It was an absolute honor and privilege to attend my first red carpet screening. One of the most-watched and financially successful animated films of the year, let’s revisit the ever-expanding world the Straw Hats live in. But this time, we’re going to look back before moving forward. The film focuses on fan favorite Shanks and his daughter Uta, the singer giving the concert of a lifetime. Like Uta trying to make everyone happy with her music, I feel like that’s exactly what the premiere did.
People were interviewed both before and after the screening, and the staff really wanted to know what people expected. Lots of complementary food and drinks and an open bar. Everyone is assigned a seat and each seat has its own trading card case and a special Movie Red T-shirt. All of this is the perfect setting to watch a big animated movie on a huge IMAX screen in a room full of excited fans.
Overall, my reactions to this film during and after the screening were positive. The exaggerated humor elicited a lot of laughter, and everyone was cheering the soundtrack, and some even applauded after some of Uta’s performances. Watching everything on a huge screen felt a little too exciting at times, especially when the mix was so loud, but I got used to it quickly. For most of the movie, until we get closer to the end, there aren’t many stand-up and cheer moments. I think this movie fulfills some wishes that fans have been wanting to see for a while, especially a scene where everyone loses it in the final climax. I’m not going to give it up because it did surprise me too, but let’s just say the movie tried to reference everything.
After the screening, there was a 15 minute Q&A with the director Goro Taniguchi and producer Shinji Shimizu and Hiroaki Shibata , they were all so happy to see the fans in NYC…even though the lights on them were so bright that they admitted they couldn’t see us very much it is good. They all answered some questions about their experience with the film, the direction of the shoot, and the series as a whole. Considering the project has been underway for about years and so many changes to the system and production pipeline, this is not right Said the show was made the same way it started. It’s nice that they can play a character like Shanks from the start and make him one of the focus.
They explained that Eiichiro Oda was everything. The choice to make the film about music largely caters to Oda’s love of music itself, joking that “maybe Oda will work harder than usual” when it comes to music. However, that means the crew also has to work harder, as Oda uses a fine-toothed comb to comb through everything, especially the music part. My favorite part of this fun and casual Q&A is at the end, where Taguchi says Oda told him how it ended, but promises he won’t ruin it for us, and the audience laughs fondly. Afterwards, they all asked to turn the spotlights off so they could take a good look at us from the audience and thank us all for being part of such a great experience.
