hmm... I think we may be confusing "Buena Vista" with "Disney" here. The R2 releases of Laputa and Kiki are by
Buena Vista.
Disney's releases are in America only, and the very Spirited Away disc CB attributes to Optimum is simply a remixed Disney disc. In fact, the R1 Disney discs of Kiki and Laputa are far and above the quality of the Buena Vista discs, and I've not heard of problems with the other releases either.
Mind you, I'm confused myself as to just what the difference between BV and Disney are. They appear to be under the same company, but for the sake of arguement, "Disney" actually do good American releases whereas "Buena Vista" do crappy European ones.
And this is all good news anyway. Shame I already own Cagliostro, but yet more stuff to buy in september... As for "Little Norse Prince", this one surprised me loads and i'll probably snap it up. Interestingly, I scooted over to Nausicaa.net and couldn't find anything about it: why?
"Hols was retitled Little Norse Prince Valiant, dubbed into English, and shown on Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in the United States in the early- to mid-1980s. An official English-subtitled version has screened at some film festivals but is not available on VHS/DVD."
This disappoints me actually. Why isn't Optimum going with the original japanese title of "The Adventures of Hols, Prince of the Sun". Sure, it's not a particuarly dazzling title, but if there's one thing I hate it's American intervention into things dictated by other cultures. Anyway:
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/otherfilms/#hols for more inspiring details on the film than ANN gives.
Hols is one of the classic masterpieces of anime in Japan. Released in theaters in 1968 by Toei Douga (Toei Animation Studio), it was epoch making in many ways.
This was the first feature film Isao Takahata ever directed. It was made by young, idealistic staff members, who wanted to make something totally different from anything Disney and previous "Toei Kid's stuff". It was made during the height of a huge labor dispute at Toei Douga, and the story and the production process reflected the situation.
..(snip)..
However, it was embraced enthusiastically by many young Japanese, such as university students (considering that anime, or manga movies as they were called, were considered "kid's stuff" even more than now, this was really something). The theme of the movie, "the importance of being united," really appealed to those who were in the student and union movements.
Exciting huh? This is a 1968 Japanese film and very much a THE forerunner of not only Takahata and Miyazaki's careers, but also Studio Ghibli and the bulk of the more mature focus of Anime as we now know it.
