flummery: (sootball)
(mild spoilers below!)

Studio Ghibli/Disney are finally getting around to releasing, and in two cases, re-releasing, some of Miyazaki's movies this summer! Slated for August 31st (according to nausicaa.net) are My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Porco Rosso. All three are coming out as 2-dvd sets, which hopefully means extras, and that they really spent the time to do these right.

Totoro has been out on dvd in the U.S. for some time, but in crappy quality. Pan and scan, rather than wide screen, poor video and poor audio quality, and no extras. The new version will also have new voice actors. It has the youngest intended audience of the three movies being released, and yet somehow, I have no problem sitting down and watching it over and over (and forcing others around me to as well).

Nausicaa came out in the 80s, and was released in the U.S. at that time under the title Warriors of the Wind. The US version was basically butchered. You should not watch it. A half hour of the movie was cut out. Talking and explanations were cut, and actiony stuff was left in. Names were changed to cutesy cartoon names. Studio Ghibli has asked that you forget it exists. I watched this, as a result, off a very crummy tape version of the Japanese release, and I can't remember whether or not it was subtitled, or whether [livejournal.com profile] teenygozer actually just sat there translating for us, which is a very real possibility (she knows the movie line by line, and is a useful source of older anime info). It's set in a post-apocalyptic future, where a small village is under threat both from warring surrounding nations, and from the encroaching changes the apocalypse has brought to the environment.

The third out this summer is Porco Rosso, and I'm impressed. We watched this last summer off the *cough*hongkongboxset*cough* and at the time, I think I actually said "Wow. Disney is *never* going to bother to bring this out in America." It's set between WWI and WWII, and is the story of an Italian WWI pilot who survived when his friends were all killed. But then, he was turned into a pig. (Yes, that's right, just go with it, everyone else does.) It's set to a strange background of sky pirates and mobsters and fascist governments and good engineers. Miyazaki's love of flying is all through it, and it starts with a hysterical scene with many small children at the beginning -- but this one is not for children. The language is adult, the themes are complex. At the end, there's one of the best fight scenes ever, animated or otherwise. I'm not sure I completely understood this movie, but I liked it anyway.
flummery: (sootball)
Yay, for two great things that will be *fantastic* together. I've known for over a year now that the next Miyazaki movie (Spirited Away, Totoro, etc.) was going be be based on a book by one of my favorite authors, Diana Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle), but I keep forgetting, and remembering, and being thrilled all over again each time I remember. This week, I spotted a picture of the castle, and the fact that a very short trailer is online.

Links, and small spoilers )

Also on the anime front, Witch Hunter Robin (Cartoon Network, Adult Swim) is turning out to have been a good choice for the TiVo season pass. It was plodding along, practically enough, blah blah blah, a case an episode, introducing the characters -- and about 2-3 episodes ago, they'd decided they'd had *enough* of that, and got down to business. What a grim little universe! I have no idea what the hell is going on anymore. Much more enjoyable!


And on the... I can't figure out why I can't FIGURE THIS OUT, front... why the hell can't I find decent labelling software for my cds and dvds? I mean, it's reached the level of the absurd, and I'm really pretty good with computers, and I now have approximately 18,000 unlabelled round silvery objects and several dead sharpies. The CD Stomper label applier came with a version of Sure Thing which has a nice setup template all ready to go for the labels that came with it. But when I attempt to drag in an image, it screams about insufficient memory, and turning off placeholders. And I can see nothing. I bought some Avery labels, and that came with software... but not software which has a template for my stack of cd stomper labels, and the Avery labels were overly expensive shiny things, for a special occasion. I tried another version of Sure Thing. Didn't go so well. I tried multiple other programs. They either don't have the template, or won't drag in my images.

Can anyone recommend some damn software, already? I've got six different programs on my system at this point, and still, this huge, overflowing pile of unlabelled disks. It should not be this hard!

September 2015

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