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Kiki's Delivery Service DVD (Hyb)
Mojo Shojo - Jan 15 2003 Rating: Wonderful! Yeah!!! I love Kiki! It's about time this came out on dvd, in hybrid format, no less! I was about to spend $40 and get the Japanese version! Lavonna J. Erickson - Jan 17 2003 monna1978@hotmail.com Rating: Wonderful! Breathtaking and Inspiring I own this on VHS, it is wonderful. Full of courage and beleiving in oneself. I enjoy watching it over and over again. Good for all ages. Jon F. Turner - Apr 16 2003 JonT1982@AOL.com Rating: Wonderful! Great transfer, excellent audio and extras -- one delightful package! Well, it's finally here. The first ever US release of KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE on DVD. I won't go into detail about the film's plot here (I've already covered that in the VHS tape section), so I will instead focus on the DVD itself. First off, we'll start out with the visual quality. Given that I was so impressed with Disney's transfer of PRINCESS MONONOKE, I expected nothing less than similar excellence for the rest of his films. These expectations are almost completely fulfilled. Simply put, this is a beautiful, clear, pristine transfer which (pardon the pun) feels as though it could come straight out of a baker's oven... for the most part. There are some instances, however, when the video quality suffers from minor compressoin artifiacts — mostly in the darker scenes. These were not so noticeable on CASTLE IN THE SKY or even on SPIRITED AWAY, but they're really obvious on this transfer. Nevertheless, this is the one flaw in an otherwise superb visual presentation. In addition, on the Japanese language track, the credits and titles are identical to those on the original un–dubbed print ala PRINCESS MONONOKE. Although there is at least one oddity on the visuals on the English track, though. For some reason, the "Please Ring For Service" sign was changed for the first VHS release, but here on the dubbed print it still exists. The only other things in English (aside from the credits) are the sign at the bakery and her ending letter. This oddity and the compression artifacts make this the weakest of Disney's Miyazaki DVD transfers, but the goods it still manages to deliver more than make up for the minor flaws. The audio quality is equally excellent. Although the English dub is the only track in 5.1, the other track I spotchecked (the Japanese track) sounded awful darn good to me. However, there is one minor complaint that I have — in the English dub, just before the closing credits for the English cast roll (after Kiki's letter), the music just fades out. That seems like a shame considering I loved that bouncy end title song! Oh, well. The same thing actually occured in the Japanese R2 release (from reports that I've read), so I guess I cannot complain much. Actually, there is little to complain about in this department overall, for the audio has been once again excellently mixed, and far superior to watching a VHS tape. I only spotchecked the Japanese language track, but it was definitely different from the Disney dub (mostly in terms of the music and ad-libs from Phil Hartman as Jiji), but what I heard sounded solidly mixed. Plus, the original songs by Yumi Arai are included for the purists, so you can't go wrong there. Too bad you can't switch the audio, however. The movie was originally dubbed into English by Carl Macek of Streamline Pictures, but Disney redubbed the movie for its initial release with an all-star cast that did a truly excellent job with their roles. Thirteen-year-old Kirsten Dunst is perfect as Kiki, eliciting just the right touch of cuteness, spunkiness, independence, and poignancy to her role. The other actors, which include Debbie Reynolds (Madame), Tress MacNeille - of TINY TOONS and ANIMANIACS fame - (Osono), Jeanane Garofolo (Ursula), and Matthew Lawrence (Tombo), give similarly superb performances. Of the actors, however, it is the late Phil Hartman's witty, sarcastic take on Jiji that steals the show. He added in some new dialogue and proved to be so good at his role that he actually expanded the character. This caused naysaying from some purists, but it is hard to deny that Hartman's lines are hammy and howlingly funny. I swear, I just cannot get enough laughs every time I hear his lines. ("First, don't panic! Second, don't panic! And THIRD, did I mention not to panic?!?") The opening and ending songs were replaced by two gorgeous, rollicking numbers from Sydney Forest, but even they seem to suit the story wonderfully. In fact, I find myself bouncing to them every time they pop up over the opening and closing credits of the show. I haven't listened to the Spanish Language Track yet, so I cannot comment on it. The packaging gives wonderful mention of Miyazaki on the front and back covers, although the pamphlet inside doesn't contain any notes from the master (unlike SPIRITED AWAY), but it's still gorgeous. There are a few