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River Spirit
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Hello all, this is my first post on this site.

I am seeking definitive answers as to which films by Miyazaki were rescored after their original release.

I know Joe Hisaishi rescored Castle in the Sky in 1999 with a full orchestra when Disney was doing their English dub. From what I've gathered, the original score was deemed insufficient for Western audiences as it was synthesizer-heavy and only an hour in length. I've been watching the 1999 version of the film as long as I can remember and I didn't even know there was an original until about five years ago. Does any of the original score find its way into the 1999 version?

I guess the only other films I'm concerned with are Miyazaki's '80s films, since that's when Hisaishi was in his "synthesizer phase". The 2005 dub of Nausicaä and the 1993 dub of My Neighbor Totoro both appear to have synthesizers present in their scores. Are these unaltered from their original '80s releases? I've heard at least one source say that Totoro was rescored. The 2005 dub of Totoro I haven't seen since TCM ran it but I can't remember if the score was any different.

Thanks for any help you can give!

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Saddletank
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The only one I'm aware of is the closing titles music to Kiki's Delivery Service which was rewritten for the Disney release. The original score was a 50s style beat tune and I think Disney wanted something more modern.

I think the rest of Kiki got some musical alterations but as music isn't my main field of interest I have no full answers.

Don't the Wiki pages for Ghibli films carry musical score information?

Welcome to the forums too.


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River Spirit
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Thanks for the welcome.

I had figured the lyrical song at the end of Kiki was updated/Americanized somehow. I'm not sure about the main movie though; I actually haven't seen that one in a while.

Unfortunately there aren't many soundtrack details on the web from what I've seen. Wikipedia and nausicaa.net usually don't go any further than saying the composer and when the CDs were released.

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husky51
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Welcome to the Tavern, River Spirit...

I haven't seen him for awhile, but the only one that i remember as being of a musical bent was Leonbloy. If he is still looking in now and then like many members do, maybe he might have some input on your question.

Or someone else might know,

Good Luck and again Welcome!


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River Spirit
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Thank you, husky51! I'll be on the lookout for Leonbloy then.

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FlareNetworkC
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I know for a fact Nausicaa wasn't rescored, the score has too much 80s cheese in it for it to be redone. Totoro, I can't say, but I did just rewatch the film recently, and the score didn't appear to have synthesizers very present. And the opening and ending songs were definitely redone, or at least dubbed into English. But the songs felt very 80s, so I don't think Totoro's music was rescored.


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River Spirit
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Yeah I agree, Nausicaa sounded very '80s with the synthesizer stuff. And yet the opening credits and some other parts seem to have a full orchestra playing.

I could be wrong, but I think in Totoro, the theme that plays when the big tree appears is done on synthesizer, at least partly. Other than that it's not very prominent. I think the opening and closing songs were simply dubbed into English.

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cuau_cg
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Arrietty also got a pop song for the credits. Which was aweful.

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makc
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does dubbing a song count https://youtu.be/pvebbDqsKBE?t=97 ?


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River Spirit
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quote:
Originally posted by cuau_cg
Arrietty also got a pop song for the credits. Which was aweful.


True, but at least they kept it until the very end. I don't think it distracted from the film and the rest of the soundtrack was beautiful.

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River Spirit
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quote:
Originally posted by makc
does dubbing a song count https://youtu.be/pvebbDqsKBE?t=97 ?


I wish they wouldn't, but as long as it's simply translating the words it's no big deal.

The problem comes when they produce entirely new content. I can't stand when Disney thinks they have to Americanize or Disney-fy the music by putting in new vocal songs to Ghibli films. The worst offenders are on Kiki, Ponyo, and to a lesser extent Arrietty. It's horribly incongruous to have genuine Japanese films and ruin the mood with something so distinctly American. Not to mention such alterations are sure to "date" the film in the future.

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makc
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quote:
as long as it's simply translating the words it's no big deal


wait, we're talking about english song that the character actually translated into japanese but the thing is, english viewers do not speak japanese, so for them disnay or whoever dubbed it basically used original song text.

or so is my understanding of the situation.


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I haven't actually seen the Whisper of the Heart dub, but now I'm wondering, how do they handle that song? If they're singing the original song, then do they change the thing in the story about how they're translating it?


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makc
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Same. I bet it is just lost in translation along with any puns or jokes that depend on japanese context too much. I see this happening all the time with english movies dubbed into other languages, sometimes they try to inject entirely new jokes to compensate for the loss, but it never really works.


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It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so loving what - Stephen Fry.

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