Pants

First I've got to take a moment to congratulate Disney on making the first $26 2-disc, bare-bones DVD. I don't know how they did it, but they did.

Anyway, what is up w/ this disc? Usually an english dub is made by using the original Music and Effects Only track and adding a new English translation of the script. Right?

The English dub on Castle in the Sky has different effects and different music (and MORE music) than the original Japanese soundtrack. Furthermore the English track has more dialogue then the Japanese. Where the Original Japanese track would only contain a character laughing or making an exclamitory noise, the English track has him saying newly writen dialogue.

Are Kiki and Spirited like this too?

adamblast

I haven't gotten mine yet, but...

Remember when Princess Mononoke was released in the US? It got a new Hollywood dub sountrack, with name actors, produced by Disney studios... These 3 seem to be the same kind of thing...

RichardW

When I first got the R2 Kiki, I compared the Japanese and English tracks. I was surprised at how much dialog was added to scenes with little or no dialog. What, we can't have any moments of silence during the movie?

Bronkster

So, based on this info, would you recommend watching with subtitles, or the English soundtrack?

Seeker

Disney intended to release Castle in the Sky a while back. (There were even ads for it on earlier releases of other products).

They did a dub, and got Joe Hisaishi to rescore the entire movie. disney actually spent a lot of money to "americanize" the movie, thinking it would help it sell to an american audience.

that said, realize WHY we have such a dub/score. The good news? They didn't release a barebones - dub only version.

You can watch the dub if you are a joe six pack kid, or watch the japanese original score. YOU GET BOTH.

Pants

I can't really say, listen for yourself and decide. The dub is very well done, full of gags and little detail. But it is VERY different then the original. So different that I hazard to say it violates the filmmakers intentions. It's a noisy track and in turn makes it a noisy movie, cluttered w/ wise cracks and WAY MORE MUSIC. I saw Castle in the Sky a few weeks ago, w/ the same dub, on the big screen and I loved it. My only criticizm was that there was too much music, practicly constant. Now I discover the original wasn't like this, and I am conflicted. With the original Japanese track the film is very quite, w/ very little dialogue. It becomes a very quite, contemplative film. These two tracks are so different! They are as different as a dub and original track can be.

Like I said, usually a english dub has the identical music and effects. This dub has new music, new effects, and new dialogue.

Are Kiki and Spirited like this?

Seeker

I haven't watched the dubs for Kiki or Spirited, but I do know that no one was commissioned to rescore the music for those two, whereas Hisaishi DEFINITELY redid the music for Castle Laputa.

Pants

Any idea why?

Jepthah

Audio quality aside (in terms of fidelity), I am familiar with the original language and music/SFX track for the film--I've owned a fansub of it for years and see no reason for any alteration.

Seeker

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/laputa/interview.html

Seeker

Also here:

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/laputa/music.html


In an interview in Keyboard Magazine (the Japanese version) Aug. 1999 issue, Hisaishi said the following:

"According to Disney's staff, foreigners (non-Japanese) feel uncomfortable if there is no music for more than 3 minutes (laughs). You see this in the Western movies, which have music throughout. Especially, it is the natural state for a (non-Japanese) animated film to have music all the time. However in the original Laputa, there is only one-hour worth of music in the 2 hour 4 minute movie. There are parts that do not have any music for 7 to 8 minutes. So, we decided to redo the music as (the existing soundtrack) will not be suitable for (the markets) outside of Japan.

"If we just add new music, it won't go well with the music made in 14 years ago. So we completely re-recorded everything. Of course, we can not demolish the melody of Laputa, so I changed the arrangement of it while keeping its integrity.

"The American way of putting music in a movie is basically very simple. They just match the music with the characters. For example, when the army shows up on screen, you hear the army's theme. The music explains the screen images--that is the point of Hollywood music. Until this time, I avoided such an approach, as I felt that it would make music dull, although I understand such an approach. But when I redid (the music of Laputa this way), I learned a lot.

"We do not have a concrete plan for the soundtrack (album) release yet, but (the completed soundtrack) is great. Miyazaki-San was also very pleased."

Pants

Thank you, that answers part of my issue.

animefan

Well, for an anime release, its not that unusual for Studio to redub & change the script and even sometimes the music. Good example would be Dragonball, where they redid the entire soundtrack. Also they changed the script and added lot more dialogues to cater to younger audiences. Similar with Lupin, where they changed lot of dialogue to sound more american and to refer to modern US culture.
Now, some dialogue has to be changed in order to match the mouth thats moving, but sometimes the changes are so severe that it totally changes the feel of the scene and story. Generally, if you watch anime in English with subtitles on, you would notice incredible amount of changes made.

This is why I hate the US dub and would watch every anime in Japanese with English subtitle, because thats what the original creator intended.- and it usually always sounds better too.