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INTEREST: 90s American Live-Action Sailor Moon Pilot Has Finally Gone Public


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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2375
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:15 am Reply with quote
The gods of reaction videos have just shit themselves.
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GracieLizzy



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Sunderland, England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:21 am Reply with quote
Looks like after this was aired whilst Venus is still unidentified fans have managed to confirm Luna was voiced by Melendy Britt from the original 1980s She-Ra.

https://twitter.com/moonkittynet/status/1561568614846988288?t=0KPD1-9os26_2J777f_yWg&s=19
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4632
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:45 am Reply with quote
I love how it was just sitting in the Library of Congress this whole time. Truly the greatest repository since the Library of Alexandria.

Anyway, don’t view it as a stand alone product. Because as one, it is utterly wretched. But as a time capsule of what executives thought they had to do with girl centric franchises, it’s brilliant. It is so hilariously 90s kids cartoon. All that was missing was a big Liefeldian gun for someone to use.
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Los Nido



Joined: 26 Jun 2022
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:08 am Reply with quote
Personally It gives me more 80s vibes than 90s vibes. It looks like a much worse version of She-Ra. Those pointless vehicles they added for kids to buy toys of seems very on the nose.

The scene with the school dance reminded me of that American Akira skit by Harry Partirdge. Sailor Moon is remembering her kingdom being conquered and her lover being killed, only to be told the school dance is that night and suddenly they all get giddy and have a sing-a-long that rivals the Night Trap slumber party song.
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GracieLizzy



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Sunderland, England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:11 am Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
All that was missing was a big Liefeldian gun for someone to use.


Bakane / Rhett Butler has you covered:



From twitter: https://twitter.com/retrosofa/status/1561509287146520582?t=ULabABb2Mv5E0iFwRzPEQw&s=19
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:15 am Reply with quote
What a piece of history, finally unveiled...
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:15 am Reply with quote
Quote:


Brilliant. It’s brilliant. And I am so glad that we didn’t get this version.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1903
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 9:33 am Reply with quote
................what in Sam Hill did I JUST watch?
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1630
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:39 am Reply with quote
A sick, twisted part of me wishes that this ended up getting greenlit. It would have been an awful bastardization, but it'd be amazing riffing fodder.

My favorite part has gotta be giving them space gliders to justify calling them sailors
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1254
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:57 am Reply with quote
This is an amazing discovery, and according to some sources it seems that the lost pilot for the live-action Saint Seiya show (Starstorm as it was called) that Bandai was making at the same time is the library as well, I hope they can leak it too, as well as the SD Gundam cartoon that Sunrise made for Americans, Doozy Bots.
It's interesting that Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya and Gundam had pilots for American versions that never went past a pilot episode/proof of concept, it seems like the distributors seriously thought that anime was unmarketeable in the U.S., which I don't think is true considering Robotech and Voltron were pretty successful. Not to mention that in Latin America and Europe anime was pretty popular around that time. Even Nintendo of America were considering changing the designs for Pokémon before it arrived to the West.
I find it kind of funny that this western version of Sailor Moon kinda looks like a lost She-ra-type show, especially considering that Usagi's voice actress in Neutral Spanish, Patricia Acevedo, actually voiced princess Adora in the original She-ra cartoon.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:01 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Based on the pilot, would you have watched the full version of the American Sailor Moon?


No sir, I am not a masochist. Laughing

I didn't even watch the Japanese live action Sailor Moon....which I hear is pretty good...but I can't get past the level of cheese. Some things should only remain in the animated world.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2035
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:16 am Reply with quote
I feel like the basic concept of this show would’ve made an interesting children’s program; it’s the silly execution that sank it. Still, it’s a lot of fun to watch as a strange early 90s time capsule. Also, Adrienne Barbeau sounded surprisingly good as Queen Beryl, almost like a cross between Naz Edwards’ performance in the DiC dub and Cindy Robinson’s in the Viz dub.

Also, it looks like girls considered hats really stylish during this era.
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GracieLizzy



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 551
Location: Sunderland, England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:43 am Reply with quote
Silver Kirin wrote:
It's interesting that Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya and Gundam had pilots for American versions that never went past a pilot episode/proof of concept, it seems like the distributors seriously thought that anime was unmarketeable in the U.S., which I don't think is true considering Robotech and Voltron were pretty successful. Not to mention that in Latin America and Europe anime was pretty popular around that time.


This struck me as well during both parts of the documentary, I also remember thinking this when the Anime Fringe interview with Rocky Solotoff that Ray Mona quotes from in part 1 of her doc came out. I remember being annoyed reading him saying he though it needed to more rewriting but I think I have softened a lot on that over the years. It sounds like he and his team were quiet passionate about this project and put a lot of effort in for what little budget they had. I am still very glad we got the dub instead in the end though as it was my gateway anime and there's no guarantee I would be the same person I am today were it not for that dub. Mind you I also would love to see a fan film or something based on the ToonMakers version, just out of pure curiousity.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:45 am Reply with quote
No wonder it was sitting in the Library of Congress for ages, It's got boring writing and the rest is so bad it's good, especially the voice acting. I'd pass if that was the Sailor Moon I first seen. Doozy Bots was better than this, and even then I'd pass on that. These are times where the butchered anime is the better version than the full Americanized version.
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chrisb
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 651
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 11:54 am Reply with quote
… I think I can appreciate the Dic dub a lot more knowing it could have been this monstrosity.
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