Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: Ahasverus on December 28, 2016, 10:40:09 AM
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"Back in 2015, we reported that voice of the digital generation (and Dredd executive producer) Adi Shankar was developing a “super violent” animated series based on Konami’s Castlevania video game series. (For younger readers, Konami used to be a company that made video games before it started dedicating all of its time to being generally shitty.) Shankar said he was working with Adventure Time and Fairly OddParents animation house Frederator Studios, which happens to own the adaptation rights to Castlevania.
Now, it sounds like Frederator has cagily confirmed that this Castlevania cartoon is really happening. Speaking with Nickelodeon’s official Nick Animation Podcast (via Bleeding Cool), Fred Seibert (the “Fred” in Frederator) explained that his team is working on an “unnamed” project based on “one of the most world-famous video games of the last 30 years.” He said they’ve had the rights to this unnamed game for 12 years and haven’t been able to work on it, but—perhaps due to the upcoming end of Adventure Time—they’re now able to get it going.
He doesn’t specifically say he’s talking about Castlevania, but the series did just have its 30th birthday in September, so that does fit."
http://www.avclub.com/article/adventure-times-frederator-studios-still-working-c-247773?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing (http://www.avclub.com/article/adventure-times-frederator-studios-still-working-c-247773?utm_content=Main&utm_campaign=SF&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing)
What kind of violence/gore can you show?
Shankar: There will be a lot. The goal is to bring hard hitting anime to the America and be America’s first animated series for adults.
What animated stuff would you say influences the look and feel of your series?
Shankar: Akira, Ghost in [the] Shell, Ninja Scroll, Young Justice aka the best series ever and it shouldn’t have been canceled wtf.
http://collider.com/castlevania-animated-series-adi-shankar/ (http://collider.com/castlevania-animated-series-adi-shankar/)
This never died
(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fvignette4.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fcastlevania%2Fimages%2F1%2F10%2FDracula%27s_Curse_Animated_Movie_concept_art.jpg%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20150804104340%26amp%3Bpath-prefix%3Des&hash=c0e7ae6ac301f2867da6589da8f1d8bb)
We should pray for it success, may it make the brand strong enough for a gaming return. The Adventure Time/Fairy oddparents studio making it should excite us too. Guys are great imo.
Discuss?
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It being from Fredator worries me a bit. Fairly Oddparents and ChalkZone were quality cartoons, but their art-style makes me feel like it's gonna be a really gimmicky hyper-active cartoon. Topped off with the "ultra-violence", and I feel like it's going to fit in well with a lot of the other trash that Adult Swim is known for putting out.
Not to mention they made that god awful Ape Escape cartoon in 2009 and completely bastardized anything good about the series.
On a side note, I'm 100% sure that image of Trevor and co. you added was from that Castlevania movie series that was being worked on, not from the ultra-violent project that disappeared. Were those not two different projects?
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"Super violent"
This makes me cringe. These guys don't seem to understand that the violence is not exactly the main attraction of Castlevania.
I've expressed this before, but it seems (SEEMS) to me that these guys are not taking Castlevania seriously at all, thinking we will swallow any gorefest they throw at us because its edgy and has a lot of blood and "vampires like blood, right? RIGHT?".
Think Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. It had violence in it, but it wasn't the focus of the work.
And, for the love of Dracula, no goat-fucking jokes. Like... If, while thinking "Castlevania jokes", goat-fucking is something that occurs on your head, then... try avoiding jokes altogether, please. I can whip up a number of Castlevania jokes just from sitting here thinking 5 seconds, and goats have nothing to do with any of them.
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People are worrying about the quality of the finished product already?
Trend analysis of Castlevania media projects suggests we won't even get a finished project at all. So I'm not worried. I'll freak out if something actually releases, but going by every other time someone has said "we're making a Castlevania movie/series" it's completely died before we got more than a script leak and maybe some concept art, so seriously guys, calm yo tits.
Also, every proposed Castlevania multimedia project has sounded terrible, and this pretty much sounds like the rest that have come before.
