Video:

The video quality is top notch just like all the other Studio Ghibli titles I own.

Audio:

I only watched the English track and can say I spotted no problems what so ever.

Subtitle:

I only watched this in English so far so I do not know what kind of shape the subs are in.

Comment:

I've never seen a bad movie created by this studio and Howl's Moving Castle is a perfect example of this. This title ranks up there pretty high (Grave of the Fireflies is the only one I think beats it) and is original to the point where even if you have never saw the other movies you'd still love this one. I'd have to say that my favorite two characters were the dog (reminds me of ... me) and Calcifer (the fire demon played by Billy Crystal). I can't wait for the next movie because these titles are like crack for all ages!

Video:

The video here is truly flawless no pixelation or any other problems so it?s all good here.

Audio:

I listened to the English dub throughout for this movie but I checked the Japanese audio and both are loud and clear as they should be. So there shouldn?t be any problems here really nice to have the English here dub though.

Subtitle:

There are three sets of subtitles here English, Japanese, and French. I checked the English subs for a few minutes and everything appeared alright without any spelling or grammar problems so no worries here. I can?t read Japanese or French so I can?t comment on those.

Comment:

Having only seen part of one Miyazaki movie before this (Grave of the Fireflies) I wasn?t sure about what to expect but this movie really didn?t disappoint I thoroughly enjoyed it personally. This really is a nice release to no problems what so ever from what I could tell they truly did a great job here and I?m personally very pleased with it. It?s too bad this film only got a limited release in the U.S. I would have liked to see it at the show and it?s really good overall.

Video:

As far as I can tell this was ripped directly from the R2 release without any loss of quality. All of the colours are bright and vivid with detail showing clearly in the shadows as well.

Audio:

I've only listened to the English dubs so far (and I don't forsee listening to the Japanese audio in the near future). These are the official dubs and from what I can tell they are in 5.1 audio... too bad I only have a stereo decoder. What I did hear had great sound placement. My only complaint is that I just saw Batman Begins two nights before watching this movie. The only reason this is a problem is that whenever I hear Howl speaking I'm reminded of Batman because Christian Bale does his voice. Update: I've had a chance to listen to this on a great 5.1 system and was BLOWN AWAY by the quality of the sound mix on the English channel. The sound placement is crisp and well thought out with no awkward ghost sounds that seem out of place. It's hard going back to watching this on my plain old stereo system now. I've also been comparing the Japanese audio track to the English audio track and I feel that the mixing for stereo is a bit better on the Japanese track. I find that there are too many quiet moments that get lost in the English mix if you don't have the sound turned up.

Subtitle:

For people who prefer original dialogue they can be happy to have these subtitles. They are well timed, easy to read and professionally translated. It's nice when the R2 includes them to start with so they can be picked up by the HK producers. You can also see the subtitles in French!

Comment:

I'm bummed that I missed this when it was in theatres this past summer. Miyazaki's visuals are astounding as usual and it's nice to see him animate a story written by someone else for a change. This is a great movie and I expect I'll be watching it a few times over the next few months. Edit: we've watched this movie about a dozen times now and it still sucks me in with the richness of Miyazaki's imagination..