Studio Ghibli in HD
 

For Japan

Already available in Japan:
"Lupin The Third: Castle Of Cagliostro" (Remastered) (1979), "Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind" (1984) "Laputa: The Castle In The Sky" (1986) "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) "Grave Of The Fireflies" (1988) "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989) "Only Yesterday" (1991) "Porco Rosso" (1992) "Ocean Waves" (1993) "Pom Poko" (1994) "Whisper Of The Heart" (1995) "Princess Mononoke" (1997) "My Neighbors The Yamadas" (1999) "Spirited Away" (2001) "The Cat Returns" (2002) "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) "Tales From Earthsea" (2006) "Ponyo" (2008) "The Secret World Of Arrietty" (2010) "The Secret World Of Arrietty" (English Version) (2010) "From Up On Poppy Hill" (2011) "The Wind Rises" (2013) "The Tale Of Princess Kaguya" (2013) "When Marnie Was There" (2014) Hayao Miyazaki Collection (13 Discs), Isao Takahata Collection (11 Discs)

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All the Japanese releases are region free, have English subtitles for the main feature, and feature English dubs (except for the original edition of "Arrietty", "Grave Of The Fireflies", and "From Up On Poppy Hill", "Lupin"
None of the extras have English, and the releases are quite expensive.

Positive Points
-Best picture quality
-All have lossless Japanese audio
-Multiple Audio and Subtitle options for the main feature including English

Negative Points
-Expensive
-Extras have no subtitles
-Dub languages are not lossless audio tracks
-No DVD copy (if that's important)

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

For the UK, from StudioCanal:

Available Now:
"Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind" (1984) "Laputa: The Castle In The Sky" (1986) "My Neighbour Totoro" (1988) "Grave Of The Fireflies" (1988) "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989) "Porco Rosso" (1992) "Pom Poko" (1994) "Whisper Of The Heart" (1995) "Princess Mononoke" (1997) "My Neighbors The Yamadas" (1999) "Spirited Away" (2011) "The Cat Returns" (2002) "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) "Tales From Earthsea" (2006) "Ponyo" (2008) "The Secret World Of Arrietty" (2010) "From Up On Poppy Hill" (2011) "The Wind Rises" (2013) "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" (2013)

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UK discs are all Region B locked, all come with English subtitles and with English dubs (although "Arrietty" is a different dub from the Disney version)

Positive Points
-All have lossless audio, for Japanese, and for English dub tracks
-All extras are subtitled in English
-Includes extras from the Japanese releases plus the Disney releases combined
-"Ponyo" has more extras than the Japanese or US release
-Japanese language credit sequences for MOST releases
-"Castle" has both Japanese and English credit sequences
-Bonus DVD copy for MOST releases

Negative Points
-Region locked to B (for non-region free people)
-Titles have some Digital Noise Reduction applied to the picture
-Inconsistent spine numbers (for the OCD people)
-"Ponyo" has English language credit sequences only
-"Nausicaa" doesn't come with a DVD copy (if that's important)

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Disney US

Coming October 6th:
"When Marnie Was There" (2014)

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Available now:
"Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind" (1984) "Laputa: The Castle In The Sky" (1986) "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) "Grave Of The Fireflies" (1988) "Kiki's Delivery Service" (1989) "Porco Rosso" (1992) "Pom Poko" (1994) "Whisper Of The Heart" (1995) "Princess Mononoke" (1997) "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004) "Tales From Earthsea" (2006) "Ponyo" (2008) "The Secret World Of Arrietty" (2010) "From Up On Poppy Hill" (2011) "The Wind Rises" (2013) "The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya" (2013)

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The US releases are region free (so far), with English subtitles, and have English dubs on all the releases ("Arrietty" will be the Disney US dub, different from the UK)

Positive Points
-Best picture quality (the same as the Japanese)
-DVD copy (if that's important)
-Lossless audio tracks in Japanese and English for MOST releases
-English subtitles for the extras
-Literal translation English subtitles for the Japanese tracks and English SDH for the dub tracks (except "Castle", "Kiki", "Mononoke", "Pom Poko")
-Original Japanese and English language credit sequences (so far)

Negative Points
-"Ponyo" has the Japanese track in lossy Dolby Digital
-"Castle In The Sky" "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Princess Mononoke" have dubtitles, no literal subtitles (apparently)
-"Castle In The Sky" doesn't have the orchestral rescored soundtrack available on the UK and Japanese disc (apparently)
-Many extras from the Japanese releases are not ported over. "Nausicaa" audio commentary, Lengthy documentary for "Ponyo", The Interviews for "Arrietty", etc.

