Italian Anime Dub Theme Songs: Headbangers from Europe's Big Boot!

     TV show theme songs are like a bag of Halloween candy. There are the delicious candies, like the SpongeBob Theme Song, and there is that box of raisins that one crazy lady gives out, such as the theme from Fanboy and Chum Chum. Theme music for Italian dubs of anime are almost always like a bag full of your favorite candy. Why? They are just so darn catchy, with techno elements and a great beat. This blog post describes how these themes were made. Most of the information comes from PatMac's video about International Theme Songs. Check it out on YouTube here!

    The reason why Italian anime themes are so catchy, is due to 2 prominent figures in Italian Music, and a company founded by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

    The first figure is a man named Giorgio Vanni. His first stunt on Italian TV the Italian-language version of the jingle used in 1990's "Always Coca-Cola" commercials. Later in 1998, He was approached by Alessandra Valeri Manera, the head of Boys' programming at Mediaset, one of the largest media corporations in the country, owning 3 networks at the time, Canale 5, Italia 1, and Retequattro. Most of the animated programming at that time was on Italia 1, since that network was geared toward older children and young adult audiences. Vanni's first song at Mediaset was the theme to the 1970's Superman dub that aired on Italia 1 at the time. He later wrote and sang the themes for the dubs of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, Sonic X, and many others.

 

The logo of Italia 1.

The second prominent figure is a musician, actress, and voice actress named Cristina D'Avena, whose 1st theme song made for Mediaset was for a dub of the anime "The Adventures of Pinocchio" that aired on Canale 5. She later on sang the themes for the dubs of "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" alongside the voice of Sonic and a children's choir in Milan, where Mediaset is based. 

If you want to listen to the songs mentioned above, look 'em up on YouTube! You might even find a new favorite TV theme song!

Stay tuned to my blog for more reviews, interesting editorials, and fun facts.Thanks for reading! :)

Movie Review: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

 You might not know this, but I am a huge Super Mario fan. When I heard that Nintendo and Illumination were working on a Mario movie, I was a bit skeptical at first, since Illumination is known for being cheap when it comes to animation. But did Illumination produce a cheap marketable movie with toilet humor and cheesy jokes, or did they make a redeeming masterpiece, as Sony Pictures Animation did with "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse"? Read my review and find out!

But first, a history of Nintendo movies. 1986 saw the release of a Japan-exclusive anime movie called "Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!" which was a moderate success. 7 years later, Disney's Hollywood Pictures division, alongside Lightmotive and Allied Filmmakers, released a sci-fi adventure flick called "Super Mario Bros." which was SO LOOSELY based on the games, and the only mention of Nintendo or Shigeru Miyamoto was at the very end of the credits in extremely small mice-type. It's an insult to the most popular gaming franchise ever, just like how Star Trek: Discovery is an insult to Gene Roddenberry's ideals from the original 1966 series.

Forget what the critics on Rotten Tomatoes say. This movie is the freshest tomato of the 2023 movie bunch! The movie opens with a shortened Universal logo, an Illumination logo with a minion in a go-kart failing to get a rocket boost, and a pixel animation of Mario and Luigi hitting a "?" Block that contains a large Nintendo logo. That trio of logos were an excellent way to show who made the film.

This film contains visual and musical references galore. My favorite reference was the Toad at the antique store with the NES cartridge. That was a great little visual gag alongside the elder Toad saying "have you tried blowing into it?". Even though the recommended way to clean an NES cartridge is to use a damp cotton swab to clean its contacts that connect to the pins in the system.

Peach is more of a good girl gone bad instead of the usual damsel in distress, which is awesome, and a welcomed change, and Luigi is the one that needs to be rescued.

The movie's message is important as well, You can get through tough times if you stick together. After all the struggles brought to us by 2020, it's more important than ever.

Chris Pratt did an okay job as the plumber in red. But Charlie Day's high-pitched New York accent fits Luigi's personality like his gloves. But Jack Black stole the show with his portrayal of Bowser. Let's not forget the hilarious love song "Peaches". It made me crack up like a Yoshi Egg.

All in all, if you are a fan of Mario, you'll enjoy this masterpiece. Nintendo should release a cartridge copy of this movie on Switch.

I give this movie 5 Super Stars!

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