Streamline Pictures

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Streamline Pictures was an American distribution company that was best known for its distribution of English dubbed Japanese animation.

History

Founding

Founded in 1988, it was the first North American company that was founded primarily for the intention of distributing translated anime uncut and faithful to the original content. The founders of Streamline were Carl Macek, who had worked for Harmony Gold USA during the mid 1980s, most notably on the series Robotech, and Jerry Beck, an animation historian and film distribution veteran who had worked at MGM/UA, Orion and Expanded Entertainment. At one point or another, Steve Kramer, Ardwight Chamberlin, Tom Wyner, and Mike Reynolds all of whom served as series staff writers (and voice actors) on Robotech, worked as independent writers and voice actors for Streamline.

High profile products distributed by Streamline

The first high profile product distributed by Streamline was its December 1988 release of the anime film Akira. Streamline is also known for its 1989 theatrical distribution of the film Laputa: The Castle in the Sky directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and its 1992 video dubbing of The Castle of Cagliostro. Streamline also dubbed My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, in 1988 for Tokuma Shoten, although these were only used as in-flight films by Japan Air Lines at the time. As a fan of Miyazaki's films, Macek did not think Castle in the Sky (of which Streamline was the distributor) had received the quality of dubbing that a Miyazaki film deserved. He thought that it could have been done better, so the Japanese releaser Tokuma Shoten gave him the opportunity to prove his words. For his first project, he asked to dub My Neighbor Totoro, one of his favorite Miyazaki works. The Streamline dub of My Neighbor Totoro was released theatrically in the U.S. by Troma Films in 1993; but its dub of Kiki's Delivery Service appeared only on the 1990s Japanese laser disc release of that title. (Since then, however, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro have both been redubbed by Disney.)

Tokuma Shoten was pleased with the quality of the initial work, and it immediately hired Streamline Pictures to produce the English language version of Kiki's Delivery Service. Soon after its release, the film was bought by Japan Airlines who showed it during their flights between Japan and the U.S. (The film has since been redubbed by Disney.) It also licensed and dubbed other popular anime series and movies such as Fist of the North Star, Wicked City, Lensman, Vampire Hunter D and The Professional: Golgo 13.

Home video market

Streamline, in being the first company dedicated to making anime accessible to the English speaking world, was notable for releasing a wide variety of anime that fit in a wide variety of genres, many of which do not fit completely in any genre such as Twilight of the Cockroaches. During the 1990s VHS era, before the common availability of hybrid DVDs, anime distributors released anime via subtitled or dubbed tapes with the subtitled editions being noticeably more expensive than the dubs which were expected to sell better. Streamline is also notable in being the only such company to eschew this practice and release only dubs of its anime. The only exceptions were the later Akira subtitled release and their Robotech Collection, which included episodes of the original Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada episodes on the same tape along with their Robotech counterparts.

Criticism

Because of Carl Macek's notoriety with a certain branch of fandom, Streamline became one of the early catalysts of the sub vs. dub debate. Macek's philosophy towards anime dubbing, as stated in several interviews, most notably published Protoculture Addicts and Animag, has become largely synonymous with the negative connotation concerning "Americanized dubs".

Later years

Streamline Pictures stopped producing new anime releases in 1996, folding into Orion Pictures, which, in turn, would fold into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer one year later, in 1997. Streamline subsequently went out of business in 2002.

Today, the Streamline film and television library is owned by MGM, but the rights to all productions have either lapsed to other anime companies (such as Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water) or have never been released again (such as Robot Carnival).

List of titles released

References

• Akemi's Anime World - Streamline Pictures Review Index and Company Info

External links

• Streamline Pictures at the Internet Movie Database