Recently, Disney has reissued CASTLE IN THE SKY along with MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, and PONYO. This new release has a lot more extras than its previous counterpart, mainly in the way of interviews with Miyazaki, and even the whole "interactive" WORLD OF GHIBLI map.
However...
If you happen to be a fan of Disney's dub as it was released on DVD in 2003 (even though it was made back in 1999), a warning should be made: the English version has been modified.
When Disney was working on their dub for CASTLE IN THE SKY, they commissioned Joe Hisaishi to extend and rerecord his soundtrack for the Seattle Music Orchestra, providing for an arguably superior (if on a technical leve) sounding upgrade of a beautiful score he produced on electronics more than fifteen years ago. But as much as Miyazaki and several critics applauded Hisaishi's reworking, other critics and fans unfairly attacked it from the start, cruelly deriding it as an abomination to the original (a criticism which is as undeserved today as it was back then, for unlike KIKI'S dub, the musical embellishments are done by the original composer, not an outside musician). For me, the new score really added to the film in many sequences such as the opening attack scene, the train chase, the robot battle, the scene where Dola and her pirates are struggling against the wind currents of the hurricane, and especially the climax, which involves extensively dark, brooding passages and a breathtaking expansion of the final destruction. Sadly, all of that is gone on this new edition, which maintains the original music and sound effects from the Japanese version. As much as I know that this will please Miyazaki-philes, I am personally disappointed with this decision, for Disney's dub doesn't sound as fresh without the new music. Not that I don't like the original score; I do, but I felt that the rescore gives the film more of a fresh vibe.
Similar modifications have been made to the dialogue too; all the extra added-in lines are omitted. I am pretty much 50/50 about this: I agree that the ADR script went overboard in adding in dialogue in places (like Sheeta talking about her past, both her and Pazu talking about his pigeons as they pass over his house on Dola's flapter, and at the differences between the Tiger Moth and Goliath just after they explore Laputa's gardens), but most of it I found to be a hoot, notably the Dola Gang's banter, including a brief moment where Dola tries to coach Sheeta how to talk like a pirate "Haaar, matey! Shiver me timbers!" "Keep practicing.", as well as some additional lines for Dola and Muska. I liked these, as I felt it expanded on the characters' personalities.
As much as diehard purists have decried the CASTLE IN THE SKY dub, I have always felt that it is underrated as a dub and have always loved listening to it in spite of the additional chatter and mature-sounding leads. This newest edition brings it more slavishly closer to the Japanese version, but it does so at the expense of making Disney's version less fresh and more hollow. Indeed, I can imagine viewers who loved every minute of the Disney dub (and I know there are plenty who do) causing similar controversy for different reasons at this newest revision. If I were in charge of remastering this dub, I'd probably cut out the lines I found most questionable but maintain much of the rescore as well as the added-in lines for the pirates. Not totally drastic, but not too few either; you know, somewhere in between.
Whether it's worth double-dipping for the extras is up to the customer.
Oh, and the literal subtitles on the DVD are DUBTITLES, minus the extra chatter. But some lines in the original Japanese version didn't make it into the dub, and as such, those lines are not subbed at all in the Japanese version. |
