OracleBoy77

Interesting someone wanted this at all. I do have the LD myself, and can vouch that it is mono anyway (I suppose it’s merely the optical soundtrack. I suppose the lack of a Dolby Stereo logo during the end credits should’ve been more than an indication that a stereo track wasn’t produced (since this was originally made to run on an airline that probably didn’t need to have a stereo soundtrack at all).

Even the film poster doesn’t promise that either!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F4tB_JKNnT4/VNrjZ5pLuSI/AAAAAAAAJVc/T1Kqvl6B5Cs/s1600/totoro%2Bposter%2Bus.jpg

I just fished this out from a DVD, but I recorded a short clip from my LD anyway for anyone to check out.
http://www.mediafire.com/watch/ub4wpaytdusa28e/_VCR_20100108_221948.avi

Thinking of restoring this classic, I can’t help but remind myself of how it first appeared on The Disney Channel around 1988. The print looked REALLY terrible, as if they simply sourced a copy from a film screening somewhere and didn’t think nothing of it. It got pretty noticeable where the cue marks would be for the change in reels, the end credits also looked like the film suddenly hiccuped in the machine and they had to normalize it despite it already being the last 20 seconds of the film.

I don’t suppose someone saved a copy of that?

Molly said:
The English dub credits misspell “Baer” as “Bear” (logical; the Japanese credits have the name transcribed phonetically in katakana).

That should be Dale Baer, he’s quite a talented animator in his own right (recently he did the 2013 Mickey Mouse short “Get A Horse!”, I just wonder how in the world did he get stuck on this film! I think June is his ex-wife.

The opening and closing themes are performed by Godiego (pronounced “Godaigo” - don’t ask) - they’re apparently somewhat known in the UK for “Monkey Magic”, the theme song to a live-action adaptation of “Journey in the West” that got an English dub there.

Another film they did a couple tunes in is “Galaxy Express 999” (“Taking Off” and “The Galaxy Express 999”). True those in the UK would best know them for “Monkey Magic” while the US may recall the songs in GE:999 (though the Roger Corman “New World Pictures” edition drops the tunes anyway).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW0yrDTvmNc

ETA: I was wrong about the time period of the second dub. 1992 is impossible, since one of the VAs had been dead for years by then. First post has been edited accordingly.

It would have to be during the time Samuel Goldwyn Television was still active, I would think the mid-late 80’s myself. Interesting though that Toei would license out a film to be dubbed into English when they already had one prepared by William Ross (I think the same crew also worked on Swan Lake, which also saw a secondary dub through Samuel Goldwyn TV).

TServo2049 said:

Anchor Bay did put out SP versions IIRC, but apparently they had to be “special ordered” (by the retailers)? I have found tapes (not these ones) from Video Treasures/Starmaker/Anchor Bay that have a “Duplicated in SP Mode” sticker on the back.

I remember when the “Anchor Bay Entertainment” name started popping up in the mid 90’s and those tapes often had covers that resembled the Starmaker releases with a banner placed over Starmaker’s old address and logo just so it now said “Anchor Bay Enertainment” but it stuck out like a sore thumb. I’m sure that was a rocky start, living off the assets of Video Treasures/Starmaker.

Molly said:

The R2 DVD has:

• Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 DD
• English 5.1 and 2.0 DD (essentially the dub mix with the original title card music)
• English captions (dubtitles)
• Japanese subtitles for the English dub (!)

Credits are in Japanese. (Actually the ending of the OGM is DVD-sourced, as the HK lacked it!)

Along with the added CG the Mewtwo origin was tacked onto the beginning of the movie. (The full version of this is ALSO available on the “Mewtwo Returns” Region 1 DVD, in English only.)

Kinda impressed the Japanese DVD gives you the English audio at all, I’m sure it’s simply a novelty, but nice to think there might’ve been a fan or two over there that may have wondered what their favorite characters sounded like in another language.

Does anyone still need a 35mm print to this? I do have one myself, broken up into four reels three are on cores while one is on a steel reel. I bought it may years back because it was a favorite film of mine but never done much with it since I don’t have the means to project it, let alone get it transfer to video. The color of it is pretty decent though it’s missing a few frames/seconds between each reel where the cue marks would be seen during the film (this is typical of theater prints often being splice and re-spliced constantly). I’m sure it might still come in handy if someone has an interest in nit.