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The movie is 5 stars, but the DVD gets 4.
A technical complaint first, and then the real review. :-)
I'm not sure what it is about Disney's DVDs, but the "widescreen" format never quite works correctly on my system. I have to play with the zoom setting to see the whole picture, but by then it's much smaller than the screen on ALL sides; playing it without the zoom cuts off the sides and it looks like any old FULLscreen cut. EVERY Disney DVD that I own does this and it's quite annoying, as the rest of my widescreen DVD's work just fine from any other studio. It's a real headscratcher.
Aside from that complaint, the film itself is beyond perfection! Gorgeous animation, strong characters, amazing story, BRILLIANT film score, wonderful voice cast for the English track. Just to have the entire movie, and not the horrid U.S. edit (Warriors of the Wind), is a wonderful WONDERFUL thing. I had no idea this was coming out, so my surprise at seeing this on the shelf in the video store was such that I had a few tears welling up in my eyes and I bought it immediately. I'm so happy Miyazaki's films are getting a well deserved release here in the US! ^ . ^
Also, Joe Hisaishi is one of the most brilliant film composers of all time; every film I watch with a Hisiashi score, it's the music that I remember the most; it is so touching and beautiful, and affects me in powerful ways - as GOOD music should.
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