Studio Ghibli via GKIDS

[professorwho]

I hate the fact they added dialogue where there wasn’t- it removes the intent of the creator, and adds nothing of value, at least to me.

Personally, I hate English dubs. But, I love the old bad ones- because they’re fun. Ones that are serious are useles to me, because the original language track is there. I’d rather we have old style dubs like the Devilman OVA and the works of Manga Entertainment than the generic and cringy crap of now.

[goodjay]

Sorry could anyone help..I'm lookn for the silhouette covers to make some custom sleeves ..iv pm the user on here that posted a few of them a while back but got no reply..anyone know if theirs a link for the full set?

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by goodjay

Sorry could anyone help..I'm lookn for the silhouette covers to make some custom sleeves ..iv pm the user on here that posted a few of them a while back but got no reply..anyone know if theirs a link for the full set?

Try the Ghibli thread in the Asia/Japan section. People have posted pictures there I believe.

[JTurner]

Originally Posted by Steve Freeling

Nope. Just the 2003 DVD with all of Hartman's lines intact and the two Sydney Forest songs. The scalpers are really something else. Actually, I don't think the Streamline dub's even been on DVD. Not surprising, really. The older anime dubs are often scorned and I still consider it a small miracle that the Streamline dub of Akira finally made its way to Blu-ray.

http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Kiki%27...ervice_(US_DVD)

This is probably the version you're asking about. Released back on 2003 when Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky were issued on DVD, this version is as close as you'll get to having the Disney dub of Kiki (a personal favorite of mine) with all Hartman's lines and the Sydney Forest songs.

The only Streamline Miyazaki dub that was ever released stateside was Totoro, which I attest was a decent effort for its time (although I liked Disney's version just as much). Kiki's Streamline dub unfortunately only was released on laserdisc. Laputa and Porco Rosso's alternate dubs (not Streamline, technically, but produced for Japan Airlines by unknown studios) DID have brief R2 Japanese DVDs, but those releases are now out of print. Understandably so, though, those two dubs WERE quite bad. The Disney versions of these two movies are miles better.

Originally Posted by Steve Freeling

If I'm being honest, I enjoyed all of the dubs Disney did.

So did I. Only one I wasn't crazy about was The Wind Rises, but then again that was, IMO, a weaker Miyazaki movie. I wasn't thrilled with Joseph's turn either, but I did like Mae Whitman, Martin Short, Werner Hertzog, and Stanley Tucci.

[gwfb5]

Posted this in the "Studio Ghibli" thread, but I thought I'd post it here too.

I saw the 30th Anniversary Edition of Totoro while Christmas shopping yesterday, but I didn't buy it.


Aside from the CD and a 40-page book, it lists the exact same extras as the Blu-ray from last year. https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/My-Ne...lu-ray/184137/
This doesn't surprise me in the least, but GKIDS has been strongly implying that this had new extras. "Hours of bonus features" my ass.


More pics.

[Show spoiler]

[RodChester]

Surprised to see that Totoro set at Walmart. I wonder what they were charging.

[gwfb5]

Originally Posted by RodChester

Surprised to see that Totoro set at Walmart. I wonder what they were charging.

I believe it was $39.95 Canadian or something like that.
It was also at Best Buy for around the same price. Not worth it, IMO, when you could get the standard GKIDS Blu-ray for half the price of this set.

[Albie989]

Apologies if this was already answered upthread but how do the GKIDS discs compare to Disney's efforts? If anyone wants to go case by case, I have Nausicaä, Castle in the Sky, Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Mononoke and Spirited Away.

[professorwho]

GKIDS stuff is encoded by Shout so they have poor compression despite higher Bitrates because of automatic encoding. The Disney ones look better (except for Nausicaä which uses the new scan). But, the Japanese releases are still the best in terms of picture quality.

[svenge]

The thing is that if Albie989 watches anime in the original Japanese w/ English subs, it's basically mandatory to get the GKIDS releases of Castle in the Sky, Kiki, and Mononoke since the Disney releases for those three had dubtitles instead of proper literal translations of the Japanese audio. If s/he's a dub-watcher (yuck), then there's no need to upgrade since the audio and video encodes themselves were fine.

