Three Miyazaki Classics Out in August

Several online sites are already advertising Porco Rosso, Nausicca, and My Neighbor Totoro for sale with an August 31 street date.

Although Buena Vista Home Entertainment has not yet announced the U.S. release dates for the trio of Miyazaki films it plans to release this year, several online sites are already advertising Porco Rosso, Nausicca, and My Neighbor Totoro for sale with an August 31 street date. The release at the start of the fourth quarter makes perfect sense for these titles, each of which is a "must have" for both anime fans and retailers. Miyazaki's Spirited Away was the #2 anime bestseller of 2003, and these films, although made earlier in his career, are every bit as good.

Porco Rosso is the only one of the three that has not been released in some form here in the U.S. The story of a seaplane pilot who battles air pirates over the Adriatic in the 1920s, Porco Rosso is clearly a film that Miyazaki made to please himself. The director's lifelong interest in all sorts of aircraft is totally on display in the film's lovingly rendered vintage seaplanes. With backgrounds worthy of an impressionist painting and a strong story of loss and redemption, Porco Rosso is in many ways the most "adult" (in the best sense of the word) of Miyazaki's films. The English vocal cast for Porco Rosso includes Cary Elwes, Michael Keaton, Kimberly Williams, and Susan Egan.

Nausicca, Valley of the Wind was previously released in the U.S. as Warriors of the Wind, a butchered version of Miyazaki's film that is missing more than twenty minutes of footage. Buena Vista's deluxe 2-disk version will allow American audiences to see this masterpiece in its entirety. The narrative of this post-apocalyptic fairytale includes many of the ecological themes Miyazaki would return to in Princess Mononoke, though in many ways Nausicca is a more satisfying story. Nausicca, the first of Studio Ghibli's classic films, has been equaled by some of Miyazaki's subsequent efforts, but never topped.

Fox released My Neighbor Totoro theatrically in the U.S. and also put out a dub-only DVD in 2002 (see "Totoro Out On DVD in December"). In contrast to the Fox "cheapie," the Buena Vista DVD will be a 2-disk version with lots of extras plus both subtitled and dubbed versions. Totoro is one of Miyazaki's most personal films -- his own mother was ill for much of his childhood, and the mother's illness in Totoro provides the very real emotional backdrop against which the vivid imaginings of the two girls play out. Simple, poetic, and profound My Neighbor Totoro is a brilliant evocation of childhood, which also has more than enough "magic" to keep children fully engaged and entertained.

Jim Littler
3/23/2004
Source: ICV2