Summer 2001 was forever marked in my life with the song One More Time. I had seen a bit of the music videos as a kid adn always wondered what happened but never imagined there was an actual movie about it. I didn’t find out about that until much later. But a whole animated movie for the album for the Daft Punk Discvoery album. But it does and apprentl ygot a bad remaster which for a special occasion it got re-released in theaters and me finally the chance to watch it and watch it in cinemas. This whole thing reminded me of Pink Floyd’s The Wall but I didn’t care, It’d be fun to see what the movie Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem had to offer.
First let’s just take a look at the actual album of Discovery. It’s a good album, wouldn’t call it my favorite in the genre but it does have some greatly iconic tracks. Even some that made some classic internet music videos like the Daft Bodies Girls. But besides a few of those there’s a lot of dcent songs that don’t necessarily stand out on their own at least not while listening to it acapella. I would grade it as a decent album you’d play on the background but not something you’d listen to on tis own.
Before we get to the movie. Let’s meet the Crescendolls Band:
Stella – The bassist
Arpegius – The guitarist
Baryl – The drummer of the Crescendolls.
Octave – The keyboardist and vocalist (One more time)
Let’s meet the cast:
Shep – Astronaut trying to rescue the captured Crescendolls. H (“Digital Love” and “Something About Us”)
Earl de Darkwood – Captor of the Crescendolls
Record Co. Owner – Owner of the record company.
Daft Punk – The masked musicians cameo in”High Life” and “Too Long”
Toei animationd id a great job with the whole movie. I got to watch the remastered version and I do have some gripes. Most parts look very nice and high def. However you can tell it was not the best upscaling as it seems to look a bit of an amateur upscaling. You can see when some lines are way too highlighted and the lack of faces in far shots. I think Daft Punk does have the money tod o a proper remaster, especially since it was released in cinemas. I wonder if the masters got lost or why more effort wasn’t done to such an iconic piece of history.
The movie theater experience was a bit odd, you ahd some people shhing others, a few that wanted to sing along, and a couple that were jusst dancing in their seats. Of course you can’t forget the people who arrived 30 minutes late to a 1 hour movie with their pop corn and drinks. We got a couple extra short videos with Daft Punk music and a good bye from them that felt a bit unecessary. A real extra would’ve been nice. I do think the movie on the background while you are in your room might be the best possible viewing experience.
The actual movie is a fun little dramatic adventure emotional ride. I mean a lot happens in just an hour and everything conveyed without dialogue. The story can’t be disected too much without it being silly but if you’re doing that you’re missing the point. I do think they coudl’ve had far more sound effects. When they use them they’re usually subtle and they work really well, we needed more of that. I did like the France vs Japan soccer game cameo.
The whole idea is great and I can’t see why a French electronic music duo didn’t do something similar again. It doesn’t have to be the exact same idea, but used their music as something else. I guess people already call Tron Uprising a Daft Punk music video but I’m unsure if I’d like to actually humor that joke.