GMA Teenifies Lupin, Rips Off Sailormoon, Indiana Jones, Lara Croft
Tags: Angel-Locsin | Asian-Treasures | GMA | Indiana Jones | Lara-Croft | Lupin | Media | Philippines | Richard-Gutierrez | Robin-Padilla | Sailormoon | stupid | Super-Twins | Tomb Raider | TV | Video
For years, ailing Philippine TV network GMA has gotten away with blatantly insulting the intelligence of the lower classes with their tasteless drama and fantasy offerings. This year, that strategy will backfire. First, they give the classic role of Lupin III to a kid far too young and inexperienced to play the globetrotting noble scoundrel. [...]GMA Teenifies Lupin, Rips Off Sailormoon, Indiana Jones, Lara Croft
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“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” Pablo Picasso
@john – when Capt. Barbell was announced, I was like.. “AWESOME! A MILLION PESO COSTUME FROM THE GUY WHO GAVE BATMAN NIPPLES!!”. But when the pilot episode aired, instead of awing over the new Captain Barbell, I was just, “HUH?! Smallville?”. The red truck, the best friend turned enemy, etc. They’re all obvious copies that had an impact on every Smallville fan. And the hype of the show went no where. The million peso costume was clearly not suited with Richard’s neck, head and crotch. Even Herbert Bautista, who also played Capt. Barbell a few years ago and a Smallville fan, criticized the way Captain Barbell’s story was altered and patterned from Smallville.
Don’t get me wrong. I only criticize when there’s something obvious. Look at Super Inggo, the concept of Super Inggo’s Power Academy can be compared to Harry Potter’s Hogwart’s and the group of Pinoy Super Heroes teaming together can be compared to Justice League. But it all stops there. The writers manage to project a new image over concepts that have been done before and create a new, original and engaging storyline that even an adult would find entertaining. You won’t even see the traces of Justice League and Hogwart’s.
There’s Iza Calzado and Dingdong Dantes’ movie, Moments of Love. Its concept was obviously similar to a Korean movie, Il Mare. Whether the writers got the idea from Il Mare or not, they managed to change the idea a little bit. The main factor on Iza’s movie was a telephone linked to the future, instead of a mailbox that was used in Il Mare. The thought of Rip-off was there, but the changed of storyline made it one of the best Filipino movies made.
Encantadia, Etheria, Mulawin, Krystala, Zsa Zsa Zaturnah, Pedro Penduko have great plots too that can be really called their own.
But Super Twins is different. By just merely staring at Nadine Samonte and Jennylyn Mercado on the teasers, what movie/series first popped into your heads? Sailor Moon, right? I don’t need to watch that series from start to finish just to give my opinion because whatever story they write or create for Super Twins, everyone who has watched Sailor Moon every Sunday on ABC-5 a decade ago will always think of Sailor Moon. And those same people will remember Super Twins as two girls wearing Sailor Moon costumes.
The same with Asian Treasures, why use the outfits of 2 of the most popular icons of adventure on Robin Padilla and Angel Locsin? With the same storyline (adventure, relics, treasures, etc.). But I still have high hopes for this series though. Most adventurers around wear ALMOST exact copies of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones’ costumes. But still, Angel Locsin’s pose on their teasers closely resembles Lara Croft.
And about Lupin. Since GMA-7 may have bought the license to create a live action series, I don’t care whatever they want to do with the character. Make him gay, dress him like Robin Hood, give him a talking dog as sidekick, or make him an ogre like Shrek… I DON’T CARE. As long as the story is good and original, I will support and promote it all the way. The very idea of Filipinos producing the very first live action series of a popular Japanese cartoon is already an achievement that we could be proud of. But as Jerry Polence had said, Vic Sotto would have been the perfect guy for the role.
Ummm… Maybe I’ll still watch Super Twins and screencap every frame whenever they transform. Watyatink?
The rip-offs doesn’t end there! Even our music community is suffering from rip-offs. Die Toni Gonzaga! Hehehe..anyway, have you seen the teaser of “Sana Maulit Muli”? featuring the-guy-from-pbb and the girl-who-won-pbb The movie “If Only” is written all over it. Come on, the second chance, resurrection from the dead, that weird old guy talking about last chances. I just laughed when I saw the teaser. “Another rip-off for the filipino audiences”
@jepoy, see that’s my point. Just because we were disappointed in the past, we already think that every other projects they will do next will be a disappointment.
The issue here is not “I got disappointed after watching the pilot episode” or “it’s all about SailorMoon costume everywhere”. We were discussing about the three upcoming teleseryes of GMA over at egames forums for one and wrote and clarified my stand on this matter on my blog.
I said it myself (before your reply here), I don’t like Captain Barbell and Atlantika to mention a few, and I like Majika, Encantadia, etc.
