Interstella 5555
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is a 2003
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
. The film tells the story of the abduction and rescue of an extraterrestrial pop band and serves as a visual companion to ''
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...
'',
Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...
's second studio album. The film was produced by
Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...
, directed by Kazuhisa Takenouchi and supervised by
Leiji Matsumoto was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...
. The film has no dialogue, but instead consists of the entirety of ''Discovery'' with minimal sound effects.Although no dialogue is featured in the film, some characters are depicted to be talking or singing. Some examples with main characters: Shep sings "Digital Love" and "Something About Us"; Octave sings "One More Time" and appears to convey information in "Short Circuit"; Darkwood talks to Stella during "Crescendolls" and in "Veridis Quo", he reads from the eponymous book as part of the ritual.


Plot

The main points of the story coincide with the ''Discovery'' album. On an alien planet populated by blue-skinned humanoids, keyboardist Octave, guitarist Arpegius, drummer Baryl, and bass player Stella are playing to a packed audience." One More Time" A military force from Earth invades the planet and kidnaps most of the band. Although Arpegius escapes, he too is captured when a trooper shoots him with a tranquilizer dart."
Aerodynamic Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...
"
Shep, a space pilot, is seen daydreaming about Stella while working on his guitar-shaped ship. Interrupted by a distress call about the kidnapping, he pursues the culprits through a
wormhole A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that connects disparate points in spacetime. It can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime (i.e., different locations, different points in time, or both). Wormholes are base ...
and crash lands on Earth." Digital Love" Meanwhile, the band is taken to an underground facility where their memories are transferred into disks and replaced with fake memories, and their blue skin is changed to make them resemble humans. They are fitted with mind-control devices hidden inside
sunglasses Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...
." Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" Their captor, Earl de Darkwood, poses as their
manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
and presents them as a new band, The Crescendolls, who quickly become very popular."Crescendolls" The fame has its disadvantages as the exhausted members of the band are forced to sign large amounts of publicity material. Meanwhile, Shep finds his way to the city and discovers what has happened to the band."Nightvision" Shep flies into a Crescendolls stadium concert with a jet pack and fires a beam at each band member, freeing all of them from the mind control except Stella, who is blocked by Earl de Darkwood. During the escape, Shep is mortally wounded by Darkwood's robotic bodyguards."Superheroes" Still under Darkwood's control, Stella finds a card with the address of Darkwood's home, Darkwood Manor, which she hides in her dress. She is then taken to an awards ceremony where the Crescendolls win the Gold Record, a coveted music award. Baryl, concealed in the audience, frees Stella with the beam, and they escape with Octave's help."High Life" The band returns to Shep, who reveals their true identities and his feelings for Stella before he dies." Something About Us" They bury him, and his spirit rises into space. Driving away in a stolen van, they use the card Stella took earlier to travel to Darkwood Manor."Voyager" While exploring Darkwood Manor, the band discovers a secret room, where they find a journal revealing Darkwood's plans entitled ''Veridis Quo''. He has been kidnapping alien musicians from various worlds and passing them off as human musicians in order to acquire 5,555 Gold Records, with which he can rule the universe. While the band is reading the book, Darkwood appears with a group of cloaked devotees and captures them. He attempts to sacrifice Stella to complete the ritual required to unlock the Gold Records' power, but the band manages to defeat his robotic henchman. Arpegius throws the final Gold Record into a lava-filled chasm. Darkwood follows it into the abyss, apparently dying as a result. His followers accompany him, resulting in their deaths as well."Veridis Quo" Following this, Darkwood Manor collapses in on itself. The band narrowly escapes and visits their record company's headquarters to retrieve their memory disks. Octave sneaks in to steal them, but he is tased by a guard while escaping the building, and his skin reverts to its natural blue color."Short Circuit" The authorities find Shep's ship along with ''Veridis Quo'' and mount an operation to restore the Crescendolls' true original memories and send them back to their home planet via the same wormhole that Shep used." Face to Face" As they enter the wormhole, the spirit of Darkwood appears and attacks their ship. Shep's spirit also appears and defeats Darkwood, freeing them. The band returns to their home planet to great acclaim, and a statue of Shep is erected."Too Long" At the film's end, it is implied that the whole story was the dream of a young boy who is a Daft Punk fan, inspired by the ''Discovery'' album and toys in his room.


Characters

* Stella – The bassist of the Crescendolls and the only female member. * Arpegius – The guitarist of the Crescendolls. * Baryl – The drummer of the Crescendolls. He is noticeably shorter in stature than most of the other characters. * Octave – The keyboardist and vocalist of the Crescendolls. Octave's singing voice is provided by Romanthony's performance of "One More Time". * Shep – An alien astronaut on a mission to rescue the captured Crescendolls. He has a crush on Stella. Shep's singing voice is provided by Daft Punk's performance of "Digital Love" and "Something About Us". * Earl de Darkwood – The human captor of the Crescendolls and the main antagonist of the film. * Record Co. Owner – The supposed owner of the record company. He is giddy and excited in most of his on-screen time. * Daft Punk – The masked musicians themselves make a cameo appearance in "High Life" and "Too Long".


