Studio Ghibli Blu-ray - Which edition to choose? (Comparison of editions)

[Norbie]

Originally Posted by yumny

I think it could be!
Question is, did Disney just order for them to be remastered in Japan, or did they give them the Lowry treatment?
Fact is, like you said, Miyazaki is really pushing Disney to retain as much grain as possible (he said he hated how Disney had treated their old classics like Bambi and Snow White, saying they look like they were made yesterday) and I think the bitrate thing is indeed Disney's last attempt at limiting the amount of grain. In motion however the JP and US BDs look the same, it's the recolored and scrubbed Studio Canal releases that are bothersome.

Just to add to the confusion..... There are also the Region B releases which are basically completely free of grain. Does StudioCanal, which releases Ghibli movies in Europe, have the same relationship with Miyazaki that Disney does regarding having the transfer being approved before release?


Be nice

[disneyfreak]

Sorry to ask a rather stupid question, but I don't know very much about the Studio Ghibli titles. Are the English dubs the same all around the world or are they different in every country?

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by disneyfreak

Sorry to ask a rather stupid question, but I don't know very much about the Studio Ghibli titles. Are the English dubs the same all around the world or are they different in every country?

Νο, they are usually the same if we're talking about the 'big' films.
In some cases (check Arrietty) different dubs have been produced (UK actors/ US actors).
Studio Ghibli films were previously dubbed by Streamline if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if any country has gotten the Streamline dubs

[JTurner]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

Νο, they are usually the same if we're talking about the 'big' films.
In some cases (check Arrietty) different dubs have been produced (UK actors/ US actors).
Studio Ghibli films were previously dubbed by Streamline if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if any country has gotten the Streamline dubs

The only films that received any previous dubs were Laputa, Kiki, Totoro, and Porco Rosso. (Unless you count "Warriors of the Wind", the edit of Nausicaa as one of these earlier dubs.) Of them, only Streamline produced Totoro and Kiki, but some other dubbing companies did Laputa and Porco Rosso, Streamline just distributed both.

The only country where the Streamline dubs were ever issued (with the exception of Totoro, which was widely released on FOX Video before Disney replaced it with theirs) was Japan, AFAIK. All four were released on LD, but when it came to the R2 DVDs, only Kiki's older dub didn't make the jump—the Kirsten Dunst/Phil Hartman dub was included on the Japanese R2 DVD. However, Laputa, Totoro and Porco all had the Streamline dubs as an alternate track on the Japanese DVDs (because remember, this was back before Disney finally decided to go ahead and dub the rest of the Ghibli canon, having suffered a huge loss on Mononoke and being uncertain, at the time, of Spirited Away's success). This was back in 2002, even though LAPUTA's completed dub had been screened at some select festivals since its first premiere at the New York International Children's Festival in 2000.

[metalonmetal1]

I'm learning Japanese now, and what I find most annoying about listening to the Japanese track is finding out halfway that you are reading dubtitles. Is Disney really that cheap to higher a translator? Or do they just not really care that much about the Japanese track.

[JTurner]

I really don't know what went wrong with the subtitle track for Laputa. The first 2003 DVD edition had a mistimed (but much more accurate) translation. Oddly enough, the JP, UK, AU, and HK BDs all have well-synched AND accurate subtitles, whereas the US one is simply just a port of the same dubtitles on the 2010 DVD. I imagine it was just a case of overlooking on Disney's part for that latter edition, but porting that to BluRay was definitely a mistake. An oversight, in my opinion.

Still, I don't really watch Japanese Anime OR Ghibli to learn Japanese, so it's not a big deal for me, but for others who do.... At least Arrietty, Whisper, and Nausicaa's BDs don't suffer from this problem IIRC.

[yumny]

Originally Posted by JTurner

I really don't know what went wrong with the subtitle track for Laputa. The first 2003 DVD edition had a mistimed (but much more accurate) translation. Oddly enough, the JP, UK, AU, and HK BDs all have well-synched AND accurate subtitles, whereas the US one is simply just a port of the same dubtitles on the 2010 DVD. I imagine it was just a case of overlooking on Disney's part for that latter edition, but porting that to BluRay was definitely a mistake. An oversight, in my opinion.

Still, I don't really watch Japanese Anime OR Ghibli to learn Japanese, so it's not a big deal for me, but for others who do.... At least Arrietty, Whisper, and Nausicaa's BDs don't suffer from this problem IIRC.

At least they don't. Nausicaa with dubtitles would be horror. That one is my absolute favorite.

Let's make this clear; the Laputa BD with Japanese track and English subs wasn't unwatchable, but even with my limited Japanese knowledge I could sometimes pick out differences between what was being said and what was in the sub. A few times, subtitles appeared to cover extra chatter from the dub which simply wasn't there in the JP version, and a couple of times a character was talking with no subtitles (because the sentence was shorter in English dub).

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by yumny

At least they don't. Nausicaa with dubtitles would be horror. That one is my absolute favorite.

Let's make this clear; the Laputa BD with Japanese track and English subs wasn't unwatchable, but even with my limited Japanese knowledge I could sometimes pick out differences between what was being said and what was in the sub. A few times, subtitles appeared to cover extra chatter from the dub which simply wasn't there in the JP version, and a couple of times a character was talking with no subtitles (because the sentence was shorter in English dub).

