Amazing.

One of the finest animated movies ever made, Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away' is a true one of a kind. A little girl 'Chihiro' strays into an Alice in Wonderland like ghost town, and must become part of this strange community if she is to save her parents. As she slowly changes from moaning brat to head-strong young lady, we watch completely enraptured.

But Spirited Away's true genius lies in the side characters, so brilliant they deserve their own movies. Were talking a huge baby with temper issues, a frog in a kimono, and my favourite, three bodyless heads that roll aroung the floor grunting to themselves. Priceless.

Hayao Miyazaki is often referred to as the 'Japanese Walt Disney'. Well my opinion is that this equals anything Disney ever came up with, if not bettering it. With simply beautiful music, wonderful animation and a tear jerkingly triumphant climax, most other animated movies of the past few years seem saggy and pretentious compared to this.

As all the preceding reviews will tell you, I can't imagine how anyone could dislike this film. In my opinion 'Spirited Away' is good for the soul, the highest recommendation I can give.

Take the hint and buy this film today.

Wonderful Collection!!!!

My 3 year old son was just laughing away and that was great distraction for me to do my thing! Wonderful,can't fault this collection!!!

Misleading science fiction tale which will distress and alarm

I don't know how to approach this review without being extremely negative. E.T is an abbreviation of Elliot Tasker, the lead character in this shambles of a film.
In a nutshell, it is about a boy who befriends an alien, gets too attached, then has to go through the pain of losing the alien at the end of the film. On surface level, that appears to be the plot, but Spielberg has cleverly dressed the movie up in superficial Hollywood schmalz to hide the real meaning behind the film E.T.
Almost certainly motivated by the icey political climate at the time of shooting, Spielberg shrouds his story in fear and a feeling of general unease. The presence of the authorities in the movie are representative of the harsh government powers which were ruling America with an iron rod at the time of shooting.
Spielberg also opted to cast several young inexperienced actors, namely C. Howard Thomas and Drew Barrymore. Using these actors was Spielberg's way of sticking two fingers up to the studios, using them purely to enrich and heighten the symbolic subplot of Jewish repression (a theme Spielberg has often obsessed over). I found it inappropriate that Spielberg had to deliver this propaganda through a family film and that is one reason why I find E.T very diffuclt to enjoy.
The soundtrack is haunting and again has echoes of the kind of music that was piped into the holocaust. This adds such intense emotion to scenes, which are supposed to make one laugh. Instead I found myself close to tears on more than one occasion.
Many people love this film, but for me, it is just all too much to bear.

An improvement

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book and movie of what is to be a seven part series. It is, like its immediate predecessor, directed by Chris Columbus and uses most of the same cast and locations as The Philosopher's Stone. The similarities don't end there though because the plot of the movie is not that far removed from the first and many of the set pieces seem to occur in the same order and in very similar fashion. As it is though the Chamber of Secrets is stronger and more enjoyable, managing to spice up its formula nicely.
Harry Potter is due to start his second year at Hogwarts, having successfully seen off a version of Lord Voldemort at the end of his first year, when he is encouraged not to go back by a house elf named Dobby. He ignores the advice and his second year is punctuated by him hearing voices, classmates being petrified by an unknown force, and a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who is more (or possibly less) than he seems. An element of mystery allows Harry and his friends to act like the Famous Five while they try and figure out just what is responsible for the petrifications. The overall story arc that will run through the rest of the books and films begin in earnest here and some key sub-plots as well. In particular the"pure-bloods" against the"mud-bloods", a nice way to start showing kids how ugly racism is, starts here.
As with the first movie this has a stellar cast, although a criticism is that many great actors like Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman don't have much to do. Shirley Henderson as the ghostly Moaning Myrtle is excellent and Kenneth Branagh hams and camps it up to his eyeballs in a brilliant turn as Gilderoy Lockhart. The three child leads are much the same as they were in the first movie, Daniel Radcliffe is wooden, Emma Watson deeply irritating, and Rupert Grint enjoyable to watch. The effects are strong, although Dobby looks unconvincing, and the giant Basilisk at the finale looks great.
Overall the Chamber of Secrets is an improvement over the Philosopher's Stone, although its still not a great movie (that would come with number three). It is an enjoyable movie though that is great for kids, should be bearable for their parents, and is highly watchable. Ideally I'd give this 3-and-a-half stars- its better than average but not quite 4 out of 5.