So, they'll talk a big game for a month or two, and then we'll get to the stage where we go years without an update, and then a decade from now we'll have completely forgotten this entirely except for a few minutes of "I wonder what happened to that project..." at random moments, just like the Dracula's Curse anime, Paul W.S Anderson's script treatment, and James Wan's proposed film.
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I can whip up a number of Castlevania jokes just from sitting here thinking 5 seconds, and goats have nothing to do with any of them.
You already did it right there.
People are worrying about the quality of the finished product already?
Regardless if it does happen or not, it's not like it's nonsensical to be worried about it. This is Frederator Studios we're talking about here. They've got like... one project that nobody cares that they did. If this should be finished and released, remember that these are the guys who did Fairly Oddparents and Adventure Time. Their next project will no doubt be something that gets a lot of attention, particularly with fans of their other works.
How they choose to present Castlevania will be how its come to be known to a lot of people. And when their only video game adaptation is freakin' Ape Escape, which was less good and more an absolute damn travesty, of course we'll be worried about it.
Their Ape Escape cartoon capture absolutely nothing that made the game series and even the original anime so magical. It completely missed the mark and no actual Ape Escape fan enjoyed the cartoon. So when they think of Castlevania and what they think of is "super-violent" even though Castlevania has never been particularly violent, it's really worrisome.
Disclaimer: I'm aware CV has quite a bit of violence in it. It's all stuff that could be considered PG-13 though, and not "super-violent".
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I was so sure this was dead
Well, we'll see it whenever it happens. Frederator is such an odd choice for a studio to make a Castlevania series
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(https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQxkbNJc.png&hash=f65bd621256396d17baf315cae483a84)
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Their Ape Escape cartoon capture absolutely nothing that made the game series and even the original anime so magical. It completely missed the mark and no actual Ape Escape fan enjoyed the cartoon. So when they think of Castlevania and what they think of is "super-violent" even though Castlevania has never been particularly violent, it's really worrisome.
Disclaimer: I'm aware CV has quite a bit of violence in it. It's all stuff that could be considered PG-13 though, and not "super-violent".
An interesting point. Castlevania has violent acts in it, but is not itself really violent. A completely faithful adaptation of most of the games in the series would have enemies suddenly disappear when killed, not explode into gore. The series in spirit is much closer to Hammer Horror, or even 1931's Dracula (where you never even see Drac with fangs) than it is to Hellsing. And if I want an over-the-top violent take on Dracula, I'll just re-read or re-watch Hellsing.
If they're planning on playing over the top violence for straight comedy, wouldn't that come off as kind of a one note Rick and Morty ripoff? (I ask because I'm not that familiar with R&M but what I have seen has played violence for laughs.) In any case I'm not worried because I doubt this'll get made. Sadly the adult swim crowd of 20 and 30 somethings is probably the only demographic where Castlevania as a brand has any value, which is a damn shame considering how many games in the series deserve recognition as classics right up there with your Mario's and Zelda's.
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It has been sitting in the back burner for 12 years....
This is a cause for worry.
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Why do this now, though? Back when they got the license Castlevania already was a very niche series. After Lords of Shadow turned out to be reasonably successful they could have announced this project, yet they didn't. Who is going to care at this point? I believe the audience they were going for were 30+ year-olds, so it seems they're aiming at people who used to play CVIII when they were kids. But that game obviously wasn't about ultra-violence, foul language, and "adult humor". It seems Adi Shankar and Fredator want to make something that appeals to edge lords with the Castlevania brand slapped on top of it. If you're going down the gore route, base it on Lords of Shadow then! At least that would make some sense content-wise and timing-wise. Plus, then I don't have to care if it's any good or not.
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expecting this
(https://31.media.tumblr.com/267ac9f25c3899d2f86e276c87c35272/tumblr_inline_n54adedtwU1rjw2mu.jpg)
or nothing at all
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But that game obviously wasn't about ultra-violence, foul language, and "adult humor". It seems Adi Shankar and Fredator want to make something that appeals to edge lords with the Castlevania brand slapped on top of it.
