What a fun and interesting experience that was. First, let me start off by recounting my interesting theater experience. I took my brother and my sister along, and we were the only three people in the theater. Not too surprising seeing as how out in the middle of nowhere the theater was, and how little advertising FUNi put into the theatrical release. But I don't think either of those factors had as much to do with the empty theater as this: the film wasn't even listed as One Piece. Up on the marquee, online, and on the ticket, it was listed as simply, "The Desert Princess." And the ticket ripper didn't know anything about it, and had to call for a manager before he'd rip our tickets and let us in. It seemed like I was the only person aside from the manager that knew a One Piece movie was to be screened tonight. Only one way to sum up FUNi's theatrical marketing team, and first US theatrical screening of One Piece: a spectacular failure.
Anyway, onto the fun. The film was a blast for me, since I've only read the Alabasta arc in the manga. Seeing it in color and animated for the first time was simply awesome. Yeah, a lot had to be cut...blah, blah, blah. Most of you are familiar with Movie 8, so moving on. The dub, in all its uncut glory, was terrific. The voices for Croc, Bon Clay, and Vivi were excellent and fit perfectly. Zoro is Zoro, Marine is Marine, Sanji's cigs are in, etc. Also interesting was that the Japanese credits were left completely untouched and were not subtitled. An all around great job on staying true to the source material on FUNi's part.
It's a lot to take in, and I would write more, but I really need some sleep. Late.
I've been waiting for this forever. Couldn't get myself to watch the 4Kids version.
