-chan! Yay!
So today we met up at McDonald’s (I know, a perfect date meal)!
After a quick breakfast (Sumi likes pancakes, I like Egg McMuffins), we walked
around and ended up at a café for lunch! It was so cute – the waiter painted a
bunny and a bear on the coffees!
Then we went to see a movie. Sumi wanted to see the new
Disney movie so we found a theatre that was showing it (in Japanese w/ no
subtitles though). The new movie in America is called Wreck-it-Ralph, but out
here it was called Sugar Rush. Personally I was kind of surprised by the choice
– Sumi isn’t really into video games and the title song “Sugar Rush,” which is
played during the movie and the end credits was sung by none other than AKB48.
Sugar Rush refers to the movie’s girl racing game through a candy land world,
and the song sounds a lot like a normal AKB48 song, complete with Japanese with
English mixed in (though the segments played during the movie are
English-only).
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| Sugar Rush! |
Now the first thing we noticed was that it was in 3-D…it’s
overused here too…it wasn’t worth the extra 400 yen. I think it just makes the
movie pointlessly darker, and the glasses are kind of annoying (though they
look funny on Sumi-chan). And I don’t even know when they added 3-D effects
either.
However the more interesting change was of course the title
change from Wreck-it-Ralph to the way cuter Sugar Rush. I recall that in
America, Rapunzel was renamed to Tangled to “appeal more to boys since they
don’t like princess titles.” In a movie that is based on video games, I’m not
really sure what to make of this – the title character Ralph is a big gruff,
smash-it-up, video game character so I guess the original story development was
to appeal to boys. But the story takes place mostly in the candy land cutesy
world of Sugar Rush so…Sugar Rush as a title also works. In Japan, it seems
that kawaii/cutesy wins the day in marketing.
Personally, despite not understanding much of the dialogue
itself, I enjoyed the movie and like the change to Sugar Rush. It does mostly take
place in Sugar Rush land and the framing of the movie as cutesy/kawaii makes
for a better story.
Oh warning – I’ve tried to limit spoilers as much as
possible, but be warned I may slip something.
Ralph, even in what I could loosely understand, is predictable.
He’s a big gruff guy with a talent for destroying stuff. But he has a good
heart and finds that his unique trait can help him. Hooray…it didn't help that
his Japanese seiyu (voice actor) was average (and not synced well). He had some
deep tones, but none of the gruffness that you expect from a character of his
design. He just seemed whiny.
But the movie shines through the character of Vanellope Von
Sweets (?). She’s the young Sugar Rush girl character who shows Ralph that he
can be a good guy too. She’s got a great backstory – she is a “glitch” who is
bullied and cannot participate in the game (though as the story progresses, you
learn more about her). Her design is spot on – fits the world perfectly, but
she is clearly an outcast. And of course her voice actor is sweet yet sassy,
smart yet innocent, and of course unbelievable kawaii.
(and she of course is Sumi’s favorite character – something
she is telling me to include…sigh)
Also shoutout to the Jane Lynch character and her Japanese
counterpart. She’s straight up awesome.
The movie itself is well scripted, animated, and thought
out. They add a lot of fun touches for people like me who know video games
(like cameos from Bowser), and perfectly understand and mimic video game
physics. But they also add some cool, believable story elements that play off
the idea of glitches and sequence breaks in games.
I think (without trying to spoil the movie too much) the
movie does a great job of developing a strong backstory that ties in well to
move the plot along. If you see the movie, you’ll know what I mean – there is
some complexity, but not too much, and it ties up nicely (as Disney movies tend
to do).
Of course, I was able to understand the movie in most of its
entirety without being able to decipher many of the lines. In a lot of ways,
the words themselves are secondary to the character design, lighting, scenery,
music, and, for me most importantly, voice actor delivery. In much the same way
I can communicate through facial expressions and gestures with only a few words
added in for context, I am always amazed with how universal images and emotions
can be.
Take the Disney short films shown before the main feature. They
are music-only films, but they move you to smile, cry, and smile again in only a
few minutes, sometimes more strongly than the main feature. Aside from maybe
the title, they need no translation or editing to be understood across borders.
You don’t need to cut or redraw scenes, and if you do, it changes the work,
taking away from what was already good.
I love animation – and I think someone has said this but I
agree that animation is the best universal language – for me it carries so much
color, joy, and life, something I believe everyone can understand.
I recommend this movie to anyone – both girls into cutesy
stuff like Sumi and for boys into video games like me. Sugar
Rush/Wreck-it-Ralph is a see and a good date movie since it balances cute with
bashy (just avoid the 3D).
Oh – parting note – Japan movie theatres don’t have cup holders.
Though at least for our theatre you could buy food from the outside (or the
in-building vending machines) and eat that (so long as you packed out your own
trash). Keep that in mind, and see you at the movies!
DC
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