Toy Story 3

[Foxtale]

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/03/02/exc ... er-twitch/

Another character has been revealed! (Since he is in the trailers is isn't 'new' but I love seeing the turnarounds. ).

[Randall]

Our reviews of the new Ghibli DVDs start now, with Kiki's Delivery Service first:

http://animatedviews.com/2010/kikis-delivery-service/

The next reviews will be popping up quickly over the next couple of days. Suffice to say, the reissues are major upgrades.

[GeorgeC]

I dunno...

I'm very skeptical about these DVD reissues.

I've been rooked by Disney Home Video one time too many.

Extras look to be mostly the same on those Ghiblis and those 3-5 minute promo pieces generally aren't worth it. It would be great if more of the Japanese material could be brought over but I understand copyright and market exclusivity could be why it's staying in Japan...

(The new cover designs are very nice and I hope the style is maintained for the inevitable Blu ray reissues starting with Nausicaa later this year.)

I'll wait to re-buy them on Blu ray when it will be worth it!

Anime TV series are what you shouldn't bother to get on Blu ray. Those are usually only composed to 480p to begin with. The feature films, of course, were made for hi-def unless they're compilations of TV episodes. Even then, that can get hairy prediction-wise depending on what medium the TV show was produced on. Latest reports for BD are that 16mm (which is what many independent films and TV animation are shot on) looks better remastered for BD than was thought possible initially. General rule for anime -- if it's a feature, it's worth the Blu ray; if it's made-for-TV, pass on the Blu ray and save your money for the DVD!



P.S. -- Unless I misread it, what I gather from ToonZone was that the video quality for My Neighbor Totoro was the same as the first Disney edition.

Not too surprising.

I think most of the R1 DVD releases for the Ghibli films came after a remastered release in Japan.

I'm waiting to pick up more news on when the other films will eventually get to BD. Might be quite a while.

Tokuma/Ghibli don't have the resources Disney does (unless Disney helps pay for the video remastering for hi-def). Heck, none of the Japanese companies do! Might be quite a few years before everything gets restored and remastered hi-def.

[Randall]

As my review covers, there's a whole lot of new stuff on the new Kiki DVD, straight from Japan, and the video during the closing credits of the film is MUCH better. There are also changes to the English dub that bring it closer to the Japanese version. I could certainly see casual fans not wanting to do an upgrade, but big fans would definitely want Kiki at least.

[Randall]

The news is not so good for Castle in the Sky:

http://animatedviews.com/2010/castle-in-the-sky/

Same weak transfer as before, same lousy dub, and a loss of a subtitle track. Extras are good, though not quite as good as Kiki's. It's still a good movie, but an upgrade is tougher to recommend if you already have the last DVD.

[EricJ]

Ten years ago, when the dub was made, it was fashionable to be extra harsh to the point of paranoid (Disney's jealous, they want to bury them!) about Disney dubs...
It's not as often heard today, but the faithful have long memories.

Also the first three dubs--Kiki, Mononoke and Castle--weren't dubbed by Lasseter & co., but were regular anime dubs directed by Jack Fletcher (who did Pioneer's Tenchi):
Good serviceable dubs, but Disney's didn't get that mass-marketable crossover appeal until they started with "Spirited Away" after all the fuss was over.

[Randall]

I liked the other two dubs (except for Billie Bob Thornton in Mononoke), but the dub for Castle just doesn't work for me.

[Ben]

I think in the majority I'm going to wait for selected titles on BD to make up a small Ghibli collection. Although I'm not a huge fan of anime in general, several of the studio's works that I have eventually come across have remained memorable to me and I was considering picking them up on DVD.

Since BDs are mooted to be on the way, I may as well wait for those. Going "backwards" in chronology, I'm glad to have seen Ponyo now, and would also probably spring for Spirited Away, Pom Poko, Porco Rosso, the semi-associated Grave Of The Fireflies and Castle Of Cagliostro.

Also of interest are Howl's Moving Castle, Mononoke, Totoro and probably Nausicaä, though I'd have to see if the extras were enough to entice me further. It would be pretty neat to have a disc of their short films too, as a sampler of their wider work if nothing else.

[Foxtale]

I know the Toy Fair is old news by now but I just found this video about a bunch of the new TS3 releases from mattel.



Some really fun items. Worth a look.

[Randall]

This one turned out fine:
http://animatedviews.com/2010/my-neighbor-totoro

Ponyo's review will be up on the weekend!

[Jafar]

Its rather shameful that the real subtitles on Castle in the Sky were not included. Clearly they still want to force that terrible dub down everyone's throats inspite of all the flak they've been getting over the years for it. Lame.

Anyway, I'm glad Totoro has got some nice, meaty extras

I wonder if Mononoke will ever get that long overdue special edition treatment from Disney.

[eddievalient]

I'll be holding onto my old Kiki dvd because I happen to like the dub's beginning and end songs, but I'll be picking up the others. I've not seen Castle in the Sky (it, Ponyo and Sprited Away are the only Miyazaki films I don't have yet), so I can't comment on the dub, but I will say that I'm usually pretty lenient and generally the only reason I won't watch a dub is if I don't like the character voices (for instance, I felt that the dub voices of Fullmetal Alchemist didn't fit the characters all that well). I've not heard Disney's dub of Totoro. Is it better than the original Fox dub or about the same?

[Randall]

I'm thinking on holding onto Castle for the betters subs, myself. But the Kiki changes I actually like. I never watched the Fox version of Totoro, so I can't comment there.

All these films have good acting jobs, I should note (though Cloris Leachman does get a little shrill in Castle). i just didn't like the new script that Castle got.

[EricJ]

I've not heard Disney's dub of Totoro. Is it better than the original Fox dub or about the same?

It's about the same--
Carl Macek (and the very mention of the name causes instant ripples of revulsion among the anime community) supervised four uncharacteristically good Ghibli dubs for Japan Airlines in the early-90's underground days (along with Kiki, Porco and Castle), and the Totoro was the theatrically Troma-distributed one Fox Video picked up.
No major difference, except for Disney using a real child's voice for Mei instead of a fairly good cartoon-imitation one.

They're all serviceably respectable, although Disney's "Castle" is an improvement on a few dopey lines in Macek's version, as well as the personally Hisaishi-remastered score.

[Randall]

And now we have a review for Ponyo:
http://animatedviews.com/2010/ponyo/

There's some astounding imagination and animation in here, which for me more than made up for any story weaknesses, which were relatively minor.