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Howl's Moving Castle

post #1 of 29
10/2/05 at 6:42pm
Thread Starter 
Any news on when this is coming to DVD, I can't find a damn thing.
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post #2 of 29
10/2/05 at 7:40pm
Spring '06, sayeth Disney. Along with My Neighbor Totoro.
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post #3 of 29
10/2/05 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
Spring?! SPRING! Why release the DVD for a movie that was barely in theaters 10 months after the fact?

Goddammit.
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post #4 of 29
10/2/05 at 8:32pm
If you have a region-free DVD player and can't wait till next year, see if you can get the region 2 Japanese release that comes out next month on the 16th. Like all Ghibli releases in Japan, it includes English subtitles. The retail price in Japan is kinda pricey at about $45 U.S. though, so you can expect to pay a little more than that if you try to buy it from overseas.
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post #5 of 29
10/2/05 at 8:37pm


R1 - Spring 2006.
R2 - November 16th.
R3 - December 23rd.

Getting the fancy R2 box, m'self...

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/anime/essen...owl/index.html
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post #6 of 29
10/2/05 at 9:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JuddL
Spring?! SPRING! Why release the DVD for a movie that was barely in theaters 10 months after the fact?
I repeat: My Neighbor Totoro. Disney's taking their time getting the DVD and the English dub done right. And in case you haven't noticed, they haven't released Studio Ghibli films on their own since Mononoke, the Pom Poko/My Neighbors The Yamadas combo the exception (and as I understand it, the third was supposed to be Only Yesterday, but they couldn't get it ready in time). So, until Totoro's ready, keep your shirt on.

On the same note, though, the third movie in this set is going to be Whispers of the Heart.
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post #7 of 29
10/3/05 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
Fuck Disney, I'll wait for a region free bootleg to pop up on Ebay.
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post #8 of 29
10/3/05 at 1:15am
Very, very good news. Not the waiting until Spring part. The My Neighbor Totoro part. I've only see the ruthlessly butchered Fox release and it still ranks as one of my top three anime films. Can't wait to see it with a decent transfer, in widescreen, a nice English dub and most important the original Japanese dub.

And watching Howl's again will be nice too.
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post #9 of 29
10/3/05 at 1:16am
Totoro has been out on DVD for awhile now under the Salter Street Films/Troma imprint. The English dub is fairly horendous. Is Disney getting their Nausicaa/The Cat Returns/Porco Rosso voice-over team together for a re-shooting of the Totoro dub does anyone know?
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post #10 of 29
10/3/05 at 8:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ludwig
Totoro has been out on DVD for awhile now under the Salter Street Films/Troma imprint. The English dub is fairly horendous. Is Disney getting their Nausicaa/The Cat Returns/Porco Rosso voice-over team together for a re-shooting of the Totoro dub does anyone know?
Yes they are. Dakota Fanning and her real-life sister Elle are playing Satsuki and Mei. Pretty good call on Disney's part.
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post #11 of 29
10/3/05 at 11:14am
Why would anyone listen to the dub track of any foreign film, whether it be animated or not? So much is lost in the process. I've never, ever heard a dub of any anime that was worth my time. No matter how hard they try, what talent is involved, it's crap. All of it. Essentially what they try to do is lip sync words with the characters, which always ends up being about actors talking very, very fast, trying to fit in what they need to say to match the visuals. It's absolutely worthless. I'm sorry if I'm being a prick, I just want to spread the word that listening to the original soundtrack is always going to be more engaging, and more fulfilling than sub-par dubbing.
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post #12 of 29
10/3/05 at 12:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
Why would anyone listen to the dub track of any foreign film, whether it be animated or not? So much is lost in the process. I've never, ever heard a dub of any anime that was worth my time. No matter how hard they try, what talent is involved, it's crap. All of it. Essentially what they try to do is lip sync words with the characters, which always ends up being about actors talking very, very fast, trying to fit in what they need to say to match the visuals. It's absolutely worthless. I'm sorry if I'm being a prick, I just want to spread the word that listening to the original soundtrack is always going to be more engaging, and more fulfilling than sub-par dubbing.
I gotta agree with Neal here. The dubbed versions never capture the spirit of the original. I think that it's much better with Miyazaki's animations to read the captions and try to follow the emotional content of the actual dialog.

