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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Aug 17, 2017 11:30:05 GMT -6
deadline.com/2017/08/napping-princess-release-date-ancien-and-the-magic-tablet-gkids-1202150963/Gkids Acquires Japanese Sci-Fi Fantasy ‘Napping Princess’ For Fall Release Gkids, the distributor with nine Animated Feature Oscar nominations to its credit since 2010, has acquired North American rights to Napping Princess, the Kenji Kamiyama-helmed film that played the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this year and won the animated feature award at the Fantasia Film Festival. Gkids plans a September 8 platform bow in New York at Los Angeles, followed by a national rollout. The pic, previously known as Ancien and the Magic Tablet, is set in the near future and follows the journey of a young girl, Kokone, and her friend Morio as they set out to find Kokone’s missing father who has been accused of a crime. Kokone soon realizes she must tap into a world only accessible through her dreams in order to solve the mystery. The film will bow theatrically in both its original Japanese language and a new English dubbed version. (Check out the dubbed trailer below.) Kamiyama’s directing credits include East of Eden and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. “We fell in love with Kenji Kamiyama’s unique vision in Napping Princess,” said Gkids president David Jesteadt. “His blend of near-future science-fiction, family drama and detective story results in a high-octane, thought-provoking adventure that all ages can enjoy.” Here’s the trailer:
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Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Sept 4, 2017 17:37:01 GMT -6
www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/napping-princess-1034997'The Napping Princess': Film Review Kenji Kamiyama takes a break from more violent fare for a sci-fi anime targeted at younger auds. A sleep-deprived teen learns that conking out is a superpower in The Napping Princess, Kenji Kamiyama's fantasy about family secrets and self-driving cars. Kamiyama, a vet of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, brings plenty of sci-fi genre ingredients to what at times might look like a Miyazaki coming-of-age adventure. Though occasionally lopsided, the mix works well, and should play best to teens raised on Japanese 'toons. Mitsuki Takahata voices the eponymous heroine, who is only a princess in her dreams. When awake she is Kokone, daughter of Jersey, an auto mechanic and part-time inventor. Raised knowing nothing about her mother's side of the family except that mom died in an accident long ago, she's something of a caretaker for the absentminded Jersey, who is perfecting a guidance system for autonomous vehicles. Long before Kokone, we learn that her mother's father is a car mogul who has his own ideas about next-gen cars. Grandpa has an underling, Watanabe, who gets Jersey arrested on the premise that he has stolen the company's proprietary tech — parents may realize around this point that, princesses and talking stuffed animals aside, this tale isn't designed for 6-year-olds. Kokone and her buddy Morio wind up in possession of her father's tablet computer, which contains all the programming he has done, and must try to get him out of legal jeopardy before Watanabe can get to them as well. Meanwhile, Kokone keeps nodding off and entering a world engulfed in mecha-versus-kaiju conflict, where a fantastic giant monster called Colossus is held at bay by human-controlled machines with suspiciously primitive controls. In this world, Kokone's stuffed dog Joy is a sentient sidekick and she is a sorceress held captive; consumerism isn't just a lifestyle, but the law. She eventually intuits that this world is connected to the actual one, and while we may never quite share her understanding of this conceit, the linkage comes in handy when Morio starts entering the dreams alongside her. With the exception of a sometimes too lightweight score by Yoko Shimomura, the movie's look and feel beautifully straddles several idioms. But in terms of narrative drive, the "real" storyline always trumps the fantasy, especially after Kokone realizes how much has been withheld from her about her past. Unfortunately for those of us who buy into the screenplay's mystery component, Kamiyama interrupts the film's climax with a very long parallel action sequence set in Kokone's dream world; though we know the two are somehow linked, the nature of that connection isn't concrete enough that we can linger in fantasy without losing the story's momentum. The picture resolves in much the way we expect, expanding Kokone's world so that reality starts to look almost as full of possibilities as fantasy. That's especially fitting given the girl-power revelations of the movie's final act. Production company: Bandai Distributor: GKIDS Cast: Mitsuki Takahata, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Yosuke Eguchi, Arata Furuta, Tomoya Maeno Director-screenwriter: Kenji Kamiyama Producers: Naoki Iwasa, Yoshiki Sakurai Executive producers: Yoshitaka Hori, Shinichiro Inoue, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa Director of photography: Hiroshi Tanaka Composer: Yoko Shimomura Venue: Fantasia Film Festival In Japanese 111 minutes
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