Synopsis:

In 1999, Tokyo has become an incredibly technologically driven center. Actually, the seat of technology for the planet. So much so that a work force of manned robots called "labors" has been mass produced & are used all over the country. However, it's always easy to stop up the drain when they overthink the plumbing (ST reference)! Such is the case of the Labors. Out of the blue, the labors begin to go on rampages in various parts of the country. Destroying mostly property but human life cannot be too far off. The Mobile Police Force also uses Labors & enlists two of it's officers-Noah Izumi & Azuma Shinohara in the investigation of the out-of-control labors.

It's here that they find a quirk in the coding of these units that makes them go berserk. The real problem is that these labors are all over the country & all have the capacity to do the same thing! Noah & Azuma have to find the source of the defect, correct or circumvent it & restore order to Japan before it's too late! For fans of Anime, Patlabor 1 is definitely a must see!

Audio:

The audio for Patlabor 1 was presented in an intense 5.1 platform for the English dubbed portion of the disc. The Japanese language audio was presented only in Stereo. As a rule, I watch "all" Anime (save Armitage III) in the original Japanese with English Subs. The dubbing for most titles is so awful & out of context with the original script, it's almost like watching two different movies. With the 5.1 soundstage, the audio was fairly active. There's a lot of action, good use of the surrounds & the sub gets a fairly decent workout as well. But again, I just can't get past the English dubbing. The Japanese language track on the other hand was great in every detail. Sure, it needed the 5.1 treatment given to the English language version but the Re-mastered stereo/audio did just fine. The action between the left & right channels was consistent & quite well done.

Video:

The video for the feature is presented in widescreen format. The colors were not the best I've seen, nor were they the worst. For the most part, there was an overall "washed out" feeling to the look of the film. Nothing was vibrant & everything was relatively subdued. Not having seen this particular Anime before, I have no frame of reference as to what it should look like. In any event, the colors were lackluster at best. The animation itself was incredible for an 11-year-old title. There have been a lot of advances in the artistry involved in rendering the images in Anime & this title while good came before those innovations. Some of the clarity in the images is as stark & as clear as features today but for the most part, its images appear rather dated.

Extras:

The opening menus for the feature are pretty cool. They are nicely animated & flow well with the "Mecha" theme Patlabor 1 is all about. There are two trailers one for Patlabor 1 & one for Patlabor 2. Both presented in widescreen with both English & Japanese language tracks playing. The quality of the trailers while not great is rated fair to good in terms of its appearance.

There is also a Manga 2000Preview which shows roughly the whole of Manga's video catalogue in scenes from the features with a pretty slamming rock cut playing over the clips.

Lastly, there is a static Manga Video/DVD catalog presented that shows all of the titles currently available from Manga on DVD.

Overall:

Anime is an acquired taste & once you acquire the taste, you are hooked! Patlabor 1 is a pretty decent film that has most of the elements needed to pull of a great anime title. Its storyline is pretty cool & it boasts some fairly intense visuals. While I like the title very much, it may not be the one you want to start your collection off with! Give it a rental & see what you think. Personally, I enjoyed it & am looking forward to its sequel, Patlabor 2!