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Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" Dub Updates
srstoneb writes "Earlier this week the Disney dub of Miyazaki's "Porco Rosso" premiered at the Austin Film Festival. It will probably be the only theatrical showing of "Porco", sadly, but reviews of the dub have been quite favorable. Even more exciting, as reported at Nausicaa.net and elsewhere, is that the Hewitts -- who did the English scripts for "Spirited Away" and "Porco" -- said they're currently working on "Nausicaa"! The cast includes Patrick Stewart, as well as Uma Thurman and, tentatively, Natalie Portman. A post to the Nausicaa.net mailing list by fan Dan Vogler further states that Stewart's role is Lord Yupa. (Somebody already made the inevitable joke about Picard being stabbed by a Nausicaan, so don't bother.) Both movies are tentatively intended for DVD release in spring 2004." Porco Rosso is a great flick, check it out if you aren't to dead inside to enjoy a kids flick. Greatly looking forward to both DVDs.
And I love Natalie Portman.
Forgive my ignorance.. but what is this Nausicaa??
What else can you call it when you get to mention Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, and Patrick Stewart in the same posting.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
are asking themselves "just what the f*ck is this supposed to be about?"
Isn't Picard worried about another stabbing from the Nausicaans?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
The Nausicaa web site doesn't explain very much, and I'm not about to wade through mailinglist archives either.
SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
Oh, the possibilites!
DOESN'T ANYBODY REALIZE THAT PICARD WAS STABBED BY A NAUSICAAN!
;)
LOLOODLDOLO RORLWLFFL HAHAHAHAHAHA
silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter silly filter
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Miyazaki is the guy who did the following very well known movies:
Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Kiki's Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Who is this Penus Torvalds that I keep hearing about? Is he Natalie Portman's beaux?
fuck you I hope Urotsukidoji happens to you in real life!
I'm a little confused by that, It's a Disney dub right? I don't know how much effort or cost goes into dubbing a foreign film, buy why would Disney do it just to show it once? Will it come out on DVD or something?
Ansi's and stupid tricks!
http://store.yahoo.com/crosstoy/dvd-188.html
The Video and sound quality are excellent, but
the subtitles are just barely passable. But
for $5 per film, how can you squawk?
For the record, *I* will probably buy the dubs
when they are available anyway.
Nausicaa is a great movie from 1984 by Miyazaki. Its about Nausicaa, a princess from a small valley called the Valley of the Winds, and her fight to save the destruction of the valley by the endless fighting between other human countries. The entire world then is already in a sad state because poisonuous plants are growing everywhere, slowly killing off human settlements.
Great movie overall, I personally liked it better than Mononoke Hime.
You can find more info here[animenfo.com]
the demand for anime and the community has grown exponetionally lately. the success of Spirited away in getting a wider audience (btw everybody who I've shown it to loved it) I believe that it is only a matter of time before more and more anime makes it into American theatres.
I can see them redubbing English voices, but if they get rid of the little-girl-singing-compelling-lyrics* songs, I'll refuse to see it.
*compelling lyrics: "La, la la-la la la la. La, la la-la la. / La, la la-la la la la. La-la la-la la la la."
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
I'm a definite geek but I don't understand why intelligent people are interested in crap cartoons intended for little kids.
Perhaps the film is not amazing enough to warrant a double check?
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
-Tom
It's a shame that it hasn't made it over here yet legitimately, though you can buy a bootleg DVD set of this and a bunch of other Studio Ghibli films (that's the publisher) in a few places online.
Nausicaa.net seems to be succumbing to slashdotting, but here's the first bit of a plot synopsis - warning, the full summary does contain spoilers.
It has been a millennium since a global war known as the "Seven Days of Fire" destroyed human civilization. Only a tiny remnant of humanity survives, huddled in small enclaves across the continents. The Fukai, a thick jungle whose spores and plantlife are poisonous to humans, covers much of the Earth's surface.
Feeding on the pollutants of the former human civilization, the Fukai continues to expand, enveloping the outposts of mankind and consuming them. Giant mutated insects are now the dominant form of life, living both in and above the Fukai. Of these, the Ohmu reign supreme - seventy-meter long pillbug-shaped guardians of the Fukai.
One of these islands of humanity is known as the Valley of the Wind. Protected from the spores by strong winds from the sea, these winds also power a forest of windmills to perform work and pump water from underground wells. Nonetheless, the inhabitants of the Valley must still be vigilant to ensure that the fungi do not gain a foothold amongst their crops and water supply.
...It's very very mature. As the story goes, Porco was an Italian pilot in WWI, and the sole survivor of a dogfight. As some form of self-punishment for living while all his comrades did not, he was transformed into the likeness of a pig.
