Fantastic. This whole project was like the story of NEMO itself. An absolute dream aborted. The fact that Nine Old Men and Japanese animators were assembled at least for a short period of time gave me goosebumps and made me cry.
Japenese animators were always involved. The entire film was animated in Japan. As for the Nine Old Men, I believe only two of them were involved: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who acted as animation consultants. I wish they hadn't, because the final film has this clichéd, overly Americanized, Disneyesque look to the character designs which it would have been better off without.
@@DanielAspajo9930 Actually it suffered from a lot of bureaucracy and unstable production due to a disconnect between the animators, producers and directors, people entering and leaving the project, the language barrier and the different approaches to the animation genre, and others things that extended the project for more than 10 YEARS, it was just a fucking mess
I just love all that this Nemo owned a lot of beautiful flying machines and airplanes in his room - clearly if Miyazaki and Kondo had their way, they would've played a major part in the film.
This was better than the actual movie. Icarus is a human (which makes a lot of sense), it shows what Little Nemo is all about, and the animation is just spectacular. If something like this was made into a movie, it would be so good.
Honestly, the character of Icarus should be that of a teenaged Wright Flyer pilot, not a flying squirrel for comic relief. It'll make the plot much more understandable and it'll show this Icarus as the one who helps Nemo (along with many other characters) how to conquer his fears.
While human Icarus is certainly not annoying (or as annoying) as the golem squirrel we went with, I still don't see what purpose Icarus even serves. I don't recall him being from the comics, which had plenty of characters to use.
I'm honestly fine with him being a flying squirrel. He was cute and adorable to me. But then again, I didn't see this short film until just now. I originally saw the full feature film when I was a kid, so that's probably why it doesn't bother me. But I am shocked to hear that Icarus is supposedly an actual human pilot.
This would have been a major masterpiece if this was the concept went forward with. The way the story builds up Nemo's character, the animation, art style, and the music. It had all the right cinematics for the 80s, similar to the Don Bluth movies that prevailed during that era.
Dynamic doesn't begin to describe the animation. The energy and sense of wonder was just right. I would der what this would've looked like had it been fully realized.
GOOD GOD Japan could animate back in the day, the details, the subtleties, the technical skill, the framerate, it's breathtaking, gorgeous! And people say modern anime is going through a "golden age" right now, what a load of absolute crap, there isn't a modern animator or studio that has achieved in the past decade what this pilot does in 3 minutes.
I beg to differ. What about stuff like Houseki no Kuni or Puella Madoka whatever? I mean, good animation never died, it's just that you have a nostalgia filter.
They still can animate amazing today. You just have nostalgia. I mean, you can even look crazy shit today in tv series like MOB psycho 100, Kyoani's shows or the amount of crazy movies that japan has made lately and are winning awards internationally. Japan right now is in the golden age of animation. Even the Movie Broly was a feast to the eyes and we are talking about TOEI.
This short was totally new to me..... The amount of detail makes it seem longer than its 3 1/2 minute running time~~ The feel of it expresses the intent of the original 115-year-old source material beautifully~~~ how the dream-fantasy can suddenly break down into chaos, resolving only because the child actually fell out of bed.
From what I've heard, the plot for Little Nemo that Miyazaki and his associates created was later turned into a scenario featuring a boy meeting a girl with mystical artifact, chased by various forces(originally the girl was supposed to be a mermaid-like creature). It finally came out as The Castle in the Sky, as well as Hideaki Anno's Nadia, the Secret of Blue water, which eventually led to the creation of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Personally I would love to see Ghibli studios making a deep-sea adventure animation featuring a mermaid, steampunk ships/airships and a lost underwater civilization. I don't care if it is a reuse of Laputa, or that Nadia or Atlantis:the lost empire did it first. We need more Bel-epoch style, boy-meets-girl fantasy adventure!
Omg. Why couldn't they have animated it like this?! Production hell takes another good one. 😩 I still like the full length film, but this is just beautiful.
Arguably the greatest action sequence in anime history. And it's fascinating to see all the riffs - one shot quotes Animal Treasure Island, while two other shots were later quoted in My Neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso. Kondo, Tomanaga and crew, of course, worked with Miyazaki at Telecom and would do so again at Studio Ghibli years later. I would LOVE to see a 70mm print of this. Thanks!
The shot of Nemo's bed bouncing on the water: riffs Animal Treasure Island, seen again in Porco Rosso (and post-Miyazaki Sherlock Hound). The shot of Nemo flying through buildings, just before crashing into the skyscraper, was riffed by My Neighboro Totoro, in the scene where Satsuki rides Catbus in search of Mei.
I kinda assume this friend was sent from Slumberland to get Nemo to join in him in going there. Earlier strips in Winsor McCay's series often had Nemo being visited by several people from there hoping to get him to go along there but Nemo often got into trouble before he even got there, leading to the famous last panel of the strip of him waking up in an odd position on or off the bed, remarking on the terrible dream he had or his parents complaining of a late night snack he had that caused it.
@@ricarleite Pfft ridiculous. Nausicaa is a masterpiece on its own right, but this? No anime in history comes close to this, maybe metropolis but that's it
He's a dream and meant to be Nemo's hetrosexual life partner. One minute he's a boy adventurer, the next a flying squirrel. Kinda like how Morgana from Persona 5 has multiple forms.
In the early days, Hayao Miyazaki was also involved. However, even though he produced Pilot film many times, Gary Kurtz told him not to, and he was removed from the production.
This was cute, but I guess I'm the only one partial to the original movie i grew up with. Glad i still have it on tape and still have a great working vcr.
I kind of wish to follow in his footsteps... Maybe someday I can work with Japan on some of my stories. But for now, Im working on my ideas, my writing, and finding people who can help me.
@@derick1259 i don't know where you got that information,but hayao himself has stated that he only ever did storyboard and design apart from obviously directing. P.S of course he started of as a working animator in the 60s,but the point is you don't know Hayao for his animation ability,nor for the shows he animated in the 60s. He is known for his post Lupin work,at which point he never animated.
Honestly wish they kept this animation quality. I csnt understand ehy is was changed so vastly in the film. This is a thousand times better in my opinion.
The end with Little Nemo falling out of his bed is pretty much how the last panels of the Winsor McKay comics would end, so that's fitting. All-in-all, it's a shame that Yoshifumi-san didn't stay on to work on it. Undoubtedly, the American elements of it made doing it right very difficult.
@@Frisenette I am aware, I think you misunderstood me. I was commenting that while the animation was very good in the film it couldn't top this and that the running time required the budget to be stretched out
They should honestly release a second version using this test pilot animation style and alternate story. The slumber land movie was good IMO, but I would still like to see this alternate come to life.
"Nemo" was a co-production between Japan and the US, with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, a close friend of Miyazaki's who sadly passed away, said to have been involved in the initial production. However, even with this highly finished film, the US staff were not convinced. What aspects of this footage did you find unsatisfactory?
My take on sifting through all the concept art (my god there's a lot) was that Hayao Miyazaki wanted Icarus to be animal in the real world and a boy in the dream world, even though he hated the "it was all just a dream" ending to every comic strip. I think that this concept was properly realized with Haku from his masterpiece "Spirited Away", changing between a boy and a dragon.
