Forum - View topicREVIEW: Castle in the Sky Blu-Ray + DVD
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Jayhosh
 Posts: 972 Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania |
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The re-orchestrated musical score was vastly superior to the original synthesizer track. But just because purists always have to have their way and their way only, we didn't get it in this release. Luckily I still have the original 2003 release. Even japan has the new score on its Blu-ray for crying out loud. I wonder what those people would think if they knew that Japan preferred our "bastardized" version over the original.
But you described everything that makes Castle in the Sky such a joy to watch every time. It's just plain, unbridled Miyazaki goodness. With a bit of heartfelt emotion and humor thrown in for good measure. And as I stated before, the score is fantastic, like pretty much all of Hisaishi's scores. |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 482 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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I have to concur. Disney's dub just doesn't feel right without the rescore. It BREATHED a lot of color to the picture, and while the original score was still beautiful, watching it with the dub feels very… strange.
As for the dub itself, I personally don't care what anyone says. I think it's a very underrated dub, and while James van der Beek probably WAS an eccentric casting choice to play Pazu, he still did a pretty good job. Granted Hamill and Leachman clearly knocked it out of the park as did the rest of the cast, but I still thought he did the job very well. The enthusiasm he brought to the part made up for the maturity issue. Anna Paquin's Sheeta is probably the lesser of the two; the voice she uses for the character is fine and I didn't mind the accent. But I did detect a few lines that weren't quite as well emoted as they could be. They were very minor bits, though, and overall I thought she improved toward the end. As for which version I prefer, I like both the Disney dub and the Japanese dub equally. Both have their own unique approaches to this film. The one dub I will never watch again is the ancient '80s dub. Accurate though it may be, it is also robotic, sterile, lifeless, and even laughable. Muska's VA is just nowhere nearly as awesome as Mark Hamill, and frankly, his robotic delivery shows. Even Pazu and Sheeta, while younger in the older version, sound pretty lifeless and unconvincing. I get that Barbara Godson and Lara Cody are fine actresses, but here's the thing: the older dub was rushed out the door. Carl Macek, who didn't even produce the dub in question, wasn't proud of it. Even with the asset that it doesn't change the last part of Sheeta's speech at the end (my only REAL quibble about the Disney dub, but it's not a major one), it doesn't make up for the wooden performances and even more clunky writing ("This place is where the throne room is, isn't that appropriate? Now say bye-bye!" and "I'm as hard as a brick moppet, if moppets were made out of bricks!"). I understand there are some people who prefer this older version, but I can't stand it without wincing. So for my money, if I wanna watch this movie (which is my favorite of the Ghibli films), I'll go with Disney's version mostly. But I will confess the Japanese version is good as well. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Other than the 2003 Disney DVD (which I thankfully do own), is there any other release out there that includes the re-orchestrated soundtrack and the old English dub with the funny lines left in?
I'm in the same situation with Castle in the Sky as I am with Kiki. I don't like the changes that came with the 2010 DVD release. I don't care if it's more pure to the original - it feels like a lesser product. Since the Japanese release at least has the re-orchestrated score, then I'm probably going to buy that. The movie just isn't the same without it. |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 482 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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The 2003 Disney DVD is probably the version you should cling onto if you're that crazy about the Disney version in its initial guise. The Japanese BD DOES restore the rescore all right, but the updated sound effects Hope mentioned in the review are also gone, as are the funny one-liners. Even the UK and Australian BDs follow this pattern. I like that Hope was respectful to both fans of the movie -- English and Japanese -- in her review and not one-sided as I've seen some other reviews of the dub. |
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 304 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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I'm not too big on Castle in the Sky, particularly that I don't get much splendor out of its world and the pacing feels kind of uneven. There's so many murky colours and rustic looks to everything that was kind of tough to look at after a while. When they finally got to the garden of Laputa, they only stayed there for like 5 minutes, and that was where all the colour and beauty was in the film from what I saw. I just felt the setting kind of bogged down the high-spirited adventure intent of the film. It doesn't feel like there's that awe and discovery until they reach the garden, and then that's only for a brief period. I wanted to like this movie a lot, but it just didn't work for me. I find it interesting though that certain sites seem to appreciate this film more than others among both anime and movie sites.
