"... the Monkey DVDs will feature all 52 episodes - every episode of Monkey EVER MADE! (13 of these episodes have never before been seen outside Japan!)..."
and/or
"For the first time anywhere in the world, every single Monkey episode that was ever made will be released on DVD"
So some crucial messages to get across in the promotion of the TV rerun and
also the DVDs and videos, are things like:
(a) "Monkey - great to watch as a kid, EVEN BETTER as an adult."
(b) "Monkey isn't just for kids, it's for adults, it's a show that all
generations can enjoy."
(c) "Lots of TV shows you saw as a kid turn out to be crap when you watch them
as an adult. Monkey is an exception, it works on many levels, and is MUCH MORE
ENJOYABLE as an adult. Don't believe me? Watch it, and see for yourself...
you'll be hooked again, just as you were all those years ago."
(d) "Even better than you remember it."
(e) "Really stands the test of time."
I'm going to be using these kinds of "hooks" in my future messages to the forums, and also on my web site.
In 2000, I arranged 6 interviews with Masaaki Sakai (the actor who played Monkey) for 2 journalists in the UK, and for 4 journalists in Australia. The 4 Australian interviews were requested by Siren Entertainment, as PR for the Australian Monkey DVD release.
At that time, I was in email contact with Masaaki Sakai's wife, who spoke perfect English. Since they're now divorced, and his management don't want any involvement with the UK Monkey videos / DVDs, it is impossible to arrange any new interviews with him at present. Maybe you'd like to use one or more (or all?) of these interviews in the UK press to accompany the Monkey DVD release?
The interviews are here:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_actual.html
One of my favourites is this one:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/masaakifullfrontinterview.html
Here's a list of the 6 interviews, along with:
- The URL where you can find the full interview on www.monkeyheaven.com
- The contact name and email for the article (I contacted all of these people
to get permission to use the interviews on my web site)
Hope you find these useful, and decide to publish some of these interviews!
1) Front magazine
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_front.html
Contact: William Chipperfield - WChipperfield@PanAmSat.com or
chippys@hotmail.com
2) Guardian newspaper
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_guuk.html
Contact: Richard Vine - richard.vine@guardian.co.uk
3) Rolling Stone magazine (Australia)
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_rsoz.html
Contact: Barry Divola - fluffboy@ozemail.com.au
4) The Australian (Australia)
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_taoz.html
Contact: Kerrie Murphy - murphyk@theaustralian.com.au
5) The Courier-Mail newspaper (Brisbane, Australia)
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_cmoz.html
Contact: Jason Nahrung - jnahrung@tpgi.com.au
6) The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia)
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_tanpoz.html
Contact: Trish Maunder - tmaunder@citysearch.com.au
Since Glastonbury in particular has all sorts of music on the various stages, it could be a great place for one of the guys from Godiego to come over and do a set (including "Monkey Magic" and other tracks)... also, it could be good for Masaaki Sakai's band Sans Filtre to do a show. Just thought I'd mention it.
About getting Godiego over for festivals - it would be great, I'm not sure how keen they'd be to reform though - although the chance to play in the UK might do the trick. Failing that, even if you could get the vocalist Yukihide Takekawa over (he's the vocalist on Monkey Magic, and most of their songs - and he composed Monkey Magic too), that would still be a worthy substitute. He still performs concerts around Japan, and may well jump at the chance. Again, let's see how the remix single goes first as you say...
NOTE: On the main page at one point, they were plugging the new DVDs / videos of
the cartoon series "Battle Of the Planets". This was originally shown on the
BBC, but it's distributed by someone else ("Playback").
They've really gone to town with "Battle of the Planets", and created an "I
Love TV - Battle of the Planets" section:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/battle/index.shtml
with info about the show, competition to win DVDs etc.
Similarly, you could maybe get them to do an "I Love TV - Monkey" PERMANENT section, which would in turn get a big plug from their Cult Television homepage.
I've looked on a few of them, and can't see any mention of the Monkey DVDs... so thought I'd let you know about these sites, in case you wanted to send them information for their "news" or "reviews" pages.