One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates, Adventures in Alabasta
(2007)
One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates, Adventures in Alabasta Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
The straw Hat Pirates are on a quest to save the desert kingdom of Alabasta. A civil war brews there among the
sands, one started and stirred by the hand of none other than Crocodile and his corrupted Barque Works gang.
The stakes run ever higher as Princess Vivi's homeland threatens to tear itself apart. More than lives are on the
line...
I should make it clear that this film is my first introduction to the long-running "One Piece" series. The original One Piece manga appeared in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine back in 1997, and was later adapted into an anime television series by Toei Animation. With just under 400 episodes airing in Japan since 1999, the series has only been rivaled by "Dragon Ball Z" in length. Given the popularity of the show in Japan, Funimation aquired the rights to release the series in the U.S., and has produced three DVD boxed sets over the past year, containing the first 39 episodes of the series (with a fourth set scheduled for release in March of 2009). In a somewhat odd move, Funimation has released this 2007 film to Blu-ray, which is actually the eighth film in a series of supplemental theatrical releases meant to accompany the series. Given my lack of knowledge about the series, I can't accurately place where this film falls in the timeline of the "One Piece" series, and I was more than a little confused by several elements of the story.
Could this be the longest title in the history of anime?
The desert island of Alabasta faces a looming revolution, and The Straw Hats (consisting of pirate captain Luffy and his misfit crew) travel to the royal city in order to prevent the upcoming clash between the rebels and the King's forces. Vivi, a member of Luffy's pirate band, also happens to be the princess of Alabasta, and longs for peace between the rebels and the citizens of her kingdom. As the story unfolds, we learn that the war has been incited by a pirate named Crocodile, who seeks to make Alabasta his new home (once the war eliminates the opposing sides). In order to stop Crocodile and his crew of warriors, The Straw Hats must give Vivi the opportunity to address her father's kingdom, and end the killing before it is too late.
That summary of the plot is what you will take away from the film if you haven't had an introduction to the series. If I had to come up with one word for my feelings on the film it would be frustrating (with a capital "F"). Side plots are eluded to (but not explained); characters are introduced and then discarded at five minute intervals; and I never actually felt a connection with Luffy's band. Character development is non-existent, and from the very first scene of the film, you'll feel like you just sat down to a sequel. Even given the disappointment I had with the storyline of this film, I'm still interested to see more of the One Piece series (so I guess there's at least some good that came from viewing this film).
Regarding the quality of the animation, the film is a mixed bag. Cel animation isn't disappointing, but the quality appears more in line with an original video animation (OVA), rather than a theatrical release. Not to get off track, but if you aren't very familiar with anime, an OVA is an animated feature broken down over several episodes, that is not produced primarily as a television series. Therefore, the budget is typically greater than most television series, but far below a theatrically produced film. Getting back to the animation quality of the film in question, the incorporation of CGI with the cel animation is when the quality takes a noticeable downturn. The fight in the desert between Crocodile and Luffy contains some truly awful sand effects using CGI, and really takes away from what could have been a very cool scene. Character models vary from character to character, with female characters exhibiting more realistic body structure (straight out of the mind of a 13 year old boy), and male characters mostly lacking muscle definition in their legs and arms (especially Luffy). If you are accustomed to anime that can be goofy at times, then the overexaggerated facial expressions won't seem out of place. For those that prefer anime with a serious tone, the sudden transition from comedy to drama (even within the same scene) can be a little jarring. The best part of the animation is the occasional use of hand-drawn stills that are highly stylized and detailed. They typically appear during action sequences, and are pure eye-candy (I caught two screenshots as examples).
The voice-acting on both language tracks is fairly good, but not exceptional. There are moments when I felt the voicework was overly zany, but I suppose that is the nature of the series, and likely represents what the voice director's intentions were. I tend to prefer more dramatic anime series (especially when dealing with serious subject matter), and One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates is not a film that walks the line between comedy and drama (preferring instead to jump fully across the line from moment to moment).
As the first "One Piece" product to hit Blu-ray, One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates is afforded a wonderful 1080P transfer encoded with the AVC codec (averaging 20 MBPS). Though the animation is somewhat crude at times, the lines are replicated with perfect detail, giving the picture an unexpected level of depth. Colors are equally impressive, with bold hues, and a vivid spectrum. Even in sequences that take place in the desert or at night, the colors never appeared washed out (which tends to be a stylistic choice that is over-used in modern anime). Banding, aliasing, and other digital replication problems were nonexistant (aside from some minor flaws described in the next paragraph). Black levels were inky deep, and there was nothing disappointing about the contrast on this release.
Unfortunately, I did detect the presence of some problems that brought down my score of this otherwise perfect transfer. First, I noticed some obvious stairstepping on the outline of a sand dune at approximately one minute, five seconds into the film. I never noticed the problem again, but lines should never exhibit stair-stepping on a 1080P transfer (since the increased resolution should eliminate those flaws). The second problem occurs on at least two occasions, where the scene went from a close up of a character's face, to a long shot. In the process of the transition from near to far, the screen would exhibit digital blocking, and fine textures would disappear until the shot came to a stop. It was only slightly distracting, and probably won't be noticeable to many viewers, but is still worth mentioning. Lastly, there were two scenes where detail took a noticeable drop, If you'd like to see examples, I've included shots from both scenes as screenshot 17 and 20.
We're given four audio tracks on this release. The primary track presents the English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and the second track is the native Japanese language version, presented in glorious Dolby TrueHD 5.1. You also have the option of choosing a Dolby Digital 2.0 track in either Japanese or English, but those offerings hardly seem like worthwhile inclusions given the high quality of the surround mixes. Both TrueHD tracks are fantastic, and feature similar volume levels on all non-dialogue audio. The dialogue on the English track is slightly louder than the Japanese version, but did not overwhelm the onscreen action. Audio separation among the surround speakers showed a great deal of depth throughout the many action sequences, and sound effects exhibited the level of precision and clarity we have come to expect from a lossless audio track. Your subwoofer won't exactly get a dynamic workout, but there are still plenty of action sequences that pack a punch. Overall, I was sufficiently impressed with both TrueHD tracks, but you should keep in mind the source material won't come close to the quality of an animated film produced in Hollywood.
There's an English subtitle track included on the disc, which runs throughout the length of the film and is meant to be paired with the Japanese language track. The subtitles are easy to read, with fine white lettering. I left the subtitle track on throughout the entire feature (I typically do that whether I'm listening to the English dub or native Japanese track, since the dub sometimes presents story elements in a different manner that can be detrimental to the film), and I never noticed any spelling or grammar errors that made it past quality control.
The only extra on the disc is a collection of 8 trailers for other anime releases from Funimation (presented in 1080i or 480p, with 2-channel Dolby Digital audio).
I'd hate to sway anyone's opinion of the "One Piece" series based on my review of this film, so I'm going to cut to the chase and say this is not likely a good introduction to the anime. If anything, this should be viewed as a taste of what the series likely offers, and may be a welcomed supplement for those that are already fans. On a positive note, the technical presentation on this Blu-ray is fairly impressive, with audio/video quality that seems to accurately mirror the source material. At a budget price through most retail outlets, One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates may make a nice addition to your collection, but consider yourself warned if your looking at picking this up as a stand-alone film.
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