DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "Kiki's Delivery Service" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Edwin-S]

Do you guys frame by frame these movies and look for alleged problems just to make sure that you have something to bitch about about Disney Corps handling of Miyazaki's films? Just wondering? I did notice a lot of edge enhancement, but I didn't notice any "mosquito noise". Are you guys pressing your noses against the screen to find this stuff?

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Do you guys frame by frame these movies and look for alleged problems just to make sure that you have something to bitch about about Disney Corps handling of Miyazaki's films?

Not at all, this is glaringly obvious on my 65" widescreen from normal viewing distance while playing. It is what you are calling edge enhancement that is the issue (it isn't edge enhancement, although it looks like haloing, it is encoding errors at high contrast/motion boundaries). Compared to the hundreds of other anime titles I have watched on this set, both Kiki, and to a lesser extent, Laputa, show these issues. No need to freeze frame.

Probably the worst occurence in Kiki is during the bike sequence. The amount of unresolved image inside the propeller is atrocious.

If they weren't so blatent, I wouldn't complain about it. What is especially disturbing is the other Disney animation titles do NOT look like this, and neither do the trailers on the same discs.

 

[kevin_y]

Kiki/Laputa use the same transfers

The same *print* might have been used for the Kiki and Laputa, but the transfers and the mastering were mostly likely done by different people. Therefore, some differences in video quality between the Region 1 and Region 2 and 3 versions are likely. My guess is there is less edge enhancement on the R2/3 discs.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Anyone know why unlike all the other Miyazaki Disney releases, Kiki has English, Japanese and Spanish audio? I've seen several online sources that said it had French, but apparently not.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Comments from a popular comparison page for this title.

This R1 release is practically identical to the R2 release in terms of image transfer. What I mean to say is that it is generally pretty good, but does suffer from some obvious artefacting in darker scenes and contains a little edge enhancement. The videophiles might point out the change to progressive scan, which is true, although this has been done by reconstructing the interlaced transfer. The result is thus ghosting appearing, which is fairly obvious in some of the darker scenes. You can see an example of this on the page with screenshots. You might also notice that the US DVD features slightly more cropping, although considering the degree of cropping is tiny this is negligible.

...

Both DVD's have pretty good presentation (well, almost identical basically), with the US DVD beating the Japanese DVD for price. However they both contain dubtitles (albeit a bearable one) - is this enough to warrant not getting either DVD No. Why? Because the subtitled release already out there (i.e. US VHS) uses the same dubtitle track. Why? I don't know really - apparently the JAL dub script is a more literal translation [Insert puzzled look here]. Buena Vista re-scripted their dub from the JAL script and simply used the JAL dub script as a subtitle to keep the fans happy (by releasing a Kiki's dub and sub US VHS).

More info at the website.

 

[Rob Lutter]

The same *print* might have been used for the Kiki and Laputa, but the transfers and the mastering were mostly likely done by different people. Therefore, some differences in video quality between the Region 1 and Region 2 and 3 versions are likely. My guess is there is less edge enhancement on the R2/3 discs.

Kiki and Laputa are both digital transfers taken from Ghibli computers (where they underwent a restoration) IIRC... there was no print involved at all. The transfers on the DVD should be 1:1 exact with the R2 "prints".

 

[kevin_y]

Kiki and Laputa are both digital transfers taken from Ghibli computers (where they underwent a restoration) IIRC... there was no print involved at all. The transfers on the DVD should be 1:1 exact with the R2 "prints".

Where the source material originated from (film negatives or digital media) is a non-issue. As I said, as long as the discs were manufactured by different people with different equipments, procedures, judgments, etc., there will be differences in the results.

 

[kevin_y]

Anyone know why unlike all the other Miyazaki Disney releases, Kiki has English, Japanese and Spanish audio? I've seen several online sources that said it had French, but apparently not.

I know Laputa: Castle in the Sky can't have Spanish audio because "la puta" is apparently an obscene word in Spanish. That makes the film unmarketable in Spanish-speaking territories. The word "Laputa" is spoken and seen many times throughout the film. But the English dub pronounces it as something like "LAP-ta", which is quite different from how the Spanish word is pronounced ("la POO-ta").

 

[Rob Lutter]

If you are talking about COMPRESSION... that is probably different. I was talking about the actual "source" which is the same.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

This is perhaps the worst compression job I have ever seen on an animated title.

Taken a look at Beauty and the Beast?

I'm on the fence about getting these titles...I want them for content but I'm tired of buying BV DVDs that have these compression and EE problems. Why oh why? it's not source material related...we're not asking for a new film-tape transfer or anything...just good compression and no added ringing!

-dave

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Beauty and the Beast is way worse in terms of being overcompressed.

As far as anime goes, I do have titles with worse compression and ringing. But I'm not going to mention names as they are generally from very small companies that are making an effort and I'm not going to bash them online.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Quite possible, Hawaii is a very very popular destination for Japanese tourists