Saturday, July 17, 2010

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

     
Totally unique and one-of-a-kind is how I would describe Interstella 5555. Though I might say I haven't seen other movies like this - animated musical movie or anime set to an entire album record - the idea of the movie itself is really creative and innovative.

 The Animated House Musical. Interstella 5555's theatrical poster.

The movie is a successful collaboration between the electronic music duo Daft Punk (the entire film plays and is set to their 2001 album "Discovery") and Toei Animation with renowned illustrator Leiji Matsumoto (famous for his work "Space Pirate Captain Harlock", "Galaxy 999", "Space Battleship Yamato" and other 70's and 80's classic anime). Having no dialogues and few cuts on the music, this could even pass as the longest music video ever at 68 minutes running time.

The story revolves around a famous (unnamed yet), blue skinned band quartet from another galaxy where similar blue skinned people also live. The four were abducted and taken to Earth to become famous musicians and for a certain villain's evil ambitions.

The guitarist tries to escape from their captors giving one of them a taste of his knuckle sandwich. Even without dialogues and sound effects, the movie is still action-packed and retains a great consistent storyline.

Shep, the hero of the movie. After the band has been taken captive, Shep follows in pursuit to rescue his idols and his damsel-in-distress.

Shep's rockin' awesome ride. A starship shaped like a Flying-V electric guitar. Cool.

The movie has bits of mushy romance as well. Shep, aside from being a fan of is also in love with the band's bassist Stella. Though this one is just a bit of his fantasies, he never really got this close to Stella, not until the time he is about to bite the dust. Poor guy.

Transformation complete. Presenting: The Crescendolls (clockwise) Octave on keys, Baryl on drums and percussion, Arpegius on the guitar and the lovely Stella on bass. Upon their debut on planet Earth's music scene, they were given names and presented as the Crescendolls. Their goal: be awarded a Gold Record (why not multiplatinum or anything better?) as a key to world domination. Wow.

Earl de Darkwood, the main villain of the movie. Old geezer! Nobody touches Stella like that and gets away with it. Shep's spirit destroys his corrupted soul near the end. Ack! spoiler.

Daft Punk duo's cameo appearance on the movie. Still wearing their robotronic getup though.

Listening to my electronic idols' music while watching Interstella 5555 is truly sublime. If you are an electronic music enthusiast or anime lover or both, or you just want to see something unique, this movie is definitely worth the watch.

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From The Idiot Box

From the screen to your lenses to your brain to your nerves to your heart, lungs and muscles and out. Its a compilation of my take, thoughts and impressions on straight up, good stuff (mostly japanese, anime, music and geek-related) from the idiot box that I like and you might like.

... and idiocy. :)

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