Dr. Slump: The Movies (1-5) by Discotek

[Gyt Kaliba]

It seems like I may be one of the last people who actively planned to get theirs to get it, but mine has FINALLY freaking shipped and will be in my hands soon. ^_^; Apparently my major mistake was ordering it along with a manga volume that they must be having one hell of a hard time getting back in stock, cuz that one item still isn't shipping either...

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh, I forgot to post about this. For some reason, I watched the first four movies very quickly but then didn't come back to the fifth one for a while. Maybe I just didn't want to run out of movies, similar to how I'll just leave one sip of juice in a bottle for weeks rather than finish it and throw it away. But anyway, I finally watched the fifth movie about a week or so ago... and honestly, it was my least favorite of the bunch. I'm not entirely sure why, but I just couldn't get into the premise. Maybe it's because I've never seen Metropolis, which this seems to be inspired by, but I just didn't get it. All kids dream of a world where everything's made of robots who also happen to be able to grant all of their wishes? That just seems... oddly specific, and they don't really seem to go together. I get that giant robots are cool. I get that wish-granting is cool. But when do those ever go together? And despite the fact that all kids have this very specific and incompatible dream, they've never heard of this place until they see this movie. And then they all get taken there the very same night they all happen to be introduced to this concept. And, yes, I know this is Dr. Slump, and things are often crazy, wacky, nonsensical, and random, and I like that, but even by that standard, this just seemed... weird, and the whole time I just kept wondering if I was missing something that would make this premise make the slightest bit of coherence.

But getting past that, we seem to find there are no ulterior motives to this place. Usually in fiction, a place like this is too good to be true, and it's really just a trap to enslave impressionable children who have to learn that you have to work hard sometimes, and you can't just be waited on hand and foot. This doesn't do that. And that's okay. But that means this place is an entirely altruistic place that exists solely to be kind with no expectations of anything in return. And that's so nice. But with that said... my God, the kids are such fucking assholes! As soon as they met the computer and started harassing him until he threw them out... I hated every single one of them. Fuck all of you kids.

Finally, and I guess this is just a minor thing, but, good grief, what was with the loving close-up of Peasuke's genitals? Now, I'm not a prude when it comes to nudity and often roll my eyes at the people who freak out whenever Goku's naked in Dragon Ball. I wish we as a society found nudity less objectionable. But geez! They strip Peasuke down, zoom in tight on nothing but his boy bits and just hold there for an entire second or two. And then they show it again during the credits! Um... why? What purpose does that serve? Is it supposed to be funny? That's just the very definition of gratuitous. I mean, if there was some point to focusing on his penis (although I can't for the life of me figure out what justification for it there would be in this instance), then fine.

Haha, also that same scene really made me feel uncomfortable the first time I saw this and had no idea what was happening. All I knew was that this flying space fortress kidnapped a bunch of children from their bedrooms and told them they'd make all of their dreams come true. And then the very next thing we see is a child having all of his clothes forcibly removed from his body with absolutely no immediate explanation as to why. I'm not going to lie. I was more than a little uncomfortable and almost expected Chris Hansen to step out of my laundry room.

Also... where the hell was Taro?! I was waiting for him to show up for the entire movie, and he never did? What the hell? Was he too old by this point to be considered a kid?

[dbboxkaifan]

I sure hope that Discotek gets Volume 2 (6-11) in the near future because it'd feel incomplete just owning the first five films alone.

Watched the first movie last night and was floored by how good it looked. Obviously, the animation wasn't the best, but the colours and lines were strong. Normally when watching a DVD I think "Man, I wish I had this on Blu-ray," but here I was thinking "I can't imagine a Blu-ray would improve on this a great deal."

This is what I thought to myself when watching Elfen Lied and Ergo Proxy on DVD (upscaled via PS3) they looked absolutely gorgeous (of course I wasn't close to the TV to notice the screen details).

[Gyt Kaliba]

It's in! I finally got my copy in!

