Metropolis

Starring: Carolyn M Doyle, Greg Fitzpatrick Director: Michael M Robin Original UK Premiere: 2001 Dvd Release: 22nd July, 2002 Number Of Discs: 2 Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Box set, Letterboxed, PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding Subtitled In: Dutch, English, Hindi Dubbed In: English

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Metropolis, also known as Osamu Tezukas Metropolis or Robotic Angel is a manga by Osamu Tezuka & an anime movie based on the manga. Despite some similarities, the manga was only indirectly influenced by Fritz Lang s pre-World War II epic Metropolis. In fact, Osamu Tezuka claimed not to have seen the film at the time he was working on this story, but rather that he was inspired by the poster of the 1927 film. For example, the strong theme of class struggle present in the film version is not present in the manga, which rather tells a fairly straightfoward story aimed at younger readers. However, his creation of the character Mitchi was based on the only still picture of the movie that he had seen, which depicted the birth of a female robot. Because he considered it to be one of his earlier, lesser works, Tezuka did not want his manga to be made into a feature film & if he was still alive, the anime movie version probably would not have been produced. However, this cinematic adaptation of Tezukas story integrates far more elements from the original Fritz Lang film. Posters Of Metropolis

A stunning piece of Japanese animation, Metropolis gets much of its visual look as well as its storyline less from the Fritz Lang classic than from Osamu Tezukas comic book adaptation of it. In a style a reminiscent of Little Nemo & TinTin, Langs dystopian fantasy is tweaked into the story of the doomed robot girl Tima & her love for Kenichi, nephew of a visiting Japanese detective. The citys ruler, Duke Red, needs her to complete his super-weapon, the Ziggurat, & has built her to resemble his dead daughter; the Dukes adopted son Rock is jealous & possessive of his father; & Timas builder Laughton has agendas of his own. There are chases, riots, conflagrations & duels in the snow; unusually for Japanese animation the backgrounds are as inventively characterised as the characters who move through them. Screenwriter Katsuhiro Otomo & director Rintaro have deservedly moved from cult status to the mainstream on the strength of this film, which merits the epic tag so often attached to less interesting animations.

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