Patlabor WXIII - The Movie (Ultimate Edition 3-Disc Set)

Starring:Katsuhiko Watabiki, Hiroaki Hirata, Atsuko Tanaka, RyÃ»nosuke Ã”bayashi, MÃ®na Tominaga, Toshio Furukawa, Tomomichi Nishimura, Richard Cansino, Michael Forest, Daran Norris, Osamu Saka, Daisuke GÃ´ri, YÃ´ Inoue, Jake Martin (II), Issei Futamata, Michelle Ruff, Julie Maddalena, Kari Wahlgren, Richard Epcar, Shinji Ogawa
Director: Fumihiko Takayama, Takuji Endo
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Despite its title, this theatrical feature has little to do with the mecha adventures and ensemble comedy of the popular broadcast series Mobile Police Patlabor. Inspector Shin'ichiro Hata of the Tokyo Police is assigned to investigate an unexplained series of violent and grisly deaths. Instead of the rogue mecha the Patlabor team fight, the killer is a weird, amphibious monster, the product of yet another biotech experiment gone wrong. Hata meets the beautiful scientist who created the monster--using cells from the cancer that killed her daughter. The familiar characters Noa Izumi, Isao Ota, and Captain Goto appear in brief cameos when they dispatch the mutant monster in a half-ruined stadium. Director Fumihiko Takayama tries to emulate the look and tone of Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin-Roh, but fails to generate the ominous tension that distinguished The Wolf Brigade. (Rated R: violence, grotesque imagery, profanity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

If you loved Patlabor Movies 1&2, then don't watch!.......2006-10-28

Falling in love with Patlabor 1&2, I expected to see SV2 and the Labors used but in WX13, no such thing. Yes the story does try to take the movie in a different direction, but for the majority of people watching this, already seen this kind of plot. A robot turns into a bio-mechanical robot (BGC2040?), and requires the skill of heroes to stop it. Seriously, I had flashbacks of Bubblegum Crisis on my mind. The fact is, the only real suprise I had was when the monster had "watermelons".
Next time, they should stick to drama and action instead of trying to redo the "robot monster" cliche.

Patlabor? No way!.......2006-09-04

If you expect another great Patlabor installment, please don not watch this movie. Apart from the name, it has absolutely nothing to do with the characters, feeling and storytelling that made the precious two movies as well as the TV and video shows so great. The SV2 characters have almost no screen time, while our new main protagonist completely fail to either impress or make this 100 minutes at least bearable. It is the most boring and meaningless anime I have seen in a long time and I would neither own nor watch this ever again if I weren't such a completionist. It is just another C-grade monster movie with some pseudo-tragic characters in it and it does not deserve to be called Patlabor. Oshii did not make this movie for a very good reason, and only completionist like me or people who want to study how to screw up a franchise should get this movie. Compared to the previous installments this is just a shame. Only Kenji Kawai's soundtrack saves this piece from being a total stinker...

Animation?(Yes!) Story?(No!).......2005-10-23

I had initially been dissuaded from purchasing this movie because of the poor reviews. However, this movie can be excellent, depending on your perspective. The animation in the movie was spectactular. The attention to detail was surprisingly better than Patlabor the Movie 2(my overall favorite of the trio). There were tons of transition scenes(car rides and walks through the city) that make the film more 3-dimensional. There was a scene where the detectives are interviewing a deaf woman and she signs her answers. I was impressed the animators decided to add this bit of detail. I give the animation itself a 5+. I think this one actually raised the bar higher for Japanese animation. The music is also very PatLabor 2-like.

I also like the fact that this movie is more character and less mecha driven. The pace is a lot slower(very few action scenes) than the first two Patlabor movies so each interaction between the characters is significant. There is an underlying tension initially between the two detectives that adds another aspect to the overall story.

Where the movie falls on its face(besides being only loosely related to the PatLabor franchise) is where it goes over very familiar ground. If you have seen the Fly, Species or any of the genetic-experiment-gone-wrong movies from anime, then the story in this one will have nothing to offer you. It is unfortunate that the writing on this flick could not keep up with the dazzling animation. I think if you put the whole monster story into the background, then this film becomes a lot more enjoyable. I would have preferred to have seen a straight-ahead classic detective story instead of a retread of tired themes.

Overall I give the storyline a 2. I wish Amazon would allow people to rate the cinematography/animation separately from the story itself. My final rating in no way should detract from the detail worked that went into making this a gorgeous flick. I'm into high-end animation so I enjoy having this one in my collection.

Finally, if you get the DVD set with the Mini-Pato featurette then you are in for a treat. The featurette is about 35 minutes long and is very clever. It was refreshing to see another example of how the folk at Production I.G. are pushing animation boundaries.

A very Sophisticated animated movie.......2005-10-10

I was lucky enough to see this movie when it first came out in March 2002. It was featured at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Festival before the rest of the world see's it except Japan. Both the director and the writer of the movie came all the way from Japan to introduce and Q/A at the screening hall. How often do you see that?

Animated realism.......2005-09-19

Though I didn`t receive my order from amazon (out of stock)I had already enjoyed this movie in a previous ocasion.

After spending a year and a half living in Japan I`m convinced the japanese character has, as a matter of fact, very little to do with mutant monsters and people sporting giant mechanical armours.

Patlabour The Movie, unusually, choses to spend very little time displaying mutant monsters wreaking utter destruction, even though the plot does involve monsters and squads of mechanical heroes.
From the looks of the main characters (tanned skin color, slanted eyes) to their personality and interactions Patlabour seems to look for a more realistic update of the Japanese character that the typical monster movie has being selling us.
While the pace is somewhat slow and the action scenes tend to be very un-heroic, scenes such as an elderly couple feeding their pet fish, or the two main characters having a very civilized altercation inside a typical Tokyo middle aged bachelor`s apartment, or the same characters slurping icecreams in a Tokyo suburb brings a surprising closeness to the average japanese person day to day.
Don`t expect much excitement from this movie. Instead, enjoy it as a window into the life of contemporary Japan.

Average customer rating:

If you loved Patlabor Movies 1&2, then don't watch!
Patlabor? No way!
Animation?(Yes!) Story?(No!)
A very Sophisticated animated movie
Animated realism

Patlabor WXIII - The Movie
Starring: Katsuhiko Watabiki , Hiroaki Hirata , Atsuko Tanaka , Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi , and Mîna Tominaga
Director: Fumihiko Takayama , and Takuji Endo
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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