This film I feel is another under the radar gem, it was really popular for it's time but as time went on it's became forgotten. This film is also a childhood relic of mine, it was one of the first films that actually got me into the Japanese anime genre, if you can believe that. When I saw this film it just blew me away from the animation style, music used, context, it wasn't anything I've ever seen before. Watching it now I still think the film holds up, especially in animation.
It's also one of the only anime anthologies out there which are unfortunately really scarce, the only other one I can think of is "Memories" but that's a different story. This film to me is sort of "Fantasia" for the 90's which is cool, because like "Fantasia" it was basically anthology of animation shorts correlating with music pieces, and that's exactly what this film does. You could say this plays also similar to Issac Assmov's sci-fi anthologies since his stories always had to do with humans coexisting with robots or robots acting and becoming human.
The animation I think is great, each of them have different styles that fit the context, I still think it looks really good despite how many years it's been. The music is great, I feel most of the scores used are memorable.
There are many stories but I'll just talk about three that are my favorites.
Starlight Angel: This is basically a fairy tale but in sci-fi form which is great because it's a combo of two genres I love. It's a typical story of the right guy saving a beautiful girl but it's really in the execution that makes it stand out. I really like the amusement park, it's practically Disneyland of the future. I like the character designs which are beautiful, even in there expressions of emotion which are just fantastic, despite not hearing what their saying we understand exactly what their dialog perfectly from their expressions; in a way it just goes to show you don't always need verbal dialog to deliver perfect dialog. The score is just beautiful, it's my favorite in the film because it has an adventurous and romantic quality to it.
Deprive: This is another great one, it's also in a way another fairy tale if you want to think of it that way, once again right guy saving the woman he loves from evil. Though this one it's more of an shonan actioneer approach but it is fraking awesome. I really love the action sequences and the choreography is spot on, it's just awesome just seeing the protagonist knock the crap out of a lot of evil robots that are cool looking their all unique in design, let alone practically bigger than him like seeing him jump on a bunch of robots practically stomping on them like Gomba's from the video game "Super Mario Bros". In a way this story is sort of an anime version of pulp comic book hero "Magnus Robot Fighter" since the protagonist sort of is like Magnus, armed with super strength and martial arts to trash the robots, seeing this story makes me wonder why the hell an anime/animated series of that comic book franchise hasn't been made yet.
A Tale of Two Robots: This one is my absolute favorite, it is just fraking hilarious. It's basically mecha anime but in the 18th century which is awesome . I really like the designs of each of the mecha are unique, my favorite one is the one from the Japaneze side which looks awesome, it's practically a giant walking Bogotá. I even like how they operate from the physics and technology they had access to in that century it feels right and makes this sort of a steam punk tale since that genre was always about old technology advanced further. I really like the fights which are fun, however it's really more both character factions that really drive the tale because both the characters that command the mecha are total nitwits. It's just hilarious how both are so determined to take out the other, showing how indifferent both are.
Well that's all I have to say, Robot Carnival like any Carnival is a variety of fun.
Rating: 4 stars
It's also one of the only anime anthologies out there which are unfortunately really scarce, the only other one I can think of is "Memories" but that's a different story. This film to me is sort of "Fantasia" for the 90's which is cool, because like "Fantasia" it was basically anthology of animation shorts correlating with music pieces, and that's exactly what this film does. You could say this plays also similar to Issac Assmov's sci-fi anthologies since his stories always had to do with humans coexisting with robots or robots acting and becoming human.
The animation I think is great, each of them have different styles that fit the context, I still think it looks really good despite how many years it's been. The music is great, I feel most of the scores used are memorable.
There are many stories but I'll just talk about three that are my favorites.
Starlight Angel: This is basically a fairy tale but in sci-fi form which is great because it's a combo of two genres I love. It's a typical story of the right guy saving a beautiful girl but it's really in the execution that makes it stand out. I really like the amusement park, it's practically Disneyland of the future. I like the character designs which are beautiful, even in there expressions of emotion which are just fantastic, despite not hearing what their saying we understand exactly what their dialog perfectly from their expressions; in a way it just goes to show you don't always need verbal dialog to deliver perfect dialog. The score is just beautiful, it's my favorite in the film because it has an adventurous and romantic quality to it.
Deprive: This is another great one, it's also in a way another fairy tale if you want to think of it that way, once again right guy saving the woman he loves from evil. Though this one it's more of an shonan actioneer approach but it is fraking awesome. I really love the action sequences and the choreography is spot on, it's just awesome just seeing the protagonist knock the crap out of a lot of evil robots that are cool looking their all unique in design, let alone practically bigger than him like seeing him jump on a bunch of robots practically stomping on them like Gomba's from the video game "Super Mario Bros". In a way this story is sort of an anime version of pulp comic book hero "Magnus Robot Fighter" since the protagonist sort of is like Magnus, armed with super strength and martial arts to trash the robots, seeing this story makes me wonder why the hell an anime/animated series of that comic book franchise hasn't been made yet.
A Tale of Two Robots: This one is my absolute favorite, it is just fraking hilarious. It's basically mecha anime but in the 18th century which is awesome . I really like the designs of each of the mecha are unique, my favorite one is the one from the Japaneze side which looks awesome, it's practically a giant walking Bogotá. I even like how they operate from the physics and technology they had access to in that century it feels right and makes this sort of a steam punk tale since that genre was always about old technology advanced further. I really like the fights which are fun, however it's really more both character factions that really drive the tale because both the characters that command the mecha are total nitwits. It's just hilarious how both are so determined to take out the other, showing how indifferent both are.
Well that's all I have to say, Robot Carnival like any Carnival is a variety of fun.
Rating: 4 stars