Yattâman

So the challenge is to make a full length live action movie from an anime series which did not stray too far from "Dudly Do-Right" in scope.

One way, and this is what director Miike chooses, is to keep the visuals and story at the original "Loony-Tunes" level, but make the characters and subtext more adult. This will either work for you, or leave you aghast, depending on if you expected a kids movie or not.

It's obvious from the opening shot of Doronjo where Miike is headed with this movie. It's a kids movie for adults, not to be confused with a kids movie with jokes thrown in for adults. I enjoyed it.

Kyoko Fukada as Doronjo is hot enough to burn celluloid; the rest of the Dorombo gang is well cast, too. The Yatterman side is weaker, but probably deliberately so. The running gag of the movie is that the Dorombo gang must always lose, this is funnier if the good guys don't really seem to be worthy opponents.

There is a lot of CG animation in this movie, and while it's well done for the most part, the extended CG fight scenes get less and less interesting as the film rolls on into the second half.

This is another weird and bizarre Japanese superheroes movie by Takashi Miike. And that is the main drive of this movie, which is the weirdness. So this is basically a live action adaptation of a 70's cartoon show. Kind of like "Gatchaman", except way more cheesy. I don't know how close of an essence this movie has with the cartoon. But despite the cheesy Saturday morning cartoon vibe going. Most of the humor and focus is actually on the adult themes. Especially with the direct or indirect sexual references. The plot is about these duo that goes by Yatterman. Which is composed of a male and a female characters that is dressed in a superheroes engineer costumes and masks. One wields a kendama and the other a electric stick. And has a sidekick giant robotic dog with them that gets beat up constantly unless it gets a mechanical bone from Yatterman. And goes around trying the save the world once a week. By these team rocket duos. Except it's a trio in this one, which is composed of. Wario and Waluigi with Batwoman as the leader. Or at least looks like it. The plot is narrow, predictable and very childish. It's like a script for a children's video game. Which is fine for a video game, but not much for a live action movie. Despite the wackiness, it felt like I was just sitting through this movie just to pass the time. In another words, it's kinda dull. I am not sure if the cartoon this movie got adapted from is weird, bizarre, and has that adult themes to it. But those elements is what saves this movie from being just plain bad. Since I couldn't tell sometimes if this movie is directed towards kids or adults. The production value is decent for these types of movies from japan. Although the CGI can be awful at times(I guess that sorta adds to the cartoony feel of this flick though). Maybe fans of the cartoon show this movie is adapted from might enjoy this. Overall this movie is a very simple movie that has a lot of stuff going on. It's a passable movie but not that entertaining or enjoyable. There simply isn't a moment in this film that would wow or amaze anyone or even simply find it cool. It's basically like watching a passable episode of a children's cartoon show. Except it's drawn out with bunch of weird, bizarre imagery with adult themes. And that basically sums up this disappointing movie. That is just maybe worth a rental and nothing more.

6/10

A must see for any fan of Yatterman and Takashi Miike. If you like Miike's work but haven't seen the Yatterman anime or don't really care what's it all about?, avoid this movie by all means, you won't like it.

The reason why the not-fans won't like it: It's too close to the source, the movie is as weird as the anime and it has that childish humor that some love. But, this childish humor is not for children, in Japan some gropping is seen as kiddie, but for us westerns the movie should be PG-13 for a couple of scenes that I won't spoil.

The whole atmosphere and dialogue feels exactly as the anime should feel when taken to live action, this is a perfect example as how a cartoon should be translated, no matter how silly it could look. Too bad we westerns won't see a proper anime to movie translation, the Wachowskis tried it and most people bash their good effort.

Anyway, the movie is just a fun ride and it's worth a fair 6 outta 10, but it grows to a 7 because of the faithfulness to Yattâman.

Yatterman is one of those films that is best appreciated by fans of the very funny animated television series. I can't give it more than a six for that reason, but I happen to be one of the show's veteran fans and would rate it much higher at a Yatter-convention. The story is about Gan Takada, a mechanically-inclined boy and Ai Kaminari, his cute cohort who, in the original 1977 television series and its 2008 reprise, do weekly battle against the forces of evil--namely a woman named Doronjo and her two male cohorts, Boyacky and Tonzler. Behind the scenes on the evil side, there's an unseen character named Dokurobe who sends the trio through time and space on a quest for items which, if assembled, will allow him his dream of ultimate power. Each side pits a humorous array of robots and mechanisms against each other. Besides the obvious improvements in animation technology over the last thirty years, there are other differences between the two series. Gan is lazier in the new series, Ai is more possessive, and Doronjo's outfit is sexier. However, I still prefer the original series--and I'm not alone. Doronjo is the main difference. She was a much more likable character in the '70s version--and I have to admit she was one of the draws that kept me coming back to the TV every week. Takashi Miike did his best to follow the original series and, in doing so, kept the target demographic in the teen to adult range. Miike made Donojo a very likable character--and the drop-dead gorgeous Kyoko Fukada fills that character--and (you've got to see it to believe it) costume--very well. Miike also restored Boyacky to a pathetic genius with an unrequited crush on a Doronjo who plays him like a fiddle. He also restored Gan to status of willing hero and lowered Ai's maintenance level a notch. He also restored the '70s Yatter-policy of not providing real names of people or places. In this movie, for example, they travel to Ogypt and the Southern Halps. All in all, it's a fun movie and is worth seeing if it passes through your town or your video rental store.

This is a long form sentai (Power Rangers etc) episode, with the premise being good versus evil. The story revolves around obtaining the four pieces of the Skull Stone which, when possessed, will make dreams come true (one character wants to be with every high school girl in Japan. Its not bad). An archaeologist found one piece in Norway and was abducted, prompting his daughter Shoko to enlist the help of the two heroes in this film (one is Saki Fumada, so evil in the drama "Life" but good here). They have to beat three others with the help of Yatterman, a giant dog like creature straight out of sentai scripts. The film is good, a bit over the top, but fun. The special effects are great and the colors are vivid. Not for children, but teens and adults will like it.