What You Can Do About The Mononoke DVD

El Cosmico here, I've managed to calm down a bit...here's the deal folks...

If you're not aware, Buena Vista has announced that the Region 1, US release of Princess Mononoke on DVD will NOT have the Japanese language track. Needless to say, this has greatly upset anime fans, including myself. Michael S. Johnson of Nausicaa.net is going to speak to and present their collection of messages to a fellow from Buena Vista named David Jessen THIS FRIDAY, who just recently began his position as a liaison for Buena Vista. Now, since he's new, AND since he's asked for feedback regarding the inclusion of a Japanese language track on Mononoke AND FUTURE Miyazaki releases on DVD and VHS, we need to be nice to him. Like I said, he's just started the job. Don't flame him or send him hate mail. From what I've heard, this guy just walked into the situation, so this is probably catching him off guard, and we need to give him time to deal with it properly. So, just let him know how important it is to you that Buena Vista treat Miyazaki's works with the reverence they deserve. His address is:

David Jessen
c/o Buena Vista Home Entertainment
350 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4691

Please send THOUGHTFUL comments. You SHOULD ALSO, if you haven't done it yet, CLICK HERE AND SEND A MESSAGE to Nausicaa.net. Michael S. Johnson, of Nausicaa.net will be collecting your letters to bring to his meeting with Mr. Jessen regarding this very issue...as I said, they will be meeting Friday, so please send your messages soon.

UPDATE: Nausicaa.net received over 1000 responses in the first 30 hours, and is no longer requesting petition emails, so please send further petitions/correspondences on this issue to the snail mail, Burbank, CA address listed above. Thanks.

Folks, this is probably as good a chance we're going to get to have a positive impact on Buena Vista's treatment of Miyazaki's works as they come to the US. Please make your voices heard.

-El Cosmico

mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com

By the way, a fellow asked me why anime fans felt this way...so I thought I'd post a bit more explanation. Here you go:

You see, this affects attitudes toward foreign film in general, since original performances follow the director's vision, and some of the very greatest Japanese actors of all time provided the performances in the original audio track for Mononoke. To not include these performances is shameful, especially since...

1) They are the original and proper performances of the film.
2) They include the actors hand-picked by the director.
3) They include the original emotion and expression, and LANGUAGE of the film.
4) The great advantage of the DVD format is its ability to include multiple language tracks (for example, this disc will include English and FRENCH, but not the original track.)
5) Die hard anime fans enjoy some dubs - AICN met and talked to Neil Gaiman when Mononoke was released stateside and I thought his dub was AMAZING, probably the best dub I've ever heard. BUT, die hard anime fans also INSIST on seeing the film in original Japanese. Many of us speak some Japanese (I do), and even those of us who don't simply want to see the film as was originally intended. There are a great many things which you simply can't translate.

There are many foreign films, even in languages I only slightly understand (like Life Is Beautiful in Italian) which simply can't be dubbed...because of the expressiveness and emotion, and CHARACTER of the original language. I mean, acting isn't just about moving from one place to another, making gestures and facial expressions. A great deal of acting is in vocalization. This is why I and many others feel this is such an important issue.

P.S. Hey talkbackers...if you're not an anime fan, then OBVIOUSLY you don't care about this. So this article doesn't concern you. So we don't need your comments. As for those who say no one cares...well, the previous coax article on this subject had more than 50 talkbacks, and Nausicaa.net has received more than 900 emails on this subject. So yes, kiddies, people do care.