Holy crap! Time to buy more Ghibli DVDs!

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:36 pm

Howl's moving castle, Totoro and Whispers of the Heart all coming out next Tuesday (US). Damn, there's $60 gone!

Hope there's a proper subtitle for Totoro or else I'll be keeping $20 of that!

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:55 pm

CMoon wrote:Howl's moving castle, Totoro and Whispers of the Heart all coming out next Tuesday (US). Damn, there's $60 gone!

Hope there's a proper subtitle for Totoro or else I'll be keeping $20 of that!

I saw Howls Moving Castle in the theatre with Greg and Undamned when it was released. Great movie...not quite topping Spirited Away as my favorite Miyazaki flick but darn close. Very surreal along the lines of Spirited Away.

I will probably shell out the cash for Whispers of the Heart as well. I have the budget release of Totoro and I think I am content with it for now.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:13 pm

I have .... Hong Kong edition DVDs...

Although I also have a VCD set for Howl's Moving Castle which is an officially licensed HK release.... I think...it was dubbed in Cantonese. I don't know what's right anymore.

edit: It's nice that Disney's finally releasing all the stuff they've been sitting on though. I remember wondering when Nausicaa would be released, and that was already five years ago.

extrarice · Post by **extrarice** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:45 pm

"Whispers of the Heart" is an excellent snapshot of life in the non-downtown areas of Tokyo (i.e. a little bit more in the hills). If you have ever been to Japan, this movie is instant nostalgia. Seriously, I got "homesick" while watching this. I could practically feel the humidity.

As for translations, so far I've been pretty happy with the subtitles. Heck, even some of the dubbing has been great - Michal Keaton did a good job as Marco in Kurenai no Buta (Porco Rosso), and Patric Stewart in Nausicaa was also great. But really, crappy translation or not, I'll still be picking these up. (I must remember to grab the last set off of Amazon while they're still around...)

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 11:22 pm

I had my fair share of Ghibli back in January thanks to that TCM month-long tribute. Pom Poko was horrible, though, I could live without that.
I still haven't seen Nausicaa or Grave of the Fireflies yet. I almost got Nausicaa today at Best Buy but the $30 price tag stopped that.

extrarice · Post by **extrarice** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:19 am

Nausicaa is in my opinion his best film. $30? o_O You can do better than that, definately.

kccttzj · Post by **kccttzj** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:20 am

I've been waiting for these to be released too. I was so disappointed when I found out they played Ghibli films on TCM, because I missed them all.

$30 is a lot for Nausicaa. I got mine at Best Buy when it came out and it was $19.99, but it rung up as $17.99, so I was pretty happy about that. I guess they're cheaper when they first come out.

greg · Post by **greg** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 8:13 am

I wonder if they'll bother releasing Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko. It's rather dull, and it's so full of Japanese cultural references that it would be lost on most everyone. I think it's boring, but I'm sure others could say the same thing about Omohide Poro Poro, which is another Takahata movie, yet I like that one much better. The best work of Takahata's was Grave of the Fireflies. I can't even remember if that was officially a Ghibli film or if it was Animage. Central Park Media still has the rights to the domestic release of it.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:20 pm

greg wrote:I wonder if they'll bother releasing Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko.

It was released in the US last year. I agree it is definitely one of Ghibli's weakest films.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:26 pm

CMoon wrote:
greg wrote:I wonder if they'll bother releasing Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko.
It was released in the US last year. I agree it is definitely one of Ghibli's weakest films.

Secondaed that.

iatneH wrote:Although I also have a VCD set for Howl's Moving Castle which is an officially licensed HK release.... I think...it was dubbed in Cantonese. I don't know what's right anymore.

Yes, it is dubbed in Cantonese, that's why I always buy the DVD version, you could select Japanese orginal voice that way.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:49 pm

SAM wrote:
iatneH wrote:Although I also have a VCD set for Howl's Moving Castle which is an officially licensed HK release.... I think...it was dubbed in Cantonese. I don't know what's right anymore.
Yes, it is dubbed in Cantonese, that's why I always buy the DVD version, you could select Japanese orginal voice that way.

That and DVD >>> VCD (I always thought VCD looked worse than VHS!)

extrarice · Post by **extrarice** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:26 pm

greg wrote:I wonder if they'll bother releasing Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko. It's rather dull, and it's so full of Japanese cultural references that it would be lost on most everyone. I think it's boring, but I'm sure others could say the same thing about Omohide Poro Poro, which is another Takahata movie, yet I like that one much better. The best work of Takahata's was Grave of the Fireflies. I can't even remember if that was officially a Ghibli film or if it was Animage. Central Park Media still has the rights to the domestic release of it.

List of Ghibli films Disney is releasing. There are only two Disney isn't releasing:

-Grave of the Fireflies
-I can hear the Sea/Ocean Waves

Fost · Post by **Fost** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 11:58 pm

Kiki is best in my opinion

. Also, anyone who likes Nausicaa should get the manga of it - it was made by Miyasaki so they'd make a film out of it, and, as great as the film is, the manga is superlative - near the top in my top ten comics of all time. Even the people who translated it said in an interview that it was the best thing they'd ever worked on, and so put a lot of effort into it.

greg · Post by **greg** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:14 am

extrarice wrote:I can hear the Sea/Ocean Waves

That's a shame.... It's a pretty cool movie. I've have it on VHS as a fansub for about ten years now. It was a made-for-TV movie.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:25 am

LoneSage wrote:I still haven't seen Nausicaa or Grave of the Fireflies yet. I almost got Nausicaa today at Best Buy but the $30 price tag stopped that.