This one is by far my favorite Miyazaki flick, partly because the emotion is so powerful, and because the story is less fantasy than for example Nausicaa, transforming into a pig notwithstanding. It's just a wonderful movie.
More news on all the Miyazaki releases can be found here: http://www.miyazakimovies.co.uk
Man, I would give anything to see the manga of Nausicaa brought to the screen. Maybe we could petition Peter Jackson to do it once he's done his remake of King Kong? Given his work with LOTR, Peter Jackson's the only person I'd trust to make it and not f--- it up.
The music in the Anime is fantastic, but the storyline is unfortunatly disappointly watered down from the manga.
While I applaud the news of more of Miyazaki's work finding appreciation in the western world, the Nausicaa film is a pale shadow compared to the original manga.
The original manga was much longer, and investigated many more of the ecological and sociopolitical issues that Miyazaki setup in his wonderfully interesting post eco-disaster future. If you find the Nausicaa film interesting, by all means check out the manga, Viz comics publishes very high quality translated editions.(Note: I don't know Japanese so I can only speculate on the quality of the manga translation, but Viz generally does a good job)
...is truly a crime. Beats the pants off of almost anything Walt Disney ever did.
Now, I only pray that they release the DVDs with the original Japanese soundtrack and subtitles.
Goddamit, I will not rest until there is a classicly trained adult cinema actor named "Penus Torvaldis"! And he has to have a trained penis bird, obviously.
I hope disney does a wide theatre release for it a few days after it goes on sale to DVD like they did with Spirited Away. That was swell.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
Based on a pre-existing fan-produced translation, I produced my own... if people are at all interested in reading it. I also talk about various translation issues I dealt with (or didn't deal with) in my "Notes and Reflections" page.
The hardest parts, for me, had less to do with cultural differences, but with linguistic differences where a Japanese expression was extremely compact and difficult to express in English, given the time constraint (one could argue that this is due to a cultural difference). One of my goals was to try and come up with something that could potentially be used for dubbing.
Of course, the opposite problem, where the Japanese phrase is longer, is not an issue, because it's always easy to make something more wordy.
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
-Tom
(Yes, I do actually love anime)
Here we see the strange lifeform known only as the Anime Troll, a fairly common sight in this area of Slashdot. A creature filling an odd niche in the world, they spend their time making rude comments, false accusations, and attempting to connect all anime to child pornography.
Now as you may have guessed, he can be a fiesty critter, but distract him for a moment with some old Sailor Moon tapes, and you can get close enough to observe his strange habits!
With a close inspection, we can see how this odd little creature interacts with the other trolls in the area, combining their "mad skillz" to annoy passerby much more effectively. Lurking in the backgrounds until a discussion begins, they can suddenly leap out and begin spouting rubbish en masse at any moment!
Sadly, though, such is the extent of their lives, otherwise being consigned to a pitful existence and...Wha? Give that back, you little bastard! One of them has stolen the keyboa.....^*&($^*&7HAhA fp!11 j00 all sux0rs!!!!!!!!!!111111 anim3 is for g33ks j00 stopid n3rds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A picture worths a thousand words
i've been following Miyazaki's works, but in another language, so "Nausicaa" is totally new to me. however as soon as i see those images in google, all my memories are back on the "Valley of the Wind"
or Miyazaki to do LOTR - Anime :)
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa) is my favorite Miyazaki animated film. It is based off the identically-named comics, also done by Miyazaki.
It is probably Hayao's most "adult" work. It explores themes such as science without a conscience, the absurdity of war, and the relationships we have with our planet.
This film was released in the US and Europe in the 80s, but it was edited senseless by the licensee, which made Miyazaki mad. The title was changed to "Warriors of the wind" and every single meaningful scene was cut, turning the whole thing in a bad and violent action animated flick. Do NOT see it, for the sake of the original work.
The rights that the licensee has on the film are to expire next year, which is why Miyazaki will re-release it.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Not only do many people have trouble reading fast enough, some people (a great number of them) have trouble because of dyslexia.
On the other hand, it's not so much that the dubs are bad as it is that often the Japanese voice actors use unnatural voices for the characters. Almost all young/teen girl voices are done this way. You look at some of these "the making of..." specials and you watch this little girl voice come out of a twenty something Japanese voice actress....it's weird.
English dubbing voice actors/actresses don't do this, of course. So those of use who are used to the unnatural voices of the anime characters get completely discombobulated by the difference in voice pitch.
Though it must be said, also, that Disney was one of the first ones to have done it - witness Snow White's voice - though I think the voice actress for Snow White didn't force it too much - her voice was already pretty high and girly.