Oh God. We haven't heard the last of goat fucking.
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Well the director is the definition of Edgelord, but I love the series they name as inspirations. Ghost in the Shell? Sign me in. I hope the studio brings out their A game. I'm expecting a Samurai Jack type of cartoon.
For those who doubt it will happen, you gotta remember that the studio have nothing in their pipeline after Adventure Time, neither does Cartoon Network. This is their next project, the "replacement" of the most succesuful cartoon series of the decade. Honestly, the studio tackling Castlevania next is huge imo. If done well it could push the series into the mainstream, in the most weird manner of course, but it could.
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Never imagined CV getting an animated treatment. I'm not into anime and cartoons, so yeah, I would have prefered a live-action series.
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If you're going down the gore route, base it on Lords of Shadow then! At least that would make some sense content-wise and timing-wise. Plus, then I don't have to care if it's any good or not.
See, this would make the most sense with the whole "super-violent" thing, because yeah, the LoS games were legitimately super-violent.
For those who doubt it will happen, you gotta remember that the studio have nothing in their pipeline after Adventure Time, neither does Cartoon Network. This is their next project, the "replacement" of the most succesuful cartoon series of the decade. Honestly, the studio tackling Castlevania next is huge imo. If done well it could push the series into the mainstream, in the most weird manner of course, but it could.
This is why I'm worrying. Whatever they do with it, it will no doubt be how Castlevania is seen from here on by the general public. And seeing what they did to Ape Escape (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2009/Jul/05/hawaii907050317V2_b.jpg), I'm really not looking forward to this.
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If you have to point out the fact that it's "ultra-violent" there is a problem with the concept.
If they think mindless loads of gore and adult humor is what CV fans want, they may be in for a rude awakening.
I would take erotic violence over ultra violence any day.
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Well, to be fair, whipping a plethora of different rotten enemies to death would probably qualify as "ultraviolent". Violence itself is not a focus in the games because most of them didnt lend themselves to showcase it by design but if you think "tridimentionally" of what we do and what we see in the 2D games, it'd be pretty gory at the very least
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Well, to be fair, whipping a plethora of different rotten enemies to death would probably qualify as "ultraviolent". Violence itself is not a focus in the games because most of them didnt lend themselves to showcase it by design but if you think "tridimentionally" of what we do and what we see in the 2D games, it'd be pretty gory at the very least
Yes, but the point is: That is an afterthought.
Like, if you tell me you'll make a Castlevania movie, "there will be a lot of gore because you're whipping rotten zombies" is not something you have to tell me. It's something that is implied because that's something present naturally on the medium.
When you DO tell me it will be "super violent", then it seems that you're putting too much focus on the afterthought. You should be telling me "It'll focus on the struggles of X and Y" or "It'll show how X came to pass" or even "The animation will be super fluid." "Super violence" doesn't tell me anything I don't know, but it does tell me you don't get Castlevania's appeal.
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"Super violence" doesn't tell me anything I don't know, but it does tell me you don't get Castlevania's appeal.
Yep. One of the great things about the series is that different games appeal to different subsets of the horror genre. The earlier games appeal to the sensibilities of the cheesy Universal and Hammer crossover creature features. While Symphony of the Night and the games that followed mostly appealed to the Gothic-romantic sub-genre. Both of which are far away from splatterpunk. As a horror fan I've always found gore by itself pretty boring* so I hope if this gets made they don't rely on that.
*I'd much rather see a cool, well designed creature than yet another decapitation or disembowelment etc. Even Hellsing, as gory as it is, remains a fun series which if not entirely original in its concepts (vampires working for the good guys, a secret government organization to deal with the supernatural, Nazi occult experiments, Dracula going by the name of Alucard) presents all of said ideas in a competent and enjoyably over the top, unapologetically tasteless and hedonistic way.
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So if this gets popular enough, can we expect Castlevania The Cartoon: The Game?
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Heard about this news just now and INSTANTLY came here.
Captain N Simon Belmont or cancelled.
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So if this gets popular enough, can we expect Castlevania The Cartoon: The Game?
