Z Gundam: A New Translation

Woo hoo! I just saw the new Z Gundam movie last night. I had a lot of fun watching it. Was it absolutley mind-blowing? Well... it was half the time.

Here's the thing: half of the animation was brand new. The new CG and character/background/mobile suit drawings were superb! The level was nothing short of modern day OVAs. Simply beautiful! Just look at the poster above and you can see how pretty much everything has been updated in terms of artwork. Unfortunately, only half the movie ultilized brand new animation. The other half is basically taken directly from 1985. That's right, they took it directly from the original Z Gundam TV series. They didn't even bother to touch it up.

Think Star Wars episodes four, five, and six, when George Lucas updated them in the late nineties. He added some CGI, added some new scenes and stuff. Z Gundam did this on a much bigger scale. Half the movie is brand new, but its still combining the new with the old.


Compare this to the poster up top

I'm sure you're thinking WTF. Well, so was I in the beginning. I was actually pretty disappointed. However, I was too mesmerized by the new animation to take any points away from this movie. I wish they just made the whole thing from scratch. If you see the new scenes, you'll know what I mean. They just look that much better. C'mon, we're talking about 20 years worth of innovation. Plus, I'm sure much more time and effort were spent on the new scenes as opposed to the 50 episode TV series that was made back in '85.

Animation
I already spent too much time talking about that.

Sound
The sound was awesome, but the theater sucked! I guess the theater guys thought, "oh, anime can't possible have good sound, so lets turn off all the speakers". Idiots. I could hear and feel the explosions and Gundams flying around, and ships, etc. It just seemed so distant. I'm positive that its because of the theater, and not the movie.

Story
In terms of storyline, most Gundam fans know the story already. I went with a friend who wasn't too familiar with his Gundam history, and he got confused. Like any movie that is derived from the TV series version, bits and pieces are cut out to fit everything into two hours. Initial D is an example of how this was poorly done. I thought Z Gundam did a good job, but if you're not familiar with the story you could get confused.

Character
You can't screw this up. You've got the legendary characters of Gundam: Amuro, Char, and Kamille. To be honest, I don't remember many of the newer Gundam characters of recent, but Amuro and Char are always fresh in my memory. The other characters are classic as well, but the main characters really make the movie. I must note that the new character artwork is awesome. Everyone looks so good in the new animation. Besides looking better, you see more in terms of body movement and facial expressions. A huge improvement.

Value
I don't know. If you like Gundam, you'll watch this shit over and over again. If you don't, you'll likely just see this movie once.

Enjoyment
Sweet. I enjoyed it. Again, this depends on how big a Gundam fan you are, how well you know the story. I got the jitters when I was Amuro and Char meet eye to eye for the first time in this movie. Oh, the drama.

The theater was pretty full, and its inhabitants were all people my age or older. Everyone was in their work attire, and they all seemed to be fans of the classic Gundam genre. I'm really glad they decided to remake Z Gundam into a movie. Its about time. It would be much nicer if they re-did the whole thing though, rather than just bits and pieces.

Episode II comes out soon.