I even said (again before your reply here) that people will just watch Super Twins mainly for the “transformation” aspect of it – the sexy SailorMoon costumes – no more and no less. I even gave a dialogue example of how the ‘general’ Filipino people will react to Super Twins, so don’t bother screenshoting them, coz we discussed it already :p
See where I’m going? The issue is many Filipinos all over the world are easily dismissing new Filipino projects just because it was made by a Filipino, by a TV Network that is failing already because “YouTube is huge in the Philippines”, we all already know that, we all already know that Lupin – officially licensed to GMA, Super Twins – loosely based from SailorMoon, and Asian Treasures – mix of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft Tomb Raider, are “copied”, “ripped-off”, whatever you want to call it. It’s a given fact and there’s no point discussing it – I mean, isn’t it still obvious from the GMA teaser trailers?
And so if Super Twins’ costume was taken from SailorMoon? But what if the storyline is original?
Then there is also the issue that many Filipinos are saying when we are NOT the only one’s doing this “copying” of other shows. Singaporeans did it, Taiwanese did it, the Chinese did it, Australians, Kiwis, even the Americans.
That is my point in this argument, why keep bashing or judge a show that is still to be aired?
I don’t care if you don’t like Captain Barbell, coz I don’t like it either, just like you, I was very disappointed when I watched the pilot episode. But as I continue to watch the show, I saw that they changed the way they present their storyline – just like Moments of Love.
It’s the story that matters here. The story is the substance. They can copy Power Rangers, Mask Rider Black, Sadako, Titanic, name it, if the story is good, if the way they presented their version is good, that makes it good, otherwise it is “just another” copy.
After watching the series, I can now give an unbias opinion of the show, the writers of the show, and the whole team.
You see, I pre-judged many of GMA and ABS-CBN productions and I ate most of what I said about their shows, I learned from it so I don’t pre-judge anymore. I will watch it first, even if I skip a few episodes here and there, then that’s when I will give my opinion – not when I still don’t know what it is all about.
Yeah, let’s go back to Super Twins, everyone will think about SailorMoon, well, not really everyone, only those who watched anime will be familiar with the Super Twins costumes. In other words, their market here is not us who are familiar with SailorMoon but those who don’t.
Then again we will go around back to the substance. It is just a costume. If DC will allow us to copy and create a ripped-off Superman’s costume and we’ll be able to do it very well or be at par with Superman, hey, that’s something. But pre-judging it that it was a ripped-off of Superman’s costume and thus is not worth your TV time is something that I (and others) don’t like with today’s Filipino people.
I already said it again and again, and Filipinos love it too: Don’t judge the book by its cover.
But the foreigners will say this instead: “If you don’t like it then don’t watch it, or better create your own version.” (Which I don’t really agree.)
PS
You – refers to the general public who pre-judged GMA’s new shows (and ABS-CBN for that matter), NOT to “you, as in you”.
So please don’t be mistaken that I’m attacking ‘you’ or anyone else ‘individually’. I am talking about today’s Pinoy attitude.
When I saw the trailer for the 3 new GMA shows (which has a pretty kickass music btw), I was mildly appalled to see Richard as Lupin. I mean if I can recall Lupin was a wisecrack funny kind of guy, and I thought casting Richard was a poor choice. I have to say that Richard’s past roles were not very diverse. His role seems to be always the archetype soft-spoken heroic figure. I mean is this guy even has a knack for comedy? But then I saw this on wiki:
“The series is not a live action serialization of the Japanese anime Lupin III as earlier announced, but rather an attempt to introduce an entirely Filipino master thief character inspired by the original French thief character.”
So if this is true then my preconceived notions about this upcoming show were pretty much shattered. And with this they can take the show in whichever direction they want. I think the show got a potential. It all boils down to execution and how well Richard can handle his role, and yeah of course the plot ( I hope they throw in some elaborate thieving sequence). SO yeah it’s too early to judge the show, rumors it’s bound to air March 2007.
As for Super Twins, it’s about as subtle as sledgehammer to the forehead. And it might not only be talking about Sailormoon here, it could be the Wonder Twins too (you know those rings each of them has, the rings makes contact with each other, they chant something and voila).. LOL. With this blatant ripoff (of costumes anyway) it would be hard to take this show seriously. I know I shouldn’t be judging the show with it’s costumes, but I doubt they could cook up something original or innovative in terms of story. Well it’s just me, but I am so done with superheroes atm..
As with Asian Treasures, why copy the exact costumes of two of the most recognizable adventure heroes? They are clearly insulting the audience’s intelligence. I reckon they could still make the show work without resorting to cheap tactics like this.. I mean Robin and ANgel are competent performers not to mention popular enough and the adventure theme has always been accessible. So why? Well this is my only reservation for the show, I’d probably watch this. I hope they pull this one right…