Want to voice a concern about "Castle In The Sky" "Kiki's Delivery Service"or "Princess Mononoke" to Disney?
Well, contact them and tell them that the English subtitle script is not a literal translation, and for "Castle In The Sky" the rescored soundtrack that was on the 2003 DVD is missing. See if they can get it rectified.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Never heard of Poppy Hill have to check that out.


And we watched Totoro on DVD the other night and all automatic ads that came up were just obscene. I told my wife I would upgrade it to Blu just to get away from that.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Disney always have automatic ads at the start of the disc, DVD or Blu-ray. Just press menu to bypass them.

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Castle in the Sky and Whisper of the Heart are automatic buys for me. The latter is Ghibli's most underrated movie, IMO. Already have Ponyo and Nausicaa.

Now, just need a super deluxe HD Castle of Cagliostro.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

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There is a BD release of it in Japan, unfortunately without English options, and in 1080i interlaced transfer.

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I wish the Disney releases didn't give lossless priority to the English language dubs. :(

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I was pounding the menu button like mad but it wasn't doing anything. Thankfully I could skip through them but it was still ridiculous.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

there's also:

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From July 21 through September 10th, 2007, the Museum for Contemporary Art Tokyo held an exhibition honoring Oga Kazuo, the art director and background artist for many famed works from Japan's Studio Ghibli. Over 600 works from the artist were on display, and numerous fans flocked to the one-of-a-kind exhibition celebrating the lush, gorgeous background artwork typifying many a work from Miyazaki Hayao and other Ghibli filmmakers. International fans of Oga and Studio Ghibli have not been left out, however. The Oga Kazuo Exhibition: Ghibli No Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest (Blu-ray + DVD) allows fans the opportunity to attend the exhibition, as well as watch interviews and testimonials with Oga's contemporaries and collaborators, all subtitled in English.

The set includes a Blu-ray disc and DVD, both sharing much of the same content, with the Blu-ray disc having the added benefit of true High-Definition presentation. Shared features between the two discs include: a slideshow of all 600 works on display at the exhibition; the 72-minute feature "Ghibli's Oga Kazuo, who painted Totoro's woods"; and a 40-minute featurette containing interviews with director Takahata Isao, art scholar Tsuji Nobuo, Ghibli art department head Tanaka Naoya, and art director Kobayashi Shichiro.

The DVD also contains a 20-minute feature detailing Oga Kazuo's creative process, as he paints the cover for a 2005 art book collecting his paintings. The same feature shows up on the Blu-ray disc, except extended to 35 minutes. The Blu-ray disc also includes an exclusive feature with Oga creating the cover painting for the Blu-ray disc release, shot and presented in HD to take full advantage of the next generation video format. For fans of both painted art and Ghibli Studios, the Oga Kazuo Exhibition represents an uncommon and fascinating glimpse into the mind of a master.

and

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The newest addition to the Ghibli ga Ippai Collection in Japan is Ghibli's Bookshelf, a documentary that originally aired in August, 2010, on NHK's satellite network. The documentary discusses children's literature and their influence on Studio Ghibli, as well as Hayao Miyazaki's and Isao Takahata's careers, and even touches on the life of Mary Norton, author of "The Borrowers."

The Blu-Ray and DVD also includes a 40-minute interview with Hayao Miyazaki. A small book will be included in the First Edition run, "mini-library of 50 books boy Iwanami / Miyazaki Susumu election" (9 × 6.5cm, 136 pages).

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

My girlfriend is a massive Ghibli fan (alas, she's the one that got me into them). I'm heavily considering ordering My Neighbor Totoro for her, as it's possibly her favorite one other than Kiki. It's just damn pricey... I wish Disney would start releasing these much more often over here...

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Whisper of the Heart was amazing. When I was first getting into Miyazaki/Ghibli, most of the other people posting seemed to brush it off, but I made it a point to pick up all the DVDs and when we watched this one we were just blown away.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

No Kiki anywhere?

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Some delivery service :(

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Still better than my local FedEx or UPS............

