GamesBids' Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony Live Chat (Paralympics edition)

[Nacholympic]

Here you have the full replay:

 

[PikyoK]

35 minutes ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

The Australian commentator screamed 'she's flying'..

Was that from Youtube?

[baron-pierreIV]

Why didn't they make Hiccup and Toothless (the Night Fury) as the Paralympic mascots??  They are both handicapped.  He's missing a foot and Toothless is missing part of his tail.  They are great role models!! 

[BigVic]

Was a good ceremony. Sydney's OC was raining during the Paralympics but dry during the Olympics.

[Nacholympic]

4 minutes ago, BigVic said:

Was a good ceremony. Sydney's OC was raining during the Paralympics but dry during the Olympics.

Rio also had rain during the ceremony.. heavy rain!!!

[Olympian2004]

1 hour ago, Nacholympic said:

Rio also had rain during the ceremony.. heavy rain!!!

Rio even had rain during three of its four ceremonies, only the Olympic opening ceremony remained dry. 

[baron-pierreIV]

39 minutes ago, Olympian2004 said:

Rio even had rain during three of its four ceremonies, only the Olympic opening ceremony remained dry. 

That's why you didn't see the "Rain Forest" number at the Opening.  It was junked at the last minute.  Rain- Remember??   

[Choongie]

Paralympic Games' opening ceremony feels better that it's Olympic Games counterpart, as always...

[Brekkie Boy]

Agree - it just felt far more fun.  No doubt benefits from being over an hour shorter too.

I don't know how much they spent on the Olympic Ceremonies but the only thing anyone will remember from it is a bloke dress head to toe in blue recreating the pictograms.

[Ikarus360]

Couldn't watch it live due to work, sadly, but i've just finished watching it. All I can say is wow.....what a missed opportunity the Olympics had to make a good opening ceremony. The Paralympic one, while still having an unavoidable simplicity due to the current times we're living, was much funnier, much tender and gave a message of hope which is what the games are about. Also, you can tell the ceremonies team of the Paralympics had much less issues since they kept a coherent theme at all times (Para Airport, the one winged airplane story), while in the Olympics you can tell from a mile all the last minute changes/cancellations/quarrels the organizers had with a lot of mashed up segments which made no sense. The people who solely blamed Covid for the Opening Ceremony of last month being awful have zero facts to back up their arguments anymore.

Congratulations to the Paralympic Organizing Comittee for their wonderful work. This is how you do a Covid era ceremony.

[Scotguy II]

Better than the olympics opening but still very lame and amateurish....

[antiperspirant]

You guys are too harsh. It was fun and spunky (and most importantly cohesive) event with a lot of thought put into the details of every moving part. All the costumes were colorful and memorable (in contrast to the quite frankly forgettable aesthetic of the Olympic ceremony). It worked really well in scenes where a lot of different dancing was happening because it made the stadium feel very full visually, whereas the Olympic ceremony felt like there was so much empty space between the activity.

Not only that, the design, music, movements all felt so distinctly Japanese to me. When I heard the accordion in one of the pieces I had a euphoric flashback to playing Pokemon and hearing the chipper jingle on loop in one of the towns in the game. It was orgasmic. The rock part was got me super pumped and reminded me of a bunch of anime openings. The wind characters look like Mario characters, and their cartoonish movements (eg. one of the wind characters tripping and while running to the little girl, the synchronized pointing) felt like I was watching a quirky cut scene from a Nintendo game.

I appreciate the traditional aspects of the Olympics opening, but I also really enjoyed how the Paralympic opening incorporated modern Japanese culture as well. It was solid.

[antiperspirant]

Overall though, I think the Olympic planning committee was the reason of their own downfall. They have themselves too much emphasis and pressure to make the ceremony *perfect* for every narrative angle instead of focusing on perfecting one narrative angle and creating a cohesive story out of it.

[WD96]

They regionlocked the replay.