22 Dec 2003: My own copy of the R1 version turned up today. DVD details updated, and commentary on the disc and English dub is on the Thoughts page. In summary, it’s the first English dub, is a pretty job of it, but has some subtle differences from the original. There are no cuts that I noticed, though it has an R rating (as compared to the UK where it’s a 12A).
17 Dec 2003: Stephen Norris has sent in details of the R1 version – they’re on the DVD page. More details will follow when my own disc arrives.
14 Nov 2003: After a very quiet period for news, Alex Seltsikas reports that a R1 DVD of Avalon is now listed on Movietyme, Play.com, Amazon and other retailers. More interestingly some of these sources are reporting it has having an English dub – which would be new. Whether this is Neil Gaiman project, which was thought to have died, or something else remains to be seen! I will add DVD details to the DVD page once they are confirmed.
22 July 2003: Vogel’s Polish transcription is now available Polish Translation
21 July 2003: Vogel has produced a Polish transciption of the dialogue which I hope to add here soon. He has also compared that with the English subtitiles – see the Script Translation Accuracy page for the comparisons.
18 July 2003: Avalon Preloaded 67% is an unofficial fan movie set before the events of the film. See http://www.avalon.plan9.art.pl/main_e.html
5 July 2003: Updated information on the books page
1 July 2003: The Sonmay CD is also a pirate edition. Again, see http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html. (Mar 2009 – that link is currently dead, instead there’s some general information at http://www.filmposters.com/articles/anime.asp)
25 June 2003: The Anime Cartoon DVD of Avalon is now conifirmed as a pirate edition. See http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html. (Mar 2009 – that link is currently dead, instead there’s some general information at http://www.filmposters.com/articles/anime.asp)
19 June 2003: René recounts an interview in which Oshii says that Avalon came about as a result of the Wachowskis being influenced by anime, especially Ghost In The Shell with the Matrix series. If you’ve seen GITS and Matrix the similarities are unmistakable. She also passed on the URL for a site with an interview with Oshii: http://www.shift.jp.org/051/avalon/
14 June 2003: Duncan Foster recommends Stalker as another film in a similar vein to Avalon that might have been an influence upon it. He writes…Stalker (1979) Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Near a gray and unnamed city is The Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers. Over his wife’s strenuous objections, a man rises in the dead of night: he’s a stalker, one of a handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk imprisonment) to lead people into The Zone to The Room, a place where one’s secret hopes come true. That night, he takes two people into The Zone: a popular writer who is burned out, cynical, and questioning his genius; and, a quiet scientist more concerned about his knapsack than the journey. In the deserted Zone, the approach to The Room must be indirect. As they draw near, the rules seem to change and the stalker faces a crisis. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0079944 I could see how this film could’ve influenced Oshii. It has similar themes, its very slow in pace… There’s also a dramatic shift in colour schemes, the first 30 minutes is shot in monochromatic sepia-toned grey, and then it suddenly changes into colour when they enter the Zone.
7 June 2003: Added comments from Ben-Rudiak Gould around the subtitle translation compared with the Japanese version of the continuity script included in the Memorial box DVD. I hope to add more comments from Ben in due course, and I’m still looking for more people to help with checking out all the subtitles against either the Polish soundtrack or the oiginal Japanese of the script. Please get in touch if you can help! Script Translation Accuracy
18 May 2003: Added some comments from Chris Pope.
18 March 2003: Added some thoughts from Tom Box and details from him of the the single disc Emotion edition of Avalon.
26 February 2003: Added some thoughts from Mart Kont. Added DVD-ROM content detail for the Belgian DVD courtesy of Etienne Bruggen.
25 February 2003: Can YOU help? I am always nervous about the accuracy of translation of subtitled films, and with something as subtle as Avalon the nuances of the language are potentially very significant. If you can translate Polish to English, and would be willing to do a translation of the spoken dialogue in Avalon please get in touch. Likewise, if you can translate written Japanese I’d like to hear from you!
19 February 2003: First update after the great server crash of February 16! Added some thoughts by Simon Bray around the naming of the characters.
16 February 2003: Xavier Amet mailed me to explain a bit more about the French sites. In fact the new French site is the same one as previous, but relaunched under a new domain name. I’ve updated the web sites page to include this information and also the URL for Xavier’s Avalon site within his own site. I’ve also put a graphic back on the DVD page to make navigating the site easier.
04 January 2003: Replaced the old DVD image pages with a new table summarising the differences between most of the known editions of the film (I’ve not included the French standard edition, since I consider the Collector’s edition much better). The table now includes details of the Korean Special Edition, which provides a successor to the Memorial Box as the best version available currently with English subtitles (and the Polish DTS soundtrack), though it’s a Region 3 NTSC edition. There’s still currently no PAL edition with English subtitles or the DTS soundtrack.
03 January 2003: Benjamin Färber provided this information about the German disc, which confirms that it’s quite spartan compared to some of the other European DVD releases:-
Sound: German and Polish Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles: German. Runtime: 102 minutes (normal). Format: 1:1.85 (16:9 anamorphic) RC 2 / PAL. Specials Features: Trailer (German and Polish) and a game. The game is played using the left, up/down and right-button on the remote to “kill” people. The German commission that rates Movies gave the movie a FSK 12 (suitable for People 12 and older) and the DVD as a whole a FSK 18 (because of the game 🙂 ). For more visit this site (German language) or amazon.de.