Mary
Elizabeth McGlynn works both sides of the anime dubbing booth, as an
actor and a director. Her most intense acting role has to be Motoko
Kusanagi in the many episodes and movies of the Ghost in the Shell
series. Kusanagi is one of the strongest female roles in animation, and
easily the strongest that McGlynn has played. "Motoko was the first
time I got to be balls out strong, feminine -- but to be a hero at the
same time," she said. "She got to do everything I couldn't do in real
life, jump out of helicopters, jump off buildings. She's probably the
strongest character I've ever played as far as heroines - I've played
strong villains." The adaptation of the Masamune Shirow original comes
with a lot of technobabble about cybernetics, but there's a message in
all of that technical talk about the nature of humans and humanity in
an increasingly mechanical society. "What Gene Roddenbery did with the
concepts from Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell has done for a new
generation - it's intense. Bionics, replacing body parts with
mechanical parts, which brings up the question of what is the spirit?
It was hard to wrap your mind around. Our poor writer did an amazing
job of making it intelligible while not dumbing it down."
At
one time, it looked as if directing the Cowboy Bebop series and movie
would be McGlynn's crowning glory, but recently she's been handed the
helm of the Naruto series, following Jeff Nimoy's work. Naruto's
popularity comes because its storytelling style isn't like a standard
American cartoon, she feels. "Even though Naruto is a ninja school,
it's accessible to Americans -- it's like Harry Potter with
ninjas,"McGlynn said. "It makes kids think if they're different, they
can thrive by being different. That's important for kids." Naruto's
storytelling also mixes comedy with drama in a way that holds its young
audiences, she said. That style doesn't coddle young audiences in the
manner that watered-down U.S. cartoons have done in the last two
decades - a change in the attitude of how youth should be entertained.
"With Grimms' fairy tales, kids could handle it. Now we can't scare
kids anymore. Everybody has to be happy and content, but everyone
isn't. You have to play to those complexities. Bebop did it -- it was
extremely silly and serious life-threatening and funny they knew how to
run the gamut. Major studios are run by committee, and it doesn't seem
to work as well."
Mary
Elizabeth McGlynn works both sides of the anime dubbing booth, as an
actor and a director. Her most intense acting role has to be Motoko
Kusanagi in the many episodes and movies of the Ghost in the Shell
series. Kusanagi is one of the strongest female roles in animation, and
easily the strongest that McGlynn has played. "Motoko was the first
time I got to be balls out strong, feminine -- but to be a hero at the
same time," she said. "She got to do everything I couldn't do in real
life, jump out of helicopters, jump off buildings. She's probably the
strongest character I've ever played as far as heroines - I've played
strong villains." The adaptation of the Masamune Shirow original comes
with a lot of technobabble about cybernetics, but there's a message in
all of that technical talk about the nature of humans and humanity in
an increasingly mechanical society. "What Gene Roddenbery did with the
concepts from Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell has done for a new
generation - it's intense. Bionics, replacing body parts with
mechanical parts, which brings up the question of what is the spirit?
It was hard to wrap your mind around. Our poor writer did an amazing
job of making it intelligible while not dumbing it down."
At
one time, it looked as if directing the Cowboy Bebop series and movie
would be McGlynn's crowning glory, but recently she's been handed the
helm of the Naruto series, following Jeff Nimoy's work. Naruto's
popularity comes because its storytelling style isn't like a standard
American cartoon, she feels. "Even though Naruto is a ninja school,
it's accessible to Americans -- it's like Harry Potter with
ninjas,"McGlynn said. "It makes kids think if they're different, they
can thrive by being different. That's important for kids." Naruto's
storytelling also mixes comedy with drama in a way that holds its young
audiences, she said. That style doesn't coddle young audiences in the
manner that watered-down U.S. cartoons have done in the last two
decades - a change in the attitude of how youth should be entertained.
"With Grimms' fairy tales, kids could handle it. Now we can't scare
kids anymore. Everybody has to be happy and content, but everyone
isn't. You have to play to those complexities. Bebop did it -- it was
extremely silly and serious life-threatening and funny they knew how to
run the gamut. Major studios are run by committee, and it doesn't seem
to work as well."