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Pepperidge
 Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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This is the one Ghibli movie where the dubtitles really kill it for me, and it's really just due to one line change. In the original version Sheeta says that the Laputans died because "humans can't live apart from the earth." In the Disney dub she said they died because "humans can't live without love." It kind of ruins the whole movie for me, and for that reason I don't think I will ever buy this release. Bummer that there's basically no hope of it ever getting fixed.
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Spoofer
 Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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The 2010 DVD release was dubtitled as well. The 2003 had literal subs, but they were often mistimed. We've yet to have a decent release of the film on modern formats, as far as subtitles go. =/
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TurnerJ
Posts: 482 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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That's what the Japanese BD is good for. Not only is it region free, it also has proper, well-timed subtitles. @Pepperidge, that was my only problem with the dub as well. I liked the rest of it (in fact I think it may be may favorite of the Disney dubs, strange as it may be), but that WAS a rather curious alteration on Disney's part. It didn't spoil the film for me; I had only seen it in Japanese once long, long before I saw Disney's release and so it didn't irk me as drastically as it could have others, but I was a bit confused when I learned about it nonetheless. I actually contacted the guy who wrote the dub script and politely asked him about it. He told me that such deviations such as adding in more dialogue weren't his doing, but executive influence. However, such changes were not done lightly. He didn't totally remember why he rewrote that line, but he assumed that it was because he and the creative team involved with the dub interpreted the movie a bit differently. They felt that Sheeta and Pazu's relationship was the anchor of the film, and that the "love" line not only referred to their feelings for each other, but for the Earth as well. At least that's what he said. Take it as you will. I actually did a little comparison analysis of the English script with that of the Japanese. Aside from the "love" thing toward the end, nothing else about the English ADR script bothered me. The lines seemed mostly faithful to the original, if chattier. (Some of it is understandable though; in some scenes the lip flaps last longer than the subtitled line.) But for the most part I found most of the rewrites to simply be rewording for lip-sync and/or natural flow. The extra lines were Disney's call, but honestly the only ones I found unnecessary were when Pazu and Sheeta comment on the obvious as they explore Laputa toward the end. Otherwise I had no other major quibble. Here's the link to my analysis, take it as you will. http://jturner82.tumblr.com/post/72244476170/script-differences-from-the-disney-dub-sub-of-castle |
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yusaku765
Posts: 1 |
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'B+' for story is not fair. This is one of the the best works of Miyazaki and one of the movies which puts him above all animation directors of our time. Why Arrietty got a better score?...
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rebii
Posts: 31 |
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I don't believe dubtitles should be graded the same as the dub. The sub grade should automatically be reduced by at least one from the dub grade, because of inaccuracies inherent to matchi9ng dialogue to lip flaps.
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phia_one
Posts: 1661 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I'm torn between this and The Cat Returns as being my favorite Ghibli movie. Although, I do admit that I've never actually watched it subbed. I enjoy Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill too much. That isn't to say that I'll never watch it subbed.
I also need to add that my sister who isn't an anime fan in the slightest will actually sit and watch this movie. |
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Lord Dcast
 Posts: 644 Location: 'Straiya |
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This movie is amazing! It's deep and meaningful, with action, romance, amazing artwork and the list just goes on and on and on. The only thing I had as a problem was the dub of Sheeta. She sounded like a poor mix of British, Australian and New Zealander.
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publicenemy333
 Posts: 563 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Outta curiousity, which American ghibli blu-ray releases are dubtitled? I know this and Mononoke are.
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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The 2010 Kiki's Delivery Service DVD and this new Blu-ray replaced the fairly-accurate (to the original Japanese) Streamline dubtitles from the 2003 DVD with a new set which is now largely based off of Disney's dub. People think that whoever did the subs used the dub as a base, and then changed only the most egregious inconsistencies. So... it seems to largely be dubtitled as well...
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=246794&page=3 http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/showthread.php?31923-Kiki-s-Delivery-Service/page8 The Cat Returns DVD was dubtitled as well, so the upcoming BD release will probably remain dubtitled as well. Thanks for caring so much about the integrity of these releases, Disney. 
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TurnerJ
Posts: 482 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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Anna Paquin speaks like this in real life. She was born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, and she has admitted that she does bounce between accents when talking to friends from NZ. Personally, I didn't mind the accent. Considering who Sheeta turns out to be, I think it's appropriate for her to have an accent. I DO think she missed some of her lines in places, but that's my only quibble of her performance. |
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