*cracks knuckles*
After watching the sub on Thursday and the dub today, I think I've seen Stampede enough times to give a more comprehensive stance and discussion on the movie as a whole.
To start things off, this movie encapsulates everything that has made One Piece the phenomenon that it is. Not only as a celebration of the past, but a celebration of what is to come. For those who may not be aware, One Piece is inching closer and closer to its endgame. It won't happen for another three or five years, but the stage has been carefully set for all the dominoes to start falling.
With that being said, the ideas presented in Stampede are connected to the same concepts of the changing eras, treasure, friendship, camaraderie, and freedom.
The Pirates Fest is a cool way to bring together fan-favorite characters that otherwise wouldn't be together in the same place. Not only are there cameos galore, but there are also even visual, thematical and musical callbacks from all over One Piece's history.
Cameos that I can recall:
Pandaman (probably the easiest character to spot)
Hatchan, Keimi, and Pappugu
Gedatsu
Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's Day
Grount from Marine Rookie Arc (!!)
Jonathan from the G-8 Filler Arc(!!!!)
Vice-Admiral Momousagi
Vice-Admiral Chaton
Vice-Admiral Doberman
Vice-Admiral Stainless
Vice-Admiral Dalmatian
Vice-Admiral Onigumo
Carina from One Piece Film Gold (!!)
Flying Fish Riders
Billy and a few animals from One Piece Film Strong World (!!!)
The Risky Brothers
A sea train from Water 7 (I can't tell if it's supposed to be the Puffing Tom or the Puffing Ice)
Visual callbacks
The Knock-Up Stream, obviously
The bubbles from the stream are a reference to Saobody Archipelago
The island inside the big bubble is a reference to Fishman Island.
The shape of Delta Island seems very much like a reference to Reverse Mountain, even more so when at the end of the film, the flame trail from Sabo and Ace seems to represent the Grand Line
And that's only what I was able to pick up after two viewings. I probably missed a whole bunch of stuff.
What this movie does differently than other movies is the duo antagonists: Douglas Bullet and Buena Festa.
Everyone is wowed by Bullet that they forget that Festa is the co-villain in this whole spectacle. Orchestrating the advent of a chaotic era for his own amusement. He's the bubbly, overzealous baddie to compliment Bullet's more meat-headed side.
Individually, they're not as good, but together, with Festa as the brains and Bullet as the brawn, they represent the two ideas that go against everything Luffy stands for: Strength by oneself (Bullet) and pure anarchy for fun (Festa).
BUUUUUUT I'm going to ramble about Bullet anyway. This guy (like Buggy says in the dub) is a BEAST!! A pure monster!
He threw a ship filled with explosives kilometers into the air casually and destroyed an island. He's fast enough to catch all of the Supernovas lackin"! He has ridiculous Armament Haki (which he can even imbue onto things WAY larger than himself), strong Conqueror's Haki to rival even Luffy's, and possibly exceptional Observation Haki.
His Devil Fruit power is equally busted. With the Clank-Clank powers, he can combine any inanimate object together into whatever he wants. His power is basically a superior version of Kid's power.
Speaking of which, Kid surprisingly didn't get much to do in the movie. Missed a good opportunity to show Kid trying to control the metal from Bullet's ship and failing. I'll just chalk it up to Kid not showing enough feats in the manga to go off of.
Lucci also didn't do a whole lot. Same with Kizaru.
The true MVPs of this movie were Hancock (dat kick!), Smoker, Sabo, Crocodile (set the whole Take Down Bullet plan in motion), Buggy D. Clown, Law and the true GOAT...GOD USOPP!
Usopp had the strongest emotional moments in the film. No one could have seen this coming based on the trailers. I think this was the smartest choice they made. Usopp and Luffy are the same age, they have some of the deepest bonds in the crew, and both had a memorable iconic fight, breaking-up, and reconciliation.
He had the most hype payoff that ended up screwing Bullet over in the end! That's my sniper!
The other Straw Hats had some cool moments to show off, even though this wasn't the kind of movie to focus heavily on the Straw Hats themselves.
Robin, Chopper, Nami and Franky had their brief moments. Brook had the funniest moment (yes, I laughed at a fart joke, sue me). Sanji had a really small but neat moment of leadership, a trait that is easily forgotten. And he fought Smoker to a draw.
Zoro had a hefty showing in his fight with Fujitora, and slicing his meteor in two! (Zoro-senpaaaaaaai!)
The animation for the fights and some character acting was S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R!
My favorites were the Supernovas vs Bullet cuts, Roadrunner Hancock, Sabo vs Smoker, Sabo + Smoker tag-team attack, and pretty much most of the final fight between Gear 4th Luffy and Bullet.
Some grievances:
- Not a whole lot of plot in this film, but there didn't really need to be. This was never a plot-heavy movie.
- Bullet turning into a CG Junk Monster was alright, but quickly lost its luster until the Dream Team formed to take him down. Thank goodness, he got out of that form and fought Luffy in a mano-a-mano duel at the climax.
- Ann felt like an afterthought. Considering her powers, I was hoping for more illusionary character appearances.
Oh! And before I forget, the undersung hero of this film is THE MUSIC!!
Remember when I said even the music was choke-full of references?
Yeah, they remixed We Are!, We Go!, A Thousand Dreamers, and even Memories (I almost cried)
As for the "Laugh Tale" spelling,.....Eh.
English is not Oda's first language, even though he uses a lot of English text in the manga. I also don't think Oda ever really sat down and thought about what the romanization of Raftel would be until this movie.
Even if that was the case, Oda did not write the story for this film nor was he created as an executive producer like with the previous films.
Don't be surprised if the spelling doesn't even carry over to the manga.
Luffy breaking the Log Pose was the most Luffy thing ever. lol
My theater let out a loud gasp. XD I just laughed.
He's not going to take a shortcut to become the King of the Pirates. And the post-credits scene even rectifies that Luffy's choice was the right one.
But we manga readers already knew that...*cough cough*
Stampede was a great fun experience at the movies with a room filled with OP fans. For the type of anniversary ensemble event film, they were going for, Toei succeeded on every front. Absolutely worth seeing in a movie theater if you're reading this and haven't done it already.
