Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates sail into the giant vessel/sovereign nation Gran Tesoro to have a temporary reprieve from the villainous Navy and win big at the extravagant casinos that liter the ship. Their fortunes eventually turn sour and the rambunctious pirate crew must content with the ship's superpowered supreme ruler, the gold manipulating Gild Tesoro. ONE PIECE FILM: GOLD is an entertaining distraction for those who just want a straight up shonen anime on the big screen. If you're a true hardcore anime fan, especially one who experienced the days of renting whatever VHS was available at your local video store, you shouldn't have any problem walking into this with no knowledge of the incredibly popular series. The movie's story is an average breezy tale that clearly will not have any repercussions upon the franchise, as per tradition with regular anime films. However, writer Tsutomu Kuroiwa does have a nasty habit of dropping several major subplots throughout the picture as well as forgetting to give a few main characters something to do during the climatic final battle. The navigator and all-around team leader Nami gets the worst of it, as she spends her time standing around mouth agap all the while a hulking golden colossus is destroying downtown and her friends are stuck in deadly duels. Maybe if she used the elemental magic we see her wield in the prologue, her compatriots could have had an easier time handling their threats and refrained from bleeding everywhere. This is my first time with Funimation handing the dubbing, many years after sulking through the initial and infamous localization performed by 4Kids Entertainment. I was generally pleased with the cast, with Christopher R. Sabat and Luci Christian being the perfect voice actors for Zoro and Nami respectively, save for Colleen Clinkenbeard as Luffy. I understand she's trying to match the tone and enthusiasm brought to the character by Japanese voice actress Mayumi Tanaka but Clinkenbeard is pretty grating at times. GOLD isn't anything to really write home about nor hold up as an example of a stellar non-Studio Ghibli animated film from Japan. Nevertheless, it's a fun brief adventure and will scratch that anime itch.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
No comments:
Post a Comment