[gundam] Tomino at the Chicago Film Festival

[Reynolds, Jason M.]

Since Guitarman wants to post my report on Gunota, I have broken the report into two parts.  First I will cover the specifics of the event for his purposes.  Then I will address my own thoughts for those who care to know.  Sorry if my streams of thought change around too much but I was trying to remember everything I could.     The EVENT  I ran into Tomino on the way into the auditorium and bowed to him.  He was taller then I expected.  Very cool guy.   There were 5 Cosplayers there.  Kamille Bidan, Schwarz Bruder, 2 girls wearing identical costumes I couldn't identify, and a female Zeon officer.   Going in I wasn't sure if the movies would be in Raw Japanese, Dubbed, or Subbed.  Luckily they were subbed.   Tomino gave introductions to each of the movies through a translator.  His introduction to the first movie focused a lot on the technical problems with making the movie due to the graininess, and the aspect ration, of the old footage.    When Tomino introduced the second movie he said that he felt the narrative flow of the first movie was too complex and hard to follow so he made a point of simplifying the storylines for the following movies.  He talked about how the second film in a trilogy is always a little slower because it is setting up stuff for the following movie.  For a second I thought he was channeling George Lucas.  He said the second film was his favorite.  I don't remember what he said before the third film.   The one thing that drove EVERYONE crazy was that the people running the event decided to turn the house lights up during the credits, bring Tomino on the stage, and then stop the movie during the credits.  We got them to restart the movie but they didn't turn off the house lights and they had spotlights on Tomino so we DID NOT see the Hyakushiki.  It might have been there but we couldn't tell.  They definitely negated Double Zeta with how they handled Axis, and they might've eliminated Char's Counterattack because he might have actually died this time out.  It really ticked off everyone in the audience.  Someone asked Tomino what was up with the Hyakushiki during the Q & A but all he would say is he would leave it up to the viewer's interpretation.   Q & A Session I am trying to type all of these by memory so please forgive me if I forgot a question or misrepresent one.  During the Q & A the following questions were brought up:   QUESTION: Would the events of Double Zeta still happen now that they redid the ending of Zeta? TOMINO:  At first he appeared to indicate that it wasn't going to happen by his reaction which I could only describe as disgust.  He then said that he didn't plan to do it because he wanted to go do something more challenging.  (Career challenges were a big theme with him in the Q & A.)     My questions:  Who did we have to bribe to get Turn A Gundam released in America?  Were Queen Dianna and Loran Cehack a romantically married couple, or platonic, at the end of Turn A Gundam? TOMINO:  I am not in the business so talk to Bandai/Sunrise about Turn A Gundam.  As far as Loran and Dianna the nice thing is that I don't have to be in control of every character's destiny.  I can leave it up to the viewers to decide for themselves.     QUESTION:  Did Char survive the end of Zeta? TOMINO:  I just answered that (in reference to the viewer has to decide for themselves)     QUESTION:  Are you considering redoing Char's Counterattack? TOMINO:  I am not in the business so that is all up to Sunrise.     QUESTION:  Do you retain creative control or does Sunrise control the movies. TOMINO:  I do control every frame of the movie and I edit it myself.     QUESTION:  How do I get a job at Sunrise: TOMINO:  You need to be in the right place at the right time.     QUESTION:  How do you feel about the AU series such as Wing, Seed, etc. TOMINO:  I don't know.  I never watched them.     QUESTION:  How was it integrating the new animation with the old animation for the Zeta trilogy? TOMINO:  It was an exciting challenge.  We had to work on cleaning up the old animation and modifying it to flow with the new animation.  This is the first time that something has been done like this in an animated work.  In a conventional film you can't bring back the actors 20 years later and have them fit in with their old footage.  With animation you are able to bring back the voice actors luckily.     QUESTION:  Why didn't you reanimate the whole thing? TOMINO:  We didn't have the budget to be able to redo all the animation.  I also felt that there was a     QUESTION:  How do you feel about the American audience's reaction to the Gundam series?  (I think in reference to how it has started to deteriorate) TOMINO:  I haven't really been aware of their reaction.     QUESTION:  What do you want us to take away from the viewing of this trilogy? TOMINO:  The strength and depth of the human spirit.     QUESTION:  What made you decide to change the story so much for this New Translation of Zeta Gundam? TOMINO:  When I created the story 20 years ago I was trying to make a dark story.  20 years later I think it is better to put a happier ending to the story.  I also was excited by the challenge of integrating the new footage with the old footage to make something new.     QUESTION:  Did you have any particular scenes that you had to cut out of Zeta for the trilogy that you really missed: TOMINO:  I don't have the time to go into it in detail because it could go on all night.  I don't have any off the top of my head.     