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Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" Dub Updates 278

Posted by CmdrTaco from the glad-to-hear-it dept.
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.
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Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" Dub Updates More

Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" Dub Updates

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  • What else can you call it when you get to mention Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, and Patrick Stewart in the same posting.
  • The Nausicaa web site doesn't explain very much, and I'm not about to wade through mailinglist archives either.
  • Miyazaki is the guy who did the following very well known movies:
    Spirited Away
    Princess Mononoke
    Kiki's Delivery Service
    My Neighbor Totoro
    • For those of you who don't know, Porco Russo is about a pilot during WWI who survived a big attack and was somehow turned into an anthropomorphic pig. It is very good. Probably my second favorite Ghibli film (best is Whispers of the Heart).
    • 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"
  • 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?
    • I can only imagine that it will eventually hit DVD. And yes, it is Disney doing the dub, they have all distribution rights for Studio Ghibli films in North America. Have a look on the Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke dvd cases, and I'd wager there's a Disney logo on there somewhere.
    • Yes, it's all coming out on DVD. Disney got a distribution deal for Japan & North America (I don't know if they have it Worldwide) for all of Ghibli's back catalog. They released Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service earlier this year. Now we just need to know what the 3rd movie will be. They seem to like releasing them in groups of 3.
      • Now we just need to know what the 3rd movie will be. They seem to like releasing them in groups of 3.

        Whisper of the Heart is the third movie, but it's being held up while Disney negotiates the copyright of a "certain song".

        • Plus, how the heck are they going to handle the song translations in the dub?
          • Princess Mononoke's dub has one song that is translated into English, which is probably the biggest thing that bothered my about the dubbing. In Spirited Away they didn't dub the ending song and posted a translation instead. I think the Mononoke dubbing is pretty decent with minor details changed and a few vulgarities inserted (Jigo says "This tastes like donkey piss" instead of "This tastes like hot water" or something like that).
        • I thought Concrete Road [nausicaa.net] was owned by Ghibli and thus part of the Disney deal ;-p
  • 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."
    • Given the dubs and DVD releases of the rest of Miyazaki's films, I doubt very much that they will be changing much of anything. The music, which is oh so very important to the story, will remain the same (so says *I*).

      • You didn't hear their dub track for Castly in the Sky, then. They left the Japanese language track alone, but felt the need to spice things up in the English version. The most glaring example is when Pazu starts playing the trumpet in the morning. In the Japanese track, it's just a nice trumpet solo as though he's playing a song to wake up the neighborhood. In the English dub, Disney decided that wasn't good enough and turned the whole thing into an orchestral piece, albeit with a strong trumpet line.

        • In the English dub, Disney decided that wasn't good enough and turned the whole thing into an orchestral piece, albeit with a strong trumpet line.

          It was actually Joe Hisaishi himself who re-did the entire score for "Castle in the Sky" - making it orchestral rather than synthesized for the dub. He wanted to make it more "american".

        • Castle in the Sky, but yeah. Of course, I didn't spend much time listening to the dub track. (Even the subtitling could've been done a lot better.) Though the few seconds with that dumbass from Pixar (before I skipped) at the beginning was the most painful bit.

          I guess Disney wasn't quite as bad as whoever made "Warriors of the Wind", but none of the anime distro companies I know of would have done such a lame job.
          • I guess Disney wasn't quite as bad as whoever made "Warriors of the Wind", but none of the anime distro companies I know of would have done such a lame job.

            Perhaps. Perhaps not. But neither Bandai, ADV or Pioneer/Geneon can afford to license Ghibli movies anymore. Disney is the only one big enough to bring these films stateside, so we'll just have to be grateful we're getting anamorphic, progressive R1 discs with subs and dubs - all at reasonable rates.

          • that dumbass from Pixar

            That, sir, would be John Lasseter. A personal friend of Hayao Miyazaki and an animation pioneer in his own right -- in both the technical and artistic aspects of the trade.

            He is the creative direction beind Pixar's incredibly successful films, and so he pulls considerable weight at Disney. His influence is the only reason the Ghibli films have not been butchered far, far more than they already have been.

