The Time Traveler (film)

Time Traveler (タイムトラベラー, Taimutoraberā) is a 2006 anime romance drama science fiction film directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto, and produced by Garrett Fredrickson. Featuring the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Cera, Lucas Gabreel, Mae Whitman, Anjelica Huston, Kath Soucie, Jason Marsden, Ciarán Hinds and Christian Slater, it is based on a story concept by Hikaru Ishimoto. The film is about a seventeen year boy named Atsushi Maekawa, who one day, meets a girl who appeared in a ball of light named Riko Hattori, who was sent from the future to his time period to protect him, for something that happened to him led to a chain of events in the future since, and seemingly a fellow student has something to do with it.

Time Traveler was a co-production between Japanese production companies Kyoto Animation, Pony Canyon and Shochiku, and American production company LIVE Entertainment. It began production in 2003, during production of ''Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu'', and was completed in February 2006. The film was then released to theaters in Japan by Shochiku on May 26, 2006 and in the United States by Paramount Pictures on June 9, 2006. Critic reviews were generally positive in both countries, with much of the praise going to the characters, animation and voice acting, and the film grossed a worldwide total of $175 million at the box office.

Plot
Coming soon!

Cast
More coming soon!
 * Evan Rachel Wood as Riko Hattori
 * Michael Cera as Atsushi Maekawa
 * Christian Slater as adult Atsushi/narrator
 * Lucas Gabreel as Shigeo Uyemura
 * Mae Whitman as Chinatsu Anzai
 * Anjelica Huston as Naomi Ashikaga
 * Kath Soucie as Toshiko Usui
 * Jason Marsden as Takeshi Kawahara
 * Ciarán Hinds as Shoichi Machida

Production
Coming soon!

Distribution
While Shochiku released the film in Japan, LIVE Entertainment handled distribution outside of Japan, with the aid of the international sales arm of Focus Features. Paramount Pictures, who forged a partnership with LIVE's licensing subsidiary LIVE Licensing in 2004, secured the distribution rights for the United States, Canada and Mexico not long after LIVE Entertainment got involved in the production. Focus marketed the film at the American Film Market in November 2004, and secured distribution abroad through various distributors across the globe; Pathé acquired the distribution rights for the United Kingdom, Universal Pictures for Australia, Metropolitan Filmexport for France, Sony Pictures for Spain, Eagle Pictures for Italy, Concorde Filmverleih for Germany, Monolith Films for Poland, RCV Film Distribution for The Netherlands and Edko Films in Hong Kong.

Theatrical run
Time Traveler premiered on May 17, 2006 out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, with Evan Rachel Wood and Michael Cera in attendance. It was then released to theaters in Japan on May 26. Paramount Pictures distributed the film in the United States on June 9, 2006, with the United Kingdom release taking place the same date.

Marketing
LIVE Entertainment was granted promotional control for the film's American release. Two panels for the film were held in 2005, one at the San Diego Comic-Con and another at Anime Expo. A tie in deal with Wendy's was also considered, but was ultimately decided against for unknown reasons. Several plushes from Nanco intended for claw machines can also be found and purchased in varying sizes (from 6 inches to 11 inches to 17 inches). Hikaru Ishimoto wrote a tie-in manga for the film to coincide with the film's Japanese release. A separate comic adaptation of the movie was published by Image Comics to tie-in with the movie's home media release in the United States.

The American trailer for the film premiered before Paramount's own Elizabethtown on October 14, 2005, and was later attached to the theatrical releases of Stay, Doom, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, Prime, The Legend of Zorro, The Weather Man, Zathura, Bee Season, Rent, Pride and Prejudice, Walk the Line, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Yours, Mine and Ours, In the Mix, Just Friends and Aeon Flux. Another trailer was released online in February 2006 and was attached to the theatrical releases of The Pink Panther, Firewall, Date Movie, Winter Passing, Flicka, Eight Below, Ultraviolet, ''Goal! The Dream Begins, Aquamarine, Dave Chapelle's Block Party, 16 Blocks, Failure to Launch, The Shaggy Dog, She's the Man, V for Vendetta, RV, Brick, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Take the Lead and The Benchwarmers''.

The film's TV spots aired from May 2006 to July 2006. The spots utilized the songs "Clocks" by Coldplay and "Sticks and Stone" by Aly & AJ, along with the track "Mastadge Drag" from Stargate, which was also used in the movie's trailer.

Home media
On November 14, 2006, Time Traveler was released on both full screen and widescreen "Special Collector's Edition" DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray by Paramount Home Entertainment. It was the first LIVE Entertainment title to be released on the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Bonus features include a commentary track from executive producer Garrett Fredrickson, casting and voice director Jack Fletcher, and co-editor Harry Keramidas, two behind the scenes featurettes, one on the overall production and one on the voice acting, a deleted scene, a music video and five DVD-ROM activities. The widescreen DVD and Blu-ray editions were later reprinted by Warner Home Video in 2013 and again by Paramount in 2017.

Pony Canyon released Time Traveler on DVD in Japan as both a standard edition and a limited collector's edition on February 14, 2006. The limited collector's edition featured a copy the movie version of the manga, alongside memorabilia including collectible cards, a booklet featuring character designs and storyboards, and a reel containing five random stills from the feature film, while bonus features on both DVD editions include audio commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes, an interview with Hikaru Ishimoto, production drawings, and storyboard to scene comparisons. By May of 2009, the film had sold 3 million DVD units in Japan. A Blu-ray edition was released in Japan on August 8, 2008.