Also, you can skip the additional markup from American on-line dealers and get a copy of the Japanese disc through amazon.co.jp.
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post #13 of 29
10/3/05 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
Why would anyone listen to the dub track of any foreign film, whether it be animated or not? So much is lost in the process. I've never, ever heard a dub of any anime that was worth my time. No matter how hard they try, what talent is involved, it's crap. All of it. Essentially what they try to do is lip sync words with the characters, which always ends up being about actors talking very, very fast, trying to fit in what they need to say to match the visuals. It's absolutely worthless. I'm sorry if I'm being a prick, I just want to spread the word that listening to the original soundtrack is always going to be more engaging, and more fulfilling than sub-par dubbing.
From an adult's perspective, sure. But when I originally shared this film (Totoro) with my daughters (then 7 and 3), they could not read fast enough/read very well at all to show them the film with only sub-titles. And I'll be damned if I will not show them every single Miyazaki film I can because things get lost in the translation. My eldest (now 9) is JUST starting to be able to watch a sub-titled film without getting frustrated. The first one she managed to make it all the way through is Shaolin Soccer.
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post #14 of 29
10/3/05 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
Why would anyone listen to the dub track of any foreign film, whether it be animated or not? So much is lost in the process. I've never, ever heard a dub of any anime that was worth my time. No matter how hard they try, what talent is involved, it's crap. All of it. Essentially what they try to do is lip sync words with the characters, which always ends up being about actors talking very, very fast, trying to fit in what they need to say to match the visuals. It's absolutely worthless. I'm sorry if I'm being a prick, I just want to spread the word that listening to the original soundtrack is always going to be more engaging, and more fulfilling than sub-par dubbing.
Cowboy Bebop.
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post #15 of 29
10/3/05 at 2:32pm
Admittedly, there are a few decent dubs out there (GOLDEN BOY is another), but for each of those, there are 300 crap, underpaid-VO-actors-sounding-very-bored ones.

Did they clear those song right problems re: WHISPER, crow?
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post #16 of 29
10/3/05 at 5:37pm
Preaching to the choir, Neal. But, the whole thing about there not being good dubs out there just isn't true, and in particular, Disney's done a pretty solid job with Miyazaki's stuff recently. if they MUST include the dub, I'd prefer to know it's still being done right. Which is why I think it's still interesting to see who gets cast to do the Studio Ghibli films.

And yeah, Erik, they got the John Denver song, and started finishing the dub in May. That almighty "Disney can't change a frame" agreement just keeps coming in handier with every film....
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post #17 of 29
10/3/05 at 6:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Sphinx
Cowboy Bebop.


If one show was an absolute pleasure to watch in its original language, it was Cowboy Bebop.

SPIKE-U! AY! SPIKE-U!!!




The Princess Mononoke dub was absolutely horrid. You got your redneck woodsman/hunter, a sass-mouthed ghetto chica, and a stuck-up British career woman in goddamn ancient Japan! Ridiculous. I could never go back to that after finally hearing the original voice cast. Not to say that American actors suck in any animated film. We do some brilliant stuff with our own material, we have a rich history of it. But the entire excercise of matching words with lip movement in another language just guarantees failure to me.
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post #18 of 29
10/3/05 at 8:18pm
Agreed, Billy Bob Thornton stuck out like a sore thumb in that cast, and Jada Pinkett sounded just a bit too hard-edged for a villager.

That said, both of those errors are counterbalanced by Billy Crudup and Claire Danes doing wonderful work as Ashitaka and San, and Gillian Anderson completely justifying the decision to make Moro female.

It's a decent dub, just uneven.
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post #19 of 29
10/4/05 at 12:01am
You realize that all Japanese Animes are dubbed. Drawn out pictures don't normally produce their own sounds. And yes I know I am a nitpicking ass.
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post #20 of 29
10/4/05 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeplesslumber
You realize that all Japanese Animes are dubbed. Drawn out pictures don't normally produce their own sounds. And yes I know I am a nitpicking ass.
Yes, obviously, but Japanese Voice Actors are famously talented. Being picked by the original creators/director also helps.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crow
But, the whole thing about there not being good dubs out there just isn't true, and in particular, Disney's done a pretty solid job with Miyazaki's stuff recently. if they MUST include the dub, I'd prefer to know it's still being done right. Which is why I think it's still interesting to see who gets cast to do the Studio Ghibli films.
Pretty solid is more accurate than "good" Disney casts name actors, which takes you out of, and "Disneyfies" the original work. Example; in SPIRITED AWAY the lead character is a sullen ten year old. In the Disney dub, she sounds about 5-6, and is "cute."