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

They don't. They did for Ponyo, the first release, but then people told them to shape up and they did.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Well, they gave "Nausicaa" lossless 2.0 audio, but I don't know of any confirmation that these 3 new releases for next month will have lossless Japanese audio or not. So far, All the Japanese and UK releases have lossless original Japanese audio with English subtitle options.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

'Howl's 6.1 soundmix is on the Japanese and Hong Kong blurays and DVD's - the US Disney DVD does not have DTS-ES sound, will wait and see if it's true for the US blu - but I ain't holding my breath over it

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Waiting for words when Spirted Away and Princess Mononoke be out in blu-ray.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Well that's good news. I thought that was par for the course with Disney given they did that to several live action films as well.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

It is precisely par for the course, as it reflects their standard production template for foreign language releases. However, after (during, really) the release of Ponyo, a bunch of people complained at them about it and they indicated that they would stop with the standard template approach for Ghibli titles, going forward. Of course, it still remains to be seen if the follow-through will continue after Nausicaa, but I'm optimistic that the message got through.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

I WANT PRINCESS MONONOKE!! *stomps foot* -pray-

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Does anyone know who actually holds the distribution rights to "Princess Mononoke" in the US? Is it Disney? Or someone else now that miramax has disbanded...

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So other foreign releases will continue to be screwed?

Did they ever quietly reissue Ponyo or will I still need to import it in order to get it with lossless Japanese audio?

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I have no idea.

They haven't and I very much doubt they ever will.

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Damn. So what's a good region A friendly release of Ponyo that has lossless Japanese and wont destroy my wallet the way I'm sure the Japanese BD release will?

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Uh... a copy of the Japanese release that someone gives you as a gift?

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

Well it's not like I see you rushing to give me such a gift. :sad:

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

I haven't even given myself that gift. How is Ponyo? I've yet to see it.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

It's a sweet film but the conclusion is a bit too "easy". I'd rather not say more as it'd be delving into spoilers. Needless to say, that one gripe aside, it's a very enjoyable movie that leaves you with a smile on your face.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

the Hong Kong release at around 40 bucks.

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It's lesser Miyazaki, IMO. It's aimed at very young children and doesn't have as much for adults to enjoy as most of his movies. His environmentalism preaching is also more heavy-handed than usual. However, the movie still has some beautiful imagery.

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Thanks, Josh. That's pretty much what I anticipate.

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I agree about the beautiful imagery, but disagree about the movie not having much in store for adults IMO. I felt that the love shared between the children was very moving and something I definitely wouldn't find typically in a Disney film. It's worth a rent if you're apprehensive, but don't be surprised if you end up loving it.

Back to the topic: Any news on Spirited Away arriving on blu-ray?

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

That is basically my take on Ponyo. It's firmly aimed at children as the story is not that complex.

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Disney. They always had the rights. Since the movie was rated "PG-13" they didn't want to release it on their Disney label, so they slapped the Miramax logo on it back at that time.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

My kids and I love these movies and watch them together so they're pretty special for me. However, Disney's handling of Ghibli on digital media has always been irritating to me. The USDM DVD releases took years to come out and then were compromised when they were finally released. Music changed on English tracks, non-5.1 Japanese tracks, English clumsily slapped over Japanese signs, weak extras and worthless second discs to justify top-dollar pricing etc. The USDM Kiki and Castle DVDs were particularly irritating.

Now with blu-ray, it's more of the same. It's again taking them years to release these movies in the US. Admittedly, the Nausicaa and Ponyo releases were better blu-rays than DVDs (Ponyo better than Nausicaa), but they were still humdrum, nothing special releases. While these are certainly "niche" movies, they have sizable cult audiences. They certainly have larger potential US audiences than many other movies that get better treatment in digital media. Disney should put a bit more effort into them, the US Ghibli audience is the type that wants super-deluxe versions and would pay for them.

What I want is the Japanese DM releases of these movies with the added English dub released here as the US version. This will never happen. I suspect Disney has signed contracts with Ghibli to differentiate (meaning "make worse") the US versions to ensure that Japanese customers pay the big bucks for their domestic versions. It's annoying.

Re: Studio Ghibli in HD
 

I'd put it the other way around, as the Nausicaa Blu-ray has lossless Japanese audio (thank god!) and the Ponyo disc, sadly, does not.

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"Castle In The Sky" US BD review on DVDBeaver.

Both English and Japanese are lossless dts-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 respectively, as they should be.

Although the screencaps show the English language title, and the dubtitle capture, I'm sure that Disney has both English and Japanese credits, plus English subtitles for the Japanese and the English dub. Don't have 100% confirmation, but in the review, there is a screencap of the languages screen saying "English, English SDH, French".

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DVDBeaver sadly says that the "Castle In The Sky" subtitles are both in fact dubtitles, both being the same wording except the SDH track having [sound effects] etc. Also, apparently only has the English language credits.