...And it would come in right when I'm in the middle of watching something else. Thankfully it shouldn't take too long before I'm at a good stopping place on that again though, so that I can watch this next. If I can just resist until then anyway. But hey, I'm just happy to finally have it in my hands, and to have added yet another sale to this thing. Really hope it sells well enough for us to get some more Dr. Slump from Discotek, but at any rate, thanks again for the work you put into this Ashura and Herms!

[Daimo-Rukiri]

I'm currently on Movie 4, movie 3 felt like a parody of Wacky Races which was kinda cool unless that was the intent?
I fell asleep during 4 so I'll have to watch it during a day or something as I fall asleep to anything these days.

I hope we get the other movies as I do find them pretty funny, I may have to seek out the DVD box eventually.. I have read the manga and always did enjoy the humor.

[medama_oyaji]

Toriyama did a couple big race storylines in the manga, and the movie is sort of an adaptation of that.

Movie 4 is interesting, because it's kind of an adaptation to a manga story, but the characters are recast, sort of like actors playing the parts of "The Hoyoyo Gang" etc.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Just finished movie 1, and already I'm even more convinced that we need to get more of this released here. I already knew this story from the manga, but there's just...there's something about seeing this kind of insanity in motion, with music and voice over, that really adds to it, at least for me.

I had a couple of questions already though.

1) There's this gag that's used at the start and end of the movies, with what seems to be a cricket-guy (and then Arale talking over him at the end), saying what the subtitles render as 'Meimuna opalifera!'. Um....whaaaa? I'm assuming this is some kind of onomatopoeia for the noises being made, but that doesn't sound anything like the actual audio line. Am I missing anything here?

2) I'm going to assume the ending song of this movie was also the ending son of the series, or at least one of them, kind of like how the first DB and DBZ movies both re-used their series endings as well. I'm also basing that guess on the fact that I know the opening song was from the series. Would that be a correct assumption?

As for some more general thoughts - 1) I never questioned it in the manga version, but how in the hell was a VHS tape "hidden" in a magazine?! You'd notice the bulge! 2) There's...some somewhat frightening implications of this love potion when you think about it, but then again, I guess that's pretty true of love potions in general. 3) Dear god this footage quality is AMAZING!

Dunno if I'll get to movie 2 tonight or not, given it's lengthy run time, but I'm going to try.

[medama_oyaji]

Yes, that is the first opening and the second ending themes on Movie 1. As I mentioned earlier, these sequences are cropped to fit the movie's widescreen ratio. I love the original ending of the series, but I have a particular fondness for ending 2. I love the party/festival vibe

[dbboxkaifan]

My favourite films of disc 2 were the 3rd and 5th, they were just so much fun, active and enjoyable to watch but the picture quality wasn't very good as the compression was very visible at times.

I wish they would have used DVD9 discs instead of DVD5s (even though 4.33 GB exceeds the DVD5 limit, I think) so the compression wouldn't have been needed and it'd looked way better.

[Tyro]

My favourite films of disc 2 were the 3rd and 5th, they were just so much fun, active and enjoyable to watch but the picture quality wasn't very good as the compression was very visible at times.

I also saw some issues in movie #2. Has anyone else noticed this?

[dbboxkaifan]

I don't think I noticed any aside from a typo and the compressed video quality.

But regardless, I hope that Discotek releases the second part and this time please use DVD9 discs.

[dr_raichi]

Does anyone knows if Eastern Star is going to release others movies from Dr Slump ?

[ShadowDude112]

So, I was at Dragon Con this weekend and I was at Discotek's booth and bought Street Fighter 2 the Animated Movie on Blu-ray. While I was there, I asked them about more Dr. Slump movies. The guys said that people should definitely go on their site and request more and they'll see if they can get it. So if you loved this set like me, make sure you do that! Maybe we can get more Dr. Slump!

[Cipher]

Thanks for the heads up. I sent a comment. I'd love to own the original Dr. Slump anime, and their presentation of the movies is stellar for a relatively bare-bones release.