the region 2 japan dvd's put the disney ones to shame quality wise and on extras, and are usually released a hell of a lot earlier and with english dubs to boot. I have the 4 disc region 2 japan howl's moving castle which I bought in december not going to wait til march. Totoro widescreen with exras already out in japan not here til march, also whispers of the heart already out in japan and not here til in the u.sa. til march, pathetic.

Also i've read that disney has censored the soundtracks and or films of miyazaki, what is the truth to these rumors if any?

if any of this info is true then disney should be boycotted and scorned publicly, and I will only in the future purchase the japan releases.

by the way there is a 3 disc making of on mononoke in japan should check it out.

I am such a huge fan of ghibli I bought the final laserdisc release a box set of all their films up to 1995! Now I have all the ghibli stuff that was released on LD in japan including mononoke. Now I just need to find a copy of his pre ghibli works on laserdisc like castle of calgliostro a.k.a. lupin III the movie.

In japan they have all the ghibli shorts on dvd, the making ofs, and all of these dvd's have storyboards. They have the piece with John Lasseter never released here in the states, and of course the video of ghibli museum.

as for the french studio canal release of porco rosso it's quality has been much lauded over the disney release, i saw a copy go for a lot of money on ebay. Man I wish I won that item.