ups and downs in the menus department. First off, the menus are full-motion and beautiful, and the frontloaded trailers of CASTLE IN THE SKY and SPIRITED AWAY are easy to skip. Each option is transitioned by cuts of reaction shots to Kiki flying, which is great for a while, but gets old fast. Fans will have to (literally) dig their way through the Audio setup to find the English literal subtitles, but it's there. There's been a lot of speculation that the subtitles are inaccurate; this is because Macek's original dubbed script was sent to Disney by Tokuma, who thought they had a good translation. However, these matters are only trifle to the pickiest of purists. Which leads us into the more disappointing asepects of the menus. You cannot change the audio while you watch the film, but even worse, THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE THE SUBTITLES WHILE YOU WATCH. Absolutely none! You've got to select the subtitles on the menu for either dub. This is truly a stinker for people who like to watch English dubs with the subtitled script for comparison. Nevertheless, it is a major flaw in what are otherwise decent menu selections. Disney's first Ghibli US DVD release, PRINCESS MONONOKE, suffered from a lack of extras, but here they've more than made up for it. Not as lengthy as the ones on SPIRITED AWAY, yet approximately on the same level as those in CASTLE IN THE SKY. First off, we've got a 50-second introduction from John Lasseter (the guy who directed TOY STORY and several PIXAR films, and was the supervisor for the English dub of SPIRITED AWAY) that isn't terribly informative about the film's background (and reveals some spoilers!), but charming nevertheless. (It's also great to see shots of him and his pal, Miyazaki!) Then, we have probably my absolute favorite of the extras, the "Behind-The-Microphone" featurette, a five-minute long documentary which features interviews from Kirsten Dunst, the late Phil Hartman, Matthew Lawrence, and Jeananne Garofolo. As another bonus in this feature, we get to see producer Toshio Suzuki nod in approval of Dunst's performance as Kiki. Following that are ten minutes of Japanese trailers which were used to advertise the film, all soft-subtitled. Miyazaki fans will have a blast with this one. On the second disc, there is the option of watching the movie in storyboard format (similar to CASTLE IN THE SKY). In other words, you get to see the same movie, but with storyboards in place of the finished film. The only downside? You can't switch back to the film to make comparisons. Boo! You can choose to watch it either in Japanese or English. All in all, this release isn't as flawless as SPIRITED AWAY and CASTLE IN THE SKY; nevertheless Disney still did an excellent job with this DVD release of KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. There are some shortcomings, yes, but everything else about this release literally delivers. I highly recommend it to all. say soun - Apr 27 2003 Rating: Wonderful! wonderful, but not perfect wow, i can finally replace my japanese dvd version. the only reason is because i left the dvd in my car by accident and the english version got a little messed up but the japanese is fine. anyway, after buying it and watching it, for the first time. i noticed that there is a huge flaw to this dvd. i don't know about everyone else, but i prefer to watch my animes in japanese and usually switch tracks and or audio just to compare how well the english version is translated compared to the japanese. anyway, kiki's WILL NOT let you switch tracks/audio without going to the menu and starting the movie from the beginning. this is a huge flaw to me. luckily, for kiki's at least, both tracks are excellent. as for the spanish track, i wouldn't know but my friend seems to like it. other than this minor gripe, everything else is virtually perfect. by perfect, i mean as good as it can get, considering the original came out in 1989. Shingetta S. San - May 29 2003 corgreen@coqui.net Rating: Wonderful! A COOL anime with cool voice acting. This anime (Kiki's) is something that I have never seen before, the story and storiline were very good, GREAT graphics for anime that was made in 1989, superb animation, cute character desing and funny scenes. ONE THING: NO ACTION UNTIL THE ENDING. The English track was pretty good (at least with Kiki's voice), it could be MUCH better if the voice of Dombo wasn't so mature, but anyway, for an English dub was very good. The Japanese track was awesome, all the voices were very well made but I heard better animes in japanese like 3X3 Eyes, Akira and Grave of the Fireflies. The Spanish track was great(the best for me), the dub was made in Spain and Im not used to those dubs now that Im from Puerto Rico (we heard the mexican dubs), but anyway, for a Spain dub I could say that is the best I heard, I REALLY liked the voice of Nicky (Kiki) and Dombo. Sayonara,adios, goodbye. |
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