Quote:
And yeah, Erik, they got the John Denver song, and started finishing the dub in May. That almighty "Disney can't change a frame" agreement just keeps coming in handier with every film....
Good show, that song [the Olivia Newton-John rendition] is strangely beautiful in the opening of WHISPER, one of my Ghibli faves.

And thank God for that keep-the-scissors-away deal... as I mentioned elsewhere - evil forces at Miramax wanted to chop 30 minutes out of MONONOKE. It's also amusing the ways Disney "works around" this, with extra gags/dialogue, and inappropriate new music cues.
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post #21 of 29
10/4/05 at 8:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Erik
And thank God for that keep-the-scissors-away deal... as I mentioned elsewhere - evil forces at Miramax wanted to chop 30 minutes out of MONONOKE. It's also amusing the ways Disney "works around" this, with extra gags/dialogue, and inappropriate new music cues.
I'm gonna take a stab and guess you're referring to the Kiki's Delivery Service dub. And to be fair, that was done years before Lasseter and Co. took over the handling of the DVDs (Kirsten Dunst was about 12 fer cripes sake).
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post #22 of 29
10/4/05 at 10:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crow
I'm gonna take a stab and guess you're referring to the Kiki's Delivery Service dub. And to be fair, that was done years before Lasseter and Co. took over the handling of the DVDs (Kirsten Dunst was about 12 fer cripes sake).
More like 16, and she totally failed to capture the energy and intent of the original actress...

Anyway, CASTLE IN THE SKY is another victim of "additional scoring" - Joe Hisaishi composed assloads of new music for the Disney release.

"Joe Hisaishi says; according to Disney's staff, foreigners (non-Japanese) feel uncomfortable if there is no music for more than 3 minutes (laughs)."

- - -

MIYAZAKI: I am not really an advocate of using wall-to-wall music in a film. I like silence. I can understand the anxiety for the studio, though, and it was important to them to add more music. None of it matched, though, so [Hisaishi] ended up recomposing and rerecording the whole film.
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post #23 of 29
10/11/05 at 12:08pm
Wait..I'm confused. First, I hear that the dub for Totoro is delayed because of a battle over the rights from Fox.

Then, I hear that it is delayed because they are not finished yet.

Somebody clear this up for me.
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post #24 of 29
10/11/05 at 12:22pm
At first the reason the film hadn't been released was because of legal troubles with Fox. But they finally cleared it up around May/June. Now they're just working on the new dub, and remastering the picture and sound. They're also doing the same for Whispers of the Heart. Which is why, realistically, they've set Spring 06 as a date. It's going to take that long to finish the set.
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post #25 of 29
10/11/05 at 12:32pm
I'm really looking forward to widescreen Totoro. And burning my craptacular Fox DVD.
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post #26 of 29
10/11/05 at 1:11pm
Anime dubs have gotten much better since the old days. I know the original dub is great, but Cowboy Bebop's english dub is great too. And the Studio Ghibli english dubs generally work well (even if its uneven somteimes.) I refuse to believe that an english dubbed anime can't work, in theory. It isn't the same as live action dubbing.
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post #27 of 29
10/12/05 at 11:58am
Personally, I don't think the original Totoro dub is that bad...but the fact that the actress from Rugrats is in it really unnerves me.
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post #28 of 29
10/13/05 at 3:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pop Zeus
I refuse to believe that an english dubbed anime can't work, in theory. It isn't the same as live action dubbing.
It can work, for instance AKIRA had a decent dub, IMO. I disagree with the second part, though.

As for TOTORO:

"The world premiere on Disney's English Language dub of My Neighbour Totoro will take place at the Hollywood Film Festival on October 23rd."

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=7593
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post #29 of 29
10/13/05 at 3:40am
double post, sorry, please delete...
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