Video:

very small errors in the video quality, I think were really only noticeable if you are a video perfectionist what you seek from a R1 rip

Audio:

The audio and music A+ in this title

Subtitle:

didn't look at

Comment:

This is a very warm and wonderful title. The story and how it is presented make this a wonderful anime family movie. Well worth picking up

Video:

The video on this set isnt terrible, maybe a little lighter than I would have liked it to be. Some minor color bleeding but its overall a clean clear picture.

Audio:

Ho-hum well... The Japanese track on this set is pretty good, although not as clear as the R1 version. The English dub on this set is not the Disney one, its the older JAL/Streamline version and oh is it horrid. It sounds like they took the people off the street, threw in some local news reporters and dubbed the film. Im not really at all a fan of Disney but there dub is alot better.

Subtitle:

From what I tested of them they seemed perfect, no problems anywhere.

Comment:

This set isnt bad under the conditions that 1) You already have the R1 version and just want to try something new. or 2) Your just really a cheap skate Not the best version of this title avaliable but... passable

Video:

Most Definately an LD ripp, colours a lil off: i.e. saturated & bright/slight bleeding. Small amount of compression artifacts (i.e. Macroblocks etc.) here & there, but fairly infrequently, and really not very noticeable. Video is in 4:3 but still presented in original 2:35 aspect. But its still very good ! Much better than the MAC boxset, and certainly worth buying for the price.

Audio:

Ripped from LD of course, so nothing special. Original Japanese dialouge in Mono -> Dolby 2.0 224kbps. But sounds good to me, and yet again much better than the MAC boxset which I found to have quite alot of crackling for the 1st half hour of the film.

Subtitle:

This is where this release really shines for me, and part of the reason why I purchased it. Subs are quite nearly perfect, Fansubed, very few mispellings (unlike this review ;o) good timing etc. Only thing was right @ the end there were about 7(?) dropped lines which is why the subs get a 4.5.

Comment:

Packaging is quite nice and will fit in well amongst ur other (HK :o) DVDs I give it a 4/5 This film is known to most anime fans that have been around for a few years. Miyazaki's 2nd Ghibli feature Masterpiece, a beautiful film & flawless on almost all levels, and the favorite of all ghibli/miyazaki films for most fans (notice I said most not all ;o). I love this movie, and if you have/haven't seen it & don't yet own it you must buy it !

Video:

wow lazer disk rip? who knew? the picture is so crisp on this DVD, its crunchy. this is the pinnacle of imported anime, this is what we need more of, no macroblocking in sight, just the cleanest possible picture

Audio:

good sound quality, but the sounds themselves, aren't the best, might be because of bad sound transfer, or maybe just that its a fairly old film, either way, still very high quality. NOTE this is NOT the same dub as disney's recent R1 release, this is an earlier dub, both are good quality but if you're looking for the best possible voice acting the Disney one probably wins out, but this edition is still very well done, unless you're a really picky guy, then go for the imported one.

Subtitle:

i don't really pay attention to these, but the subs are pretty good

Comment:

great movie perfect quality. if u don't have this already and you're a fan of Ghibli films go buy this NOW BTW, this has no real special features, unless you count the "Frinch" subtitles, no, thats not a typo, they're "Frinch" but only if you know italian, because in this dvd, "Frinch=Italian"

Video:

This is a Laser Disk rip and its from the AC Studio Ghibli collectors set too. The water mark is there and it shows up a couple of times....I find it annoying. The video is still pretty good, but when its put up against the Laputa R2 or R1 DVDs, it doesn't even come close.

Audio:

The Audio for this release is a bit dated, its all in mono. The audio doesn't really sound like it exactly matchs the video, its timed correctly but the sound is kind of ackward. Again its not too bad, but when compared to the legit release, its miles away.

Subtitle:

The subs were there, but there were some occasional misspellings and 4-5 lines were missing. Other than that, these were great subs.

Comment:

This is an old anime, so the animation may seem very outdated, still a great movie though, truely a classic. This is an rip of the old and now dated AC set. The standard might have been OK back then, but it really doesn't compare to the stardards of an average DVD. If you are short on cash go for it, but I highly reccommend going online or out to pick up the Official DVD, this series truely deserves it.

Video:

It's kinda hard to tell if it's a DVD rip or a Great LaserDisk rip, the image is great with little (if any) pixelation. It's Widescreen also. Strangely for a MAC release, about 5 times during this Picture in the upper left corners appears a "A" logo (i think from Anime Cartoon/MI or Animation Video) for a couple of seconds, which is kinda hard because i am not aware of a AV or AC/MI release of Laputa (except the one in their Gilbhi Boxset).

Audio:

Sounded Good to me ,with no problems at all.

Subtitle:

They are great, well timed , no problems (i am being picky but towards the end there are perhaps 2 lines of dialogue not subbbed, but nothing significant really,that's why i don't give it a 5 : ) )

Comment:

The menus are in English , wich is kinda odd for a release that is suppossed to be a rip from a Gilbhi's DVD... Apart from it being a DVD or a LD rip, i recommend the set . The only thing that kinda annoys me is the Logo ("A") that appears a couple of time throughout the film.

Comment:

Across the boards (Audio, Video,subs) this is a great release. Laputa is an amazing story that grips you right in the beginning with a nice action scene and the weaves a tremedous story that will keep you in your seats until the end. There are plenty of plot twist and its the same run of the mill characters one loves from Miyazaki. The music by Hisaishi Jo is comparable to John Williams symphonies.

Comment:

Video: 4/5 After careful inspection it seems to be a widescreen LD rip but a very good one. Picture is clear and colours well defined. I posted earlier that it was direct R2 rip but after closer inspection it is clearly not (R2 version was anamorphic, this ain't). Sorry if I mislead anyone Audio: 4/5 Japanese had 5.1 surround sound but it wasnt true 5.1 . It also had 2.0 stereo english audio track. Subtitles : 5/5 All the Ghibli sets had timing problems with Laputa but in this version the subtitles are perfect. Very good grammar and few spelling mistakes. Font was large and easy to read. Claimed it had french subtitles but they weren't in french (I think it was italian). edited by matthewmalay on 12 Nov 2002 9:05 pm
edited by matthewmalay on 04 Dec 2002 1:05 pm

Comment:

Once again widescreen perfection. Sounds great on my set up (aiwa (stop laughing) mini system and panasonic dvd player). Fantastic english subs and DUB for those that dont like to read movies and even subs in french and more. These new mac releases of ghibli stuff blow that crusty ghibli set out of the water. These things are perfect and you should get them now. It will only encourage them to release the rest of the ghibli movies sooner!