Characterisation is regulation thin, plotting largely nonsensical, 'camerawork' and effects increasingly pyrotechnical until an amazing final light show inside the Ark.
Spriggan (2001)
Runtime: 90 mins
Synopsis: SPRIGGAN, a Japanese animation film from director Hirotsuge Kawasaki, centers on Noah's Ark, a powerful artifact from an ancient civilization that is discovered on Mt. Ararat, Turkey. The discovery sets in motion a diabolical plot by the U.S. Pentagon to claim the object as its own... SPRIGGAN, a Japanese animation film from director Hirotsuge Kawasaki, centers on Noah's Ark, a powerful artifact from an ancient civilization that is discovered on Mt. Ararat, Turkey. The discovery sets in motion a diabolical plot by the U.S. Pentagon to claim the object as its own property. Opposed to the Pentagon is Arkam, an organization employing armored solders, including the film's protagonist, Yu Ominae, a teenager with superior reflexes. Yu must summon all his strength to defeat the Pentagon's operatives: agile Little Boy, the tank-like Fat Man, and the super powerful brain Captain MacDougal, who looks less than 10 years old. The action in SPRIGGAN will more than satisfy explosion enthusiasts, while anyone who follows the career of the film's supervisor, Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA), will appreciate yet another story of a psychic child, a leitmotiv in Otomo's work. Sketching for the animation was done in Turkey to provide realistic faces and backgrounds to the film, while computer animated effects inside the Ark are as disorienting as the effects in last third of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The film is based on a manga of the same name, three volumes of which have been released in the U.S. as STRIKER. SPRIGGAN is the directorial debut of Kawasaki, whose love of the ultraviolent manga is evident in the film. [More]
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Andy McAvin, Chris Patton, Kevin Corn
DVD Info
Release:
Mar 2, 2006
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - Japanese, English
- DTS - English
- Dolby Digital 2.0 - English
- Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Audio Commentary - 1. Matt Greenfield - ADR Director, Voice Actors
- Isolated Audio Track - 1. Soundtrack
- Trailers - 1. ADV Previews
Reviews
This animated 1998 actioner about a Japanese superspy out to defend the world's most guarded archaeological secrets from evil Americans has to be seen to be believed.
The Spriggan are specially trained troops placed all over the world for the purpose of guarding historical artifacts - kinda sci-fi Indiana Joneses if you will.
Newcomers to anime would be better off checking out the likes of Ghost in the Shell, but fans of the genre won't be disappointed.
What this one has above many of its stablemates is a storyline that favours fanciful 'reality' over unbridled science-fiction extravaganza.
Visuals are all that this movie has going for it. If the sound system in your theater dies, it won't make any difference.
Though 'Spriggan' manages to be both ludicrously convoluted and peculiarly childish, its worst fault is that it's mind-numbingly violent.
It's often fun to look at, if that's your bag, but when Yu defensively exclaims, 'We can't all be Schwarzenegger,' you know how low they've set the bar.
Much of Spriggan feels like an apocalyptic Arnold Schwarzenegger cartoon, with lots of automatic gunfire, rivers of blood and dialogue that could have been written by a theologically inclined 11-year-old with a thing for explosions.


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