Miyazaki 13 Pack (Castle in the Sky/Kiki's Delivery Service/Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind/Grave of the Fireflies/Porco Rosso/Princess Mononoke/Spirited Away/The Cat Returns/Howl's Moving Castle/My Neighbor Totoro/My Neighbors the Yamadas/Pom Poko/Whisper of the Heart) (1999) [NTSC] (DVD)

by Yôji Matsuda (Primary Contributor), Yuriko Ishida (Primary Contributor), Yûko Tanaka (Primary Contributor), Kaoru Kobayashi (Primary Contributor), Masahiko Nishimura (Primary Contributor), Hayao Miyazaki (Director), Kirk Wise (Director)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
An instant library of 13 Hayao MIYAZAKI classics assembled on 25 DVDs. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio, led by one of animation's greatest creators, Hayao MIYAZAKI. The studio creates very high quality animated movies, which is rather unique, since most Japanese animation studios depend on TV series or OVAs. They consistently beat Disney movies in box office revenues in Japan and have received numerous awards. Miyazaki and Ghibli movies are well respected and loved by all Japanese people, children and adults alike. Now own the ultimate Studio Ghibli DVD collection in this hefty collector's pack.

Product Details

• DVD
• Publisher: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
• ASIN: B000OYT9N6
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,167,304 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pricey, but worthwhile collection of Ghibli's works., May 27, 2007

By	Jonathon Turner "Jon Turner" (Highland Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The genius of Hayao Miyazaki and his works from Studio Ghibli have slowly been growing in popularity, due in no small part to a campaign courtesy of Disney, headed by Pixar guru John Lasseter. Starting with SPIRITED AWAY, the Mouse House has released most of Ghibli's masterpieces on DVD here in the United States.

Many other websites have gone into detail about Studio Ghibli and their works in general, so I won't recap them here. However, it should be mentioned that all these movies contain high-quality visual transfers (KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE and LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY show their age in places, but both still look pretty good overall), as well as the original Japanese soundtracks.

While purists insist that the native language track is the only way to see these movies, Disney has nonethless gone out of their way to commission absolutely stupendous dubs featuring actors such as Mark Hamill, Cloris Leachman, Phil Hartman, Minnie Driver, Patrick Stewart, Harold Gould, Uma Thurman, Suzanne Pleshette, Pat Carroll, and Billy Crystal. All give excellent performances; some of the choices are a little odd (James Van Der Beek, Michael Keaton, and probably, to a lesser extent, Billy Bob Thornton), but they're hardly blasphemous and don't detract from the overall experience.

While the adaptation scripts sometimes throw in more extra lines than necessary (KIKI and LAPUTA are most notable for this, although to be fair, they're not too much out of context with the original), for the most part they remain faithful in spirit (if not letter) to the screenplays of Miyazaki, Takahata, and company. And best of all, not even one second is omitted from these movies. Four things should be noted, though.

1. KIKI and CASTLE have extra pieces of music on the dubs--the former is mostly soft piano music courtesy of Paul Chihara, while the latter has a spectacular and arguably superior reorchestration of the full score (previously performed on synthesizers). The man responsible for the new music, interestingly, is the original composer Joe Hisaishi, under the approval of Miyazaki himself! There have been many debates over which interpretation of the soundtrack is superior, but personally I think both versions of the score for LAPUTA are beautiful and can be enjoyed independently.

2. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES is the only movie in this package not to be dubbed by Disney; produced by New York based Central Park Media, it's not on the same level as the other titles, but it's mostly well done.

3. The DVD of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, a much loved movie, is the newly repackaged Disney release with a high-quality widescreen transfer as well as a new dub featuring real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei. There was a previous, well-liked dub of TOTORO produced by Streamline Pictures and released by FOX in 1993, but the DVD it is on is pan & scan. There has been a lot of pointless debating over which dub is superior; most of these criticims tend to stem from nostalgia rather than reason. I'd suggest ignoring the controversy and listen to both dubs for two different but no less enjoyable interpretations of a great story.

4. PRINCESS MONONOKE (distributed by Miramax) and MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS are both one-disc sets. And, since MONONOKE was the first Ghibli DVD release, there are only two skimpy extras (although the transfer of the movie itself is impeccable).

There are a group of naysayers who have been overly critical of Disney's treatment of these films, claiming that the Mouse House is somehow sabotaging Ghibli's work. These accusations are senseless and untrue. While Disney has admittingly delayed these movies for way too long (they acquired the rights for them in 1996), the numerous criticisms over the DVDs and dubbing are often overdone and unnecessary. While the DVDs are sometimes simply designed, the films themselves are presented well. Likewise, there is little point in comparing the dubs to the original Japanese versions. While there might be some argument about getting a more authentic experience through the native language track on most of these movies (although films like KIKI, LAPUTA, and HOWL are actually easier to watch in English since they all set in European-based environments), when the dubs are as well done as this, it is arguably better to just watch both. Either one provides an enjoyable experience, although getting the most out of the dubs may depend on what you bring with you to them.

For Anime fans, the works of Ghibli are an essential addition, but fans of animation in general owe it to themselves to give them a spin. A word of caution, though: not all of these movies are for children--PRINCESS MONONOKE has some graphic images of violence; it's the sort of movie that grown-ups will enjoy, and that's not a bad thing in the least.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Do you really want to pay this much for a boxed set?, February 15, 2008

By	Duncan Parks (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There is no doubt that the films in this set are incredible; the only studio that comes close to Ghibli in terms of consistently interesting and well-produced films is Pixar, and they don't have the emotional and philosophical complexity that Miazaki's crew present in spades. But do you really want to spend $400+ for the set? The individual films run around $20 for 2-disc editions, so do the math: 12 X $20 = $240. And of course you may not want every film in this collection. Rumor also has it that this is a bootleg. Why bother?

If you do buy some of the films, do consider the Disney dubs on the voicework - the voice talent is several cuts above what anime fans are used to.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is this for real?, February 16, 2009

By	J. A. Hart "Longrider" (Cheyenne Wyoming) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As has been pointed out by two other reviewrs, this is an outragous price for a boxed set. Even at an average price of 24 dollars a piece, all 13 movies will only cost you 312 dollars, and some of these movies run less then 24 dollars. Whether these are rips or not, there still way over priced, unless perhaps there signed by the Master himself, Hayao Miyazaki. In the end, even if you end up paying 30 dollars each for all 13 movies your only going to spend 390 dollars, so this is no deal.

On the plus side I will agree with the other reviewers, these are probably the best dubbed anime movies I have seen to date, the voice talent is incredible, and the time and effort to do the dubbing right, is most worthy of these great films.