QUESTION:  Was it hard to come back to the old characters after such a long time and get back into their world/headspace? TOMINO:  That would take too long to explain.     After the Q & A Tomino was presented with a lifetime career achievement award.  He was very grateful to be able to share the movie with us and be in Chicago.  He was grateful to the American fans as they were what enabled him to receive the award.  They then brought down 4 of the Cosplayers (The Zeon officer didn't come down) to take pictures with Tomino.  In conclusion he was a very nice guy. Very funny.  It was a treat to see him and these movies!  I would definitely recommend getting them if they are released in America.  I know I will.       -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     My thoughts:   The biggest difference was that Kamille didn't get his brain fried.  The other big difference was that Haman worked out a treaty with the Federation wherein Minerva could go to Earth for her education and Axis wouldn't attack anybody.  The last scene of the movie was very reminiscent of the ending of F91 with Kamille and Fa straddling each other while floating in their normal suits in space.   Kamille treats Fa a LOT better in the movies.  She is less grating due to her limited screen time.  They didn't show Kamille's crushes on any of the other female cast members.  The only romantic relationships he has in the movie are with Four and Fa.  Kamille actually is the one putting the moves on Fa in a scene where they try to kiss while in normal suits.  When they ended up together in the end it is believable that Kamille wanted to be with her and didn't just tolerate fate.   Kamille changed a lot due to the new footage and edit.  He showed A LOT less angst.  He was a lot more mature and not annoying at all.  I never once wanted to slap him upside the head which is a big difference from the TV series.  We did lose his downward spiral, but I can accept that because I liked the new Kamille better.   They added new footage that really emphasized the connection between Bright and Mirai.  In CCA they seemed to be estranged, but here they clearly loved each other despite being separated by war.   Speaking of romance captain Henken and Emma Sheen acted like a real couple.  At a dinner she was correcting his manners like a good little wife.  It made her grief at his death more palpable.   A big surprise was that Sayla not only got screen time but a line of dialogue at the end with Kai.  IIRC he was asking her about Char.   The only characterization problem I saw was with Rosamia.  When they showed her with the new animation she was very focused and aggressive.  When they switched to the older animation she seemed like the bimbo we are familiar with.  It was too much of a shift in my opinion.  VERY inconsistent.  I don't even remember if, or when, she died.  She showed up as a ghost in the conclusion though so I guess she still died.  But otherwise she was fairly unmemorable   As much as they tried the new scenes didn't perfectly blend with the old scenes because they were so noticeably better.  While the characters looked similar in the new animation they also looked very different in some regards so that was a big reason for why I felt they didn't mesh as well.  With how much new footage there was I felt they might as well have reanimated the whole thing.  Tomino said it wasn't possible due to budget constraints in the Q & A afterwards.   The movies were awesome but the first one was so condensed and moved so quickly that it would be harder to follow if I hadn't seen the series.  The second two were perfect though.    The first movie was good, but VERY condensed and fast paced.  It was a thrill ride surprisingly.  I had a friend with who was new to Gundam and he had a hard time keeping up with the story in the first movie.  They actually fleshed out the interactions between Kamille's parents leading up to their deaths pretty nicely.  The coolest action scene in the first movie was at the very end when Amuro crashed his cargo plane into the Asshimir and jumped ship.  It was all new footage and very intense.  The other most memorable scene was also a new scene in which Kamille is being comforted by Quattro, Emma, and Reccoa over the loss of his parents.  The women start up a conversation about Char Aznable criticizing his mistakes.  That scene had the whole audience laughing hysterically.   Tomino wasn't kidding about the improvement from the first film two the second film.  The second, and third, were a lot easier to follow.  I liked how they handled the Four story arc.  She didn't seem as flakey.  Her death was quite different.  She was a lot easier to sympathize with.  The new footage of the Psycho Gundam in Hong Kong was fantastic.  There was a great scene between Hayato and Kobayashi where Kai confronts him about working with Char.   The greatest compliment I could say about this new trilogy was that I couldn't wait to start watching the third movie.  Coming into the screenings I was worried I would be burned out by the third film but in fact it was the complete opposite.  As fast as the pace of the movies were the characters really shone through.  They most plot changes were made to the third movie.  It seemed like the different parties courting Axis was handled more coherently.     It definitely lived up to being called a New Translation.  It was essentially a totally different version of Zeta Gundam.  While the plot was too fast paced at times, the character changes made an interesting improvement.