Behind The Scenes Archives | Otaku No Culture

Strange Journey: A Joyful Celebration of Rocky Horror’s Legacy

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is Linus O’Brien’s intimate look at his father’s work shows how Rocky Horror began and continues to inspire performers and fans alike, decades after its debut. For newcomers and longtime devotees, this film is a love letter to a cultural phenomenon that changed lives.

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is more than a chronicle of the cult phenomenon that reshaped pop culture. For me, it’s also a reminder of how Richard O’Brien’s work helped me through a difficult time. Although I didn’t embrace the movement when it first debuted, I knew this would be something special.

The music and narrative beats weren’t just campy pastiches of sci-fi and B-movies; they carried an undercurrent of yearning and freedom that resonated deeply when I needed it most as I navigated adult life. Seeing them revisited and reframed here reminded me why this show has always been more than glitter and fishnets.

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Although Slow to Crawl, Roger Corman’s The Monster from the Ocean Floor is Still Vintage Terror at its Best!

While Roger Corman’s The Monster from the Ocean Floor is not about Cthulhu, I had to hope! It’s still worth picking up to build that The Film Masters library!

When Roger Corman’s The Monster from the Ocean Floor is more notable as a home video release, that’s because of the bonus features offered. As my library of this producer’s films grows, I’m still in awe concerning what he’s backed.

Although this film directed by Wyott Ordung is not all that memorable in the long run, it’s still an influential watch. Although I’d rather turn to Target Earth (1954), that’s because it has a special place in my heart. As for this Aquarius work, I suspect it can be called first when concerning a familiar trope. When a lone woman is out to seek danger on her own, it’s safe to say some terror for somewhere is near! At least the restoration lives up to everything The Film Masters is famous for!

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Takin’ Care of Business “The Anime Business” Isn’t Like Handling A Barrel of Monkeys, Hopefully

In this insightful look into the early days of The Anime Business, some people were taking a gamble regarding distributing cartoons made in another country.

The Anime Business Title Card Anyone curious about how “The Anime Business” started in North America will be interested in a brand-new monthly documentary that’s now streaming on YouTube. It’s an insightful series that talks to the pioneers who started the many operations that brought titles like Bubblegum Crisis and Dominion to this country, and later into the 90s, even Ranma½ too!

AnimEigo and MediaOCD produced this work, and learning about the challenges involved made me want to follow the project to its current state. I’m unsure if this series will go that far, but I will wait for those episodes. I’m also sure that at some point, the host will find someone to talk to from Harmony Gold to discuss Robotech and the embargo they once had to stop the original Macross series from appearing in North America.

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[Interview] Steve Kostanski on Frankie Freako and The Love for Makeup FX!

“As much as I wanted to have way more elaborate stuff in Frankie Freako, puppet wise, the bottom line is it needed to be janky…” said Steve Kostanski.

Steve Kostanski and Frankie — **Frankie Freako is available to purchase on Amazon USA.**

Steve Kostanski always loved the magic that film offered at an early age, and when he was creating stop motion films in the garage, little would he know it would lead to a career in the special effects industry. While some people think of him as part of the Astron-6 collective, where they create 80s-centric, no-budget, mixed-genre movies, they have done independent works too, like this filmmaker has with Freddie Freako, to realise they’re a tight group says it all. His name is also there in The Void and Manborg, where he has co-director credit.

His efforts are to be commended since he loves the medium; he watched shows like Mega Movie Magic (1997-2004) on Discovery Channel to learn how film effects were created back then. And on that fateful day where he and his buddies saw Army of Darkness, he knew what he would do for the rest of his life!

“That was when it really clicked,” said Kostanski, as I interviewed him via Zoom. “For me, it seemed like they were normal guys having fun goofing around; except somehow it became accessible. What they made stopped being this nebulous idea from Hollywood and that led to me to seriously want to make it in the film industry.

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How to Survive The Death Tour in Real Life Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Wrestling with Demons

The dangers wrestlers and isolated communities face in The Death Tour is deftly examined in this documentary about survival against all odds.

The Death Tour Movie Poster — **For other showtimes, please visit the official website.**

Screening at The Rio Theatre
Aug 21st 6:30pm
Vancouver, BC

Unlike those movies and short films I’ve recently reviewed about the “behind the scenes” of the wrestling world (namely Little Lucha and the Big Deal & Dark Match), they present the events as fiction. To understand what goes on, I recommend checking out The Death Tour. Despite its ominous name, this documentary directed by Stephan Peterson and Sonya Ballantyne takes a deep and insightful look at what motivated these talents to keep on going. It’s less about their own issues since not all of them got to fulfil their dreams, but in helping those whose lost all hope to not fall into despair.

Every winter, a small team of these hopefuls are recruited to embark on a unique pilgramage to not only learn more about themselves, but also show to others, namely local indgeninous commnuties strewn in Northern Manitoba, how to survive this rat race known as Life. This program started in the early 70s and has been going strong for 50 years!

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Going Behind the Scenes. Secrets From The Inventor as Revealed by Jim Capobianco

In order to make sure The Inventor would appeal to all ages, writer-director-producer Jim Capobianco spent more than a decade fiddling with getting all the details right, like the Maestro would do too!

For our readers unfamiliar with your work, can you please introduce yourself.

I’m Jim Capobianco and have worked in animation for something like 35 years and my latest film is The Inventor, which I wrote and directed. I got my start at Walt Disney Studios working in their story department, and my first work was with The Lion King–I stayed there for five years. Afterwards, I moved to the Bay Area to work at PIXAR (for 19) and have credits on many films, from Bugs Life to Coco.

One movie I’m particularly proud of was Ratatouille, where I wrote the first draft of it with Jan Pinkava, the director, and we were honoured with an Academy nomination. I left PIXAR in 2016, and then it’s proven pretty good. I worked on Mary Poppins Returns and directed the 2D animation segments, and then followed that up with a project called Philharmonia Fantastique–which was kind of a Fantasia piece, and directed the animation for that. And that plays with a live symphony orchestra.

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