Interstella 5555 (2011)

This is an anime cartoon set to the soundtrack of Daft Punk's "Discovery." There are NO other words, dialogue or songs!

If you like "Discovery" and don't particularly care about anime one way or another, you will still like this movie. If you love anime but don't have any particular feeling about Daft Punk, you will also like the movie.

If, however, you happen to be someone who really likes anime AND really likes Daft Punk, this movie will make you wet yourself. Go nuts.

A few years ago I bought the DVD of this wonderful piece of art. "Interstella 5555" indeed is a masterpiece in animation combined with excellent House Music of the brilliant French band "Daft Punk".

Sadly, the picture quality of the DVD never came up to the high standard of the the music and sound the picture was always very blurry, the colours weren't that bright at all...

So I was very excited when I read about the release of the Blu-ray version of this audio-visual experience...

I live in Germany and so I was able to get my hands on the Blu-ray a few weeks earlier than the American customers and I strongly doubt that the USA will get a different transfer of this film.

When I started the movie, my excitement turned into disbelief and then into anger I had to press "stop" on my RC.

I had to look at the label of the disc in order to be absolutely sure that I hadn't taken a DVD out of the Blu-ray amaray box by mistake.

The picture quality sadly hasn't improved at all on the contrary: Now you are able to see an ugly judder effect and lots of aliasing added to the known blur and softness issues of the DVD picture.

If you are expecting HD quality, then under no circumstances buy this disgrace of a "Blu-ray disc":

Your old DVD copy is even better than this sad excuse of HD material!

It's really a shame of an upgrade...

If this wasn't enough: Please be prepared for some loud "searching noises" coming from your BD drive/player at the beginning of each movie chapter.

My technical equipment:

Sony Bravia KDL 55" EX 505

Onkyo TX-SR608

T+A 5.1 Lignum Speakers

REL Acoustics Stampede Subwoofer

Sony BDP S760

Technical data of "Interstella 5555":

Format: 4/3

1080i/25 (!!!)

65 min.

Menu: English/French

DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1,/2.0

Buy Interstella 5555 (2011) Now

I bought discovery a few years back, and to be honest I wasn't impressed, so into the back of the collection it went. Then I saw Interstella 5555. Now I can't stop listening to the damned thing, and smiling when certain tracks come on, because Discovery finally has a context that is pleasing.

Interstella 5555 really is an over the top, sentimental piece of anime, and that's what is so great about it. The fact that the hero of the story flies around in a gigantic space guitar only really bothers you the first time you see it.

I really liked that there is zero dialogue in this movie, just Discovery as the soundtrack, and lots of non-verbal communication, meaning that there's no need for translation, or bad dub-overs. One can view it in any country.

The animation is trully top notch, if not heavily 70's themed. It's deffinately a cheesy movie, but that cheese pays off big time in the form of charm, and in the end a kind of sci-fi optimism, which is kind of nice in an age when everyone is surly, sarcastic, and irony ladden.

This movie will leave you feeling good, so why not buy it?

Read Best Reviews of Interstella 5555 (2011) Here

Just to get this straight, the only reason I give this two stars instead of one is because this is a good movie (for Daft Punk fans) and I hadn't owned the DVD.

That being said, if you own the DVD, skip this purchase. The 'HD' is more like an upscaled DVD rip. I was looking forward to good bonus features, like interviews with Daft Punk, but they are not here, and the menu for the few bonus features is very confusing. At least on the PS3 I played the movie on, there was no text to describe what the bonus features were. Just a bunch of boxes that did different things.

I'd say get this if you don't have the DVD, but try waiting for the price to go down. I'm a huge fan of Daft Punk and I kind of regret the purchase.

Want Interstella 5555 (2011) Discount?

I was amazed that this movie works as well as it does. I first became acquainted with Daft Punk when I was living in the UK and the first bits of the movie were released as the videos for the first four tracks on the album.

Discovery doesn't sound particularly like a concept album when one listens to it, so I was expecting that they would have to at least insert dialog or rearrange the tracks for the film, but they did not. The visuals carry the story, but the songs are so well integrated that there is never a clash, nor does the viewer find himself wondering what is going on. Even the motivation of the villain is clear.

Matsumoto's visuals are beautiful. I think this film is accessible even to those who are not normally fans of anime or house music.

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