A look at the best film of 2001 (and 2002!)

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2002)

I originally saw this film back in March 2002 and had planned on leaving comments on it but for some reason I passed. It's been many months since then and I've seen it 7 times total now and it's simply amazing every time. It truly is one of the finest coming of age stories of all-time and is a visual masterpiece. Although not my favorite Miyazaki film (this ranks slightly behind Tonari no Totoro), it's certainly leagues beyond any other animated film in recent years.
I decided to wait until I had seen the English language version (I've gone to it twice already since it opened on the 11th, 3 days ago) to comment on it here on the IMDb so I could take a look at the version most people would likely see. I am a big fan of anime but I am not one of those obsessive sub-only purists, if it's dubbed well then I can enjoy it just as much as the original. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the English language version even more than the Japanese and Cantonese versions I saw by a good bit. The voices all seemed very appropriate and I enjoyed the few added lines that were included. I was a little bummed about how when Haku says his full name they did not leave it in Japanese, I think it would have been better with saying how it sounded so royal, etc. but that was my only nitpick. Disney did a wonderful job in the English language production, now only if they would market it some (I've not even seen a tv spot here and the ad in the newspaper was very small) and put it in more theatres they may find they have a fairly successful film on their hands to go along with its status of critical darling.