Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "Spirited Away" DVD: 1.85:1 or 2.00:1?

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 01-28-2003, 02:05 PM:

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has recently been announced for release on Region 1 DVD. Interestingly, the press release lists the DVD's aspect ratio as being 2.00:1. I thought that might have simply been a typo but sources at Buena Vista have checked for me and claim 2.00:1 is correct. Wasn't this projected 1.85:1 in theatres?

The audio is announced to be separate Japanese (original language) and English (dubbed) in Dolby Digital 5.1 (EX-encoded, I imagine). No DTS tracks are being included (though I think there was some discussion here some time ago about other region versions having DTS).

The street date is April 15, and Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle In The Sky are also being released (both of those announced with 1.85:1 ratios).

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 01-28-2003, 02:52 PM:

All I know was that it was projected at the Arclight in 1.85 when I saw it.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 01-28-2003, 05:21 PM:

It's definitely a 1.85 picture--all of Studio Ghibli's theatrical films have been 1.85. Don't know where BV got that 2.0 from. If they're really going to crop the image to 2.0 I'd wonder why.

As for sound, the Japanese region 2 disc has DTS-ES 6.1 and DD 5.1 (Japanese) and DD 2.0 (French) with selectable Japanese, French and English subtitles. The Japanese prints had DTS-ES and DD-EX. Apparently the US prints had DD (not sure about the EX) and no DTS.

At least the NA region 1 disc is promised to be white balanced at 6500K as opposed to the goofy 9300K of the Japanese region 2.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-28-2003, 05:27 PM:

Maybe they are going to ADD to it to make it 2:00:1. You know, like one of those DVD Special Features. [Smile]

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 03-24-2003, 09:14 PM:

The transfer people and studio marketing departments aren't communicating with each other effectively....

Recently received a copy of the disc and confirmed it is 1.85:1, not 2.00:1. BUT, it is a "windowboxed" 1.85:1 (which is not too uncommon with Japanese animation discs). I can see how that may have tripped up whoever supplied Buena Vista's press release writer with the info.

For those with conventional direct-view TVs, however, the DVD presentation will still look like 2.00:1 due to overscan.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-24-2003, 09:20 PM:

Unless you've gone into the service menus and reduced overscanning to the bare minimum... [Wink]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-16-2003, 12:09 PM:

I bought a copy of "SPIRITED AWAY" yesterday and was very impressed with what I saw. I was just checking out the special features on the disc such as the Japanese original trailers and was comparing the sound mix by watching the first half an hour of the film in both the original Japanese and Enlish. When I did that, I have noticed that the 5.1 sound mix is different. It does appear that the original Japanese EX sound mix has been retained on the Region 1 disc because I could make out sound effects from my rear speaker. The English track has these sounds come from my side surround speakers. Both the Japanese and English tracks are excellent and I was very impressed with the English dubbed track. Normally I do not like dubbed tracks and prefer the original language with subtitles. I am planning to watch the remainder of the film tonight in Japanese but will also make an effort to watch it again in English the first chance I get.

-Claude

Posted by Jacob Huber (Member # 1138) on 04-17-2003, 01:22 AM:

I ordered the region 3 DVD about 2 or so weeks ago (my DVD player is region free), before I knew that the R1 version was going to be coming out so soon. Kind of upsetting, especially considering that I ordered it from Hong Kong, and am a little paranoid about contracting SARS (spaced out on the whole HK-SARS connection when I ordered it). Has yet to arrive.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-18-2003, 03:18 PM:

I watched the remainder of "SPIRITED AWAY" last night in Japanese and I do not know if it was because I was tired and kept drifting off to sleep but from what I saw, I cannot understand why this film is so popular and won the second best Academy Award for best animated feature. I will watch it again as early as tonight in English and see if I can appreciate the film like everyone.

Personally, I was hoping "ICE AGE" was going to win the Oscar. THe other public favorite"LILO & STEECH" was another one that put me to sleep during it's theatrical showing and again whem I tried to watch it on DVD. In my very humble opinion I now feel "SPIRITED AWAY" and "LILO & STEECH" are both over hyped films. There is also a possibility that I am not enjoying these highly rated animated films is because of my age. If this was true, how is that I had enjoyed "ICE AGE" and THE LION KING"?

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 04-19-2003, 03:30 AM:

I take it all back!! After getting a good rest last night, I just watched "SPIRITED AWAY" again in English from the very beginning tonight and yes indeed, the film is a masterpiece and richly deserves all the praise and awards it has received including the Oscar. I must have been very tired because I slept through more than half of the film and no wonder I was not impressed with the film when I watched it for the fist time last night in Japanese. Now that I was entertained by "SPIRITED AWAY", I am planning to get the two other Hayao Miyazaki films "CASTLE IN THE SKY" and "KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE" which was release at the same time with "SPIRITED AWAY". I would also like to get another copy of "PRINCESS MONONOKE" because the copy I once had was stolen when a burglar took a lot of DVDs from my collection earlier this year.

-Claude

Posted by Duncan Smith (Member # 1556) on 05-01-2003, 03:05 PM:

Hi folks, I bought a region 3 version of "Spirited Away" last week from Chinatown in London and it is 1:85 anamorphic DTS-ES japanese which is blinkin' great I reckon. I haven't watched it all yet, just wacked it up on my new projector and screen to check it out. I also have "My neighbour Totoro" which is brilliant!! [thumbsup]

It is DD5.1 chinese and DD 2.0 prologic japanese. The picture is 1:85 anamorphic too, the japanese track is better because the audio matches up better to the animation, the chinese track has loads of extra vocals on it, not dialogue, just screams, puffing and panting etc. This doesn't work very well at all. I am looking forward to getting more Studio Giblie dvd's (spelling?) as well as Princess Mononoke that I already have.

What is "windowboxing"? Is it the black lines I have on the side of the image on these region 3 discs?

Thanks.

Posted by David Rigby (Member # 1301) on 05-02-2003, 07:12 AM:

In terms of preference I guess my 'best to worst' ranking of Ghibli DVDs would be

Sprited Away
Princess Mononoke
Laputa (Castle in the Sky) (many SA characters have their origins in this)
My Neighbour Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service

...not that any of them are in any sense bad - e.g. Totoro is great, but it's a much simpler and more childlike confection than the earlier 3. Also well worth a look is Grave of the Fireflies - though it's not exactly a happy affair.
There are a few others I've yet to see [Smile]

Castle of Cagliostro is quite amusing too - though the animation shows its age somewhat.

David

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 05-02-2003, 03:56 PM:

For Duncan, yes "windowboxing" results in black borders on all sides of the image, not just the top and bottom. It looks like Studio Ghibli has adopted this as a standard on their DVD releases (their later LD releases used this as well).

The video rights to My Neighbor Totoro will revert from Fox to Disney in 2004. Ghibli fans are hoping/expecting that Disney will re-release Totoro in anamorphic 1.85 as opposed to Fox' pan&scan.

A bit of trivia: My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were shown on a double bill in their roadshow release. A more polar-opposite pairing I can't think of--a tragic and depressing story of two kids starving to death in post-WWII Kobe, screening with one of the most serene and lighthearted stories to be found anywhere in children's literature--both beautifully rendered. I like to call it Ghibli's Greek Theater pair.