| | |  | | Home » Professor Layton and The Eternal Diva | | | | | | | Description: | | Professor Layton, true English gentleman and the world’s greatest amateur super sleuth, embarks on his most daring adventure yet when he receives a letter from his old student, the famous opera diva Janice Quatlane. She is to perform at the legendary Crown Petone Opera House and invites him to attend as her special guest. Meanwhile, a spate of disappearances hits London. Two young school girls are the latest victims, and the Professor suspects it’s related to the mysterious occurrences at the theatre. The Professor and his loyal assistant Luke travel to the Opera House to solve their toughest puzzle yet, the mystery of Eternal Life! | | | Product Details: | | | Format:
| AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen | | Language:
| Japanese, English | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Viz Media | | Run Time:
| 95 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 08, 2011 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 27 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 27 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 35 found the following review helpful:
The best video game to film adaptation yet?Oct 04, 2011
By Evan Ahrendsen
This is a great movie. Professor Layton, from the eponymous puzzle games for the DS and 3DS, stars in this lovely animated film that really makes me wish whoever made this would make ALL video game movies. Yes, that's right. This is a video game movie that DOESN'T SUCK. In fact, it's fantastic!
The best part of the Professor Layton games are, no doubt, its lavishly animated cutscenes and its gorgeous European-influenced visual style. This movie is the epitome of that. While the puzzles they added were integrated cleverly, they're no match for the genius puzzles of the games. However, that's not the point. This is a movie that will leave you grinning from ear to ear throughout the whole thing, and even a while afterwards. Its production value isn't quite up to the level of Studio Ghibli's famous films, but its charming enough thta you won't care.
The English dub isn't horrible, either! Anime fans know quite a bit about the horrors of dubbing, and let me assure you that this does not fall into that territory. The English dub features the same voices as the video games, and the voice actors show their chops here. There's some solid voice acting in this, which should make fans happy.
If you're a fan of Layton or even mysteries in general, you'll want this movie. Spread it around, tell your friends about it! Send a copy to whoever made the horrible Super Mario Bros movie to show them how it's really done!
This is not only a great video game movie, it's a great moive all around. 9 out of 10.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
No Puzzle is Without an AnswerNov 20, 2011
By Marioman1985
Rarely are the words "video game" and "movie" put together in the same sentence positively. Whether it's because of creative differences, unintersested studios, lack of funding, or other problems, films based on video games have seldom done well. Sure, movies like Prince of Persia and Mortal Kombat were valiant atempts, but we still have garbage like Super Mario Brothers and Alone in the Dark. This begs the question: Do good video game movies exist? Based on the bestselling Nintendo DS games by Level 5, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva dares to answer this question. Originally released as a theatrical film in Japan back in 2009, Eternal Diva has finally washed upon our shores as a direct-to-video release. Is it worth checking out? Or is this simply another doomed failure? Let's take a look at this carefully.
The Movie
If you're unfamilier with the Professor Layton series, here's a quick rundown. The Layton video games are basically puzzle games mixed with the adventure game genre. Each game combines a well-written story with hundreds of devious puzzles ranging from math problems to trick questions. How could any of this translate into a film? This is where the games' signature art style comes in. Throughout the games, are cut-scenes that feature beautiful art along with top-notch voice acting. Level 5 obviously saw potential in these cutscenes, so they greenlighted development of this film shortly after the release of the first two games. Unfortunatly, it would take two long years before the film arrived overseas from Japan.
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva stars a professor of archeology named Hershel Layton who is also a mild-mannered and quick-witted tea-loving gentleman. The whole film is basically a long flashback in which Layton and his young apprentice Luke Triton remnicence about one of their earliest adventures. The flashback deals with the professor recieving a letter from his former student, Janice Quatlane. She invites Layton and Luke to see her perform at a high-class opera known as the Crown Petone. However, strange occurences have been happening. Girls have been disapearing from London and Janice suspects that the opera's writer, Oswald Whistler, is somehow behind it. Oswald lost his daughter, Melina, to a rare disease and adopted a new one sometime later. Janice believes that Oswald's daughter is actually his deceased daughter brought back to life. When Professor Layton and Luke arrive at the opera, the entire theater breaks away and a mystery man informs the audience that they are to play a game for eternal life. The losers however, will forfit their own lives. Does this "eternal life" exist? How is Oswald Whistler involved in all of this? Is his daughter really alive? These are the questions that Professor Layton must answer througout the course of the movie.
And that's pretty much the story in a nutshell. Is the film worth your time? Well it depends on who you are. If you're a veteran Layton fan like me, then I recommend you check it out. It features the same voice actors, music, and art as the games so it would be a no-brainer to give the film a try. For people who have never played the Layton games, than I'm not so sure. There are several references to the games that most would not understand, plus the film takes place in-between the fourth and fifth games, so people will likely be lost at certain points. The film also presents a couple of puzzles just like the ones in the games. There not nearly as difficult, but they give the audience a chance to solve them while Layton is thinking. If there are any problems, then it would probably be the ending. The movie starts off surprisingly strong, but the last act becomes so convolted it weakens the film. It isn't a bad ending per se, just a little unrelistic. Nevertheless, I view Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva as probably the best video game film I have ever seen. I won't lie and say that its a perfect film, but the movie is full of the same charm and wit as the games and always puts a simle on my face when I watch it. Professor Layton has proven that there is still hope for video game movies and that it is possible to not just make a good video game movie, but one that's a good movie period.
