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Digimon Adventure (film)

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Digimon Adventure
Japanese film poster
Japanese film poster
Directed byMamoru Hosoda
Written byReiko Yoshida
Based onDigimon by Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai, and Toei Animation
Music byTakanori Arisawa
Production
company
Distributed byToei Company
Release date
March 6, 1999 (Japan)
Running time
20 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Box office¥650 million

Digimon Adventure (Japanese: デジモンアドベンチャー, Hepburn: Dejimon Adobenchā) is a 1999 Japanese animated short film, directed by Mamoru Hosoda in his directorial debut. A part of the Digimon media franchise, Digimon Adventure is the first Digimon film, and serves as a prologue to the 1999 anime television series of the same name. The film was released in theaters in Japan on March 6, 1999, the day before the release of the Digimon Adventure television series.

Plot

In Tokyo, a creature hatches from an egg that emerges from a computer screen in the home of Taichi Yagami and his younger sister Hikari Yagami. Upon being cared for by the children, it transforms into a dinosaur-like creature that begins wandering the streets of the city. A second egg appears in the sky over Tokyo, from which a bird-like creature emerges. Taichi, Hikari, and several other children witness the two creatures fight; with Taichi and Hikari's encouragement, the dinosaur emerges victorious and both creatures vanish.

Cast

See also: List of Digimon Adventure characters

Ai Nagano, Shizuka Okohira [ja], Shoko Kikuchi, and Yū Sugimoto provide the voices of children.[1]

Production

Digimon Adventure director Mamoru Hosoda

Digimon Adventure was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, written by Reiko Yoshida, and produced by Toei Animation. It is the first of two Digimon movies directed by Hosoda, preceding Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000).[2] The film was originally conceived as a standalone project based on the Digital Monster virtual pet created by WiZ[3][4] and Bandai, with character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru [ja] that were inspired by 1970s comic book artwork. Following the launch of the manga series Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 in the manga magazine V Jump in 1998, Toei elected to make the manga's protagonist Taichi Yagami the primary character of Digimon Adventure; the film was ultimately re-developed into a prologue for the 1999 television series of the same name, which began production a month and a half after the film began production.[5]

As he was unable to place the events of the film in the same time period as the 1990s-set Digimon Adventure television series without creating plot inconsistencies, Hosoda's original concept for the film was a story in which Taichi's father and his Digimon partner travel around Tokyo against the backdrop of the 1964 Summer Olympics;[5] the proposal was rejected, and Hosoda was instead instructed to create a kaiju film.[5] Faced with the difficulty of creating a kaiju film in the film's 20 minute length, Hosoda and Yoshida elected to focus principally on the film's climactic fight scene. Concerns around plot inconsistencies between film and television series were resolved by placing the events of the film several years before the events of the series.[5]

Release

Digimon Adventure was released in theaters in Japan on March 6, 1999,[6] a day before the release of the Digimon Adventure television series.[7] It was released as part of the Spring 1999 Toei Animation Fair, alongside Yu-Gi-Oh! and Doctor Slump: Arale's Surprise Burn.[8] A DVD collecting Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! was released on October 13, 2000, for rental,[9] and on January 21, 2001, for purchase.[10]

The film's theme song is "Butter-Fly" by Koji Wada.[11]

In North America, footage from Digimon Adventure was edited with footage from the films Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000) and Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Landing!! / Transcendent Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals (2000) to create Digimon: The Movie, which was released in theaters on October 6, 2000.[12]

Reception

Digimon Adventure, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Doctor Slump: Arale's Surprise Burn collectively grossed ¥650 million (2001)[13] (equivalent to ¥670.41 million or US$6.15 million in 2019)[14].

Producers of Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris which was released on the same day as Digimon Adventure, largely praised the Digimon film, and later noted in an interview that the film is inspiring and made them to realize that they should seek to create entertainments like Digimon Adventure.[15]

Crunchyroll praised Digimon Adventure as an "endearing short film," praising Hosoda's "admirable" direction and storytelling in spite of the largely commercial purpose of the film.[16] Writing for Polygon, Allegra Frank concurs that while the film is attached to a "Pokémon-like multimedia machine," it has "heart, and humor";[7] Chris Cimi of Otaquest similarly notes that while the film is "made to sell toys and games, Hosoda proved his aptitudes for resonance and charismatic visual story-telling clear as day."[17]

References

  1. ^ Hosoda, Mamoru (director) and Yoshida, Reiko (writer) (March 6, 1999). Digimon Adventure (film) (in Japanese).
  2. ^ Camp, Brian (May 21, 2013). "Mamoru Hosoda Exclusive Interview". Otaku USA. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  3. ^ "渡辺けんじスペシャルインタビュー" [Kenji Watanabe Special Interview]. デジタルモンスター ART BOOK Ver.1～5&20th [Digital Monster ART BOOK Ver.1~5&20th]. Bandai. December 9, 2017.
  4. ^ "デジモンペンデュラム開発者インタビュー" [Digimon Pendulum Developers’ Interview]. デジタルモンスター ART BOOK Ver.PENDULUM [Digital Monster ART BOOK Ver.PENDULUM]. Bandai. November 21, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d DIGIMON MOVIE BOOK. Shueisha. January 2001. ISBN 978-4087790955.
  6. ^ "Digimon Adventure". Toei Animation List of Works. Toei Animation. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Frank, Allegra (October 20, 2018). "Getting fired from a Miyazaki movie was 'a good thing' for this anime director". Polygon. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  8. ^ "Animation Festivals". Kids Web Japan. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  9. ^ "デジモン DVD" (in Japanese). Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  10. ^ "Digimon Adventure". CD Japan. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  11. ^ "[デジモンテイマーズ] ホームページ Interview with Koji Wada". Dimps Corporation (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 6, 2009. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  12. ^ Fahey, Mike (October 6, 2020). "20 Years Ago Digimon: The Movie Premiered, And It Wasn't Great". Kotaku. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  13. ^ "洋画配給収入". BIGLOBE (in Japanese). Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  14. ^ 1868 to 1938: Williamson J., Nominal Wage, Cost of Living, Real Wage and Land Rent Data for Japan 1831-1938, 1939 to 1945: Bank of Japan Historical Statistics Afterwards, Japanese Historical Consumer Price Index numbers based on data available from the Japanese Statistics Bureau. Japan Historical Consumer Price Index (CPI) – 1970 to 2014 Retrieved 30 July 2014. For between 1946 and 1970, from "昭和戦後史". Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  15. ^ Nikkei Entertainment (JP), 2007, Volume January 2001, Nikkei Business Publications
  16. ^ "LE FILM DU DIMANCHE : Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game!". Crunchyroll (in French). March 22, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  17. ^ Cimi, Chris (June 9, 2021). "Mamoru Hosoda's TOEI Origins and What Could Have Been". Otaquest. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
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