            ---
            Dum de dum.
        • Ha! I did notice that, but just assumed that my memory was going. I'll have to pay more attention next time.
    • mod parent up. even though i'm probably the only other person that will get that joke.
  • I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime. Now, the vast majority of SERIOUS anime fans (myself included) HATE dubs, and refuse to collect anything but sub-titled anime. I wonder why they refuse to sub-title the good stuff, especially Porco Rosso, which is quite an excellent movie. Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the st
    • I agree, dubs are evil. However, they appeal to the audience that Disney (*not* Studio Ghibli) is targeting, i.e. younger people who cannot/do not want to read fast enought to enjoy the film. For purists like myself, all of the Ghibli DVDs yet released include the Japanese language tracks, along with subtitles.

      If you are looking for a theatrical release of the subtitled movie, that is unlikely to happen. However, if you are looking for a legitimate replacement for your fan-subs, Disney/Mirimax/whoever
    • The nice thing about the DVD versions is that you have your choice: a clearly subtitled version and an excellent dub. So you can watch it in Japanese with your snobbish fan friends, and still show it to your more "normal" friends who wouldn't sit still for a subtitled cartoon in a foreign languange. Personally, I enjoy both--it's nice to see how talented English speaking actors reinterpret a brilliant Japanese anime, like listening to a cover of an old favorite song by a great band.
      • "So you can watch it in Japanese with your snobbish fan friends, and still show it to your more "normal" friends who wouldn't sit still for a subtitled cartoon in a foreign languange."

        Oh you little troll you. Your point would have been a good one if it had not been entirely invalidated by your trollish remark. There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for

        • There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for it to be viewed

          No, it is not snobbish to merely prefer to watch something in the original language. A snobbish attitude would be something along the lines of "I just can't bear to watch in in its dubbed format--it utterly ruins it for me. Anybody who would watch a dubbed version would have to somebody with a sh

          • "A snobbish attitude would be something along the lines of "I just can't bear to watch in in its dubbed format--it utterly ruins it for me. Anybody who would watch a dubbed version would have to somebody with a short attention span.""

            Well, since I never said I can't bear to watch dubbed stuff, I don't really know how to respond to this. I wonder if when they release a dubbed version of anime in america their primary audience is the existing anime fans, or instead new potential fans. Note my use of the wo

        • There is nothing about preferring subbing that makes one snobbish, nor is someone "normal" because they don't have the patience to watch something in its original format as the creator intended for it to be viewed.

          Heck, it's not necessarily even an issue of artistic purity. I find that the original Japanese voice acting is usually higher quality than the dubs. I'm not sure exactly why, but I suspect that the way that the dubbing takes place has something to do with it. As I understand it, most American

    • 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 a
    • Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the states, and have it be wildly successful to show that people really do enjoy the subs.

      You mean ... like they did with "Princess Mononoke," "Spirited Away," "Laputa," and "Kiki's Delivery Service?" If you're going to knock the quality of subtitled releases, the Studio Ghibli releases in the US are the wrong place to start complaining.

      And in any case, the dubs of those movies have generally been of very high quality as well, f

    • I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime. Now, the vast majority of SERIOUS anime fans (myself included) HATE dubs, and refuse to collect anything but sub-titled anime. I wonder why they refuse to sub-title the good stuff, especially Porco Rosso, which is quite an excellent movie. Just once I'd love for them to do a good sub-titling job, and release it in the sta

      • I've only seen Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, but I think the voicecasting has been pretty good. Chihiro's parents sound rather different, but they are minor characters anyway. The Japanese Kamaji has a much raspier voice than the English one. And Jigo in Princess Mononoke is not quite the same. But Billy Crudup as Ashitaka was a really good choice.
    • "I've never understood why all of the normal foreign films, like all the french ones, are sub-titled, and people here love it, yet for some reason they always insist on dubbing the anime."

      There's a very simple reason: English and French are similar languages, at least in comparison to English and Japanese. Sentences are roughly the same length bewteen English and French, but in Japanese, the difference is pretty wild. Simply put, there are situations where subtitling a Japenese movie in English isn't i
    • My take on it, is that americans are racist when it comes to translating asian films. I always found it funny, like you note, that they subtitle european films, but dub anime (or even like action). To me, it shows a lot of disrespect towards the cultures/languages (i think a lot is lost when you remove the emotional impact of the native language).
      • 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.
      • I think that it is so unnatural to see 30 fps video where the voiceover doesn't match the mouths, while at 15 fps you can't really tell the difference. My brain always hurts when watching a dub of live action like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but I can't tell the difference for Anime.

