What's the best way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of Japan's greatest animated films? Seeing it on the big screen, of course. Duh. If you said something else like developing psychic powers to start a war in a dystopian metropolis, you're setting the bar too high.
The Alamo Drafthouse is teaming up with Funimation Entertainment, the famed anime production and distribution studio based in Flower Mound, to offer a free screening of the classic Akira at 7 p.m. this Monday at all Drafthouse locations including the Richardson branch on South Central Expressway. This won't just be a simple screening of the film. It's a new high definition transfer with new Dolby surround sound dubbing. Those who attend will also get a discount code to buy the new 25th Anniversary Edition DVD from the Funimation website.
Even if those special perks weren't part of the screening, Akira's worth seeing in a movie theater all by itself. It's the definition of a landmark film that set a high standard for the anime films that followed it. It's bloody and violent in all the right places and it offers some breathtaking landscapes and scenes that can only be truly appreciated on a massive movie screen.
