Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I hate Joe Banks.
Oh, don't get me wrong. He's a heck of a nice guy. Main character in a deeply underrated romantic fable. Fireman. Definitely not dying. I mean, he's got some good qualities. But then again, he owns something that I am forced to covet from afar, something I think I deserve. DO YOU HEAR ME? I DESERVE IT! Now read this while I go dry my bitter tears...
Mr. Moriarty,
Just thought that there would be people out there that would like to know about a DVD collection that I recently picked up. It is a 6 DVD box set titled DVD collection Studio Ghibli/Archives of Studio Ghibli. The set seems to be an import from Hong Kong and was produced by a company called Anime Cartoon. All discs are code free and NTSC. The set contains the following:
Disc 1 - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind & Only Yesterday
Disc 2 - Whisper of the Heart & Princess Mononoke
Disc 3 - My Neighbor Totoro & Pom Poko
Disc 4 - Porco Rosso & Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Disc 5 - Grave of the Fireflies & Kiki's Delivery Service
Disc 6 - Ocean Waves (A TV movie produced by Studio Ghibli) & On Your Mark (A music Video directed by Miyazaki)
Each of the films is presented widescreen with original Japanese dialogue and offers optional subtitles in simplified chinese or english. While the transfers are not reference quality (Hong Kong imports are rarely noted for the high quality of their transfers) they certainly look better than the Japanese-import VHS copies of the films. The english subtitles are (as one would expect) a bit rusty, but they are still better than not having the option of any subtitles at all. The one truly annoying thing about this set that I've found is that the company that produced the set decided to burn their logo into the upper-left-hand corner of the screen intermittently throughout each film. It basically appears about the size of a station ID logo, and lasts for about 30 seconds every half an hour. Despite these (limited) drawbacks, this is a set that I highly recommend to anyone with a DVD player and an interest in great filmmaking. While I truly believe that Miyazaki's film need to be seen on the big screen to be truly appreciated, it looks as though Disney isn't going to let that happen anytime soon.
Because of that we have to settle for seeing them as we can, and this set is the best way that I have found to appreciate and share the joy that is the work of Studio Ghibli.
Call me,
Joe Banks
I'll call you more than that, you lucky sonofa...
Deep breaths. Count to ten.
Okay. Joe... thanks. At least now I have something to start looking for. In the meantime, I am going to build giant statue-sized voodoo dolls of the guys at Disney who have the power to release these films here in the U.S., both in theaters and on video, and I plan to let Mongo do disturbing things to those statues until someone comes to their dadblarned senses.
"Moriarty" out.