I'm pretty sure that, if you're looking for it, you could notice the same issue on every Disney dub, whether that's Dutch or Greek etc. It's a 'native' shortcoming of the dubbing process.

[yumny]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

I'm pretty sure that, if you're looking for it, you could notice the same issue on every Disney dub, whether that's Dutch or Greek etc. It's a 'native' shortcoming of the dubbing process.

I don't know exactly what you're referring to.. you mean subtitle timing faults? Dubtitles? Idk.

There are only three Dutch Ghibli dubs in existence and both sound idiotic, unfortunately. Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle & Ponyo.

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by yumny

I don't know exactly what you're referring to.. you mean subtitle timing faults? Dubtitles? Idk.

There are only three Dutch Ghibli dubs in existence and both sound idiotic, unfortunately. Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle & Ponyo.

My bad. I thought we were talking about lip sync in the dubbed version.

[yumny]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

My bad. I thought we were talking about lip sync in the dubbed version.

The lip sync is usually fine, I meant the discrepancies between the audio and the subs. With the Laputa BD I watched JP audio with EN subs. Like I said, sometimes someone was talking and there were no subs because the sentence was way shorter in English.

[GilliamsBrazil]

Anybody know if This is How Ponyo Was Born will be released outside of Japan (with English subtitles)?

12 hours on the making of Ponyo? Yes please!

[IanTheCool]

Any word on Mononoke at all?

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by GilliamsBrazil

Anybody know if This is How Ponyo Was Born will be released outside of Japan (with English subtitles)?

12 hours on the making of Ponyo? Yes please!

I don't think it will... I want these releases as well but I think the only solution is to actually learn Japanese.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by IanTheCool

Any word on Mononoke at all?

Not yet.

[yumny]

Originally Posted by svenge

Not yet.

Just to confirm to the readers who are new, like the OP, the only ones that have been announced for now are Fireflies and Totoro.

But, if it interests you all, Ghibli usually fills up two slots a year for their BD releases - two in the summer, two for Christmas.
So, we are still waiting for this year's Christmas releases from Ghibli. They could be announced within two months (obviously it's going to be two titles).

And one of them could be Mononoke.
Then again, I think Ghibli is really trying to be a tease and keeping Spirited and Mononoke saved for last. What if they decide to troll us and release Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves for Christmas?

[svenge]

Originally Posted by yumny

What if they decide to troll us and release Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves for Christmas?

Hideaki Anno is the only one who can pull that kind of troll off successfully. I mean, just look at the new teaser for Evangelion: 3.0 that was just released...

[metalonmetal1]

Originally Posted by yumny

Then again, I think Ghibli is really trying to be a tease and keeping Spirited and Mononoke saved for last. What if they decide to troll us and release Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves for Christmas?

Hey, Only Yesterday would be awesome! Haha, but anyways, it would be nice to see Mononoke and Spirited Away in December. If only those Japanese releases weren't so damn expensive.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by metalonmetal1

Hey, Only Yesterday would be awesome! Haha, but anyways, it would be nice to see Mononoke and Spirited Away in December.

As long as at least one of the 3 remaining Hayao Miyazaki masterpieces (Kiki, Mononoke, or Spirited Away) is released in December, I'll be fine with that.

Now that I've looked at the list of remaining Ghibli films to be released, they could do 4 "waves" of 2 movies each, with each wave having 1 Miyazaki film and 1 by another director.

Remaining films by director:

Hayao Miyazaki (4)
- Kiki
- Porco Rosso
- Mononoke
- Spirited Away

Isao Takahata (2)
- Only Yesterday
- Pom Poko

Hiroyuki Morita (1)
- The Cat Returns

Tomomi Mochizuki (1)
- Ocean Waves

Of course that could lead to a couple of the waves being disappointing (like a Porco Rosso / Ocean Waves combination), but it does make sense from the outside. No one really knows what Ghibli's thinking when it comes to the selection and timing of their BD releases...

[metalonmetal1]

Originally Posted by svenge

As long as at least one of the 3 remaining Hayao Miyazaki masterpieces (Kiki, Mononoke, or Spirited Away) is released in December, I'll be fine with that.

Now that I've looked at the list of remaining Ghibli films to be released, they could do 4 "waves" of 2 movies each, with each wave having 1 Miyazaki film and 1 by another director.

Remaining films by director:

Hayao Miyazaki (4)
- Kiki
- Porco Rosso
- Mononoke
- Spirited Away

Isao Takahata (2)
- Only Yesterday
- Pom Poko

Hiroyuki Morita (1)
- The Cat Returns

Tomomi Mochizuki (1)
- Ocean Waves

Of course that could lead to a couple of the waves being disappointing (like a Porco Rosso / Ocean Waves combination), but it does make sense from the outside. No one really knows what Ghibli's thinking when it comes to the selection and timing of their BD releases...

Don't forget, if Ghibli releases a new film, it usually comes out on Blu-ray about a month before the old films come out. The only reason why I think this is because Poppy Hill came out last month, and Totoro and Fireflies this month. In my opinion, any Ghibli coming out on Blu-ray is a good thing. However, I would prefer the "classic" films to be out on BD first.