Minipato (Mobile Police Patlabor Minimum) Theatrical Shorts

A collection of three "super-deformed" theatrical shorts involving the characters of Patlabor. Over the course of three weeks one episode was released to theatres, playing before "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3". So essentially you had to pay three times to see all three shorts in the cinema. The animation was done using digital video of cardboard cut-out puppets on sticks. This was then transferred to a computer where backgrounds and additional animation and computer colouring was done. The animation and puppetry process was coined "flip-flop" animation by Mamoru Oshii who conceived the idea. Every time a character changes into a different pose, say from sitting down to standing up, the puppet flips over to reveal the next pose in the sequence. Mouth movements are animated in the same style using computer animation. Besides using cardboard cut outs, 2D and 3D computer animation, clay and photographs are used as well.

During the opening animation and through all three episodes, a caricature of Mamoru Oshii called "Oshii-dog" (a Basset Hound that looks like Oshii) appears. The yellow blimp from the second Patlabor film appears quite regularly in all three episodes. Cameos from Detective Matsui, Eiichi Hoba and a crow from the first Patlabor film, and Arakawa Shigeki from the second Patlabor film also appear in the opening credits. Director Kenji Kamiyama also directed the TV series "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex".

Minipato has never been licensed to stream legally anywhere in English.

Minipato is currently out print on home video in English. Previously Maiden Japan in the United States had released it as part of their "Patlabor The Mobile Police: Complete Collection Special Edition" and "Patlabor The Mobile Police - Ultimate Collection" blu-ray box sets, which also included the Early Days OVA, TV series, New OVA series and all three anime films. The company also released it on their "Patlabor movie 3: WXIII" blu-ray and DVD disc releases. All three blu-ray sets/discs are hard to find and the box sets very expensive in the second hand market. The Maiden Japan blu-ray sets and DVD were only available in the United States of America, and therefore will only work on region A blu-ray players and region 1 DVD players. If you don't live in United States of America, check your player's instruction manual to see if it will play the discs. Prior to the Maiden Japan releases, both Pioneer Entertainment in the US and Madman Entertainment in Australian and New Zealand released Minipato as part of their "Patlabor Movie 3 WXIII Special Edition" DVD box set releases. Pioneer Entertainment release can usually be found online for far less than it's original retail price, and most of the time unopened, still in it's shrink wrap. The Pioneer Entertainment DVD will only work on region 1 players and the Madman Entertainment DVD will only work on region 4 players, so check your player's instruction manual to see if it will play the discs. Please see the English Language Movie Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications of this series in English.

d Anime Store and U-Next are currently streaming Minipato in Japanese. d Anime Store and U-Next's current streaming rights only include Japan.

Minipato is available in Japan from Bandai Namco on DVD. Unlike the Japanese version of WXIII Patlabor the movie 3, the DVD does not come with English subtitles, nor an English dub. The DVD is only available in Japan, and therefore will only work on DVD players that are both NTSC compatible and will play region 2 discs. If you don't live in Japan, check your player's instruction manual to see if it will play the discs. Please see the Japanese Movie Releases Video List for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications for this movie.

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