Whether a dubbed anime will work depends also largely on the type of anime and how the characters are designed. With more serious or "adult" animes, dubbed voices actually work fine. I think that Cowboy Bebop dubbed was pretty good because of this. Of course, if you have "cute" looking girls in the anime, and then this deep western woman's voice come out, it's natural to think it's mismatched.
In Princess Mononoke, for example, Minnie Driver's rendition of Lady Eboshi's voice was a good match for the character.
Man, and I had thought that "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your privates" was the worst curse ever.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..
hahahahahah..
dude.. I just blew coffee all over my monitor reading that..
hahaha..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
ewww, ewww, ewwwwwwww!
MoFoQ stops poking SCO with his pitchfork and starts jabbing dubs.
Though the Natalie Portman portion is making it less heinous. Hell....I'd rather see Natalie fully clothed in a big bulky winter coat than watch dubs.
That is exactly right. According to Nausicaa.net, it was originally "a movie which tired businessmen on international flights can enjoy even with their minds dulled due to lack of oxygen."
I've shown this to a lot of people, and I have yet to see a little kid make it thru the movie, but they LOVE Totoro, Kiki, and Spirited Away. Nausicaa, Laputa, and especially Porco Rosso are NOT kids movies. I imported the Japanese DVDs, which I watch in Japanese (usually with subtitles), unless there is a kid around, then they also have an okay English Dub. Kids get bored of Porco Rosso from about 50 minutes until 70 minutes in. Most times I've watched the movie, friends were getting up off our couch cheering for Porco and the pirates as they fight at the end of the movie!
But, I have trouble getting people to Porco Rosso. Because it is a Cartoon, therefore it must be a kids movie. Or if it is a cartoon and it is not a kids movie, it must be hentai (pornographic cartoons).
*sigh*
Porco Rosso is my favorite Miyazake Movie. And fortunately I have it on DVD wheather or not Disney ever bothers to release it here. I wonder if they will also pick up Whisper of the Heart, Memories of Poroporo and Pon Poko? The last two definitely are not kid's movies.
Sure, Nausicaa's got a nice story (as nice as "Laputa: Castle In the Sky" even) but still, my favorite Miyazaki movie is "The Cat Returns". I'm a sucker for a bunch of animated cats and girls in school outfits, I guess...
Meet Penis Torvalds!
So, it's kinda annoying to me when I hafta wait ages for them to re-record English voices over awesome Japanese dialogue (Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, and Grave of the Fireflies, for example) when they could slap it on a Region 1 DVD and I could have it at the same time as everybody in the Far East. But I'm not bitter.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
It's all about the panty-shots.
Kiki's Delivery service too. It's like a wierd Japanese Hentai Pr0n site.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Can you really say she hasn't done a good job?
On the other hand, it's not so much that the dubs are bad as it is that often the Japanese voice actors use unnatural voices for the characters. Almost all young/teen girl voices are done this way.
Perhaps, but let me ask you, for how long have you lived in Japan to judge (I haven't)? How did you like Chihiro's voice acting?
Obviously I think dubs suck, just because they hide the original work.
Hayao Miyazaki it's one of the greatest animators in cinema history. His films are highly praised wherever they're shown/sold.
Why haven't those in the USA heard mcuh of him? Because his films had not legally been distributed in the US, due to the fact that, the first time an American company got the rights to distribute one of those films (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), it was totally mangled and destroyed to some piece of crap known as "Warriors of the Wind" (heck, even the poster for that was wrong, featuring characters straight out of Marketing's mind).
Some 8 years ago, Disney acquired the distribution rights to Miyazaki's (and all previous Studio Ghibli's) films. Which is why American audiences have gotten more exposure to them.
Commercially available titles in the US are:
- Princess Mononoke
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- Castle in the Sky
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Spirited Away
with the first and the last being shown in theaters, and "Spirited Away" obtaining the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Now, Disney being as it is, their marketing for these films has been TERRIBLE, which is why lots of people hasn't heard about them, not even now they're commercialy available.
These films are different to any "anime" clasification you may have seen... They don't fit in highschool girls categories, nor in giant robot anime, nor in *mon categories.... none of that. (Miyazaki has said that anime shouldn't be categorized, and that each work, be they TV series, direct to video o theatrical films, should create its own category).
Give these titles a chance. They're FANTASTIC.
Regarding "Porco Rosso". Yes, originally it was intended as an action-comedy film to be shown in Japan Airlines flights, but the perspective and the project grew, and it became the box-office sensation in Japan in 1992.
"Nausiaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984) is, in my opinion, the best Miyazaki film.
Chibi-1 out-
I'm a Miyazaki fan (loved Laputa, Nausicaa, Castle Cagliostro, etc. I even suffered through all the pseudomoralistic ramblings of Princess Mononoke, to the end.)
But Poro Rosso is just junk. Sorry. It's 94 minutes of... well, nothing. It's the miyazaki equivalent of "Manos: the hands of fate". Avoid if possible.
Steve Bartman, age 26, works at Hewitt Associates, an international consulting firm in Lincolnshire.
Share your thoughts with Steve Bartman: Steve Bartman (steve.bartman@hewitt.com)
A movie made for business flights, as I remember. Which implies it was made for adults.
(Somebody already made the inevitable joke about Picard being stabbed by a Nausicaan, so don't bother.)
Wow, how much of a nerd do you have to be to pull that one off?
I just blew my wad when he said "Sailor moon".
...hot grits!
fine, mod this down. i, for one welcome...
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
please, let's not continue to subsidize disney's sabotage of miyazaki's work.
figure out region 2 and score the original here: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/
Porco Rosso is one heck of a great film. It's a love story with a little magic, a lot of adventure, some comedy, and one of the best fist fighting scenes of any movie, bar none. The colors and artwork are top notch.
I don't know how I would like the dub, though. I don't speak Japanese, but to me it sounds like they speak Japanese with a French accent in this film, and I find that combination really unusual and entertaining.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
best voices of star wars and star trek.
kick ass
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
My perception is somewhat different. I believe that both subtitles and dubbing distort a film from the original, each in its own way. I find that each distortion gives me a slightly different view into the essence of the original film, and that combining both is more satisfying that having to choose one or the other. If you don't agree that subtitles are a distortion of the original film, consider the following:
Certainly none of these things are fatal flaws or anything, but I do hope that you agree that a subtitled movie is not quite the pristine original that some people make it out to be. Sure, the original actors' voices are there, and it's a joy to be able to hear them, but without being able to understand the original language as it flows from their lips, the result is somehow slightly diminished.
Which brings me to dubbing ("...and speaking of diminished..." :-) ). A dub is a very curious thing. It too has its own set of problems that can distort or even destroy a film. It also has its own set of strengths that can greatly improve a film for a non-native speaker, but only if done well (which is not easy). Let's start with just two distortions:
..wayne..
Well, I'm an American, and I like subbed Japanese movies. However, even if I didn't, I don't understand how that would make me racist: perhaps some people simply prefer hearing the dialogue (however interpreted) rather than reading it.
FWIW, I don't read Plato in Greek or Virgil in Latin, so I perfectly understand the desire not to hear the dialogue in Japanese, even in the presence of subtitles.
[ home ]
Inevitably, they saved the best for last. I cannot wait to replace my Japansese-language with Chinese-subtitles VCD version with and English-subtitled DVD version.
[ home ]
Dubbed movies suck. Dubbed Disney movies suck worse. They butchered Mononoke Hime. Billy Bob wife beater butt fucker was so distracting that it ditracted from the movie. Basically if you don't have the attention span to read the subtitles you should have your lower two ribs removed so you can blow yourself.
Mucho grande.
Ive recently become re-interested in Anime. Some time ago, i bought Akira and loved it... so much that i tried a few serials(series) that didnt do much for me. I tried a couple 'vampire-hunter' Animes that didnt do much.
I recently watched Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Cowboy Bebop. First Two EXCELLENT, latter very-good in a different way -- I know that i hadnt given Anime the interest/time it was due.
A question for slashdotters: What next?
I loved Akira (and apocolypse-scenario-stories), loved the drama/mythology/whimsy of S.A. && P.A., and liked the Adventure "pulp-fiction" elements of C.B. (though, C.B. was my least favorite of the bunch).
Help me out, what next?
That will be a pity for porco rosso, the subtitles were fantastic.
I watched some of spirited away with the english dubbing - awful. I think they really miss-read and miss-translated much of the culturally-specific nuances in the text. Dumbed and toned down too much too.
So i went back to the subtitles - much much better.
Miyazaki stated his inspiration for the story was to create a film that businessmen could relax to while on a flight - a film that wouldn't require too much thought to follow. It's a simple, enjoyable tale.
Nausicaa is another fantastic film. Though, if you have the chance, read the manga as well - there's a lot more in there than the film can deal with. In the manga edition I have, there are 6 books. The film only covers the first book.
"Jesus saves, but everyone else in a 10 foot radius takes full damage from the fireball."
As for the animated version, it is very good because the story adheres to original script (manga). It stood the test of time--consider it came out almost 20 years ago.