Production

The idea of making a feature film to visualize ''
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...
'' came about during the album's early recording sessions.
Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...
's concept for the story involved the merging of science fiction with
entertainment industry Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
culture. The duo had initially conceived of a live-action film featuring themes of overcoming oppression and rebelling against the machinery of life. After the live-action approach was discarded, several styles of animation were considered before settling on that of Daft Punk's childhood hero,
Leiji Matsumoto was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...
.''Interstella 5555'' DVD insert, 2003. The film concept was further developed with Daft Punk collaborator Cédric Hervet, with Bangalter and Hervet writing the script. A team consisting of Daft Punk, Hervet, Pedro Winter and Gildas Loaec were introduced to
Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...
through a connection at Toshiba EMI. The script was brought to Tokyo in July 2000 in the hope of collaborating with Matsumoto, who remarked that he in turn was inspired by French filmmakers. After Matsumoto joined the team as visual supervisor, Shinji Shimizu had been contacted to produce the animation and Kazuhisa Takenouchi to direct. With the translation coordination of Tamiyuki "Spike" Sugiyama, production began in October 2000 and ended in April 2003. Daft Punk commuted to Tokyo on a near-monthly basis as Toei produced the storyboards. The production cost was reportedly $4 million.Eric Ducker, "The Creators" (2007). ''
The Fader ''The Fader'' is a magazine established in 1999 as an outlet for Cornerstone Agency, a marketing and public relations firm established by Rob Stone and Jon Cohen. The magazine covers music, style and culture. History and work It is owned by T ...
''
issue 47
, pp. 115. Retrieved on April 25, 2009.
Many elements common to Matsumoto's stories, such as romanticism of noble sacrifice and remembrance of fallen friends, appear in ''Interstella 5555''. Daft Punk revealed in an interview that ''
Captain Harlock Captain Harlock may refer to: * ''Captain Harlock'' (manga) ** Captain Harlock (character) {{disambiguation ...
'' was a great influence on them in their childhood. They also stated, "The music we have been making must have been influenced at some point by the shows we were watching when we were little kids."


Release

Four segments were released to serve as music videos for ''Discoverys singles, and were shown on
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...
on 31 August 2001 during the "
Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late-night television programming block that broadcasts Japanese anime and American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and currently produced by Williams Street, a subsidiary of W ...
Midnight Run: Special Edition". Cartoon Network later hosted the episodes online as part of their short-lived Toonami Reactor project (later revived as
Toonami Jetstream Toonami Jetstream was an ad-supported online broadband streaming service launched on July 17, 2006, for the Toonami programming block. It was launched through a collaboration between Cartoon Network and VIZ Media to stream the company's more p ...
).Toonami: Digital Arsenal
toonamiarsenal.com Retrieved on April 14, 2007.
The song " Something About Us" was released on vinyl as the "Love Theme" and tie-in single for the film. In December 2003, ''Interstella 5555'' was released along with the album '' Daft Club'', which served to promote the film and provided previously unreleased remixes of tracks from the ''Discovery'' album. The film premiered at
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
in 2003, with a short theatrical run and home media release following its premiere. A Blu-ray edition was released later in September 2011 and contains similar artwork packaging.


Re-releases and remaster

On 22 February 2024, Daft Punk streamed the film in full on Twitch as the third celebration of "Daft Punk Day", the anniversary of the duo's split. A repress of the "Something About Us" vinyl single was released on
Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...
in 2024. The Japanese edition of ''Discovery'' featuring cover art from the film was also repressed and released globally later the same year. In June 2024, a 4K "remaster", upscaled with artificial intelligence, was shown at the UGC Normandie in Paris, as well as at
Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
, marking the film's North American theatrical premiere. The use of AI was criticized by some. The remaster was overseen by Cédric Hervet, Daft Punk's creative manager and film co-writer. The film was animated digitally in standard definition and was converted between NTSC and PAL encodings during the production process, creating issues in framerate and resolution upon initial release in 2003. These issues, in addition to the original masters being unrecoverable from Japan, prevented a proper restoration and led to the use of AI upscaling to allow a more presentable theatrical exhibition. This restoration received a global theatrical rollout on 12 December 2024 in over 1500 venues.


Track listing


Reception

The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
gave the film four
stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...
out of five, saying that the film is a "visual and aural treat of intergalactic proportions". MovieMartyr.com said that the film was "the best animated film made in 2003, and a true testament to the artistry possible in two very different mediums." Mania.com concluded by stating that the film is "a unique feature that shows just how well music can be blended to animation to make a compelling story." ''
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' said the film was "Fine if you like the band – you'll be treated to some cartoons playing over the top of their ''Discovery'' album. For everyone else, just daft."


Notes


References


External links

* – archived fro
the original
on 2 August 2003 * * {{Authority control 2003 anime films 2003 films 2000s fantasy adventure films 2000s English-language films 2000s French animated films 2000s musical fantasy films Adventure anime and manga Animated musical films Animated musical groups Animated science fantasy films Animated space adventure films Anime-influenced animated films Daft Punk Daft Punk video albums Visual albums Electronic music films Fantasy anime and manga Fantasy music Films about wormholes Films directed by Daisuke Nishio Films set on fictional planets French adult animated films French animated fantasy films French animated science fiction films French fantasy adventure films French musical films Japanese animated fantasy films Japanese animated science fiction films Japanese fantasy adventure films Japanese musical films Music in anime and manga Science fiction anime and manga Science fiction musical films Sung-through musical films Toei Animation films 2003 science fiction films BAC Films films English-language science fiction films English-language musical fantasy films English-language fantasy adventure films 2003 musical films