Customer Reviews

Studio Ghibli Movie Collection

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My copy of this set (UPC 4998102822712) has none of the format or subtitle problems mentioned in other reviews. The English language tracks are the Disney dubs, and the subtitles are presumably translations of the original Japanese dialogue. Some viewers may find the lack of menus or direct scene access to be a big problem, but I rate it a minor inconvenience. Picture and sound quality are first-class. The set does leave out the special features of the Disney discs. I have seen them - mostly, they are short films of the English language cast making the dub track. They're interesting, but not worth the cost difference for the Disneys.
This set offers two decades of Miyazaki's best work from 1984's Laputa to 2004's Howl's Moving Castle. It includes his three undisputed masterpieces: My Neighbor Totoro (1989), Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001). It also contains three of Isao Takahata's animes, including Grave of the Fireflies, which Roger Ebert called one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made.
Hayao Miyazaki is a superb animator and a master storyteller. It would be hard to imagine a finer introduction to the magic of his art than this set. Snap it up. You will be glad you did. Your kids will be ecstatic.

I was skeptical about this product due to the price, as the normal cost of these films is on par with Disney movies. So to get 12 movies for under 100 dollars seemed to good to be true. First a note regarding the package itself. There are 6 discs, 2 movies per disc, and no bonus features available. No cover art, nothing like that. They are in English but you can select Japanese language as well and subtitles are available. The disks stack on top of each other in the package, which is not ideal, but you are getting 12 movies for the price of 2-4, so what did you expect?

About the movies themselves, I have never seen a collection like this! If you are familiar with this director or Studio Ghibli movies then you know; but if not then check it out. They are amazing films with real depth and characters that make them far more than animated kids movies. There is a reason Disney bought the rights to the collection, they have universal appeal and charm. Included are all the movies you have seen and love and a few that you probably have not. There may be some missing, as Miyusaki made films that were not part of "Studio Ghibli", such as Whisper of the Heart (predecessor to The Cat Returns). Also missing is Ponyo, which is a must own but was made after this collection was produced. All in all though, this is an amazing collection of timeless movies that will entertain the entire family over and over. I see most going for under 100 dollars, considering most Ghibli movies go for 20-30 each, even if you only like 5 of the 12 movies you are getting a great deal.

This is a can't miss. FYI I bought from TeenageMutant and they shipped the same day, I had my movies by the end of the week! Stop debating it, just get it already!

The movies are excellent and are highly recommended.

<edited after viewing>
The quality of the movies are alright. There seems to be a little pixelation on a couple of the movies.
As to the whole bootleg vs legitimate issue, I can't say. The physical quality seems low so it was either made on someone's computer and printed out or there was a very lazy graphics designer. It doesn't have the 'sleek' look it like many movie sets.

Please note, this review is for the DVD collection and not the movies themselves. This comes as 6 DVDs stacked on top of each other in a regular size single DVD case.

Video - The movie quality is very good for the price (looks like standard DVD quality). If you have watched the Studio Ghibli movies from Netflix, then I think these are the same ones.

Audio - For those who are concerned about the English dubbing version, that too is same as Netflix dubbing - that's Disney version (at least for DVDs #1 and 3, haven't checked all of them yet).

Compatibility - They are sold as region free. Plays on my Philips US DVD player.

How much does this cost, like $50? At 12 movies, that's $5 apiece!!! No commercials, just the straight movie. The quality of picture and sound is fine, regular quality. I have ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUES with this set. Some of the former reviews made me worry that this was going to be bad quality because it's just so dang cheap. But I was really happy and surprised to find out that none of it was true. If you want a bunch of Miazaki's movies, you'll get them in this set dirt cheap for the same quality you would get if you bought them individually. You'll get no fringes though, no commentaries, special features, yadda yadda. But still.... this is awesome. I can youtube the rest of that stuff.

Well, the movies in the collection are incredibly beautiful, and the quality of the video is also very nice. The main problem I have with this collection is that the only subtitle track is based on the dialogue in the English dub, so it doesn't coincide well with the Japanese dialogue, especially in the older movies in the collection. It is especially odd when there are subtitles translating lines when the characters were just blatantly not speaking - presumably there were some points when the dubbers felt that certain implied things would not be clear to American viewers, so they put some extra explanatory lines into the dialogue. In any case, this doesn't really get too much in the way of enjoying the movies, but I would prefer a subtitle track that was an actual translation of the Japanese, and not a transcript of the English.

I received the DVD promptly, in fact I ordered it Friday and got it Monday! Really speedy.

There are no frills or extras with the DVD and a couple of the menus are a bit difficult to decipher due to language issues, but overall really good video and sound quality. Has no inserts or anything and a couple of spelling errors on the sleeve, so you pretty much should have a good idea of what you're going for. Otherwise, just fine!

Great selection of Miyazaki and other Studio Ghibli films in this collection and the DVDs play OK on computer screen but with occasional breaks. However play horribly on our TV, with radical colour separations, vertical and horizontal lines,not fitting into screen so lose part of picture, and occasional breaks. I'd ordered quite a lot of DVDs from different sources for Xmas presents. The Studio Ghibli ones were the only ones that operated like this on our TV. So, we are returning them and hope to get money back, but then you lose postage both ways.
What would have been good to know with this product is if it is incompatible with certain technologies.

Great product, exactly what I was looking for :D I don't know what the other guys are talking about, this IS formatted to your screen, and it gives you the option for English or Japanese subtitles and/or dialogue for each. There actually are some menu screens that you would normally see on the regular DVD's, but it's hard to find because you need to be able to see the different tracks (which is easy through Windows Media Player). So it's kind of a hassle and not worth it. All in all, if you love Ghibli movies, this is one of the greatest deals and it has the greatest Ghibli hits. RECCOMENDED ^ ^

I love this product, the movies are great and it is an awesome deal for how much you get. The only problem both my brother and I have had with this product is the case. The little hook like things that hold the dvds in place break kind of easily. They do send you an extra case. So overall great product. I LOVE IT!!