Either way, getting the updated Nausicaa BD would be a good idea as well since GKIDS got the rights to the new, improved master and it doesn't have the burnt-in dub credits that the Disney release had. That, and it has the commentary track w/ Kazuyoshi Katayama (Asst. Director) & Hideaki Anno (key animator, later known for creating Evangelion) and a 45-minute discussion w/ Anno & Toshio Suzuki (long-time producer at Studio Ghibli).

As for Spirited Away and Porco Rosso, there's no need to get the GKIDS releases as the Disney ones were quite satisfactory. And for the record, the other Disney Ghibli releases to avoid if you watch anime subtitled are Ponyo (lossy JP audio track) and Pom Poko (dubtitles again).

[professorwho]

Well, I’m a sub purist, but I was mainly going off of video quality. Since I don’t have the Disney BDs (and have the Studio Canal ones), I had no idea which had dubtitles or not.

[svenge]

Yeah, Disney had rather uneven technical results with the Ghibli films. Here's a list of all the titles Disney had rights to, and their fates on BD listed in chronological release order:

• Ponyo (3/2010) - Lossy JP audio

• Nausicaa (3/2011) - Burnt-in dub credits

• Arrietty (5/2012) - OK
• Castle in the Sky (5/2012) - Dubtitles
• Whisper of the Heart (5/2012) - Somewhat insufficient 18 mbps video bit rate

• Howl's Moving Castle (5/2013) - OK
• My Neighbor Totoro (5/2013) - OK

• Kiki's Delivery Service (11/2014) - Dubtitles
• Princess Mononoke (11/2014) - Dubtitles
• The Wind Rises (11/2014) - OK

• Pom Poko (2/2015) - Dubtitles
• Porco Rosso (2/2015) - OK
• Tales from Earthsea (2/2015) - OK

• The Cat Returns (6/2015) - OK
• Spirited Away (6/2015) - OK

• My Neighbors the Yamadas (N/A) - No BD release after DVD release grossly under-performed at retail.

As you can see, Disney's issues weren't restricted to falling down on the job on a single "wave" of releases but rather a pattern of relative incompetence at handling foreign-language material. They made the same dubtiting mistake on titles spanning across three separate waves over the interval of three years, if you can believe that!

[professorwho]

I have the JP BD of Whisper of the Heart and the Disney release- the Disney one is unwatchable in comparison- the Disney one has less grain (possibly due to DNR), and lacks a lot of detail in the backgrounds.

[svenge]

Yeah, I'm probably going to have to pick up the GKIDS version (30 Mbps) of that one eventually. It won't be as good as the JP release, but it almost certainly will be better than Disney's.

I know, "Shout encoding" yada yada yada, but I don't have the resources to opt for the $53.85 (shipped) JP release from Amazon Japan instead of the $15.99 that the GKIDS release goes for at Amazon US.

[professorwho]

Hey, I don’t blame you at that price. (I got my JP copy on eBay for $25- best offer. Guy selling even lived in my state)

[Jr7936]

the best release was the amazon exclusive box set since they fixed the dubtitles and used the transfers from the Disney blu ray's

[Dsneybuf]

Disney's Whisper of the Heart Blu-Ray marked the first Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray I got.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by Jr7936

the best release was the amazon exclusive box set since they fixed the dubtitles and used the transfers from the Disney blu ray's

Except the subtitles for Castle of Cagliostro weren't nearly as good as the ones Discotek commissioned for their BD.

[Shingster]

What about the Taiwanese release of Whisper svenge, or do you want a release with an English dub?

[svenge]

It's not that I want an English dub, it's that I don't want to spend more than $20 for a decent-enough copy of the film. If I recall correctly, HK and TW Ghibli releases (which indeed are typically ports of the Japanese release's video encode, along with JP audio and EN subtitles) cost ~$35 shipped on average which is a no-go.