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Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

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Explanatory Notes
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Title Best
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi): Limited EditionR4

    This title is available on DVD from Disney in Region 1. It is a two disc set, just like this one. The differences surprised me for a while, then I worked it out. The featurettes that are on the Region 1 discs that are missing from this Region 4 version are the ones made specifically by Disney.

    The Region 4 package is missing:

  • French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
  • Introduction by John Lasseter of Pixar (1:11) — somewhat gushing
  • Meet Hayao Miyazaki Easter egg (2:05)
  • The Art of Spirited Away featurette (15:13) — a "very Disney" piece about getting access to Miyazaki's films
  • Sneak peeks Disney trailers
  • :
    • Castle in the Sky (1:10)
    • Kiki's Delivery Service (1:18)
    • Finding Nemo (2:07)
    • Atlantis: Milo's Return (0:42)
    • Stitch! the Movie (0:41)
    • Bionicle: Mask of Light (0:42)
    • The Lion King Special Edition (1:38) (October 2003)
    • New from Disney Interactive (0:32) — Finding Nemo video game
  • annoying advertising before the main menu (ads for Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service)
  • Behind the Microphone featurette (5:41) — about recording the English dub

    The Region 1 disc is missing:

  • Japanese dts 5.1 soundtrack
  • longer and better presentation of the storyboard comparison
  • Japanese advertising Easter egg
  • American and French trailers
  • Madman trailers:
    • Arjuna (1:20)
    • .hack//SIGN (1:40)
    • The Big O (1:03)
    • Robotech series (0:31)
    • Transformers the movie (1:32)
    • FLCL (2:20)
    • Gundam Wing (1:54)
    • Love Hina (1:41)
    • Martian Successor Nadesico (1:32)
    • Dragonball (0:40)
    • Jubei-Chan the Ninja Girl (1:05)
    • Leunig Animated (0:48)
  • Themes of Spirited Away notes
  • Image Gallery
  • Study Guide

    The Art of Spirited Away featurette is only a small loss - it's more than a bit gushing, very "Disney", and repeats some of the material from the Nippon TV featurette (some of it with an American voice-over). This is narrated in a rather patronising way by Jason Marsden. The interesting parts are the comments from the Disney and Pixar technical people, and the (interpreted) interview footage with Hayao Miyazaki.

    The Behind the Microphone featurette is quite a loss. It covers the recording of the English dub. The Disney and Pixar people are funny. They make a big thing out of the need to synchronise the voice acting to the existing animation (usually these companies record the voices first, and animate to fit them), and the director talks about having the animation on display in front of the voice actors so they can sync their delivery to it as though this is a momentous idea — my first reaction was "So what? That's how anime is always dubbed." — that's when I realised that this was a new kind of work to these people. They did an excellent job under the circumstances, but it is funny.

    In the end, I'm glad that I bought both the Region 1 and the Region 4 versions — you might think that's an excessive solution. If you prefer to watch your anime with the Japanese soundtrack, then the Region 4 is an obvious choice — the dts soundtrack offers slightly better definition than the Dolby Digital. I also think the Region 4 discs and cover look slightly nicer — the Region 1 cover and discs are mostly black. The quality of the transfers, however, is pretty much equal — you could be happy with either, from that point of view. Despite what you might read in Region 1 reviews, the Region 1 transfer is presented in exactly the same way as the Region 4, with window boxing. Don't forget, too, that you can choose the single disc Region 4 version if all you want is the movie. The best part, in my opinion, is that you have a choice of three versions, and none of the choices is bad!