Patlabor Recommended

Publisher
Manga Entertainment
Director
Mamoru Oshii
Production
Bandai, Production IG, Tatsunoko Productions
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
100 mins
Year
1989

Patlabor the Movie

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
24th Jul 06

“Patlabor came along and changed everything.” The quote by Mamoru Oshii claims on the back of the case of Beez’s (re-)release of Patlabor the Movie, and it is most certainly true. From the original seven OVA’s released in the late eighties spawned a forty-seven episode TV series, three theatrical films (two directed by Mamoru Oshi) and an additional 16 OVAs, Patlabor has been hugely successful.

Set in an alternative 1999, where multi-purpose, human piloted robots known as Labors are being used for the Babylon Project (a large-scale construction scheme that involves filling in Tokyo Bay to create real estate). Unfortunately, the rise in Labors numbers has lead to an increase in crime using them, and the Special Vehicles Division 2 which uses Patrol Labors in order to combat this was set up.

The story of the movie sees Labors going crazy for no reason anyone can find. The Special Vehicles Division 2’s second unit begins to suspect the reason is a virus in the new type of operating system, whose creator committed suicide. The second unit attempt to stop the virus, but it seems the programmer’s master plan is three moves ahead at all times.

Having previously been available from Manga Entertainment (packaged along with the arguably superior second movie), this is not simply a repackaging of the previous version. The visuals have been improved (although a difference is noticeable the improvement is hardly on the same scale as the platinum version of Evangelion), as has the audio. The original Japanese vocal cast was reassembled; the sound effects and musical score, to re-record everything in 5.1 surround sound (the previous 5.1 had been put together by using the original 2.0 stereo mix).

Additionally, the English dub has been re-recorded; unfortunately, this is possibly this version largest down fall. While there aren’t any major problems, this new dub is a lot dryer, the previous version was a lot more light hearted, the emotion just doesn’t appear to be as strong in this new English dub. The audio quality is greatly improved, ignoring the English dub, the audio is clean and crisp. The animation still holds up incredibly well compared to more modern titles even without digital animation techniques or an over reliance on CGI.

Looking at the standard version, there is nothing here that should make people who already have the previous version of Patlabor on DVD to consider buying this version (Although there is the limited special edition also available from Beez which is likely to tempt you). If you don’t already own Patlabor the Movie, these film well deservers to be in your collection, it is a true classic, and hopefully we’ll see a lot more of this classic franchise in the UK in the future.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/Jap audio, English sub, trailers, tv spots, 16 page booklet.

Release information: Publisher: Beez Release Date: June 26th 2006 Classification: PG Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The 16-page booklet contains information on the production of Patlabor the movie, including the re-recording of audio for the new 5.1 mix. It also includes character bios and production sketches. Other extras are a bit dull in comparison, theatrical traillers for the film and TV spots.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 24th Jul 06

Patlabor Images