Customer Reviews

Spirit of Wonder: The Movie

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Spirit of Wonder has one two episode story about the Scientific Boys Club and their plan to visit Mars. the club has only three members, Cooper, Gordon and Shepherd. Jack is the son-in-law of one of the members and Windy is his wife, the daughter of Gordon. She also happens to be the mind behind the theory of ether currents. In other words without her knowledge going to Mars isn't going to happen.
There is also two shorts featuring China and friends. SHE is the main character of the manga and, frankly, I don't know why she has become a side show.
At first I thought China's voice actress was Carrie Savage but it turned out to be Carrie A. Daniels (Angel Tales). Jim is played by Crispin Freeman (Hellsing, Howl's Moving Castle) while Windy is played by Tricia A. Dickson (Read Or Die, Hellsing) and Jack is played by Justin Gross (I MY ME! Strawberry Eggs, Ikki Tousen).
The stories have humor and a touch of old fashion Victorian scientific romance but are too short. The extras don't make up for the lack of material.

In a small town lives a girl named Miss China, the owner of the local tavern and her friends. In an unexplained phenomenon, a message appears on the night of a full moon and she wants to know how it got there.

The story around Miss China's Ring includes many different stories rolled into one. The movie features the story of three characters and leaves viewers hanging, giving the impression that more characters and different stories will be told if this series progresses. The character designs are very well drawn and could be closely compared to the Disney style of animation. The movie does not contain any adult situations and because of that, I feel that this title is safe for the whole family to enjoy END

Okay, let's correct some details here: the 2003 'Spirit of Wonder:The Movie' DVD is a sequel that was completed nine years after the original 1992 Spirit of Wonder animation video. The 1992 version was a one-shot charmer under the title of 'Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring'. The Spirit of Wonder 1992 OAV was produced by Toshiba EMI and originally released in vhs format, followed later by a Laser edition. It was later subbed and released in North America by Animeigo, and it became an early personal favorite among anime fans.

However, the new 2003 'Spirit of Wonder: the movie' DVD was produced by the Bandai company. It represents a new series consisting of four stories that were produced and completed for release in 2001. These new stories lack the quiet freshness and clever charm of the original 1992 'Miss China's Ring' OAV. Granted: the humor of the new Miss China lead story 'the Shrinking of Miss China' is funny. However, the following 2 part 'Scientific Boys Club' stories on the same disk becomes a miserable bore.

Although the writers and producers of The 'Scientific Boys Club' put some care into the animation design/color and art, they put too little concern or thought into the motivation, logic, and sensibilities of the characters. The two stories are also overloaded with cliched fanservice, sexism, and female harassment that becomes annoyingly repeated in other scenes, leaving little footage remaining in the movie that could be considered a good plot or story development.

So nearly 10 years later after the release of the original Spirit of Wonder charmer it seems apparent that the producers of this new 'Spirit of Wonder:The Movie' were incapable and hard-pressed to find anything original, charming, or interesting to say in this new 2001 sequel.

With the exception of the very short and funny `Shrinking Miss China', there's really not much true spirit in the new 2003 DVD version of Spirit of Wonder

A very different yet interesting yet loveable piece of work. Not your usual anime. I liked how this one had very real emotions and themes in it. Not to mention the artwork and animation for this piece was very beautiful. Very nice indeed.

So why 5 stars? As a stand alone story in VHS or DVD format this is a terrific fantasy! The only reason I consider it less than perfect is because I was spoiled on the original comic book series (five or six issues called Spirit of Wonder, published by Dark Horse comics I think) in the early or mid 1990's. This is a terribly whittled down version of some of the best Manga I ever laid my eyes on. But again, it's well worth it, especially if you do not have the benefit of the original comics.

There is some mild adult content, as with almost any anime out there. The fiesty old Doctor Breckenridge grabs poor Miss China's breasts a time or two, and attempts to peak at her panties. It has been a while since I saw the film, but I think he also slapped her on the butt once. There are a few instances of mild adult language: the word d**n is used. But these instances are fairly quick and isolated and are certainly not the strong selling points of this wonderful tale.

What is the strong selling point is the purely unique Japanese imagination. Somehow or other Japan's cartoonists seem to think a little more abstractly than do Westerners and Miss China's Ring is a grand example of that. The characters are lovable and easy to warm up to. There's Doctor Breckenridge, the dirty old man who is a raging mad scientist, then Jack, the mild-mannered assistant who supplies the mad doctor's needs via a beautiful fair-skinned blonde with petite features and who runs a flower stand that peddles black market items on the side. Finally we have the beloved little star of the show, Miss China, a young girl who owns the Ten-Kai Chinese restaurant on the coast of Australia. Yes, the setting for the story is actually "down-under," hence all the white sailors and the lack of anyone remotely Asian except Miss China.

Basically, the flower stand girl is in love with Jack. Miss China is also in love with Jack. Jack loves Miss China but more like a little sister or maybe a puppy. Dr. Breckenridge is unaware of the existence of any female except Miss China. The scheming doc is living with the notion that if he cannot go to the moon, then he will bring the moon to him. His idea is to cleverly carve a message in the moon's surface that can be seen from earth, without actually touching it. He endeavors to do so with his space refracting telecope invention. Things do get a little out of hand and the moon is terribly effected by it but in the end Miss China and Jack manage to find innocent romance while the rest of the world looks into the night sky to find something they never expected.

The second DVD in this series, titled Spirit of Wonder Part 2, is a fairly recent release. I am unsure of the authoring company. It is clever in it's own right but falls very short of Miss China's Ring.

You might still be able to find DVD copies of Miss China's Ring (The Spirit of Wonder Part 1) by Animeigo but it will take a little looking since it was a limited production.

In all, I would say that this is a great story to view on an inclement day or later in the evening when you just want to relax and forget the rest of the world. This film could never fall into the category of smutty and really only scrapes the line of adult (being slightly more child oriented), but it's not quite appropriate for young children. That must be why the original plastic wrapper had a 13 and up label. They were accurate in their summation. I hope I am accurate in mine by saying that you would enjoy it: highly recommended!

I love it. As an older adult, I'm delighted with the calm pace of the story. I think in life I could really like (or love) these characters. I like the art; it's accurate to life, modest in color, almost perfect! The people really look like people, much like Miyazaki's and Ghibli's work. No giant eyes here!
Best of all is the plot. Ah, how I would love to fly to Mars in a dirigible! To explore the canals Pecrival Lowell mapped, the empty Martian cities! Ray Bradbury can be my co-pilot, John Carter has our Barsoomian warhoons saddled and waiting our arrival! But honestly... I wonder how many of you have forgotten the gutsy barnstormers of the past? It was not so long ago that great men built their own flying machines, and flew, regardless of what their neighbors thought. Perhaps to me Tsuruta Kenji's story is real, while in your mind it is impossible; that is the crux of the tale, and why I love it. With the demise of NASA, courageous spirits building their own rockets truly is the future. Let's go!
I just wanted to note that there is another film called Miss China's ring, released earlier, in 1996 or 1997. It seems that other reviewers of this film have these two films confused.