| eX-Driver:
The Movie (2002)
Animation Production: Bandai Visual/DGA
Released by: Geneon
Entertainment
Running Time: 90 Minutes
Official Website: eX-Driver
By Jeffrey
Couto
Introduction
Can you imagine a future where all vehicles
are controlled by satellite A.I? The thought of this concept
brings to mind many of those 1930’s and 50’s"
world of tomorrow" films and presentations that were
made for the World’s Fair. Remember how they used to
portray an entire family sitting down inside the car and everyone
was reading, playing cards, or generally enjoying the passing
landscape? Don’t know if that will ever really come
to be, but today we’re going to take a look at another
futuristic depiction of a world where people will be driven
by cars with artificial intelligence and only a group of expert
drivers known as eX-Drivers still operate gas powered vehicles.
The world of tomorrow never looked this good!
Story
eX-Driver: The Movie
"The squeal of smoking tires, the roar of the engine
and the thrill of a hairpin turn in a power drift. Most people
in the future have no knowledge of these adrenaline-pumping
aspects to driving because they only use cars driven by AI
computers. However, sometimes the computers lose themselves
and the cars race out of control! Fortunately, the éX-Drivers
still love their gas-powered racing cars and are hired to
shutdown rogue AI cars usingtheir amazing driving skills.
Three teenage prodigies, Lorna, Lisa and Souichi,
go to Los Angeles to participate in a world-class race of
éX-Drivers. As they prepare, they soon suspect that
underground gambling and the mob may be involved- the thrill
of the race is about to éXplode with this more sinister
danger! " Geneon's
eX-Driver Page
eX-Driver: Nina & Rei Danger Zone
"Miniature menace! A rogue vehicle has beenshutting down
Tokyo's transportation grid even though it's only 1 foot long!
When Nina and Rei attempt to stop the remote controlled car,
they discover it is a miniature version of Nina! Who's built
this tiny terror and why?! " Geneon's
eX-Driver Page
Review
I think Geneon’s website summaries for
the eX-Driver movie and featurette are as perfect a description
for each one as can be so I’ll skip the usual plot summary
and head right into the review portion.
eX-Driver: The Movie
This movie wastes no time at all in taking
us right into the action, opening with an exciting chase of
an A.I car run amok. This scene pretty much sets the pace
for the rest of the movie, which for the most part focuses
on setting up the amazing chase and action sequences that
make this one heck of an anime roller coaster, especially
if you're a fan of racing or cars in general.
The overall plot of this movie is fairly simple
centering for the mostly on what seems to be some illegal
gambling activity around the big eX-Driver World Meet on the
part of highly influential members of each country being represented
at the race. There is also a secondary plot that revolves
around the daughter of Mr Gambino, team USA’s sponsor
and the owner of an East Coast supermarket chain who used
to be a mob boss. She is sure that her dad will be taking
part in the illegal eX-Driver gambling and has decided to
do everything in her power to get his attention away from
the race, which needless to say results in some dangerous
situations that only Japan’s eX-Driver team can help
her out of.
For a release like this though the plot is
more of a means to the ends, with the ends in this case being
car racing and cool looking vehicles. That said boy does eX-Driver
delivers on its promise and then some! I’m not even
sure how to describe how awesome the car racing was throughout
this movie, especially in the last 20 minutes or so. Simply
put eX-Driver: The Movie will get your senses going and not
let go until the very last frame is played.
On the production end you can easily tell
that the creative staff behind this project loved what they
were working on. It just comes through in every aspect of
the film, from the character designs, to the way the vehicles
move and the almost seamless integration of the 2-D animation
with its computer generated counterpart. This aspect in particular
sets eX-Driver: The Movie apart from any and all contenders.
I know other shows like Initial D did it first, but animation
is an ever evolving art and what was achieved here is really
beyond anything we’ve yet seen in a racing-themed anime.
The integration between the 2-D cel animation
and the 3-D computer generated graphics really is seamless.
The cars in particular are very well modeled and are cel-shaded
so they don’t really look out of place the way CGI vehicles
used to when placed against traditional animation. The best
part is that the people behind the cars were able to not only
get them to look good, but also to move fast and realistically,
which historically has been somewhat of a challenge to achieve.
One can only hope that Mach Go Go Go will one day return looking
like this.
Complementing the spectacular visuals is one
of the better anime soundtracks I’ve heard recently.
The music for this movie was just as fun to listen to as it
was to watch the cars race inside the city. In particular
I enjoyed all the songs that comlpemented the pulse pounding
BGM. The voice acting was equally superb and really added
to the overall quality of this film.
eX-Driver: Nina & Rei Danger Zone
In addition to the the eX-Driver movie the
folks at Geneon saw fit to include this smaller feature as
a way to complement the main feature as eX-Driver: The Movie
only runs for about an hour or so. This featurette while focused
on an entirely different cast and story is just as exciting
and well produced as the movie and in certain respects I even
liked it more, thanks in part to its more tightly focused
storyline and smaller cast.
Unlike the movie Danger Zone is devoted almost
exclusively to the main characters, Nina and Rei, and how
they cope with the mystery behind the disappearing A.I car
and the person behind it. So even though its fairly short
(25 minutes) the story manages to have some depth to it and
a little character development. There are a couple of small
subplots and a small set of secondary protagonists, but these
never come to the forefront.
Like its movie counterpart this small feature
is loaded with some great racing scenes that mix fast moving
cars with a lot of spectacular action sequences. The final
scene in particular was quite exciting and kept me on he edge
of my sofa! It really impresses me when I see what can be
done these days when a really good team of people come together
for an anime project.
This OVA is extremely well produced and comes
across with the same level of quality as the movie. There
aren’t nearly as many complex scenes with several cars,
but what is here really is incredible. The animation is very
smooth and features a very bright palette of pastel colors
that encompasses everything from the characters to the backgrounds
and even the CGI cars.
I didn’t think the soundtrack was on
par with the main feature, it just seemed to be less lively
and didn’t do much to stand out from the visuals and
story. The voice acting was good, but again didn’t seem
on par with the movie.
DVD Package
Geneon's DVD are usually up there in terms
of quality and this release certainly follows in the footsteps
of its predecessors. First off, it's really packed with extras
that add a lot of value to what is already a nice movie/featurette
package. Probably the best extra included here are 3 separate
animation shorts with the cast from the movie. These are very
simple stories that rely on static images in a style that
mimics the use of something similar to color pencils. There's
not a lot to them, but they are extremely funny to watch.
In addition the DVD also includes three differen
Japanese promos for the movie, clean versions of the movie
opening & closing themes, a clean version of the featurette
opening, concept art for both features, and previews for other
Geneon releases. The cover for the DVD case is reversible
and there's a great insert inside the case with some beautiful
artwork (same as what's featured on the reverse side of the
cover) and information on the chapter stops in the disc.
The audio for both the Japanese and English
soundtracks are encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Speaking
of which the soundtrack is really well encoded and takes advantage
of the subject matter to blasts us with a healty mix of sounds
that come from all directions. The video transfer is as crisp
as could be hope for and comes accross the screen very sharply
with no visible defects or color bleeding.
Final
Thoughts
eX-Driver: The Movie is without doubt one
of the most exciting anime to come out in recent months. If
you're into cars at all this one comes with our higest recommendations.
If you're into anime in general this is still one of those
titles that you really need to check out and enjoy.
eX-Driver: The Movie gets a big thumbs up!
Jeffrey
Couto |