    • Dubs outsell subtitled versions on VHS like 10:1. There's a lot of people who like them.

      What annoys me is the poor quality of the voice actors and sound mixing. Disney at least puts some effort into getting people who can act and makes a damned good effort at sound mixing.

      Compare that to Pioneer Entertainment which

      • hires the wrong voice actors
      • makes little effort at emotionally matching the characters
      • records the voices "hot" (recording levels right at the hot line so the level will actually peak out
    • Well... In the case of Miyazakis movies it's actually motivated.
      They are mostly movies that can be appreciated by the whole family, just like Disneys.
      If you are going to watch a movie with your 10 year old brother/sister or your child, they would get very little enjoyment from it if it was subtitled.

      That said, I always try to find a theatre that's showing the original dub when I'm going to the movies myself, and I choose the original dub when watching dvd...
      I was really glad that when Spirited away went up

  • Porco Rosso Isn't Technically a Kid's Flick..... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TomHandy ( 578620 ) <tomhandy AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @05:43PM (#7234070)
    Just to clarify something based on your comment.... although many Miyazaki movies are made for kids (although even those are generally complex enough to be enjoyable for adults).... Porco Rosso is actually one of them that probably isn't...... it was a movie that Miyazaki specifically made to be shown as in-flight entertainment on airplanes. Still a great flick though.

    -Tom

  • I've seen a subtitled version of this, and it strikes me as a much better film than Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away (which have higher name recognition in North America), all written by Miyazaki.

    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 fu [nausicaa.net]

    • Actuially, it was released in the USA. As a travesty called "Warriors Of The Wind". And even though it was horribly hacked and mangled, it was still a good movie.
    • I have to say that I didn't enjoy Nausicaa as much as I'd like, though I do think it's more powerful than Princess Mononoke. The reason that I didn't enjoy it so much was because I had read the manga, which is a whole lot better. The story makes more sense and is more complete. It's really the same problem that Akira had - the anime movie came out in the middle of the manga story, and the manga story is so huge that they had to modify it for a feature length film, and the story suffers a great deal becau
      • The situation with the book being gutted to make a movie is very similar to something like Dune or Contact. I'm sure, with a little work, you could draw a few more parallels...
      • The manga of Nausicaa and the movie developed at about the same time. The movie only covers the first volume or so of the manga, as that is all that had been released when Miyazaki made the film.

        Also, while I enjoyed the manga greatly, there are definite differences from one part or volume to the next, where Miyazaki's changing philosophy can be seen. The manga as a whole took something like ten years for him to complete, with long gaps between creative episodes.

        The movie should not be seen as a red

  • I did a translation (Score:3, Informative)

    by DeadVulcan ( 182139 ) <dead,vulcan&pobox,com> on Thursday October 16, 2003 @05:55PM (#7234189)

    Based on a pre-existing fan-produced translation, I produced my own [pobox.com]... 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.

  • I love anime. I've tried watching English-dubbed anime, and in my opinion it just doesn't work. One of the aspects that makes it anime is the JAPANESE, not Billy Bob Thornton speaking the lines of a Buddhist monk!

    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 i

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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), lov
    • Well, seeing as though you loved Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke, you might want to watch some other Miyazaki/Ghibli titles. Whisper of the Heart and I Can Hear the Sea are two of my favorites, but these are much more introspective than the two you listed. Wings of Honneamise is also a great film, by Gainax.

      Anime TV series aren't usually as well done as theatrical releases, just due to time constraints. That said, my favorite series are Saishuu Heiki Kanojo (Often abbreviated to Saikano), and Hikaru

  • Porco Rosso not just a "kids flick" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by extrarice ( 212683 ) on Thursday October 16, 2003 @09:04PM (#7235826) Homepage Journal
    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.


  • I'm feeling Nausicaa.. Can someone show me to the bathroom?

  • For those of you from UC Berkeley and/or interested, I will be conducting a Nausicaa manga decal [bookworlds.org] next semester. Also, Nausicaa is playing, among other things, at the PFA Anime showing, part of the IEAS East Asia at Berkeley program [berkeley.edu] on 35mm film, which is likely the highest quality copy you'll ever see!
  • They're probably going to be pirate disks, and the subtitling was done poorly. (Pirates can't be expected to have 'good english', I suppose.)

    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

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