Review of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) by Anna B — 25 Oct 2008

I recently watched "The Laughing Man", a movie-length re-edited summary of GITS: Stand Alone Complex, and it gave me a distinct urge to watch this again. It's really quite amazing to find such strikingly different productions resulting from essentially the same source material.

A problem I always had with SAC was the weak animation. For the most part the characters are stilted, ugly and unnatural, and the 3D vehicles atrociously poorly rendered. None of which could be applied to Innocence, one of the most beautifully animated and just plain beautiful films ever made, animated or otherwise.

The main difference I find is the perception of inertia within the bodies of the characters. The way Batou jumps, and you can almost feel the way his body is pulled through the air, it's wonderful, and you never feel that in SAC.

Obviously this can be blamed on the budget constraints of a series compared to a feature film directed by a master filmmaker. Of course, The Laughing Man has its merits, it's not totally devoid, but I'll comment about that when Flixster adds it to their database.

I'm just rambling now.