Grave of the Fireflies is a good movie, but not worth owning IMO. Definitely worth seeing at least once though. Just doesn't warrant watching a lot of times like Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away. Nausicaa is good too, but not $30 good.

Yeah, Netflix has pretty much put a stop to me buying DVDs on the whole. I own like 5 DVDs/boxsets now.

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:57 am

The new R1 Totoro has a new dub (starring Dakota Fanning and her little sister), new subtitles and is in widescreen (the original Fox version was 4:3).

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:00 pm

I'm actually reading Howl's Moving Castle [the book Studio Ghibli based the movie on], and I'm surprised at what's been added/changed/removed. For instance, Sophie is certain she's doomed to mediocrity because there's a superstition in their land about the eldest of three children being a failure in life. Also, she doesn't meet Howl until after encountering the Witch of the Waste.

...I'm only starting Chapter Three. Short lunch break

kccttzj · Post by **kccttzj** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:48 am

I was really interested in how well they stuck to the original story. I've been meaning to read the original, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll have to get ahold of it and check it out.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:21 am

Minzoku wrote:I'm actually reading Howl's Moving Castle [the book Studio Ghibli based the movie on], and I'm surprised at what's been added/changed/removed. For instance, Sophie is certain she's doomed to mediocrity because there's a superstition in their land about the eldest of three children being a failure in life. Also, she doesn't meet Howl until after encountering the Witch of the Waste.

...I'm only starting Chapter Three. Short lunch break

That said, is the book actually good or is it just pandering to little kids?

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:14 pm

It's in the Young Adult section at Borders, so... whichever. It reads kind of like Y4 of Harry Potter, so a bit of both.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 3:22 am

Well I love good children's lit, but lot of different opinions on what constitutes GOOD children's lit.

Watched Whisper of the heart tonight (never seen it before)--can't believe how great it is! Weird how ghibli can get to the 11 year old girl in all of us

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 1:47 pm

I'm up through Chapter 11. Apparently I was wrong about who the guy was in Chapter 1, though--the movie changes it to be a soldier guy who calls Sophie a "mouse." [Trying not to spoil anything here...]

Otherwise, the biggest changes seem to be
1. Michael [Markl?] is fifteen with dark hair in the book, closer to ten with a lightish brown hair in the movie,
2. the characters don't get along in the book to remotely the same degree as they do in the movie [Michael is living with Howl primarily because Howl never told him to go away], and
3. the book focuses a LOT on Sophie's two sisters, while only Lattie [the bakery Lattie] gets any time in the movie.

It's interesting what did make it from book to movie unscathed, though, like feeding Calcifer the eggshells.

animefanjr · Post by **animefanjr** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:01 pm

I bought and watched Howl's Moving Castle last night. I loved it. I thought it was great, I love the animation quality. It was so clear and sounded great on my setup (47in HDTV and 5.1 DTS system).

I have a few of the currently released Miyasaki movies.

Howl, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki, Castle in the sky, and Nausicaa.

I love them, I want to see the others eventually. I will buy them when I get some money.

I did see Grave of the Fireflies, Me and Postman rented it years ago. We really liked it, it was kinda sad. I saw this and Kiki way before I knew who Miyasaki even was.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:19 am

CMoon wrote: Watched Whisper of the heart tonight (never seen it before)--can't believe how great it is! Weird how ghibli can get to the 11 year old girl in all of us

Yes, it's a wonderful movie; struck me on quite a few personal levels as well. That movie is part of the reason why I want to learn how to farm.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:25 am

LoneSage wrote:
CMoon wrote: Watched Whisper of the heart tonight (never seen it before)--can't believe how great it is! Weird how ghibli can get to the 11 year old girl in all of us
Yes, it's a wonderful movie; struck me on quite a few personal levels as well. That movie is part of the reason why I want to learn how to farm.

Its kinda funny--everyone loves Kiki's except me. I like the film, but feel it is overly long for what it is trying to do, and at times too preachy. Whisper of the heart on the other hand feels like everything Kiki's was trying to accomplish on the whole 'believe in yourself', 'persue your own creative abilities', aspect, only done to perfection. I don't know how often I could watch it, but it is definitely a masterful film. A real trajedy the guy who directed it died of cancer shortly thereafter.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 3:05 pm

I finished reading Howl's yesterday... the movie's surprisingly dissimilar

[still avoiding spoilers here]

Generally speaking--
Book: "Get the bad guy, win the girl [sort of], woo hoo"
Movie: "Get along, family is the best"

I don't get where the changing into a bird fits in, either--that is, it seems to be invented purely for the movie as one of Miyazaki's "Ghibli Must-Haves"

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Holy crap! Time to buy more Ghibli DVDs!

Holy crap! Time to buy more Ghibli DVDs!

Re: Holy crap! Time to buy more Ghibli DVDs!