Alakazam - King of the Beasts

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Movie
German title Alakazam - King of the Beasts
Original title 西遊記 Saiyūki
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1960
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Taiji Yabushita, Daisaku Shirakawa
script Keinosuke Uegusa
music Ryōichi Hattori, Les Bexter (US version)
camera Seigō Ōtsuka, Kōmei Ishikawa, Kenji Sugiyama
cut Shintarō Miyamoto, Kanjirō Igusa
synchronization

Alakazam - King of the Beasts ( jap. 西遊記 , Saiyuki , dt. "Journey to the West") is a Japanese anime - Musical by Toei Animation , the August 14, 1960 started off in the Japanese cinema. The work is a film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's manga Boku no Son Gokū ( ぼ く の 孫悟空 ), which in turn is based on the classic Chinese novel The Journey to the West .

Directed by Taiji Yabushita, assisted by Daisaku Shirakawa. The film was one of the first anime to be released in the United States .

action

Alakazam is a brave young macaque who is about to become king of the monkeys. After Alakazam takes the throne, he becomes mean and dictatorial, unwilling to believe that people are more powerful than him. Later he hires Merlin to teach him the magic. Merlin warns Alakazam that these magical powers will later have very negative effects on him. Alakazam becomes even more arrogant, abuses his magical powers and decides to travel to Majutsu land to challenge King Amo, who later, ironically, defeats Alakazam. For Alakazam's offense, he is now required to serve as Prince Amat's servant. This is supposed to strengthen Alakazam's character again. Ultimately, he learns from his mistakes and changes from the role of the arrogant dictator to the real hero.

synchronization

Japanese German
role speaker role speaker
Son Goku Kiyoshi Komiyama Alakazam Pierre Peters-Arnolds
Rinrin Noriko Shindo Dee dee Inez Günther
Cho Hakkai Hideo Kinoshita Sir Quigley Broken Bottom Mogens von Gadow
Sa Gojō Setsuo Shinoda Max Lulipopo Christian Marshal
Sanzō-hōshi Nobuaki Sekine Prince Amat Christian Tramitz
Shaka Nyorai Kunihisa Takeda King Amo Ulrich Frank
Kanzeon Katsuko Ozaki Queen Amass Manuela Renard
Shōryū Michiko Shirasaka Filo Fester Julia Haacke
Gyūmaō Kinshirō Iwao King Ghastly Tommi Piper
Rasetsujo Tamae Kato Queen Ghastly Manuela Renard
Kinkaku-daiō Kiyoshi Kawakubo Herman McSchnarch Ulrich Frank
Ginkaku-daiō Shuichi Kazamatsuri German McSchnarch Willi Röbke
- teller Leon Rainer

Production and publication

The film was made at Toei Animation Studio, directed by Taiji Yabushita, assisted by Daisaku Shirakawa. For marketing reasons, Osamu Tezuka is named as the third director in the credits , in fact he worked out the storyboard. After Tezuka first had contact with the medium of anime while working on Alakazam , his interest in it was aroused. In 1961 he founded his own animation studio, Mushi Productions . Responsible producer was Hiroshi Ōkawa, Gorō Kontaibō and Hideyuki Takahashi came up with the plot and Keinosuke Uegusa wrote the script. The film was released in Japanese cinemas on August 14, 1960.

The film was released in the United States on July 26, 1961 by American International Pictures . Les Bexter was commissioned to compose a new soundtrack for the American version. Frankie Avalon took over the singing voice of Alakazam, the speaking role was taken over by Peter Fernandez. Sterling Holloway acted as a narrator. In this version, however, the characters were localized to the West, in the course of which their names and roles were changed and references to the film's foreign origins were reduced as much as possible. Alakazam was the third anime to be shown in the United States after The Wizard and the Bandits and Tale of a White Snake , which also hit theaters in the United States in the summer of 1961 . Like the other two, the release was a commercial failure. Nevertheless, critic Fred Patten praises the film's good English dubbing and calls it the best-known example of the first anime to come to the USA.

Orion released a German DVD edition based on the American adaptation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 東 映 長 編 研究 第 11 回 白 川 大作 イ ン タ ビ ュ ー （３） 『西遊記』 と 各 ス タ ッ フ の 活躍 . In: WEB ア ニ メ ス タ イ ル . Retrieved April 10, 2014 (Japanese, interview with Daisaku Shirakawa).
  2. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. pp. 279f.
  3. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. pp. 52f.
  4. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004. pp. 22-24.
  5. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews . Stone Bridge Press, 2004, p. 98.