Video:
As far as I can tell this was ripped directly from the R2 release without any loss of quality. All of the colours are bright and vivid with detail showing clearly in the shadows as well.
Audio:
I've only listened to the English dubs so far (and I don't forsee listening to the Japanese audio in the near future). These are the official dubs and from what I can tell they are in 5.1 audio... too bad I only have a stereo decoder. What I did hear had great sound placement.
My only complaint is that I just saw Batman Begins two nights before watching this movie. The only reason this is a problem is that whenever I hear Howl speaking I'm reminded of Batman because Christian Bale does his voice.
Update: I've had a chance to listen to this on a great 5.1 system and was BLOWN AWAY by the quality of the sound mix on the English channel. The sound placement is crisp and well thought out with no awkward ghost sounds that seem out of place. It's hard going back to watching this on my plain old stereo system now.
I've also been comparing the Japanese audio track to the English audio track and I feel that the mixing for stereo is a bit better on the Japanese track. I find that there are too many quiet moments that get lost in the English mix if you don't have the sound turned up.
Subtitle:
I've only listened to the English dubs so far (and I don't forsee listening to the Japanese audio in the near future). These are the official dubs and from what I can tell they are in 5.1 audio... too bad I only have a stereo decoder. What I did hear had great sound placement.
My only complaint is that I just saw Batman Begins two nights before watching this movie. The only reason this is a problem is that whenever I hear Howl speaking I'm reminded of Batman because Christian Bale does his voice.
Update: I've had a chance to listen to this on a great 5.1 system and was BLOWN AWAY by the quality of the sound mix on the English channel. The sound placement is crisp and well thought out with no awkward ghost sounds that seem out of place. It's hard going back to watching this on my plain old stereo system now.
I've also been comparing the Japanese audio track to the English audio track and I feel that the mixing for stereo is a bit better on the Japanese track. I find that there are too many quiet moments that get lost in the English mix if you don't have the sound turned up.
Comment:
I'm bummed that I missed this when it was in theatres this past summer. Miyazaki's visuals are astounding as usual and it's nice to see him animate a story written by someone else for a change. This is a great movie and I expect I'll be watching it a few times over the next few months.
Edit: we've watched this movie about a dozen times now and it still sucks me in with the richness of Miyazaki's imagination..
Level: 12
Reviews: 137
Experience: 351,263
100%
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