"Castlevania the Cartoon: The Pachislot" more likely.
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In light of this news, I thought it would be interesting (or morbidly fascinating) to post this cringy summary of the original script for the Dracula's Curse movie:
https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/14077952/Castlevania-Deck (https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/14077952/Castlevania-Deck)
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In light of this news, I thought it would be interesting (or morbidly fascinating) to post this cringy summary of the original script for the Dracula's Curse movie:
https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/14077952/Castlevania-Deck (https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/14077952/Castlevania-Deck)
"Draculamagically appears before the villagers and warns them he will return in oneyear to exact his revenge for the killing of his wife."
...You couldn't show up like... a few minutes earlier there, Drac?
Ugh. That whole thing sounds like something that a 15-year-old came up with while doodling on his classwork in high school, not something a famed writer came up with.
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Makes me want to write a CV3 script.
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I really wanna curl up and die now...
That whole thing sounds like something that a 15-year-old came up with while doodling on his classwork in high school, not something a famed writer came up with.
A 15 year old could have come up with a much better story then the imbeciles whom wrote that piece of trash. Those people don't know what Castlevania is or how to properly represent it, let alone present it to us as a movie.
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Makes me want to write a CV3 script.
Makes me want to write a fanfic.
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The problem with This, and the Megaman cartoon that is being made, is that there does not seem to be anyone working on these things that take the source material seriously at all.
I don't know.
I feel like the only way a CV cartoon can ever not suck for most viewers is for it to be fan made.
And I mean made by fans that want to bring the games to life without the gimmick of making a "new and fresh" interpretation for people that that are not already fans and couldn't give three shits how different it is from the source material.
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Makes me want to write a fanfic.
Do it!
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"Lords of Shadow sucked 6 years ago and it still sucks now. I'd rather inhale skunk shit than ever play Lords of Shadow again. That fat fuck David Cox and his his senior citizen lover Enric Alvarez took a big spanish shit on your favorite franchise of all time. I still want my two on one boxing match with those sacks of T-Rex shit." -Rugal
That is a direct quote from Rugal on another thread here regarding the infamous Lords of Shadow series & Dave "Let's make CV great again" Cox. If you would all be so kind as to replace any instance of Dave and Lords of Shadow being mentioned with "Adi Shankar" and "CV III ultra violent animation", you'd get my sentiments on this.
Uzo, who has been my boyfriend since June of this year (long story, Street Fighter creates bonds), told me about this fucking abortion almost immediately upon waking this morning. I became genuinely angry, sad, and nauseas. I shit you not. Ready your pitchforks internets, we have a hell of a shitstorm to mount...or not...whatever, this coupled with other things going on in my life right now have cost me the will to live. Laina out.
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Uzo, who has been my boyfriend since June of this year
Congratulations Laina! At least there's some good news on this thread.
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People are worrying about the quality of the finished product already?
Trend analysis of Castlevania media projects suggests we won't even get a finished project at all. So I'm not worried. I'll freak out if something actually releases, but going by every other time someone has said "we're making a Castlevania movie/series" it's completely died before we got more than a script leak and maybe some concept art, so seriously guys, calm yo tits.
This. Every plan so far for this project has seemingly failed, so I won't hold my breath for it to come out now. If it does, I'll give it a chance, but the history of this thing doesn't give me confidence that we'll see anything actually released.
I know a couple people made mention of the "goat fucking" thing, but that was when Warren Ellis was supposed to be writing it, and even then, it seemed more like a joke than an allusion to anything in the script. (If Garth Ennis was writing instead and made the same comment, then yeah, I'd worry, but whatever).
Honestly, I would've actually liked to see Warren Ellis write a script for this. The stuff he's written in comics that I've read (Stormwatch, The Authority, Moon Knight) have all been intelligent and entertaining. But his name seemed to have disappeared from this project a long time ago.
