criterionforum.org

December 4th

Princess Mononoke:
Audio:
Japanese dts-HD MA 5.1 PCM 2.0, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish DD 5.1, Korean, German, Cantonese, Mandarin DD 2.0
Subtitles:
Japanese, Japanese (translation of the English dub), English, French, German, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin Simplified

Extras:
Full Storyboards PiP
Full VO Script (in Japanese)
Princess Mononoke in the USA (20 min)
Trailers

The Cat Returns:
Audio:
Japanese dts-HD MA 5.1 PCM 2.0, English, French, German, Korean DD 5.1, Cantonese, Mandarin DD 2.0
Subtitles:
Japanese, English, French, German, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin Simplified

Extras:
"Ghiblies Episode 2" with Japanese dts-HD MA 5.1, PCM 2.0 with Japanese or English subtitles
Full Storyboards PiP
Full VO Script (in Japanese)
Making Of The Cat Returns (34 min)
Trailers
and more (planned)

So there are so far no new extras, although The Cat Returns may have something new. Princess Mononoke ditches the 400 minute making of documentary from the special Japanese set....

Up to this point I am actually very disappointed with these Ghibli blu-ray releases. They are constantly thin in the extras department after the promising Nausicaa debut. There is nothing special about them except the superb transfer. At least for some of the high-profile titles couldn't they have dug a little bit deeper and offer some brand new documentary/commentary/interview? The discs are produced within the Ghibli Studio for Pete's sake, and what's so hard about booking the time for some bonus material? And why drop existing extras? It looks more and more likely that after they are done with this round, special editions will start to come out (while the old man is still alive). Then what are we left with, a bunch of nearly bare-boned editions with uniform cover art?

Yup, they are thinning down the extras. I have opted for the UK releases, which combine the US extras and the Japanese extras together. Of course there are a few things here and there missing at times.

I only got the Japanese "Arrietty" since they had no announcement of a foreign release at that time, and lucked out that the Japanese release had a significant TV documentary which didn't get ported to the import discs.

I really hope the UK or US disc of "Mononoke" will have more extras, especially the 400 minute making of, but I doubt it since it's never been released outside of Japan.

Little Prince Norse aka Hols: Prince of The Sun (1968), the full length directorial debut of Isao Takahata comes to Blu-ray on December 6th 2013 in Japan. Sadly, without extras and without English options.

manicsounds wrote: I really hope the UK or US disc of "Mononoke" will have more extras, especially the 400 minute making of, but I doubt it since it's never been released outside of Japan.

Was that making of released on DVD or just VHS? Thanks.

Is there any consensus as to the best Blu Ray version of Nausicaa? Our US version (with the screwed up opening credits) appears to have gotten lost. Assuming we do need to replace this, is there a better alternative (that is less expensive than the Japanese release))?

I only have the US Nausicaa, but I usually go for the Taiwan BD versions when all else fails. I'd avoid the UK region B versions--they usually have more DNR than both the Japanese or North American versions. The Taiwan versions are usually/basically the same as the Japanese editions, with the added Mandarin sub and audio tracks of course.

I imagine the Hong Kong versions are similar to the Taiwan ones, but I always find Hong Kong products rather dodgy in quality, even the non-bootleg ones.

Michael Kerpan wrote:Is there any consensus as to the best Blu Ray version of Nausicaa? Our US version (with the screwed up opening credits) appears to have gotten lost. Assuming we do need to replace this, is there a better alternative (that is less expensive than the Japanese release))?

What's the problem with the opening credits? English only perhaps?

The UK disc has some DNR applied to the picture, but it's not that bad. And considering it has the audio extras from the Japanese release (which are not on the US disc), the audio commentary and the audio interview, I'd say go for the UK release. And the UK release has Japanese credit sequences.

manicsounds wrote:

Michael Kerpan wrote:Is there any consensus as to the best Blu Ray version of Nausicaa? Our US version (with the screwed up opening credits) appears to have gotten lost. Assuming we do need to replace this, is there a better alternative (that is less expensive than the Japanese release))?

What's the problem with the opening credits? English only perhaps?

English only -- and re-designed. It just plain looks wrong.

The US Nausicaa also seems to have some subtitle timing issues. They often appear too early or too late.

Michael Kerpan wrote:The Japanese KIki DVD has lightly modified dubtitles -- to the pre-Disney dub

These same dubtitles (for the old Streamline dub) have been carried over to the Japanese Blu-ray. Michael, do you know how faithful they are? I assume they can't be too bad if Ghibli felt it wasn't worth having a new translation done. But if not then I may go looking for a fansub.

EddieLarkin wrote:

Michael Kerpan wrote:The Japanese KIki DVD has lightly modified dubtitles -- to the pre-Disney dub

These same dubtitles (for the old Streamline dub) have been carried over to the Japanese Blu-ray. Michael, do you know how faithful they are? I assume they can't be too bad if Ghibli felt it wasn't worth having a new translation done. But if not then I may go looking for a fansub.

Disney mistook the dubbing script for a translation of the script itself. The earlier dub took far less liberty with the script than Disney's dub, at least.

Ah, so there are liberties then? I wonder if there is a translated copy of the original script anywhere on the net, like the Mononoke one you posted several pages back? I'd like to compare and then decide if I need to mess around with a fansub.

edit: found one!

A lot of the invaluable Nausicaa.net stuff has been buried after the old site structure was replaced by a wiki-based one. The stuff still exists -- but no pointers -- so Googling can be essential. The most precious script translation was the one for Only Yesterday (Omohide poro poro), which provided footnotes explaining the socio-cultural context of the film.

Ah yes, Google has led me to the older site. The Only Yesterday script is still there. Once I get to that one I'll know where to look if I'm confused or unsure about any of the finer socio-cultural points.

Back before the era of subbed DVDs, my family depended on Nausicaa.net's translation. We bought the Japanese videos -- and then handed out printed copies of the script translations to watchers. This is how we first encountered almost all the Studio Ghibli films.

Michael Kerpan wrote:Back before the era of subbed DVDs, my family depended on Nausicaa.net's translation. We bought the Japanese videos -- and then handed out printed copies of the script translations to watchers. This is how we first encountered almost all the Studio Ghibli films.

Wow, that takes some patience and effort. Never knew anyone would do that.

Anyway, according to a few sources, Studio Canal UK will release 3 more Blu-rays soon: "Pom Poko" in April, "Princess Mononoke" and "The Cat Returns" in May.

Michael Kerpan wrote:Disney mistook the dubbing script for a translation of the script itself.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference?

jindianajonz wrote:

Michael Kerpan wrote:Disney mistook the dubbing script for a translation of the script itself.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference?

Dubs can vary quite a bit from the actual dialogue. For instance, in the first dubbed version of Totoro, there was significantly more dubbed dialog than there was in the original Japanese script -- so the dubtitled version of Totoro often had "subtitles" when nothing at all was being said. "Kiki" was not nearly so extreme a case -- but still it did not always match what was actually being said in Japanese.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... vd-box-set" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

June 18: The Wind Rises, The Collected Works of Director Hayao Miyazaki
July 18: Spirited Away
August 6: The Castle of Cagliostro (new remaster)

Spirited Away on BD. FINALLY!
I don't think there was ever a good DVD.

I popped my Spirited Away DVD in a few years ago intending to do a rewatch, but found the whole thing is heavily windowboxed. I couldn't believe it. Evidently I never noticed when I watched it the last time, which will have been on a CRT 10 years ago. I still haven't seen it since then, so the BD will be like watching it for the first time again.

I don't recall any problems with the Japanese DVD of Spirited Away.

It too is heavily windowboxed, going by these caps.