Terrific movie, repressive DVD.

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2003)

It always amazes me that Film Production Companies think that most people are, essentially, stupid. Miyazaki Hayao is easily one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, his animation routinely surpasses that of nearly all American releases and more than hold their own against even classics of American, and world, animation. His films are the most popular in Japan and should be here. Yet almost none of his films have been released on DVD in the States, with the exception of Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)(2000), and the ones available here are weak to say the least.
I just received My Neighbor Totoro DVD, one of my all time favorite flicks, expecting to find at least a couple of nice extras. Want to know what the features are? Pan and Scan! That's right not only is that a feature, it's not an extra feature so the only way to see the Fox Home Entertainment/Troma release is with the ends cut off! A fairly humiliating way for the world's greatest living animator to be honored.
Did I mention that there is only one audio track? The English dub, is pretty good, but I prefer to have the option of watching a film in its native language with subtitles. Oh and the third feature is a couple of trailers for some other lame Fox releases.
All in all a pretty sad DVD release that's only saving grace is that it's pretty cheap. But to be honest I'd prefer good to cheap.
For a "must own" film, and I do believe that, Fox Home Entertainment certainly makes buying their version less than appealing. Serious movie fans should buy a DVD player that plays copies from various regions. From the looks of it, every single other release (including the Chinese releases in Mandarin and Cantonese) looks to be an improvement.
Fox, you suck.