Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003)

If you are a Daft Punk fan, you will love this movie. If you are a Leiji Matsumoto fan, you will love this movie. If you are a good human being, with a soul driven by love, you will find at least something redeeming in this movie. Quite simply, this is one of the cooler things I have ever seen. Remarkably animated, deliciously funky, this collaboration makes me happy on the inside. And the outside.

Basically, this is one of those bizarre rarities that simply needs to be seen to be appreciated. It's a labor of love, both for the Punk and Matsumoto-san. There are plenty of people out there in the world who won't take the time to see this, and there are probably some people out there in the world who will take the time to see it and will end up not appreciating it. I have the feeling that if you're here, reading this comment, then you're probably not one of those people.

Fmovies: A friend of mine told me about this around 6 months ago and I've only just gotten round to seeing it. I thought it sounded...idiotic, boring, ridiculous. It might be idiotic and/or ridiculous, but honestly, I should have figured out by now that everything Leiji Matsumoto has been involved with in the last 30 years has had a premise that just screamed "DOOMED." And it's been just about impossible not to love everything the man has done in 30 years.

I'd heard Daft Punk, of course, but never associated the music with the name. I'd seen and liked a lot of Matsumoto's stuff, but the two just...I didn't have the imagination to put the two together mentally.

This is an awesome movie. Visually and aurally, it is a thing of beauty, that rises above the occasional cheesiness in design, the occasional visual or narrative cliché, and the occasional track which would really not be terribly listenable on it's own. The synergy here is tremendous.

Despite not really being a Daft Punk fan, i enjoyed this film. Looking at this as a film & not just an extended film clip, i thought it took a little while to move into full swing, the middle sections were very good, while the end tended to drag on a tad. I know it was based on a Daft Punk album, but the end would have been better if it was a couple of minutes shorter.

Well worth checking out if you are a fan of Daft Punk and/or a fan of anime, especially 1970's & 1980's style anime. 7/10

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem fmovies. I hardly ever listen to Daft Punk's kind of music and hardly ever watch an Anime, but this one really got me. The animation and the music is a winning combo together here and I enjoyed every minute of it, even for the second and third run. In fact, I even looked for a recent album of Daft Punk and 'discovered' those moments when I like to listen to it, and even in the gym or at the Friday night parties the tunes come up making me smile. I don't thing to go that far to purchase a complete set of the plastic dolls (Shep, Stella, Arpegius, Octave, Baryl from the movie). But don't be mislead, Daft Punk is a French band of only two guys making electronic music. They started back in 1997 with 'Homework', then released 'Discovery' in 2001 - this movie builds mostly on the music of this album -, and 'Human After All' is dated to March 2005. Interstella 5555 is among the few titles in my collection that I like to watch over and over and each time I got the same addicted to it, 10/10! 'Â… don't stop, come a little closerÂ…'

This is freakin' tremendous stuff. I love Daft Punk - and I loved their Discovery album. This is basically an animated manga film to the Discovery album - and if you think this sounds crazy - well it doesn't as everything makes sense! If you are a Daft Punk fan - then you probably saw the first three or four video clips for the singles on TV (One More Time, Aerodynamic, Digital Love and Harder Better Faster Stronger) - and it tells a short story of a rock and roll band from outer space get kidnapped by some evil looking guys and get taken to Earth. But all hope isn't lost - as a funky guy in a Gutair rocket ship attempts a rescue mission. There isn't any dialogue - it is all cartoon with a Daft Punk soundtrack! The story tends to fit the mood of the music (of course!) and this really does have an intriguing story of mystery and music. All of the characters and artwork is very stylish in a 1970's-1980's Japanese cartoon sort of way (reminds me of Voltron!). So if you are a Daft Punk fan, a anime / manga fan - or just a fan of things different or cool - then get a copy of this today!

In its way a remarkable film, and a genuine one-off, which deserves to be better known amongst animation lovers. Co-director Leiji Matsumoto, who during his long career in anime has been associated in one capacity or another with such cheesy epics as Space Battleship Yamato, the Harlock Saga, Star Blazers & etc, worked with Daft Punk (a French two-man band specialising in electronic rock) on this unique feature. Deliberately recreating the extreme glam stylisation of the 1970's/early 80's Japanese animation style, albeit done with more fluidity and detail which modern day budgets and software allow, Matsumoto has married image and sound to hypnotic effect in a movie which in effect is both unique and unforgettable. A "digital love story" of a kidnapped technoband - who incidentally travel together in a Scooby-Do like 'Mystery Machine' as events unfold - and an evil music impresario (echoes of the obscure Toomorrow here (1970) - anyone seen that?). Despite some snipes at pop exploitation, there are no great depths here story-wise, although there are dark elements, such as the painful burial of a deceased major character. But the characterisation is not important, as it was not what the creators were after, leaving the graphic designs and timings to unfold. What makes the film so great is the peculiar manga-music hybrid that results, as the stylised visual design and editing rhythms join with a contemporary soundtrack (the entire film is wordless outside of lyrics)in a way which is both culturally nostalgic as well as being strikingly modern in effect. The plastic surface which results entirely transcends the original pulp manga inspiration. In short it's a film which sounds naff but, somehow, works. As an achievement the result is miles ahead of the director's previous, briskly produced juvenelia and ought to be required viewing.