9 out of 10.
Picture and Audio
The picture quality on Eternal Diva is simply amazing. It actually almost looks like Blu-Ray quality. The animation is sharp, virbrant, and colorful. This is probably the film's strongest point, but it is ocassionly marred by akward 3-D CG. 2-D animation just simply wasn't meant to mesh with 3-D graphics. Another problem is that the entire film is presented in fullscreen and has become a major problem for a lot of the DVDs that I own. If your going to make it fullscreen, at least give us the option to switch to widescreen. The audio is good for the most part as well. With a title like Eternal Diva, music is an important part for the whole film. Thankfully, composer Tomohitio Nishiuria has provided an enjoyable soundtrack just like the games. While the DS soundtracks were good in their own right, the songs were often compresed because of the lower DS sound quality. With Eternal Diva, this is no longer an issue. A live orchestra was used to record all of the music and it sounds simply beautiful. I should also give special praise to the Japanese vocal songs sung by Nana Mizuki. The voice acting also uses all of the same voice actors from the games. Christopher Miller is perfect for Layton, giving him that soft and gentle voice that suites the English gentleman. Luke Triton, on the other hand, is annoying as ever. What makes matters worse, is that they use the British voice actress of Luke as opposed to the US one. The US one was annoying, but the British one is ten times more so. Thankfully, Viz Media included the original Japanese dub with English subtitles. Although both versions are good, I recommend the Japanese version over the American one.
8/10
Extras and Packaging
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva comes in a standard black jewel case and is a single disc release. Inside is a paper insert advertising The Legend of Zelda manga (which I own) and the Pokemon movies. Strangely, there is no chapter list. As for extras, there are none. This is a huge shame. Why couldn't they show some behind the scenes footage or perhaps a retrospective of the whole series? There's not even a trailer for the movie itself! It's not like none of this material exists, either. Both the Japanese version (which has been out for two years) and the European version (which has been out for one year) feature some bonus features and there is no excuse as to why these weren't ported over to the American version. There are two promos for the other Layton games, but those can only be viewed before the film menu comes up.
1/10
The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a video game film that's actually GOOD then look no further. Although not a perfect film, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva is an enjoyable experience that no other video game adaption has been able to pull off. It's a shame that no extras were included, but at least we get the film in the first place. The Professor Layton series has already spawned five games (one is only in Japan, and more are on the way) and shows no signs of slowing down. I personally can't wait for the next movie and I recommend that you at least rent this one. The puzzle of good video game movies has finally been answered. As Professor Layton says, "No puzzle is without an answer."
Overall: 8/10
11 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Very Vood Graphics and Storyline!Feb 21, 2011
By dovefancier
Although I'm a HUGE Hayao Miyazaki fan, I don't know much about other manga or anime films. I didn't know anything about this film or this was based on a game for Nitendo DS either, but I must say I'm glad I had a chance to watch it, because it was very good!
The graphics were one of the many things I was impressed with, as they used various different computer graphics which they managed to mix well with more ordinary animation. Various London scenes appear, such as Regent Street, double decker buses, London taxis and so on which made me smile. An amazing thing is that this was made in Japan, and the animators must have done a lot of research to get the views and objects right.
The characters including Professor Layton were all adorable, and it will be easy for small viewers to be fond of them. The storyline and various happenings reminded me of other well-known anime films, such as 'Howl's Moving Castle', 'Laputa - Castle In The Sky' and 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind', and although nothing is wrong with showing some influences from other great films of the past, I think I got this impression slightly too many times during the film.
As always, I watched it with the original Japanese soundtrack and English subtitles, and I think it's far more enjoyable than watching it with the English dub, although if there is a child amongst the viewers it's definitely better to watch it in his/her native language, as following subtitles must be tiring for them. I think the story is cleverly made, and there are happy and sad moments, a lot of thrilling scenes too, and it gives several opportunities for the viewers to think in order to solve a number of puzzles, so it will be good and fun in this sense too.
Just one more point: on the back of the DVD cover it states there are 30 mins of special features, but I couldn't find them anywhere in this DVD. I wonder if I'm not looking at the right places or they don't exist in the first place? For this small reason I'd give four stars, but otherwise it'd definitely deserve five!
Hope you (and your kids) will enjoy it!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Good movie, terrible dub.Dec 18, 2011
By KCGL77
Okay. Flat out this dvd gets you the bare minimum. There is no bonus content and the dub is a pile of garbage. But seeing as its the only Region 1 release of the DVD if you've seen it before and want to have it you can but watch it with subtitles to get a good experience. Or if you haven't seen this and like the series of games than this is defiantly something that should be taken a look at. It is probably the only GOOD video game movie in the history of history.
 Great movie, Great game series!Mar 16, 2012
By DD420
"Gaming Guru"
An excellent movie that fills in some story around/between the video games in the series. I bought it as a gift for my girlfriend and she loved it, but the best part is...I love it too!
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