Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY, KIKI, and LAPUTA in April! (1 Viewer)

[Jose Q]

can't wait for these...

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I'm sure that should Sen be nominated, which it more than likely will be that the cover will be screaming Oscar when it wins (yes, I am an optimist, and know it shoudl win regardless)

 

[Joseph Young]

Count me as someone who likes the Disney covers. They may not be as artsy as the covers that Jeff posted the link for, but they do accurately convey the spirit of the films rather well. My favorite characters from Laputa and Kiki (the robots and the cat, respectively) are not left off the covers and that makes me happy.

~j

 

[Kong Chang]

HK official release art (IMO superior many times to the Japanese)
Laputa
http://www.dddhouse.com/cms/dddhous...&productID=2464
Spirited Away
http://www.dddhouse.com/cms/dddhous...&productID=2181
Kiki
http://www.dddhouse.com/cms/dddhous...&productID=2150
And just for fun- My Neighbor Totoro
http://www.dddhouse.com/cms/dddhous...&productID=2151

Okay, the HK covers:
Laputa : blah, plain
Kiki : so-so, doesn't quite capture the spirit
Spirited Away : just cropped form of the whole poster
Totoro : same pic as the R2 DVD but zoomed in more.
I still prefer the Japanese which everyone, except for Spirited Away, is aesthetically simple and pleasant and are predominantly original designs rather than screen captures.

 

[TheLongshot]

To be honest, I find both the HK and Japanese covers to be rather bland. While I like the art, most of the cover is a bland, ugly color (Peach for the Japanese, Aqua for the HK) that misses the opportunity to stretch the great artwork across the whole cover. While the covers above aren't the greatest in the world, they at least aren't boring. I have a feeling it isn't the final design, so there might be some tweaking to be done there.

That being said, we aren't buying these for their covers. If it also serves its purpose of selling to those who aren't fans, then why complain about it? In that case, it served its purpose.

Anyways, they are far better than the Princess Mononoke cover.

Jason

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Actually, the reason why they are the same design is simple. They're doing the "Ghibli's Best" collection, and want a uniform look for your shelf

Which these certainly will not have

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I was looking over the specs today and I find it odd that Spirited Away will have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track but no DTS track like on the R3 disc. Also, it lists the aspect ratio at 2.0:1 while it lists Castle In The Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service at 1.85. It's nice that they're including the French and Spanish tracks if nothing more than for curiousity's sake. Miyazaki was supposedly very fond of the French dub on Castle.
Jeff

 

[Raphael]

(sees Disney's box art for Laputa and Kiki's)
Bleeeeaaahhh. Those look absolutely _awful_, second in ugliness only to Fox's My Neighbor Totoro cover. If it were up to me, the cover to Laputa would be nothing but blue sky and the floating island and World Tree prominently in the center. And the old Kiki's Delivery Service cover was just fine as it was!
Do they honestly think this artwork will sell copies? If I had no idea what these films were like before, it would take a heck of a lot of convincing for me to buy these discs without a rental, and even then probably a lot of convincing to rent in the first place. There is no hint of the artistry or grace found in Kiki's or Laputa in these Americanized covers.
But whatever. So long as disc content remains identical to Japanese releases, they could release these films with box art depicting decapitated squirrels and fecal matter, and I'd still snap them up the day of release.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I will be doing a direct blind A/B comparison of the DD 5.1 track on the US disc and the full bitrate DTS track on the Japanese disc in my review for the Bits

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Those particular blind tests can be damned tricky to level match.

As far as French and Spanish go, I'd say they have more to do with servicing the entire NAFTA market with a single release than providing us with any entertainment. Frankly, I'd just as soon see dub tracks kept to a minimum and using subs intstead so that the video bitrate can be boosted. I am interested in hearing Jean Reno's performance in the french Porco Rosso. But I'm not expecting any more Ghibli discs for a year or so, as they'll certainly do new English dubs and I haven't heard about any such localization work being done yet.

I don't care for the boxes, but packaging never influences my purchase decisions.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

The aspect ratio listed still puzzles me though.
It reads:

Quote:

They are all listed as 2-disc sets so I'm not sure why they aren't giving us the complete storyboards on all three.
Jeff

 

[Michael St. Clair]

They are all listed as 2-disc sets so I'm not sure why they aren't giving us the complete storyboards on all three.

I suspect they are. Advance specs from Disney have often been inaccurate.

 

[Gary_M]

It's interesting how the covers are so different depending on the media the movie is being released on. The covers of the Japanese laserdiscs for these movies were much more peaceful, less "action filled".
Kiki covers
Totoro Covers
And Nausicaa covers (just in case it's ever released in the US)
Some find the less frantic covers bland. I like them better, I don't feel like my need for action is being pandered to.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

The Ghibli LD covers are the best. I made my own Mononoke cover with the LD art to replace that piece of crap from Disney

 

[Adam_S]

while in every instance I preferred the Disney cover art to the links that Jeff Kleist posted, in those links there are some absolutely great posters, I LOVE(!) the kiki poster art on the Japanese VHS (the stereo one, with the good colors), I'll also admit that the american poster art for kiki didn't look half bad on the spanish release where the colors weren't eye poppingly bright/white, but actually were rich and deep (like the new Disney art). I've never seen Totoro, but the Japansese art on the LD is the best, with the art of Totoro with his umbrella on the Japanese vhs the second best, all the others aren't nearly as good, especially not the bland screencap boxed in with neautral ugly color on the HK discs. Some of the Nausicca stuff is grin inducing, but all of the three Japanese versions were excellent, making me intrigued in the film, definitly one I"d like to own/view. The Japanese covers for Nausicaa (and on the whole) have dignity, but the others try to sell it as a saturday morning cartoon.

Adam

 

[Jon Smith]

what is wrong with the covers ?

i think Castle in the Sky looks especially good. Very Cinematic.

 

[Patrick Mirza]

They could send the discs in a brown sack for all I care... it's the disc content that counts.

 

[Richard Waller]

Yes, it is the content that counts, but that doesn't stop us from critiquing DVD covers. The cover is what will get people unfamiliar with a movie to pick it up and read over its contents. To me, these covers look too much like Disney covers, which is probably the reaction they were hoping for.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

what is wrong with the covers ?

Because they're slapped together photoshop jobs rather than real art like the Asian releases. There is no reason to have noggin covers on animated films, as there are no actors to promote!

These films are works of art, and should be packaged as such

 

[David Lambert]

Disney released some promo shots from the films themselves today. Enjoy!