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Most articles didn't mention it last year, but they confirmed they were still using the Warren Ellis script:
http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/adi-shankar-producing-super-violent-castlevania-animated-series-written-warren-ellis (http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/content/adi-shankar-producing-super-violent-castlevania-animated-series-written-warren-ellis)
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Everytime I see a picture of Adi "Lord Edge" Shankar, I tense up out of anger, but then relax out of humor because look at that clueless douche. Anyway, I wanna side with JR & Bloody on this, believing that it probably won't get much further until someone finally pulls the plug for good. I doubt even Warren Ellis could make this turd sandwich palatable & hopefully everyone involved realizes that too.
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I must say I hope they don't mess this up, as CV is not Adventure Time. And I really don't what to see it in that style, that's not why we Love CV.
So I have very mixed feelings about this.
on the one hand, id love to see CV get more spotlight, and it be great if this could drum up interest in it.
But on the other hand, Last thing I what is them to turn it in to Adventure Time, as well lets face it,
it was... ok, some times... But its not really up to CV Level, not now or ever. and I think we really don't what some kiddie Crap slapped on CV just to sell more toys.
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Say, didn't Wayforward do the Adventure Time videogames? Maybe this is their ticket to finally doing Castlevania.
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I've got to say I am surprised that people are so opposed to this. I am actually more than a little excited. I would be very excited if they hadn't been claiming to be getting started for about a decade now. But given the people involved I think if it does get made it will be pretty fantastic.
A. We've got a script by Warren Ellis. Now while it certainly does seem to deviate pretty heavily, it was clearly a jumping off point. Almost anyone familiar with Ellis' work would attest that it is almost all pretty great.
B. Ardi Shankar, whose fashion sense I legitimately don't get, is actually a pretty stellar producer. His short films are always simultaneously very true to their source material, and at the same time grittier and more geared towards adults. Punisher: Dirty Laundry, and the film Dredd are just two great examples of this.
C. Frederator Studios are pretty great animators, and the idea that they would do Castlevania in the same style as Adventure Time, or even close is just laughable. We've seen concept work of what this is supposed to look like. You guys forget about this? (https://castlevaniadungeon.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.frederatorblogs.com%2Fchannel_frederator%2Ffiles%2F2008%2F04%2Fcastlevaniahires.gif&hash=58d7d8f485f6e3fc10e18acfd93bfdeb)
Now well yes, I am picking the best one, the other concept art we've seen for this is all pretty good, and far from anything resembling adventure time. The Alucard one is pretty rough, but we've seen worse.
Given that this thing has been going on for 12 years now, I'm willing to bet the script has evolved. It only ever told about how Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard got together, a point I am certain this series would go beyond. And given Shanker's track record on adapting properties I am willing to assume it has either stayed as true to the games as it was, or gotten even closer. I am psyched, and I hope it does come out eventually. A kickass Netflix series could rejuvenate the franchise. Save it from gambling machine purgatory.
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AlexCalvo's point is indeed excellent. The original point of my initial post was never to doom-and-gloom, though that seems to be how it's been taken by many here, and looking back, it does have aspects of that. I'm mostly just expressing skepticism that it will be made at all, as Castlevania has a terrible track record in the multimedia department. I mean, I remember when Sylvain White was trying to get everyone psyched about his Castlevania film that apparently made it as far as casting Jonathan Frakes as a retired Belmont hunter-become-grandfather. Then the movie was handed off to James Wan, who talked a big game about his gamer cred, but nothing ever emerged of the actual film and we later found that Wan never even had a shot at directing it because it was basically dead at the studio's behest long before it even landed in his lap.
That's what Frederator is up against. This is why I am skeptical.
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I know from what NECA has said about working with Konami on their Castlevania line of figures that getting their stamp of approval on a finished product is nightmarish. Which is why we never got a series 2 (they were pretty eager to make figures for Richter and Death) So once again we probably have Konami to thank for nothing happening.
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I know from what NECA has said about working with Konami on their Castlevania line of figures that getting their stamp of approval on a finished product is nightmarish. Which is why we never got a series 2 (they were pretty eager to make figures for Richter and Death) So once again we probably have Konami to thank for nothing happening.
Argh... so that'e the reason. Sheesh Konami.....