By Robert Ramos
Dustin and I once had a brief discussion on the actual pronunciation of "Patlabor." Of course, I was ridiculed for how I knew it was pronounced but that didn't stop me from trying to prove him wrong. Well, thanks to this seven minute reboot, I can prove that I am in fact correct. Glorious.
Now, if you don't know anything about Patlabor, let me give you the gist: there are these mechs (labors) and people are using them to do illegal things. What happens when people do illegal things? You enlist the help of the 5-0, that’s what. The police have their own labors, Patrol Labors (Patlabor), and they used them to take a bite out of crime. That’s pretty much it in nutshell.
So how do you go about reviewing something that’s only seven minutes? Likes this: A labor is wreaking havoc and the Patlabors are deployed to take care of it. They do and justice is served. The end.
Not a whole lot can really be said. I thought this was going to be full-length movie or a least an OVA, but nope. Was this done as a way of testing out the waters and maybe there'll be more to come? I sure hope so. While the “movie” lacked in substance, it sure as hell made up for in the visual department. We all know that I’m picky as fuck when it comes to CGI but there was no disappointment here. Granted, that could be in thanks to the length of the movie and probably not a hefty budget to worry about. Either way, I enjoyed looking at everything and would definitely jump on further projects, if any.
And there you have it. If you’re at all interested in watching, head on over to http://animatorexpo.com/patlabor-reboot/. Hey, it’s only seven minutes. Take a bathroom break and watch it there.