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Forum - View topicAnswerman - What's With The Multiple Versions of Kiki's Delivery Service?
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supersqueak
Posts: 194 |
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It makes me feel old to think there are people who have never seen it those movies on VHS. I have the old versions of Kiki and Totoro on DVD personally those are my go to I have been meaning to get the blu-rays but I am not in a hurry.
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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I honestly prefer the version of Kiki's that changed the one scene with Jiji. The way that scene goes in the Japanese/other versions seems like some completely unnecessary "it really do be like that sometimes lmao" that clashes with the upbeat nature of the rest of the film.
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Kiskaloo
 Subscriber Posts: 79 Location: Seattle |
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I had them on LaserDisc, so I know how you feel. 
I also have the CD Single from Sydney Forest of the two tracks she recorded for Kiki. And being from Seattle, I remember when the Symphony recorded the new score for Laputa. |
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Zof
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Another Example:
If you watch Sakura Quest in Japanese, you get the amazing ending song that makes tears stream out of your eyes when she's leaving on the train. If you watch the English version, you get a shitty pop sounding shit song that ruins the ending. |
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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Uh, wow ... I've never seen Kiki without "I'm Gonna Fly" and "Soaring" ... I have the 2003 DVD release (probably got it in 2004?) I like the English songs!
I downloaded those songs and added them to my mp3 playlist back in the day! 
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1333 |
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For anyone who has a region-free player, the UK blu-ray/DVD combo contains the original dub, but only on the DVD. It's a shame Sydney Forest's songs got disregarded in the long run, because I always felt those lovely tunes fitted the movie quite nicely. I'm aware of her bandcamp page and made my digital purchases, but am still wishing that someday they'll get a new CD release, they deserve it.
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Posts Sometimes
Posts: 38 |
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There's also the even older English dub from Streamline Pictures, which was never officially released outside Japan. Supposedly Disney used that script as the base for their dub rather than doing their own translation, which ended up backfiring on them when they later reused it for their subtitled releases and didn't notice that it had changed several minor lines throughout the film.
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Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
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That's how I saw it first too, and I still have the disc! (Japanese, not the Disney version).
I'm surprised to hear that. Streamline was infamous for changing dialogue among fans, so it's shocking that someone in the business wasn't aware of that sort of thing. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4973 |
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I saw the original Disney release of Kiki's when it was aired on the Disney Channel years ago though I only have the remastered DVD with the restored Japanese soundtrack. I'm a bit mixed on the original Disney dub. I feel like a lot of the new additional lines clash with the tone of the movie and tend to over-simplify the film to me. They didn't just have new recorded lines for Phil Hartman in the dub but they also added in new lines in other scenes to Americanize some Japanese culture aspects and otherwise Disney-fy some scenes. Like one scene they add in a line so Ursula says she knows the driver to cover up that they're hitchhiking. I can understand the new songs go against Miyazaki's vision but I also understand they have a lot of nostalgic value for a lot of fans. I wish they could have just included both versions of the dub on the GKids Blu Ray or at least have the theme songs as an extra feature. I do think the dub theme songs did a pretty good job of fitting in with the tone of the movie and I like how upbeat they are. Personally I liked Jiji started talking to Kiki again at the end in the original dub. It doesn't really make much sense to me that Kiki and Jiji would suddenly stop talking to each other just because she grew up yet she can use all her other witch powers without any issue.
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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It's meant to be symbolism for the fact that she is growing up, which is the whole point of the movie's plot. It's a rite of passage to adulthood. I can't speak for everyone of course, but I find that I like movies with either sad or bittersweet endings better than happy ones. Don't get me wrong: happy endings are happy, and that's nice. But that emotional impact is short lived. Once it's made clear that "everyone lived happily ever after" there's nothing to be concerned about anymore. But when there's a bit of bittersweet to it that makes the impact linger a lot more. |
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Lord Starfish
Posts: 156 |
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Correction: That line at the end straight-up doesn't exist in the Japanese audio. It was an ad-lib over a scene that had no dialogue at all originally.
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Zendervai
 Posts: 199 |
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This one's a little weird. Disney commissioned a new soundtrack from Joe Hisashi, the original composer and put it on the DVD. Then people got upset and started sending letters and messages to Disney demanding the original soundtrack be put back on. While in Japan, the releases there quietly added on the new soundtrack (because it was...well, a fully orchestrated and expanded version done by the original composer). Disney then reverted the soundtrack to the original version. But the new Gkids release has the new soundtrack on it, because they're just replicating what's on the Japanese releases plus dub in some cases. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5423 |
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A Symphony Orchestra for Laputa actually sounds like an improvement over a synth soundtrack.
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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I was referring to the "meow." Hartman's was a clearly sarcastic sing-song "MEEEE-yowwww!," while the (restored) Japanese was clearly an actual cat. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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The '98 VHS dub predated the entire '99 Ghibli deal, and that and Castle in the Sky were originally one-offs for Disney. (Hence the use of standard anime-dub director Jack Fletcher, who'd dubbed Pioneer's Tenchi titles, rather than John Lasseter's labors-of-love after the deal.)
Those who remember the big plushy Disney-clamshell VHS case may remember a gold "Animation Celebration" logo on the back cover, as Disney thought their Japanese dub would be the first in a new line of other countries' non-Disney world-animation titles, since the French-African "Kirikou & the Sorceress" was also getting awards on the festival circuit and looking for a US distributor...Basically, in a word, what GKids became years later. http://www.retro-daze.org/images/vhsCovers/004.jpg AFTER the deal, "No cuts" clearly meant "No additions" as well. (Otherwise, it could have just as easily allowed changed names, like "Princess Zandra" in Roger Corman's "Warriors of the Wind", or the live-action wraparounds added to Corman's version of "Angel's Egg".) Which meant not only losing the English songs, and Phil Hartman's "Well, hellooo kitty" when Jiji sees the white cat next door, but also meant Disney had to drop little background lines they'd added to cover awkwardly silent characters in the original: For ex., in the last shot, as Kiki's being interviewed and Jiji gets in his meow, Tombo is silently talking to reporters in the background--Disney covered this in the first dub with "She's really great! Lemme tell you how she first came to town!", which made a lot more sense as an ending line. But, nnnnoop, Rules are Rules. (Another forbidden cut, when Kiki takes her first big takeoff from home, her friends are listening for whether she cleared the trees, and one giggles something silently to the other. Disney's first dub added Kiki calling back "Goodbye, folks!" so we get the idea, and one of the girls adds "...She's okay.  " Darn, that was cute, too.)
Wasn't "sarcastic", just that nobody else can hear Jiji showing off for the press. (Which was a "drastically" better idea than Miyazaki's regular-cat, implying that Kiki's growing up and can't hear Jiji anymore.) But, again.....nnn-noop! |
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