Anyone think some of these animated gems like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away will be coming to Blu-ray anytime soon? A lot of people say that animation doesn't have much to gain from 1080p, but I'm not so sure about that.

It's been brought up a few times and Disney and the other studios seem to be leaning more towards 3D CG animation and not 2D animation.

Yes, 2D animation has much to gain from a good HD transfer. Starz-HD ran Howl's Moving Castle and it looked amazing. We've already seen good HD transfers from Disney themselves on ABC-HD over the years. They've run such movies (albeit in 720p) as:

Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
The one with the dogs and the spaghetti (ARGH!!! THE NAME Fails me!!!)
Lion King (this one I think was the best of all)
Aladdin
Tarzan
Beauty and the Beast
Mulan
etc

I would love to buy Spirited Away and Nemo this year.

ONLY, and I repeat ONLY if they have Japanese audio. None of this English dubbed crap!

The SD-DVDs came with Japanese language tracks (I watched Princess Mononoke in DD5.1 Japanese last Sunday), so I don't see any reason that an HD release wouldn't include it.

Can't say that the English dubbed version of Mononoke was all that bad, either. There was some good talent, such as Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton and Billy Cruddup, involved with that film. I still prefer original language, but I doubt most American kids (and adults) really care to read subtitles for an animated movie.

In the best of worlds I would be able understand Japanese. Then I'd spend more time looking at the gorgeous Miyazaki animation rather than reading text. Princess Mononoke, as well as the other films previously mentioned in this thread, are really beautiful to behold.

ONLY, and I repeat ONLY if they have Japanese audio. None of this English dubbed crap!

Why not both in lossless or PCM?

I personally would rather listen to the English track because I understand it. For example, IMO, the Cowboy Bebop movie is superior in English than Japanese.

Why not both in lossless or PCM?

I personally would rather listen to the English track because I understand it. For example, IMO, the Cowboy Bebop movie is superior in English than Japanese.

My personal desire is for language tracks to be like OAR, one audio track (the original Language track), then add as many subtitle tracks as you want. Watching a movie that's been dubbed in any form is pretty much painful.

I bought all of the Ghibli films on budget VHS releases in Japan when they rereleased them in the late 90s. Then I bought them all again on DVD, this time with English subs and was really happy to complete the collection. But in all honesty I would probably buy them all again if they were released on BD :D

The one with the dogs and the spaghetti (ARGH!!! THE NAME Fails me!!!)

Lady and the Tramp :D .

ONLY, and I repeat ONLY if they have Japanese audio. None of this English dubbed crap!
I'm sure they'd have Japanese, English, and French audio and English and French subtitles, like usual. I do think OAR is a very important feature to have, and in almost all cases I prefer it, but from my experience, higher-profile animated movies like Miyazaki's films have excellent voice acting on the dubs, and have done an excellent job with what they're given. I saw nothing glaringly offensive about it when I watched Spirited Away OR Howl's Moving Castle in English. And honestly, I think the difference in voice acting style between Japanese and English is worth listening to both.

Lady and the Tramp :D .and Disney/ABC DID NOT run this one OAR. For shame, for shame.

The Howl's Moving Castle DVD is riddled with edge enhancement. Disney is going to have to remaster this from scratch to prevent it from looking like crap in HD.

Can't say that the English dubbed version of Mononoke was all that bad, either. There was some good talent, such as Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton and Billy Cruddup, involved with that film.

Just throwing a name actor into the cast doesn't guarantee a good dub. Billy Bob Thornton was clearly reading his lines for the first time as they were being recorded for the Mononoke dub. I find it unlistenable.

Likewise, what the hell was Billy Crystal doing in Howl's Moving Castle? "Yo, I'm a fire spirit from New Yawk. Faggeddabaddit!" Ugh, embarrassing.

When it was on Starz it looked excellent, no EE at all. It did have some other problems though that I think were broadcast rather than source related. Should look great on BD.

Just throwing a name actor into the cast doesn't guarantee a good dub. Billy Bob Thornton was clearly reading his lines for the first time as they were being recorded for the Mononoke dub. I find it unlistenable.

Likewise, what the hell was Billy Crystal doing in Howl's Moving Castle? "Yo, I'm a fire spirit from New Yawk. Faggeddabaddit!" Ugh, embarrassing.

You're listening to the voice acting dubs with a critic's ear. I doubt most of us (especially children) would be as harsh. The Crystal quote would be laughable, but more so in its inclusion rather than on how Billy delivers the line. It's not a suprise, though, that they would choose to use him and that line in order to help sell the movie in the United States.

