Horus, Prince of the Sun, the landmark 1968 Japanese animated feature film, arrives on DVD today. Published by Discotek Media, this new release features an all-new English subtitle translation, two audio commentaries, two video interviews, movie trailer, production gallery, and four excellent gallery and essay features.
As regular visitors of Ghibli Blog know, I was heavily involved in this project. I wrote and edited the new subtitles, which are a great improvement over what existed before (compare these to the Optimum UK DVD), wrote and edited the bonus essays, the production gallery, and recorded an audio commentary track.
Horus, Prince of the Sun is currently available directly from the Discotek Media website. I highly recommend visiting there, as they will receive more money from each sale. The DVD is also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and RightStuf. Retail price is $17.99.
I'm very proud of my child. I'm quite impressed by the packaging and menu designs. Like any artist, I can only see the mistakes, and am already compiling the work of editing and revising for a possible Blu-Ray release in the future. I should stress that, as of this date, there are NO plans to release Horus on BD at this time. Check back again in another six months.
Horus, Prince of the Sun is the quintessential anime movie. It brought together many innovations and ideas from a young generation of animators and artists, fused with radical new theories by its young director, Isao Takahata. I've often called this movie, "The Citizen Kane of Anime," and I think that's a very true description. Here lies the moment when the ground shifted, and Japanese animation successfully mutated into a fully unique species. Here lies the birth of the modern anime revolution.
Okay, enough preaching from me. Go buy this DVD! Share with your family and friends this holiday season, spread the word, and give us your impressions. Mazel tov!
3 comments:
Does the new English subtitle translation include all the songs? the lack of English subtitles for songs was the major flaw of the UK DVD release.
Excellent question. Yes, my new English subtitles include everything, especially the songs. It always irritated me that Optimum UK had such poor subs on their "Little Norse Prince" DVD.
Again, EVERYTHING is subtitled, even the movie trailer. I worked very hard on these subs, and it's the feature on this disc that I'm most proud of.
I'll have to get it, as it's almost a given that the Takahata Blu Ray box set will be extras less (a la the Miyazaki set).
Hopefully 2015 is the year we'll see releases of Future Boy Conan, Anne of Green Gables and Heidi. I've asked Discotek, Sentai, Anime Limited, Madman and Manga UK before with no response. I'm not sure if a petition would be worth it? Are there enough of us out there who want them?
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