Highly recommended.
Some pictures.
And you may just learn a little something -- about yourself.
http://www.remix.net/
I'm feeling Nausicaa.. Can someone show me to the bathroom?
Castle in the Sky and Castle of Cagliostro. These movies are both pre Ghibli and two of my favorites.
I would say that Miyazaki is the animation version of Akira Kurosawa.
Unmatched depth and message has always been part of the Miyazaki story. For those who wish to know more, start with Castle in the Sky.
BTW, Nausicaa is also known as "Valley of the Wind"
For those of you from UC Berkeley and/or interested, I will be conducting a Nausicaa manga decal next semester. Also, Nausicaa is playing, among other things, at the PFA Anime showing, part of the IEAS East Asia at Berkeley program on 35mm film, which is likely the highest quality copy you'll ever see!
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TSIA.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
"Princess Nine"
My japanese is not the greatest, but still, the dubs for the Disney release of 'sen to chihiro no kamikakushi' sucked. I got it because it was half the price of the real thing, but now I wish I had gotten the other edition because the dubs are that much crap, polluting my precious dvd player. I started throwing things at the screen, stopped it 10 minutes in, and turned off the english subtitles. Yokatta.
The explanation is readily found in the interview with the husband&wife translator team. They made the point of saying that they were designing the english dialogue to be similar, but from an American perspective. So they whacked the dialogue, slaughtered the emotional weight, and dumbed it down.
Save your republic dactaris and get the real thing. www.kinokuniya.com or any number of anime websites. And as for Star trek, poor picard only got stabbed. Kirk got screwed...
The DVD for Nausicaa is coming out in Japan on Nov. 19th; usually the Ghibli DVDs have at least (good quality) English subtitles. Although they are a bit pricy (~5000 yen, something like 45 USD) and zone 2, this is a good news for importers I guess. Also note that the Porco Rosso DVD has been out for a while and features not only English content, but also the *excellent* French dub (starring Jean Reno as Porco Rosso!) This is the movie that made Miyazaki famous in France and his other movies well distributed and correctly dubbed.
I think they did that to trade on the publicity from its Oscar win -- it probably won't happen for Nausicaa.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
There are a handful of other films, the titles of which I cannot pronunce.
One is about a woman in her late twenties who taks the summer off to work on an organic saffron flower farm, where she falls in love. Another is a forty minute movie about a highschool boy, also falling in love, (with one of those pretty girls who trouble seems to gravitate to.) Another is a long and quite brilliant series about a bunch of magical racoon-type creatures who are trying to save their woodland habitat from urban crawl. I don't know what Miyazaki's involvement on these projects was, and they have a somewhat more experimental feel to them, but they are all gems, and the animation in the animal one is miles ahead of most anime.
Also look for the half dozen 'Sherlock Hound' and the three 'Lupin IIIrd' episodes Miyazaki directed. All of them are thoroughly amazing.
Happy hunting!
-FL
Porco Rosso has been available as legal region-0 disc with optional english subtitles for YEARS now.
Who cares about dubbing anyway? They're Japanese movies, so naturally the language is/must be Japanese.
There's been one that was actually only shown once, as far as I know, probably on BBC.
"Laputa" is yet another Myazaki movie that seems to have been massively undermarketed by Buena Vista.
Since Buena Vista bought the rights or license to distribute Myazaki's movies they have made a real effort of not actively marketing them, advertizing for them, and kept those great anime flicks mostly undercover for the most part. I bet it came to no surprise to even them that "Spirited Away" was a great hit, so that they were forced to react with more advertizement for the soon after that released DVD.
Actually, I've never seen them actually marketing one of these movies until Spirited Away was such a success despite of nobody having heard of it before in several countries where it was shown. I guess they have their reasons, but the most prominent of those must be the greed of other companies such as Disney.
Now, where can you find that absolutely perfect british dub of Laputa, today?
Some fans have recordings on video tapes I guess. But you can't buy it anywhere. Not that I'm a fan of dubs - especially the anime dubs made in Germany after the eighties suffered a lot from the "it's kids stuff so we don't need to put effort or money into it" approach of dub studios. What you can see on TV here today is quite the horrors when you have heard the orignal voices before.
They do do it all perfectly in Japan.
Leopard cub
I have one word for people who want a legal, uncut version of all these movies: http://www.amazon.co.jp/ They ship to the US and all you need is a region-free DVD player. *wink, wink*
In a live acton film with real actors and a camera
the actors can speek. But those drawn with pen and
ink characters don't speek and need voice actors.
So it's not like you dubbed over something. What
Disny does is to make an other track in english.