And who's to say the Japanese voice-over actors were all that good, either? I don't speak Japanese, so it all sounds hunky dory to me. Maybe critics in that country had bones to pick with some of their performances.

I tell you what was jarring to me...the fact that Moro, the mother wolf in Mononoke (voiced by Gillian Anderson in the dub) had the voice of a man in the Japanese version. Something creepy about hearing the little princess talking to her mother figure, and hearing some really deep and throaty voice comin' back at her. Kinda like the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. That was one of the few times I actually enjoyed a dubbed voice better than the original.

By the way, Josh, love DVDTalk and enjoy reading your reviews and AVS posts.

You're listening to the voice acting dubs with a critic's ear. I doubt most of us (especially children) would be as harsh. The Crystal quote would be laughable, but more so in its inclusion rather than on how Billy delivers the line. It's not a suprise, though, that they would choose to use him and that line in order to help sell the movie in the United States.

FYI, that line isn't actually a quote from the movie. It's just indicative of what his performance was like.

And who's to say the Japanese voice-over actors were all that good, either? I don't speak Japanese, so it all sounds hunky dory to me. Maybe critics in that country had bones to pick with some of their performances.

I tell you what was jarring to me...the fact that Moro, the mother wolf in Mononoke (voiced by Gillian Anderson in the dub) had the voice of a man in the Japanese version. Something creepy about hearing the little princess talking to her mother figure, and hearing some really deep and throaty voice comin' back at her. Kinda like the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

I agree that the wolf voice in Mononoke is disturbing. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of the film. I think it's one of Miyazaki's weakest.

That said, it's Miyazaki's movie and he can cast it however he wants. If he wants the wolf to have a male voice, it should have a male voice. That's his vision for the material. Recasting the role and having a different actor deliver the lines in a complete different language is akin to taking a classic black & white film and colorizing it. To go even further by casting the role in a completely different sex, delivering the performance in a radically different manner than the original... Whether you like the new version better or not is irrelevant. It's a contradiction of the filmmaker's intentions. It's disgraceful.

The movie should be judged based on how its director made it. The dub is a different movie entirely.

^^
I agree with your point in that the director's vision is sacrosanct, but I do remember that even in the so-called LITERAL Japanese subtitles, Moro was referred to as Mother, as well. So maybe something got lost in the translation, but I'm not too sure that the English dub took such artistic liberties as to change a male wolf into a female one. If they did, I would be 100% against said decision.

Glad that line wasn't an actual quote from Billy Crystal in Howl. lol I kept thinking to myself, Geez, how did I miss that one!

You rock, Mr. Z.

ONLY, and I repeat ONLY if they have Japanese audio. None of this English dubbed crap!

Amen! Dubbing on foreign films is universally poor, not just animation. I appreciate the "talent" that gets used but if they're not right for the role it's pointless. Give me a no name voice actor who actually knows what they're doing rather than some A-lister who'll phone it in.

There has to be an english track, just for those who insist on it. In my world it'd would have to be unlocked by playing the subtitled version but it'd never happen.

I doubt most American kids (and adults) really care to read subtitles for an animated movie.

Probably because they're too close minded to try. I think children would be far happy to have subtitles than adults.

Anyway, it goes without saying that these will arrive on Blu-ray one day, we just don't know when yet. I will slam down my pre-order for Spirited Away faster than you can say "Sen to Chihiro no Kamakushi"

Anyone think some of these animated gems like Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away will be coming to Blu-ray anytime soon? A lot of people say that animation doesn't have much to gain from 1080p, but I'm not so sure about that.
Not soon enough. :(

And the thought of any other language then the original Japanese getting the PCM treatment makes me want to puke. :mad:

btw: Japanese voice acting industry>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>American voice acting industry

I don't know about that Capek. My problem is that most of the time they use movie stars rather than proper voice artists. You look at tv animation, there's plenty of talent there. US casting usually only gets as far as "how famous are they?". Studios don't want to spend a lot of time and effort with no-name actors when a famous actor can sell tickets.

Howl's and Spirited Away would be great to get on BD. And I'd like both the English and Japanese tracks in uncompressed form please. :)

Anime/Animation is pretty much the only genre of film I can tolerate listening to dubs on...particularly if the studio/actors do a good job synchronzing the voices to the video.

I agree with the Bebop comment, the US voice cast for that series/movie is excellent. GTO, Samurai Champloo and Cromartie High School are some other series that i thought had superior english voice acting.

some of the disney titles with daveigh chase doing english audio are pretty good. Spirited Away, for example.