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Miramax

Region 1 - NTSC

1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 7.57 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 7.63 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 7.14 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

AV Channel

Miramax

Buena Vista (France CE)

DUBs: French DTS, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, and original Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Main Menu Introduction
• Main Menu Audio
• Menu Animation & Audio
• Storyboards-Alternative Angle Storyboards
• Trailer-Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa Castle In The Sky
• Theatrical Trailer-trailers and TV spots
• Reversible Cover

DVD Release Date: July 20, 2000
Transparent Amaray Case

Chapters 25

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Featurette (5 mins.)
• Theatrical trailer

DVD Release Date: July 20, 2000
Amaray Case

Chapters 25
 

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details:
• Storyboard to film comparison (10 min)
• Making of (57 min)
• Interview with Mr Miyazaki (9 min)
• Discussion with Mr Suzuki, producer of Princesse Mononoke (9 min)
• Les Trois Elements (3min) – special effects featurette
• Disney remembers Ghibli (5 min)
• La scène finale (5 min) – storyboarding the last scene
• Le titre (3 min) – Mr Suzuki explaining the choice of title for the film
• Note that all the extra's are spoken in French or Japanse with only French or Spanish subs present.
 

Chapters 25

It is significantly cropped on the two side edges.

I cannot speak for colors (blues->purple, whites->brown) but they do look very different than the other two releases. Strangely the AV Channel DVD does look very sharp... but also very thin (a similar appearance to the Eureka 'M" disc). I do notice what appears to be rather unusual edge enhancements (see image below).

There is also a black border around the entire film. All Ghibli Films seem to be like this. They call it 'the overscan area'. As stated in our DVD Production rules:
DVDs should always be produced to perfectly fill the 720 pixel available width of the DVD format, with no black borders unless it is a 'pillarboxed' movie e.g. 1.19:1 or 1.66:1 on an anamorphic disk. This is for five reasons:
(a) it maximizes the available horizontal resolution, instead of wasting 10-20% of the space on the disk
(b) anyone with a properly set up system (either HTPC, or good 720p DVD players, or a TV with adjustable overscan controls) will not appreciate the introduction of black borders.
(c) why spoil a disk by deliberately introducing a fault to compensate for a corresponding overscan fault in the viewers TV equipment?
(d) how can you know that the viewer's TV has overscan of precisely 10%? The figure will vary from TV to TV, probably even among different examples of the same model.
(e) due to the way that MPEG2 compression works, the encoding of a sharp black edge at each side of the image will inevitably introduce some digital artifacts (similar to edge enhancement but in reverse) in the parts of the image adjacent to the edge. (thanks Conrad)

I really dislike the Region 4 yellow subtitles.

With the extras listed this Region 4 release should have been put out as a 2 DVD set, with the second disc having all the extras.

- Gary W. Tooze

*****

I think the Region 1 is a bit sharper, but not much. The colors look good and are the same in both. Subtitles is difficult to tell, I can't speak Japanese so I don't know what the best translation is. The color of the subtitles is better in Region 2. I don't know about the menu's, but the main menu is animated and when going to the other options you get a little animation. Sound goes to the R2, because of the extra French DTS track (which is useless by the way ) Extra's are R2 all the way. Hopefully a new R1 will feature these with English subtitles so we can enjoy them as well !

Maarten de Haas

The subtitles on the region 1 are the correct literal subtitles. That line about 'donkey piss' on the region 2 is from the English dub. I used to own the UK region 2 which had the same dubtitles.

Geert Jan Alsem

Differences in image are very slight. To my eye the Region 1 is minimally sharper. Subtitle color on the Region 1 is awful. With everything the PAL version has going for it (extras, audio etc.) - that would be my first choice.
 

 - Gary W. Tooze