Steve Hubbell wrote:
The contest is to pick what movie you believe should be adapted into a Usagi Yojimbo story.
You must write (or copy and paste) a brief description of the film and then plot out how you think the story should be adapted to fit as a Usagi story.
The more detail, the more brownie points earned.
This should probably have been written as "The contest is to pick what movie you believe should be adapted into a Usagi Yojimbo graphic or illustrated story."
Also, feel free to make any edits to your entries any time prior to the September 8th deadline, if you want.....
All of these are fun to read and imagine. I hope we get more ideas submitted. I would read any of these comic adaptations. Thanks for submitting them. Good luck! Peace, maka
The Movie I think would be an epic Usagi Story would be the 5th Element. In case you don’t know the fifth element is a film set in the late 23rd century, a New York City cabbie, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), finds the fate of the world in his hands when Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls into his cab. As the embodiment of the fifth element, Leeloo needs to combine with the other four to keep the approaching Great Evil from destroying the world. Together with Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and zany broadcaster Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), Dallas must race against time and the wicked industrialist Zorg (Gary Oldman) to save humanity. How I think it could be adapted to a Usagi tale is quite simple really.
The Plot
In 1914, aliens known as Mondoshawans arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple to collect, for safekeeping, the only weapon capable of defeating a great evil that appears every 5,000 years. The weapon consists of four stones, representing the four classical elements, and a sarcophagus containing a fifth element in the form of a human, which combines the power of the other four elements into a divine light capable of defeating the evil. The Mondoshawans promise their human contact, a priest from a secret order, that they will come back with the element stones in time to stop the great evil when it returns.
In 2263, the great evil appears in deep space in the form of a giant ball of black fire, and destroys an attacking Earth spaceship. The Mondoshawans' current contact on Earth, priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm), informs the President of the Federated Territories (Tom Lister Jr.) of the history of the great evil and the weapon that can stop it. As the Mondoshawans return to Earth they are ambushed by Mangalores, a race hired by the industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), who has been instructed by the great evil to acquire the stones.
The Mondoshawans' spacecraft is destroyed, though the stones are not on board; the only item recovered is a hand of The Fifth Element. Scientists take it to a New York City laboratory and use it to reconstruct a powerful humanoid woman who takes the name Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). Terrified of the unfamiliar surroundings, she breaks out of confinement and jumps off a high ledge, crashing into the flying taxicab of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a former major in the special forces.
Dallas delivers Leeloo to Cornelius and his apprentice, David (Charlie Creed-Miles), whereupon Cornelius learns that the Mondoshawans entrusted the four element stones to the alien Diva Plavalaguna (Maïwenn Le Besco), an opera singer. Zorg kills many of the Mangalores because of their failure to obtain the stones, but their compatriots determine to seize the artifacts for themselves. Upon learning from the Mondoshawans that the stones are in Plavalaguna's possession, General Munro (Brion James), Dallas' former superior, recommissions Dallas and orders him to travel undercover to meet Plavalaguna on a luxury intergalactic cruise; Dallas takes Leeloo with him. Meanwhile, Cornelius instructs David to prepare the ancient temple designed to house the stones, then stows away on the space plane transporting Dallas to the cruise liner.
Plavalaguna is killed when the Mangalores attack the ship, but Dallas succeeds in retrieving the stones from the Diva. During his struggle with the Mangalores he kills their leader. Meanwhile, Zorg shoots and seriously wounds Leeloo, before finding a carrying case that he presumes contains the stones and takes it back to his spacecraft, leaving behind a time bomb that forces the liner's occupants to evacuate. Discovering the case to be empty, Zorg returns to the ship and deactivates his bomb, but a dying Mangalore sets off his own device, destroying the ship and killing Zorg. Dallas, Cornelius, Leeloo, and talk-show host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) escape with the stones aboard Zorg's spacecraft.
The four join up with David at the weapon chamber in the Egyptian temple as the great evil approaches. They arrange the stones and are able to activate them with their corresponding elements, but having witnessed and studied so much violence, Leeloo has become disenchanted with humanity and refuses to cooperate. Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her. In response, Leeloo combines the power of the stones and releases the divine light on the great evil and destroying its power, causing the planet to be proclaimed dead by Earth scientists as it becomes another moon in Earth orbit.
I think you guys can have Usagi’s story be the one before this one. Usagi will take the place of Dallas, Chizu/Leeloo, Zorg/Tomoe Ame, The Darkness/Lord Hikiji, and etc. I am not that creative so the details in how Usagi runs into Chizu (the 5th element). I know you guys like to break it down into three books. First book can be on how they would meet. Second book on how they find the four other elements. The third and final book can be how they make it to the temple and Usagi helps Chizu ward off the darkness.
Thanks for your consideration and a great contest.
Miguel Munoz
contact info
Tomorrow, September 8th is the final day to get your entries in for this contest.
Starting on the 9th, the judges will start judging, any everything will be in their hands as they figure out individually what they like and don't like and how they plan on scoring them. Then we get to figure out how to add apples, oranges and bananas together to come up with a single winner.
Best of luck to everybody, they have all been great ideas.
My choice goes to the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life"
"The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born" (from Wikipedia)
The obvious way to adapt this would be to keep the guardian angel and make George Bailey into Miyamoto Usagi, but in an effort to be unpredictable I changed that. At first I was going to go that route, but I quickly realized it would take many volumes to show the effects of Usagi having never been born, so I had to choose a different character. The other problem was the angel, as angels were not really a part of Japanese mythology. Finally, since we get brownie points for details, I decided not to describe the story in words, but rather show it to you. Sadly, due to the fact that I found out about this contest just last Sunday and put off working on it till Monday afternoon (not to mention high school, darn that homework!), I did not have time to do finished illustrations for the entire story. Instead, all I had time to provide was little more than layouts for an eight page adaption starring Jotaro as George Bailey, and a kappa as the guardian angel. I hope you enjoy!
(Just copy and paste the links into your browser, they are in the correct order, but there are page numbers in the bottom right if you want to make sure. This is the first time I have posted on the boards, so if there is a better way to post images i have yet to figure it out. I am looking forward to posting more on the Dojoboards in the future, as I am a HUGE Stan Sakai and Usagi Yojimbo fan.)
Randy Clute wrote:My choice goes to the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life"
This is my favorite movie of all time. I would love to see this adapted. And your drawings are awesome too! Welcome to the Dojo and good luck! Peace, maka
There is now an open poll (added to the initial post of this thread) where everyone can nominate their three favorite entries in this contest. Of course, the winner will still be chosen by the three judges, but I figured it would be both nice and interesting to see what the outcome of a poll would indicate......
