Oscar-winning anime includes original Japanese track
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
So a few people picked Roman Polanski, and a few brave souls even bet on darkest horse Adrien Brody. But you would have to be the Carnac of the Oscar ballot had you chosen Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" as best animated film over heavy favorites "Ice Age" and "Lilo & Stitch."
Disney, which released the film mostly in art houses, hustled to get it back on theater screens after the Oscar win, but it is available in a two-DVD set (Walt Disney Home Entertainment). While you lose the big-screen scope of this anime epic on DVD, you gain a wealth of extras, including the opportunity to view the film in its original language.
Pixar executive and Miyazaki fan John Lasseter introduces the film as the director's masterpiece. While I might argue that point, I'll agree that Miyazaki's fantasy about a petulant young girl trapped in a spirit world —where she learns lessons far more complex than kids ever learn in a homegrown Disney film — is an ambitious and amazing film.
The DVD has a Nippon Television documentary about the making of the film, along with features on Miyazaki's distinctive and influential animation techniques. But the biggest bonus is the option to watch the film with its original Japanese soundtrack (Suzanne Pleshette and Jason Marsden were among those who dubbed the English) with subtitles.
Anime fans will also be thrilled to learn that Disney has finally released two of Miyazaki's earlier features, the 1986 adventure "Castle in the Sky," which remains my favorite of his films, and the delightful "Kiki's Delivery Service" from 1989, in two-DVD sets. Both have been dubbed by American actors but include the Japanese alternative.
Parents can confidently allow young children to see the magical "Kiki," but Miyazaki warns that some of the imagery in the other films may be a little too frightening for younger kids; "Spirited Away" opens with the girl's parents being turned into snorting pigs.
Trippin' with Jack
Before Jack Nicholson was a revered institution, he was a struggling actor and writer at the B-movie outpost run by Roger Corman, who was all too eager to exploit the psychedelic drug scene of the '60s. MGM Home Entertainment has collected two of the most infamous examples on one disc in its Midnite Movies series: 1967's "The Trip" and 1968's "Psych-Out."
The former is a drama written by Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda as a TV director on his first LSD outing; the latter features Susan Strasberg as a runaway who gets her mind rearranged when she crashes with Stoney (a pony-tailed Nicholson) and his band, Mumblin' Jim.
The road to Hope
With Bob Hope's 100th birthday approaching, Universal has taken another crack at cataloging his cinematic legacy. The latest batch released under the umbrella "The Bob Hope Tribute Collection" includes four two-fers.
The "Double Feature" discs pair 1946's "Monsieur Beaucaire" with 1947's "Where There's Life"; 1941's "Louisiana Purchase," a musical scored by Irving Berlin, with 1939's "Never Say Die," co-written by Preston Sturges; 1941's "Caught in the Draft" with 1938's "Give Me a Sailor"; and 1949's "Little Miss Marker" remake "Sorrowful Jones" with what is regarded as Hope's best film, 1948's "Paleface."
Universal is also releasing "Paleface" as a stand-alone DVD, as well as three titles in the "Road" series, for which he was joined by Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour: the prototype, 1940's "Road to Singapore"; 1941's "Road to Zanzibar"; 1942's "Road to Morocco," where all involved were finally comfortable and cruising; and 1946's enjoyable "Road to Utopia."
'Drumline' and others
Of the week's recent theatrical releases, the most enjoyable is easily "Drumline" (Fox). It features standout performances by Nick Cannon as a talented street drummer and Orlando Jones as the leader of a college marching band who recruits him.
"The Transporter" (Fox) is a nonstop action film co-written by Luc Besson ("The Professional") about a smuggler who draws the line at slave trading and finds plenty of less-scrupulous bad guys willing to cross it.
"The Grey Zone" (Trimark Home Video) is a grim but involving fact-based drama about the Auschwitz Sonderkommando, Jews who were spared extermination for cleaning up after the gassings.
"Rabbit-Proof Fence" (Miramax Home Entertainment), set in Australia, tells the true story of three half-caste girls who travel 1,500 miles home after escaping a government institution designed to assimilate them into the white populace.
