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Miyazaki's Spirited Away U.S. Release
soupforare writes "Spirited Away is slated for a US limited theatre release in on Sep. 27th
nausicaa.net has a theatre listing and some more info. It looks like some theatres are even going to be showing the subtitled version." No showings near me, but hopefully those prints will make it around. Been wanting to see this one for a long time.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/SpiritedAway-11160 64/
I've had the wonderful opportunity to see this movie several times already. It's my favorite Miyazaki flick. It's great eye-candy and wonderful fantasy. Highly recommended. See it in the best theater you can.
..which includes a brief interview with Miyazaki.
Here 'tis.
It's a rather fawning bit, but this seems to me to be one of the rare interviews in which the director isn't just puffing up his work, but actually discussing it.
Besides, this movie looks to be that good. I grabbed a VCD bootleg of this in Taiwan many moons ago, and despite the crappy transfer quality + lack of dubbing/subtitles, I watched the entire first half before I began to feel lost (stopped after that so that I could enjoy the movie in its full-fledged form more). Miyazaki is a fine, fine visual storyteller, and by all accounts so far, the dub (lead by John Lassetter of Pixar fame) is an achievement in of itself.
Theater listing for Spirited Away in the U.S. and Canada
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Been wanting to see this one for a long time.
Then why haven't you bought it on DVD?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Saw the trailer on Apple a couple weeks ago. Pretty cool. Very long, too.
I had the good fortune to see the US premier of this movie last Tuesday at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood.
First off, the showing itself was wonderful -- it's a very nice old-style theater with a balcony and a curtain in front of the screen. The movie was digitally projected, and it looked perfect to me. It was also very nice not having any commercials/trailers at the beginning -- they did some light effects, opened and few curtains and the first thing on the screen was the blue Studio Ghibli screen (and the whole audience applauded at that).
The movie itself is a great movie. Miyazaki did make it for 10-year old girls, but it can appeal to anyone, I think. The feel was a bit like Alice in Wonderland, with a young girl finding this world of spirits and monsters where she meets interesting people and has some adventures (if you really want a good review, there are others out there). Basically, if you have a chance, go see it. I did see the dub, and it was actually fine; after a bit everything just started flowing and I stopped noticing that it was dubbed (I'm generally a big sub-snob for watching anime).
Miyazaki himself was there for a short interview after the movie; he was asked various questions, first mainly about Spirited Away, and then some audience questions ranging from if he's going to work on the Seven Samurai anime (no, he's opposed to it), to if he's ever going to do more in the worlds of Totoro (never), Laputa (never) or Lupin III (never; he leaves that world to others).
Anyway, very cool experience. If you're in the LA area, El Capitan will be showing Spirited Away for a month or so, mostly in English, but a few showings in Japanese, subbed, and while Miyazaki won't be there, it should be a great place to see it.
-Darien Jax
Watch Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. (There is, of course, a page for it on nausicaa.net ... but for obvious reasons, you're not going to be able to visit it for a few hours now.) It's only available as a fansub, but it's well worth it -- IMO, it's the best anime I've ever seen. (And many of the themes explored in it were carried directly over into Princess Mononoke.) Spirited Away was also an amazing movie, and I hope that it's showed in my area at some point ... but Nausicaa was Miyazaki's best work.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
The legitimate region 2 DVDs can be had for around $50-60 from import DVD sites like cdjapan.co.jp -- and it has English subtitles.
The only issue (besides the region) is the color balance, which has a slight reddish tint which some people find annoying. Interestingly enough, according to Nausicaa.net, this was done deliberately so that it would look right when played on plasma or lcd screens.
It's a fine movie if you like Miyazaki's work, although its somewhat less "normal" than his other projects. It's targeted at younger folks than Mononoke Hime was, and lacks the violent action. In fact it turns out to be quite similar to his previous Kiki's Delivery Service (a pre-teen girl looks for a job around the intersection of magic and the real world). This one is a bit more disney-like though, with some more overt antagonism than Kiki faced.
Like Mononoke, you can occasionally see places where the animation budget was preserved, but it detracts not at all.
The dub is just as good as Mononoke Hime's was- that is to say not perfect, there are moments of awkardness when they were obliged to be additionally verbose to help out us slow Americans. But there's nothing as painfully bad as the Gillian Anderson-techno-reverb wolf voice the end of Mononoke suffered from.