Film

Interstella 5555 (2003)

Director: Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Hirotoshi Nissen, Oaisuke Nishio

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Pop music and animation have often harmonised. This is a candy-coloured collaboration between clubby French hitmakers Daft Punk (aka Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) and Japanese illustrator Leiji Matsumoto. Fans will recognise Interstella 5555 as the cartoon videos from Daft Punk's 2001 album Discovery, spun with extra bits into a feature-length sci-fi adventure. Their vocoder-laced disco smashes ('One More Time', 'Digital Love', 'Aerodynamic' and 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger') sound perfectly exuberant, set to a plot about an intergalactic band abducted by an evil record company mogul from planet Earth, who forces them to have hits and sign autographs until they break down. The dialogue-free story makes for an accessible blast, although it's tricky to gauge individual personalities. As Daft Punk have always avoided conventional publicity, their own animated appearance (dressed as 'Discovery'-period robots) is a neat touch, while viewers may note that the main characters are remodelled in suspiciously Hoxton-style vogue - proof, surely, that pop fashionistas come from another planet.

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