2012-02-28
Cecile Corbel - Arrietty's Song
Cecile Corbel is the french musician who composed the music for Arrietty. She sent a CD to Studio Ghibli in 2009, and they were so impressed that she was brought on board for their adaptation of Mary Norton's "The Borrowers." Her wonderful celtic music is one of my favorite things about this film.
If you're wondering why this song is being sung in Japanese, well, welcome to America. This is the song that plays during the closing credits in the Japanese version. Instead of that quiet, peaceful coda, Disney decided to Rick-Roll the movie with an unnecessary narration, followed by a wretched, Auto-Tuned mess. It's much more important to ruin another person's movie if it means advancing the careers of your fake plastic Barbie dolls, right?
And despite Disney's claims that this - to Rick-Roll Studio Ghibli - is what will make Arrietty a hit at the box office...The Secret World of Arrietty will finish with $20-25 million at the box office, only a little more than Ponyo. The Lorax will blaze past that on its first show. Mission: Failed.
On that happy note, enjoy Cecile Corbel, a real musician who sings and plays actual musical instruments - for real! No special effects required at all! Hard to believe in the age of American Idol and the Disney Channel, but such persons actually exist. Imagine that.
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16 comments:
At least we got to hear the first half of the original song...
The ending narration annoyed me even more, personally. What's with Disney's insistence on closure? That's one of the things I actually liked about Arrietty's ending, the uncertainty. Oh well, at least when it comes out on DVD, I can just watch the original Japanese version. Or maybe I'll just try to import the UK version, and get an English dub that doesn't try to butcher the ending.
"...the age of American Idol and the Disney Channel..."
I didn't think it was quite like that. Mind you, I dont watch tellavision much.
$25million is a heck of a total for an anime release in the US. Mononoke only made 10% of that. Akira 1%. You can't deny that's positive progress.
What Unknown said and I'd hardly say this ruined the entire movie. But, knowing your somewhat overcritical opinion of most dubs, I suppose this might annoy you a little more.
@jfan: Yeah, I am a bit of a grouch when it comes to these things, heh heh. As always, a healthy skepticism is in order. If it makes things any better, I am getting a lot better! Honest! :P
I'll have to go back and see which Disney/Ghibli dubs I liked. I thought they did a very good job on Spirited Away, Howl and Ponyo. Arrietty is very good if you recognize that the main audience for animation in America are small children. I think Disney is trying to sell the Ghibli movies to that reality.
In these matters, I usually just ask my brother what he thinks. He's pretty satisfied by most of Disney's dubs, so we'll just endorse whatever he says.
It isn't just The Lorax, but Pokemon: The First Movie made more than $25 million back in its first week (I'll confess that I contributed to those totals by watching it twice). According to Cartoon Brew, that and Pokemon the Movie 2000 are still the two highest grossing anime films in the US.
I didn't mind the extra narration as much for closure, but the bridget-roll at the end really bothered me. They did that back in 2009 when they threw in the garbage by the Jonas brothers at the end of Ponyo. It was so bad that I had to listen to the original Japanese song for about an hour just to feel cleansed.
Yes, the Pokemon "movies" are the highest grossing anime titles, not bad for what is really nothing more than a toy commercial.
To the degree that Disney holds back on promoting the Studio Ghibli films, merchandising is the key issue. The Disney Corporation doesn't have a billion-dollar toy campaign to push; no video games, no dolls, no coloring books or clothes, and no chance of cross-merchandising tie-ins.
If Disney had the freedom to turn Arrietty into another one of their helpless fairy tale princesses, or put Sen and No-Face in the Ice Capades, or flood the market with a dozen direct-to-video Totoro cartoons (voiced by aging stand-up comedians who are no longer funny), then we'd see a real push. But that's never going to happen as long as Hayao Miyazaki is still alive to defend his studio, and thank goodness for that.
Remember, the conglomerates who own Hollywood aren't in the movie business; they're in the merchandising business. They're in the "radio friendly unit shifter" racket. Given those constraints, Arrietty performed about as well as it could, and $25 million is probably going to be the ceiling for Ghibli in the US.
Not surprised and this is why I'll wait for the DVD (maybe the bluray will be out when I head to Japan in August), I loathe dubs.
But honestly are we surprised? When a crappy fart comedy makes $120M but smart movies like Tinker Tayler Soldier Spy are barely released for more than a week and make $10M
Well, in all defense, fart jokes are kinda funny. Let's be honest. And I think you should see Arrietty on the big screen if you're able. You don't want to pass up seeing Studio Ghibli in a theater.
For Mel, the DVD and BD for Arrietty have been available in Japan since June 2011. The UK, France, and Spain have theirs too, and Australia and New Zealand will get theirs this year on 23 May.
I haven't heard any dates yet for Arrietty on disc in the US or Canada.
Paul
@Daniel I'm a decent way through their dub of Castle in the Sky and i have to say I like it quite a lot. The rescore (which even Miyazaki applauded) is stunning, and it really showcases Joe Hiasaishi's talent as a composer and orchestrator. The voice cast is also very good, with the great Mark Hamill as Muska stealing the show (not that I expected any different from the voice of The Joker in one of the greatest Western animated series ever created). As for merchandising, I've never really bought this mindset that the Mouse House would do anything in its power to vampirize Studio Ghibli, especially under the leadership of John Lasseter, who at last ended the onslaught of terrible direct-to-DVD mockeries of Disney classics.
I just watched Arrietty for second time (Japanese version with fanmade english subs), this time really paying attention to Ceciles music and i gotta say, it is freaking brilliant.
I can't believe that Disney put such a horrible song on the end of their version.
I haven't seen the Disney version myself so could someone tell me what else there was different in the ending besides the song?
It's a perfectly legitimate complaint. Why does America always get "americanized" versions of Anime, while every other country in the world seems to be perfectly fine with the original? Why did the have to replace parts of the score in Arrietty? Why rename the main Character? Why adding pointless narration? Why replacing the ending song? What do those changes add to the movie?
It's a good point? Why does America always need to be special, while every other country doesn't? Why adding narration? Why changing names? Why changing parts of the original score? Why replacing the ending song? All those changes seem only to exist because Disney thinks children are idiots and need to be talked down to, or they don't know the appeal of Ghibli movies in the first place...
I finally got to see it as it came to my town today. There were more people in the theater than I expected! I, too, was horrified by the really inappropriate song at the end. I thought the narration might have been an add in as it seemed out of place. Looks like it's true. When's the DVD release?
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