Imagi US shuts down

[JumpJump]

Via: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2011020404_apasfilmhongkongimagistudios.html (feb 9, 2010)

According to the Seattle Times, Imagi is shut down.
"...Imagi said it will continue to develop movie ideas and outsource the actual animation work to mainland China and other countries, where costs are lower."

I'll let you guys read the article.

Sorry to post sad news! I just thought you guys might be interested.

[MegaAstroFan75]

[QUOTE=MegaAstroFan75;96070]

My apologies to those who might have already said this, but I wonder if they changed Tenma because of objections to making him as dark as he was in past versions. That is, parents might have objected to a father who not only rejects his son, but who makes his life miserable. Yet, upon checking my manga notes, Tenma is Atom'a ally from his 2nd through 5th appearance in the (Shonen) manga. Likewise, in the newspaper version, he repents and teaches Atom's robot mama all of Hoshie's habits and mannerisms. I think Tenma was poorly represented in the 2003 version, & that being the most recent, other than Urasawa's Pluto, was most influential. Moreover, with most of Tenma's appearances in the B&W being excluded from the U.S. version, many viewers simply do not know of his acting as Atom's benefactor on several occasions.

He wasn't poorly represented, in fact it's probably the best version of him. The 2003 series was essentially a very very loose adaptation of Astro Reborn (a name given to penultimate episode) and Melanin Tribe. Or at least Tenma's role is. They extended his role sure, but Tenma has been a very very nasty man in the past and he is considerably watered down in the 2009 film.

You're right he is Astro's benefactor, but not after he gets over a period of craziness longer than in the film. I understand all Tenma's history, but I still love the 2003 version. Well IMO the 2003 series is the best interpretation of Astro Boy so far, and that brings me to the Tobio part. Even in the 2003 dub they call Tenma's son Tobio, and in the manga he's also called Tobio (even in the translated version). So Tobio it is.

Perhaps the question shouldn't be: Which version of Tenma is the best version, but: Which version worked best for the movie? IMO, no way would movie audiences have accepted, or even tolerated, the darker, crazier versions of Tenma. For example: Imagi gave a presentation at an anime convention some months ago, and in it, it was very straightforward about the difficulties Astro Boy has had at the box office. It listed potential reasons why the film stumbled, derived from surveys it conducted with preview audiences prior to the film's release. One objection raised by those audiences concerned Tenma's initial rejection of Astro. Now, that rejection absolutely could not have been avoided in the movie version, or Astro fans (me included) would have screamed bloody murder. And it certainly would have weakened the film's potent emotional punch. And anyway, as we all know, parents can be dreadful ninnies sometimes. But the point is, had Tenma acted as insane and brutal in the film as he did in the manga and in some of the animes, then there would have been controversy and an outcry, and movie would be in much worse trouble than it is now. I think that's been my point all along. Giving Tenma more heart and less crazy actually helped the film. But that doesn't mean he's the best version for the manga or animes. That's a matter of opinion.[/QUOTE]

That's what I've been meaning to say from the beginning. The film had to be lighter than the Japanese Astro stuff because Americans are wusses and parents are ninnies. So therefore Tenma had to likewise be much lighter and friendlier. Although I must note I did like the hands of the film Tenma, all long fingered and spidery. They'd work great in a darker Tenma, make him look all skeletal and gaunt from being nutty.

As for best... I shouldn't have used the term best. My favourite Tenma is 2003, partly because of the incredibly creepy voice he was given in the dub. But all versions have their merits. For example I love the 80's one for showing the workaholic side of Tenma a lot more strongly and glimpsing his non-crazy side for a longer period of time. On the flip side they wrote him out very early on and thus his potential wasn't utilized as strongly as it could've been.

And from what I've seen in the manga, well, he'd definitely qualify as the oddest. One panel he's friendly, then brutishly violent, then slapstick silly. But he would still qualify as the most outwardly dispicable and most psychotic of his incarnations.

And the movie mostly uses the 80's version I think.

[sdp]

Wait Gatchaman can still come out? I thought Imagi closed down completely.

