This isn't anime so I figured this is the right place to put this. Here's my review of the 3-disc 3D set:
Just this week Sanrio released a brand new special edition blu-ray of the Japanese stop-motion animated film "Nutcracker Fantasy" in both 2D and 3D! Some may remember this film from when it was originally released in the US and Japan back in 1979. The US release had an impressive voice cast for the English dub, including Melissa Gilbert, Eva Gabor, Roddy McDowall and Christopher Lee. The stop-motion animation is superb, and the film is both beautiful and disturbing, with some quite frightening imagery. Many younger viewers were undoubtedly scared silly by the Ragman and the 2-headed mouse queen, Morphia. The only English home video release of this film in the US was on VHS back in 1991, in an edited form. Several scenes were trimmed for content/disturbing images.
For this new blu-ray release, it has been restored and remastered in 4K, and converted to 3D! This got a big 3D theatrical release in Japan last winter. It's highly unlikely to ever get a release outside of Japan. Sadly, this release is in Japanese only, with no English subtitles. Since I'm a big fan of the film, I already know the story, so I can deal with the lack of English translation, but for many it will be a deal-breaker. I figured some animation fans may be interested in this title, because even though it's in Japanese, the animation is stunning to watch. And since this will get no attention in the US, I thought I'd post my review of this release, since I just finished watching the 3D version this evening.
Firstly, this is a special edition, in every sense of the word. Those who remember and treasure the original version may find much to dislike in this new version. I'm not sure how the film was released theatrically (IMDB says 2:35:1), but every home video release has been 1:33:1, including Japanese releases. This new version is framed at 16:9, and a short segment in the bonus section shows how they ended up with the new framing (they cropped and zoomed to 16:9). This may disappoint those who are used to seeing it in 4:3, as the top and bottom of the image are definitely cropped out now. To me, the framing does look very nice in 16:9. I always prefer the original aspect ratio whenever possible, but this does look excellent with this new framing.
The new framing is just the beginning, though. There has been a total overhaul of the film. It features an entirely new Japanese voice cast, with all new songs. Gone is the beautiful theme song from the original version, which was guaranteed to get stuck in your head for a week after hearing it, as well as several other nice songs throughout. All the incidental music is different, as well. In my opinion, the new music is nowhere near as nice as the original Japanese/English dub. The music was actually a big disappointment to me in this new version. They should have left the music alone, and I see no reason why they had to re-record all-new dialogue - it seems like they just wanted to feature some new popular names in the voice cast. Sometimes the new dialogue doesn't match so well with the mouth animation, since the dialog is all newly recorded and likely different from the original dialogue.
The biggest offense is that they cut over 21 minutes out of the film! They cut a 4-minute scene early on in the film, when Clara first enters the clock and watches a live-action ballet dancer dance to the Nutcracker music. Later in the film, they cut out a huge 9-minute scene (the entire scene with the wise men is gone completely!). This is unforgivable. The scene was hilarious and wonderful to watch. Why they cut it is baffling. Equally baffling is the omission of another 8-minute scene late in the film, where Clara and Franz / Fritz watch a table full of holiday candies and treats come to life, dancing and marching across the table to a catchy pop-version of the Nutcracker music. It's one of the most memorable scenes in the film, and the animation is beautiful. What's left is only a few seconds, with most of the scene gone. The scene continues to another live-action ballet dance, and that is also cut out completely. In total, those cut scenes add up to over 21 minutes of footage. I can't even imagine the reasoning for cutting those scenes, and it's a major disappointment.
In addition to the major cuts, they also added lots of newly-created material in. Totally new opening and closing titles have been added. Lots of new visuals have been added throughout. New cgi snowflakes, lens flares, candle/lamp glow, pendulums and gears, and other assorted cgi imagery has been added. They blend very well with the scenes, but fans of the original will wonder why it was necessary to do this. Some of the added effects are quite nice, others are just superfluous. There is also a major new animation sequence added in, to replace one of the major cut scenes. It is done in traditional 2D-style animation, and reminds me of Yellow Submarine-style animation.
