Totoro redo!

My Neighbor Totoro (original release shown left):
This has been a favorite of mine for a few years now. It was released twice on DVD. The first time was before Disney contracted with Studio Ghibli (the home of the celebrated anime director, Hayao Miyazaki). As with a lot of anime directed at younger children, the original release was hacked to pieces and recolored, because evidently North American children are far too stupid to like a cartoon if it is letterboxed and doesn't look like a bowl of fruit loops. To put it another way, when 20th Century Fox brought the film stateside, the left and right edges of the picture were hacked off to produce a "Full Screen" version of the film, the color intensity was dramatically increased, destroying or obscuring much of the subtle detail, and "edge enhancement" was applied to the picture resulting in permanant NTSC dot crawl. About the best thing I can say for the original release was that I loved the English voice track. (The original release featured only English language).






I very nearly bought a copy of the Japanese release of the film so I could watch it as Miyazaki intended (ie. widescreen, sane color levels, Japanese language track) but I was saved from the need by a re-release from Disney (shown left.) This version had everything I could have wanted and then some. The film transfer is faithful to the original, with no added colors. It is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen preserving the original aspect ratio. The original Japanese language track is included as well as a brand new English language track recorded just for this release staring some big names like Dakota Fanning and Tim Daly. I'd just like to say to Disney: Thank you for not thinking I'm a half blind moron with no appreciation for subtlety!

For anyone who isn't familiar with Miyazaki's work, here's a quick rundown: Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese anime director with a rare gift for storytelling. For the most part his stories seem to come from the imagination of a child but are all told with the grace and subtlety of a master storyteller. Couple this with a unique artistic style and he has some of the best movies ever made to his credit. Some of my other Miyazaki favorites are Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and the Valey of the Wind, and Grave of the Fireflies.

If you've seen Totoro before, you'll probably want to give this re-release a spin to see what you missed the first time.