Ultraman Rising (Netflix ILM Film)

[lhb412]

This is a long time coming in two respects:

Tsuburaya has been wanting a big, splashy American Ultraman project since the '80s. Tons of false starts, and even the few things actually produced (like Powered) didn't amount to much. Then the Chaiyo situation developed and stymied further attempts.

Secondly, American animator Shannon Tindle has been trying to get a dream project off the ground for two decades: an animated kids film about a tokusatsu-inspired hero who ends up becoming the adoptive parent to the baby of an enemy monster. The movie almost gets made a few times, but the project keeps falling apart.

Flashforwad to a few years ago: Netflix likes Tindle's pitch, but tell him "why not just make it really Ultraman, because it's obviously based on Ultraman?" It just so happens Tsuburaya scored its final legal battle against Chaiyo so when Tindle/Netflix showed up at their door it was kismet.

The movie will be released worldwide on Netflix next month. The Japanese dub cast has a few familiar faces... uh, voices. It's a shame it's streaming only, 'cause it looks gorgeous and would probably play great on the bug screen!

https://youtu.be/TwXgOMDONK8?si=KXiJZux8KP5jX8Ll

[Benjamin Haines]

According to Box Office Mojo, this movie is slated to get a limited theatrical release in North America on June 14, the same day that it debuts on Netflix worldwide.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/calendar/?ref_=bo_hm_rs
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl208502785/?ref_=bo_rs_table_38

[lhb412]

An animated kids movie probably isn't the vehicle most us adult fans would've chosen to be Ultraman's starring vehicle introduction (or reintroduction) to Western audiences, but having seen the film I'm pretty happy with the results. It's frankly gorgeous to look at and it leads with the heart and moral qualities of Ultraman that have been key part since the beginning - plus, it really differentiates Ultraman: Rising from the dozens (hundreds?) of other superheroes that have inundated American children these past few decades. Not to get up on a soapbox, but I don't think these superheroes are heroic enough! Aren't these supposed to be characters for children? Role models? I fear we've lost the main ingredient somewhere along the way in making these children's characters entertainment for adults. I'm glad Ultraman, at least, leads with compassion.

And as for how it deviates from 'canon'? I was a bit concerned going in, but once the film started I could care less. Every single Ultraman project is a reboot. Pretty much everything Ultraman: Rising does different from classic Ultraman has already been done differently by some Tsuburaya project or other.

[Spoiler]I think UltraDad's gut and mustache where my favorite thing in the entire film, and I reckon that's the film's biggest deviation! Remins me of the abandoned idea that Ultraman Nexus would change appearance to reflect his human alter ego. [/Spoiler]

In closing: in terms of recent Hollywood animations of superheroes I'll put Rising below the SpiderVerse movies but on equal footing with TMNT: Mutant Mayhem.

[Kailem]

I watched this a couple of nights ago and it ended up being about what I figured it would be from the teaser; a good, visually great-looking movie that I found really hard to get into because of how obvious it was that this was developed as a separate thing that they later slapped the Ultraman brand on to (and sure enough, reading up on it afterwards, that's exactly what happened).

As I said, it's a good movie, but even for someone for whom the majority of his Ultraman experience is from the older Showa stuff, I was just constantly distracted by how Ultraman in this was basically just Spider-Man, and really shared no similarities with classic Ultraman other than his name and appearance (Ultraman has a secret underwater base now? And a sassy little robot sidekick? And he's constantly talking out-loud and quipping? And there appears to be no difference between Ken and Ultraman, because Ultraman is just "giant Ken"? etc.). It honestly reminded me of G'98 in a way.

It was funny going from Shin Ultraman to this though, purely because they're such polar opposites. With Shin Ultraman you really have to be familiar with the original series to get the most enjoyment out of it, whereas with Ultraman Rising I think you'd actually have a better time if you went in knowing absolutely nothing at all about Ultraman. Though I'm not sure what any potential new fans are going to think if this is their first experience with the series and they then move on to looking up some of the original stuff, only to find it's nothing like this movie makes it seem.

It *did* have some awesome moments, and I loved the opening especially (indeed the first few minutes almost convinced me my initial reactions to the teaser might have been wrong). And at the end of the day, despite my reservations, it *is* a good movie. But yeah, overall I feel like if they wanted to take an original, tokusatsu-inspired movie and change it into an Ultraman one, they could have maybe made some changes to make it fit that new identity better, instead of seemingly just.....not.

Also, I kinda hated Emi's design. Just cliched "big fat baby head"-looking thing. Waaaay too on the nose. So that didn't help things either.