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Hi, from Wellington N.Z. I first saw this film at a Wellington cinema sometime during the"Sixties", the theme tune from which has haunted me over the intervening years. And, yes, I remembered what the music was from, but not the name of it or who composed it. I recently heard it on Radio N.Z.'s classical music station, Concert FM, but missed what the announcer said it was. However, I recognised it immediately as having come from the film adaption of Defoe's novel that I had seen. It was hearing this that prompted me to search for it and am really enjoying it not having seen it for over forty years. I wrote to Amazon recently to say that I thought it possibly wasn't the one I remembered due to the theme of the one I saw previously having become so ingrained in my memory. Although the DVD I purchased is a copy of a tv series and not the original movie that I saw, I am really enjoying it. If I ever did come across the version I remember and it is different from the one I purchased, then I will purchase that one too.

Magic of The Movies

This Anime-style adaption of the great book of the same name by British children's author Dianna Wynne Jones is a worthy version of that story and a work of art in its own right.

The art, particularly the Monty Python style Moving Castle, is brilliantly realised. The characters are well established, even the bad guys are given time to develop, and the plot races along without crashing once. Humour and pyrotechnical battle scenes enliven the story without seeming out of place or gratuitous.

The book, inevitably, has more space to develop the crucial relationship of Howl and Sophie, and sadly many of the pleasingly bizarre episodes in the original: e.g.the mighty wizard Howl's brief return to his Welsh roots, are not translated to the screen. Overall, the humanist tone of Dianna Wynne Jones' work is well captured in this film.

Some readers may find rather too much emphasis placed on violent conflict in this cartoon, particularly in its latter stages, but equally,fantasy film fans may be pleased at this level of exciting action, not present in the book.

In all, a very interesting and enjoyable film that will hopefully gain DWJ some more fans too.

funtastic!

I recently bought all 3 of these"Limited Edition" movies, and have already watched them countless times. What can I say? There are still hugely enjoyable, and just wonderful escapist fun! I once felt a bit apprehensive about the added CGI elements in these movies, but actually after a while you start to forget they are there. Besides, they are only really noticeable in Star Wars: A New Hope, and not so much in the other films (though, there is quite a bit of added CGI stuff at the very end of Return of the Jedi).

Just to make sure people know: each DVD consists of 2 discs - one contains the"new", brushed up, improved picture and sound quality version with added CGI elements (Jabba the Hutt talking to Solo; Greedo firing the first shot in the bar when confronting Solo; additional CGI animals and characters in the Mos Aisley spaceport), and all in a new 16:9 widescreen format (should go fullscreen on most widescreen tvs). The other disc contains the discernibly older, unaltered"Theatrical version", with no CGI elements. Basically, the film you remember from your childhood before those stupid prequels. It is in 4:3 format. This is also the same for the other 2 titles in this collection (you know, the REAL movies, RoTJ, ESB). I just have to say, watching them in 16:9 with improved picture and sound, it's hard to believe they were made 30 years ago, they look so contemporary.

For anyone new to the Star Wars universe, and wants to know what the fuss is about, just buy these three movies: Star Wars:A New Hope; Star Wars:The Empire Strikes Back; and Star Wars:Return of the Jedi. Do NOT waste your money on the so-called"prequels" which Lucas made later. They are all utter rubbish and an insult to the real Star Wars fans.

May the Force be with you, always!

A heartful imaginative drama with a spark of fantasy

A family movie that delves into the imaginative minds of children. It's not a bad movie, a bit predicatable in places, though it'll have you laughing at places.

Surprisingly it has a number of moral elements of an adult kind embedded in. Bullying is one such topic that is covered, another was guilt, infatuation, responsibility and to my surprise for a Disney movie - was death (but not the usual animated kind) which envelops the movie in a sad cloud.

It's a sweet movie, light in essence with some cool Special FX, definitely not a CGI extravaganza but more of a heartful drama with some added fantasy thrown in.

Good family movie that will have you laughing and possibly crying rolled into one.

Great Pontypandy Fun!

If you loved the original all those years ago with the voice of the inimitable John Alderton, you will love this new updated version. The theme tune has been revamped, the stories are all brand new and so are some of the characters. There's a new Mountain Rescue to add to the emergency fun, crewed by an Aussie pilot and his helicopter. All the old favourite original residents of Pontypandy are there too, as eccentric as ever and constantly needing one emergency service or other!

It's pacey, it's funny, kids love it and it will prove a real asset to your collection. Buy it and watch them enjoy!

