Hetalia: Axis Powers – Paint It, White!
The film opens up bluntly with the introduction of the new character Iceland, complaining about the lack of tourism in his country. But before we can get acquainted, the planet is attacked by aliens; mysterious faceless blank slates with glowing balls on their heads wiping out the life and colour from around the globe. After a futile attempt to stop the mothership with conventional weapons it’s up to the important countries Germany, America, Japan, China, Russia, France, England and, of course, Italy, to save the day, somehow.
Even though Hetalia has always been peculiar and random, the context of its story and comedy has always been based upon real life events, mostly around World War II. Paint it, White! however makes the bold decision to create a brand new story and having the stereotypes of each country play out their parts to see how they’d handle such an invasion. The movie is an hour and quarter long but the main story concerning the aliens only clocks in at about 50 – 60 mins of that time with the rest of it being mini sketches referring back to the time area that the series covers, including some reused jokes. As a result the movie comes off as lacking in focus and at times doesn’t feel like a film, more like another seasons worth of mini episodes.
The quick pace of the series with the title card randomly appearing to split the mini sketches and jumping around in continuity worked in favour to the nature of the series. Scenes didn’t tend to last longer than 90 seconds as each episode was no more than 5 minutes, so the abrupt change in scenery worked towards the series’ comical timing. However this isn’t the case for the movie; the scenes revolving around the aliens last a LOT longer, mostly 5 – 10 minutes apiece, so for that story narration to pull you in to suddenly get interrupted by the random title card and cut to a completely different sketch comes across as jarring. Especially near the beginning where the countries are sad over their famous landmarks such as Big Ben and Great Wall of China being painted completely white, only to suddenly cut to Italy smiling over being Germany’s best friend in bright, bubbly colours. It’s a shame because the movie didn’t need the interruptions to keep the story going or distract from it. Sure, the alien plot is silly and lacking historical depth compared to the rest of the franchise, but overall it’s a fun journey with all your favourite characters on top form for comedy. There are also several call-back references to the original series that fans will enjoy, plus the jokes have a bit more variation with some pop culture references (including a poke at Michael Bay) that will tickle a broader audience. As for the mini sketches within the movie; there are a few new scenes but most of it has been seen in previous seasons. Admittedly some of the better jokes are reused, but it would’ve been preferable if they had stuck the new sketches at the end of the movie after the credits, posted as a DVD extra or perhaps saved them for the next season because the alien story worked fine on its own and could’ve been sold as a strong OVA instead of a fickle movie.
The animation sticks very close to the original TV series look; exact same style and they don’t bother upgrading the reused sketches too much to make it look higher budget. However the scenes with the aliens allows the animation to be more bold and colourful – ironic as the alien’s goal is to turn everything white – particular in a scene when the countries demonstrate their ways of hospitality, it looks really nice with lots of colours and detail. There’s also a small use of CGI with the aliens that more often than not works in the movie’s favour, still they never stray too far from the feel of the original series.
There are a healthy number of extras including the original and clean versions of the ending theme, movie trailer, CAPSLOCK commentary from the cast, historical fact file explaining some of the jokes in depth, feature of the original Japanese premiere with interviews of the cast (which is sadly not subtitled) but the jewel of the crown has to be the outtakes – absolutely hilarious and should be included in more anime releases.
Paint it, White! may have its issues with storytelling and recycling jokes from the series due to the production team being too afraid to stray too much from their well-known formula, nevertheless you will be smiling when the credits roll and can’t deny that the film is entertaining, made with love for its fans. If you loved the series, there’s no reason why you should pass on this. I wouldn’t recommend this as an entry to the franchise however, the only reaction you’re likely to get is whimpering in the corner saluting a white flag.
