 2003 North American DVD release. Avalon is a Japanese/Polish Science Fiction film by anime-director Mamoru Oshii. It was released in 2001. The name of the film originates from the island Avalon in the legend of King Arthur. Image File history File links This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio which produced the movie in question. ...
Image File history File links This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio which produced the movie in question. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes referred to in the Western world by the portmanteau Japanimation. ...
The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ...
Mamoru Oshii (押井守 Oshii Mamoru; born August 8, 1951 in Tokyo) is a Japanese animation and live-action film writer and director. ...
2001: A Space Odyssey. ...
Avalon is a legendary island somewhere in the British Isles, famous for its beautiful apples. ...
King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Great Britain, where he appears as the ideal of kingship in both war and peace. ...
The film is set in a bleak future, where the population is hooked on an immersive virtual reality video game called Avalon. Despite its popularity the game can be deadly, leaving players' bodies catatonic in the real world. One player of the game, Ash (played by Polish actress Malgorzata Foremniak), hears of a secret level hidden within Avalon. The film follows her quest to find the level. Virtual reality (VR) is an environment that is simulated by a computer. ...
A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...
In computer and video games, a level (sometimes called a stage, course, map or landscape) is a separate area in a games virtual world, in modern games typically representing a specific location such as a building or a city. ...
The film's colour palette is mainly sepia tones, helping to blur the line between the real world and that within the game itself. The film eventually introduces coloured imagery and the effect is striking. Sepia tone is a type of monochrome photographic image in which the picture appears in shades of brown as opposed to greyscale as in a black-and-white image. ...
The film is typically Mamoru Oshii styled in its pacing and editing. It is relatively slow paced, reinforcing the mundane nature of the world Ash lives in and highlighting the excitement of playing the game. The film also features a basset hound, a breed of dog common in Oshii's films. Mamoru Oshii (押井守 Oshii Mamoru; born August 8, 1951 in Tokyo) is a Japanese animation and live-action film writer and director. ...
The Basset Hound is a chunky, short-legged breed of dog of the hound family. ...
The films score is by regular Oshii collaborator, Kenji Kawai. A film score is the background music in a film, generally specially written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue. ...
Kenji Kawai (å·äº•æ†²æ¬¡ Kawai Kenji) is a Japanese composer with several scores for anime to his credit. ...
The film was co-produced by a Polish film company, starred Polish actors and filmed with Polish dialogue. The film received only limited release in North America (with most of its fanbase created via the circulation of bootleg DVDs imported from Asia) until Miramax released it on DVD in late 2003. The North American version has added narration to make it easier for Americans to understand the plot, which fans of the original say ruins the atmosphere of the movie and insults the viewers; although the option to view the film without the English overdubbing is provided, the subtitles still display the added dialogue. As a noun, bootleg means the top part of a boot, the part that is around the leg instead of the foot. ...
Miramax is a Big Ten film distribution and production company. ...
DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ...
2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Story
In a distant future there is a new form of video game. In a kind of virtual reality, players fight with modern, medieval and fantasy weapons in a world marked by war. Especially in higher levels the spirit of the player may stay inside the game, and the body stays vegetating in hospitals in the real world. Virtual reality (VR) is an environment that is simulated by a computer. ...
When Ash gets challenged by a better player, she makes up a team to get to a secret game level named "Special A".
The Game The game Avalon is a combination of concepts from virtual reality, role playing games (RPGs) and video games. Players wear headsets which immerse their senses in the game world. Within the game players participate as a character of a certain class, similar to RPGs. Upon successfully completing a mission, their skills 'level up'. Players play together in groups called parties, another concept common in RPGs. To complete levels within the game, players must defeat end of level bosses as found in video games. A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. ...
In role-playing games, a level up is an increase of one or many player attributes, such as ability scores, hit points, or mana. ...
As an interesting first, this movie features the appearance of lag, a gameplay error due to network transfer slowdown often encountered in online games. As players in Avalon are hooked up directly to the game, they react with violent sickness symptoms to lag. Lag often refers to delays experienced in computing communications, however it may also apply to written or other forms of communication. ...
Similar films The film's concept of a virtual reality world is similar to those in The Matrix and eXistenZ. The Matrix is a film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry). ...
eXistenZ is a 1999 film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. ...
Similiar lines of contemplation on where the "reality" truly is appear in very subtle clues. A previous viewing of Ghost in the Shell and its sequel (also by Oshii) will give a greater depth to the understanding of this beautifully enigmatic film.
Visually, the film is close to titles like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Brazil and the Animatrix anthology's animated short A Detective Story, where somber colors are used and technologically-advanced equipment has anachronistically old-fashioned interfaces. Film poster for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. ...
The Animatrix is a collection of nine CG and anime shorts set in the world of The Matrix, partly written by the Wachowski brothers. ...
A Detective Story is an animated short film set in the universe of The Matrix. ...
An anachronism (from Greek ana, back, and chronos, time) is an artifact that belongs to another time, a person who seems to be displaced in time (i. ...
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