Operation Dynamo (anime film)

Operation Dynamo (Japanese: オペレーションディナモ, Hepburn: Operēshondinamo, English: Operation Dynamo) is a Japanese/British/French dramedy action-adventure historical fictional anime film based on the dark comedic picture book of the same name. It got released in Japan on 12 June 1999, while it got an English language debut on 12 December 1992. This is one of the earliest anime films produced by Production I.G.

Plot
Three young European soldiers named Tame (British), Sekigyokuteki (British/Scotish), and Sairento (French, disguised as British) (Tommy, Alex, and Gibson in the English dubs) try to survive during the Dunkirk evacuation, but always almost gets hit by the unseen German army. Will the three young soldiers make it back home, or will they won't make it?

Cast
This anime film has three English dubs. The first English dub was made by Studio Canal and included British voice actors. The second dub was made by Streamline and distributed by 20th Century Fox for theatrical and VHS releases. The third English dub was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, using the same cast as in the 2017 film Dunkirk.

Trivia
Despite the characters, setting, and the plot being the same, the 2017 film Dunkirk is not based on this anime film.

This film had a troubled English production. Toei first dubbed the anime in English with unknown voice actors and screen tested the dub, but unfortunately, the test audience didn't like it because the three main characters' voices sounded too old, so Toei hired Studio Canal to redub the three main characters' voices by younger voice actors.

The Streamline dub was also critisized due to the voice actors of the main characters sounding too young, like 9-year-old male children, despite their voice actors being older than the characters they voiced.

The 2017 English redub, using the cast of the 2017 Dunkirk film, was the only English dub to not have a troubled production.

In the Streamline dub, Tommy is the only character to be voiced by a younger voice actor, but the voice actor's identity is unknown.

In the Studio Canal dub, Gibson was also voiced by an unidentified voice actor.

The Studio Canal and Streamline dubs are the only English dubs of this anime film to become edited and bowlderiszed. The 2017 rerelease English dub is uncut and uncensored.