Anyways after the huge bomb AB was we were never getting a sequel which sucked since I did enjoy the movie. And while it had flaws I enjoyed both of Imagis movies (TMNT and AB), I thought their CG was excellent and second only to Pixar. I really wanted to see both Gatchaman and Gigantor which we'll never see now...Anyways Imagi had huge problems and it was evident since 2007 when they fired all their producers of their upcoming films after TMNT was not the success they hoped (I should not TMNT while not a huge hit did make plenty of money for Imagi). And after that every time I read something about Imagi it was something that wasn't good. I thought after AB maybe they had gotten their act together but now we know they didn't.

[Saint Atom]

I know you guys will disagree, but I think they got what they deserved after destroying Astro Boy in that God-awful film

[Hikari Tail]

I really hope Imagi gets its chance to return their remake movies of Astro Boy and Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles are known for being good entariment movies while also pleasing the older and nerdy fan bases.

I think the problem i they need more funding plus they need a team to promote their movies more and this cost a lot of money but its something that has to be done if you want to fight to extreme promotion Disney has to their movies.

[Laughing Dragon]

I know you guys will disagree, but I think they got what they deserved after destroying Astro Boy in that God-awful film

If it weren't for that "god-awful" film, I wouldn't have sought out this message board or considered myself a new Astro Boy fan. Make of that what you will.

[Alittleacorn]

[QUOTE=Saint Atom;96514]I know you guys will disagree, but I think they got what they deserved after destroying Astro Boy in that God-awful film

If it weren't for that "god-awful" film, I wouldn't have sought out this message board or consider myself a new Astro Boy fan. Make of that what you will.[/QUOTE]

Yeah if i hadn't seen that film I wouldn't be a fan right now, joined to a forum site and wanting to collect the mangas all in a month how about that lol

[diehard67]

I know you guys will disagree, but I think they got what they deserved after destroying Astro Boy in that God-awful film

If it weren't for that "god-awful" film, I wouldn't have sought out this message board or consider myself a new Astro Boy fan. Make of that what you will.

Yeah if i hadn't seen that film I wouldn't be a fan right now, joined to a forum site and wanting to collect the mangas all in a month how about that lol

sorta the same situation for me, after I saw the movie I rememberd waching astro as a kid, and being intencly curious like I am I started searching around the internet and triped over astroboy-online.com.

and I have been haveing a great deal of fun here ever scence

[animegirlalways]

I know you guys will disagree, but I think they got what they deserved after destroying Astro Boy in that God-awful film

If it weren't for that "god-awful" film, I wouldn't have sought out this message board or consider myself a new Astro Boy fan. Make of that what you will.

Yeah if i hadn't seen that film I wouldn't be a fan right now, joined to a forum site and wanting to collect the mangas all in a month how about that lol

sorta the same situation for me, after I saw the movie I rememberd waching astro as a kid, and being intencly curious like I am I started searching around the internet and triped over astroboy-online.com.

and I have been haveing a great deal of fun here ever scence

The movie was what made me a fan too. I'd heard of Astro Boy before, but had never watched it until I saw the movie (luckly I saw a rare preview or I may not have ever watched the movie :cry . I'll admit I like the 2003 and 1980s Astro Boy more than the movie (the 2003 is my favorite of all :heart , but I loved the movie enough to go out and buy the 2003 and 1980s DVD box sets, the movie soundtrack, join this forum, and I plan to buy the movie on blu-ray 3/16/2010.

[Laughing Dragon]

Just wanted to put this issue in perspective: Last week, Robert Zemeckis' Image Movers studio was shut down by Disney (it created the mo-cap animation for the movie "A Christmas Carol"). And today, a CGI studio called C.O.R.E was also closed - it made the CGI movie "The Wild".

These things happen in animation, and often it's not the quality of the animation that causes studios to go under. "A Christmas Carol" had some amazing effects in it, and as for "The Wild", its storyline was just a bit too much like that of the film "Madagascar", plus it wasn't as good, and that hurt the film at the box office. It looks amazing though...