(Thanks to AV Watch in Japan for their coverage of the Ghibli press conference.)
I wouldn't be fair if I didn't play the hype game once in a while. Here are the first screenshots from the upcoming Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind Blu-Ray. The menus look fantastic, minimal and stylish. This is a movie that knows it has an audience and never needs to impress. It's an anime masterpiece and arguably the most important film of Hayao Miyazaki's career.
The Blu-Ray package is just fantastic. Notice that it's presented in cardboard, not plastic. I do hope all of Ghibli's future home releases follow this format. A book is included, the Nausicaa Guide Book. That should be an interesting read.
I'm also happy to learn that the terrific audio commentary track from the Nausicaa DVD - the only one on a Studio Ghibli disc to date - will be included on the Blu-Ray. I really wish someone would translate that. Is anyone at Disney reading this blog? Hello? Bueller?? I want this for Christmas!
The Nausicaa BD will be released in Japan on July 14. This is proving to be a very busy summer for the studio.
9 comments:
At last, this is my all time favorite. I actually lived in Japan when for 2 years as a kid. 3 - 5 years old.
My parents recorded this for me and I watched it a lot growing up. But I didn't understand Japanese, but I got the premise.
Finally I got a subtitled version and I feel in love with the film again. Can't wait for this to arrive in the US on Blu-ray!
Hideaki Anno, who was an animator for the movie, is doing a commentary track seeing as he is my favorite anime director I would love for the commentaries to be translated and on the US release. But not going to get my hopes up, hopefully someone rips the audio and translates.
This is, in fact, the commentary track from the Japanese DVD. I'll have to snap some photos of the paper that lists the many topics of discussion. It's a very technical look into how Nausicaa was made. Perhaps someone could then translate the outline into English - why wasn't this done years ago?
Cardboard? Ugh. Yes, it looks nice, and may be environmentally responsible, but it's hell for the life expectancy of the disc. Disney did that with WALL-E (and a few years earlier with the ALIAS box set), and my experience with that kind of packaging is pretty negative. Of course, maybe the Blu-ray is so much more scratch-resistant that it won't matter, but I have my doubts.
Speaking of "busy summer," was there ever an actual trailer for Arrietty? Isn't the movie coming out in a month?
The final trailer for Arrietty should be released any day now. The film should be released this month in Japan.
As for the cardboard Blu-Ray cover instead of plastic, well...are you aware of the massive plastic garbage patches in the oceans? If global warming doesn't drive humanity to extinction, the indestructible plastics and toxins will.
Ideally, digital distribution will do away with the physical media entirely, which is the best option of all.
Correction: Arrietty will be released in Japanese theatres on July 17. Only 6 weeks left!
I'm all for minimizing one's environmental footprint in everyday life, and personally, I've been using canvas bags for years (on that subject, I can recommend the Herzog/Bahrani collaboration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBtCb61Sd4 ).
But I also want to buy a working product, and in my experience, paper packaging is a death sentence for optical discs. I had to send back WALL-E once, and the ALIAS set several times, until I finally received discs that weren't scratched to hell and that would play without stuttering.
If you want to replace the plastic DVD case itself with cardboard, by all means, but only if there's still a plastic insert; I have a couple of those as well (APOCALYPSE NOW, I think, and possibly the 50ies WAR OF THE WORLDS), and those discs work fine, while still having used up less plastic than usual. But paper-only is a really bad idea and one I hope *doesn't* catch on.
I like the box it's nice and sleek and fits one of the messages of the movie well, but I will be putting the BD in another more protective case, like the US Nausicaa DVD case, as this will probably have the english dub that DVD is obsolete.
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