This all adds up to an entirely new viewing experience for those familiar with the original. All new music, all new voice cast (in Japanese), tons of new added effects, new animated sequences, and 21 minutes of missing footage, plus the new aspect ratio and 3D conversion. It's literally a different film now. That will rub a lot of fans the wrong way, and it's understandable. I'm curious how well it was received in Japan. It's clearly marketed to a new generation of young viewers, but how did older fans feel about the changes?
This sounds like a pretty negative review, but honestly, even with all the changes and missing scenes, I had a blast watching this. The color is astounding. I've never seen this film look so vibrant, and I own the original version on blu-ray, which was also released in Japan, back in 2013. The color literally leaps off the screen, yet the skin tones of the characters still look appropriate. There is some color enhancements for sure (the Ragman's skin is now green, where before he was kind of a dull grey), and random elements in scenes have been given a color boost or altered completely. Between the wonderful stop-motion animation and the vivid colors, I was simply amazed at how good the image looked. There is visible grain, and the detail is incredible. This is a gorgeous transfer in both 2D and 3D.
I didn't know what to expect with the 3D conversion, and I went into it fearing the worst. I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a very well-done conversion. Pop-out is kept to a minimum, but there is a good amount of depth, considering this was all filmed with miniatures, and everything had a very life-like "roundness" to them. It literally looked like you were there amongst the miniature sets. Close-ups looked very natural too. This is what "The Nightmare Before Christmas" should have looked like in 3D! The new opening title sequence was well done, and the newly-created 2D-style animation came to life in 3D. There were some shots here and there where the background became unstable and wobbly, due to the conversion, and I spotted a few minor errors here and there, but overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable 3D presentation, bright and colorful.
I can believe this was a 4k remaster. Despite how I felt about the vast amount of changes they made to this film, I still enjoyed it greatly, and I will most certainly watch it again in 3D. Which leaves me torn: do I prefer the original uncut blu-ray release, which is in the original 4:3 aspect ratio, with no changes or modifications, or do I prefer this special-edition, with all of it's changes and enhancements? I hate the fact that they cut so much footage, and the changes are so unnecessary, yet the image is so breathtaking, I still enjoyed every minute of it. I will certainly be keeping both versions, and which I watch may come down to what mood I'm in. It's a shame they didn't release the original uncut version with this level of remastering. The original blu-ray looks very nice for what it is, but this new remaster blows it away in terms of detail and color.
So there's my review, if anyone has actually made it this far. I bought my copy on Amazon.jp, and it's available in both a 2-disc 2D blu-ray set (2D blu-ray + DVD bonus disc) and a 3-disc 3D set (3D blu-ray + 2D blu-ray + DVD bonus disc). The 3-disc set is a bit expensive after shipping, but I think fans of stop-motion animation would absolutely love this film, though the lack of an English dub or even English subtitles will be a deal-breaker for many (most?). A shame, as this is a beautiful film.
Both 2D and 3D discs contain a 5.1 DTS-HD master audio track in Japanese. The 2D disc also includes a commentary (in Japanese). For extras, the 3D disc contains 2 trailers in 3D for this release, and a short segment showing comparisons to the original negatives (they were in pretty rough shape), framing comparisons, and an example showing the 3D layering process. The 2D disc contains the same trailers in 2D. The DVD wouldn't play in my blu-ray player for some reason, which is odd since I thought it was the same region as the US, but it played in my PC fine, and contains over 2 hours of extras (pretty much short segments on each of the voice cast, plus footage from the Tokyo International Film Festival world premiere). Nothing really to see if you don't speak Japanese. My 3-disc set came with a nice slipcase with different artwork from the blu-ray case. Nothing was inside but the 3 discs (each on it's own spindle) and an advertisement. It would have been nice if they included the original blu-ray of the uncut original version as an extra, but this release was obviously focused on this new special edition only.
Hopefully someone out there finds this review helpful. Here's a link to the original uncut, unaltered Japanese blu-ray release, also likely to never see the light of day in the US. Sadly, again only in Japanese with no English subtitles:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/V-1552
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