Kino's Journey Trailers and Themes

Outside of reviewing it, the best way to get people to watch a series is to show them promos and clips from it. Today's program of note is Kino's Journey, a criminally underrated anime that ponders over various aspects of human nature, while taking the guise of a 'road-trip movie' of sorts. The English trailer (uploaded by a Spanish speaker) does an excellent job of setting up the show's fairytale like atmosphere and hints at some of its themes, even if it is a bit heavy on the narration. (Curiously, I was unable to find a Japanese trailer. It seems like Kino is not very well known in its home country either.) 

The second video clip covers Kino's opening and ending themes. To be honest, the opening, "All the Way," doesn't really suit this show's aesthetics. While the song is not terrible, it is simply too cheery and uptempo given Kino's content. The closing theme, "The Beautiful World," is thankfully, slower and more contemplative. (Kino's voice actress, Ai Maeda, apparently sung both of the themes.) Most of Kino's Journey's music is similarly low key and sounds as if it were being played from afar, tying into the show's minimalist style. This is clearly demonstrated by the third song embedded here, "He is Speed and I am Balance."

The Dark Crystal Trailers

As I always do to promote more overlooked / obscure films, here are some trailers to tie into my review. The first trailer, which has unfortunately been uploaded in poor quality, was made for theatrical distribution and contains the most details most about The Dark Crystal's plot and characters. (You have got to love how most of the comments on Youtube are about how the film frightened people when they were younger.) The next trailer is just a short promo made for TV. It gives off a rather erie air.

Metropolis (1927) Trailers

Some select trailers for Metropolis just to show off how amazing it was for its time (and still is). The first three were made to promote the newly restored Kino version released in 2010. If you decide to watch Metropolis, watch this version!* It contains many newly discovered scenes and features a documentary about the history of its restoration. It also features the film's original soundtrack. The 4th trailer is from a controversial restoration made in the 1980s... using color dyes and pop music?! What were they thinking? Also the announcer said the film was made in 1926, wrong!

*The Kino Version is now on Hulu! Click here to watch it!

The Thief and the Cobbler Trailers

As with just about every film reviewed on this site (except the really bad ones), here are some trailers to promote the movie. First up is the trailer for the Recobbled Cut which really gives a sense of The Thief and the Cobbler's visual splendor. The second trailer was a made for a promotional champaign for Warner Brothers that never fell through. At one point The Thief was meant to be screened in Germany, but it never happened, yet a German trailer was made. The last trailer is....ugh! It shows what happened when the film fell into Calvert's hands (which means bad animation, unnecessary dialogue, and terrible songs).

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro Trailers

In order to promote this film, here are some trailers. The Japanese one (with subtitles!) focuses on the suspense of the movie and then switches over to action scenes while introducing the cast. Like many Japanese trailers made at the time, it has lots of words flashing over the screen to explain the movie. The USA trailer is ok, but a bit low budget (read: cheesy). Anime fans will also cringe when the announcer mispronounces the word manga as 'main-gah'. The last trailer is Italian. For some reason, Italians love Lupin the Third. Seriously, Italy was the only country to get a dubbed version of the original series when it first came out.

*UPDATE: The Castle of Cagliostro is now on Hulu! Click here to watch!

The Illusionist Trailers

Here are some trailers for The Illusionist. The Warner Brothers trailer really does a nice job of covering the visual aspects of the film and its gentle humor. It is still somewhat hard to believe that this film lost to Toy Story 3 at the Academy Awards. (Yes, I love Pixar, but they don't have to win everything.) This film is criminally overlooked.

The Secret of Kells Trailers

To follow up the review, here are a couple of trailers for The Secret of Kells. If you are an animation fan, this is a must see. The US trailer evokes an eerier tone and focuses more on the action scenes in the film. The second trailer gives a better sense of what the film is about, but also has a few spoilers.

(Note: The Secret of Kells is now on Hulu. You can watch it for free here.)