One of the best way to spend little money ;)

First, I saw some screenshots from StS and thought it was nice. But when I put dvd into my player I realized that I bought one of the best, cuteest and warmest animated tv show ever (after WALLACE AND GROMIT of course and with Creature Comforts;) ). I became a big fan of AARDMAN. Brilliaaar-ant and musthave.

This is not an extended edition of the movie

Just to reiterate J.J. Hall's review, I saw this title in a store alongside the original and thought that like with LOTR they'd reinstated lots of scenes that would would enhance the film but were deemed cuttable to get the running time down to an acceptable cinema length. A quick perusal of both boxes showed that both had main features that ran for 108 mins. What you get with this 2-disc edition is just lots of extra features (making ofs, interviews, etc). From the same company that did the excellent LOTR extended editions, this is a real disappointment. This isn't a review of the film (which I still haven't seen to be honest, heard mixed reviews but utterly love the books), just didn't want to see anyone caught out by the"extended" on the cover.

A Great Film To Get Into The Imagination Of Children!

No one can really say that any of Roald Dahl's books or adaptations of books are 'normal', on the contrary, they are as far from normal as you can get without straying too far into the realms of sci-fi. Don't get me wrong though, this is definately a good thing as he manages to capture the minds and the imaginations of all the children who read and watch them.

When Jame's parents are killed by a huge rhinosorus, he is sent to live with two evil women, (presumably his aunts) who treat him like a slave and make him work like a dog all day and give him very little to eat. One day James is visited by a mysterious man who gives him one hundred green crocodile tounges and tells him to use them to make his dreams come true. Minutes later he has falled and all of the crocodile tounges have jumped away into the ground. Then, when a huge peach starts to grow from a supposedly dead tree, James realises that it was the crocodile tounges that are responsible and ventures into the huge fruit. There he meets six insects that have grown to be as big as him, and together they fly around the world on the peach, in search of New York City.

In this film there is a clever use of part real people, part animation which works really well, and is for most of the film seems it actually feels like a cartoon.

Overall this is a great adaptation of a very successful Roald Dahl novel and is sure to entertain children of all ages, and adults alike. If you have very hyperactive kids, then this is a great film to buy as it will keep them quiet for the whole time its on. A good choice if you or your children want some fun.

Oh wow!!

Wow wow wow!! I absolutely loved this when I was younger and I can't wait until it's delivered! Already have the theme tune as my rington!! I'm almost 3 months pregnant and will definitely be watching this with the little one when he/she is born! Super!

Good but no cigar

I liked the film on it`s own, as it is quite well made except for some of the crew appesring in some shots, and reverse sceens. It`s good on it`s own, but after reading holes I had mixed feelings. Indeed it is very very similar in storyline, which is one of the things I gnjoyed most about it, But the charecters contrast like black and white: In the book, for example, the main charectar [Stanley] is said to be fat. In the movie he is lanky, and so on! Still, a very enjoyable one for the kiddies!

Pretty Good DVD

I must say that I have always been a Tom & Jerry fan, so it was long overdue for me to start owning the collection. I bought Volumes 2 & 3 at the same time as getting this one, and despite any editing and overdubbing, I still enjoy settling down to a couple of hours fun entertainment from these timeless characters. My little toddler son also enjoys the Tom & Jerry cartoons - and it takes a lot to get him to sit still for a few minutes - he really seems to like the mouse character as he squeals with delight and claps his hands. Good DVD, would recommend this to all fans, old and young alike.

Not for a Disney Collecter!!!

This review is for the DVD and not the movie. The movie is delightful and wonderfully animated with some of the best Disney songs and characters.

This DVD is superior in every possible way to the first issue, which had bad audio/video and lacked in bonus materials. This edition ’ s picture quality and audio presentation are simply stunning, as if it was drawn in the age of the Little Mermaid and Aladdin. The extras are quite entertaining too but I felt that it lacked the comprehensive ‘ behind the scenes ’ that other recent ‘ Special Editions ’ of classics such as Sleeping Beauty and Bambi had.

I am a Disney DVD collector, and bought the US versions of the Platinum edition Lion King, Aladdin and the recent Cinderella as they all came in superb gift boxes with film cells and character sketches. I was delighted to replace my old Alice in Wonderland DVD with this special edition, only to discover that the US (again) got a better version of this release. Titled ‘ the Masterpiece Edition ’ it comes in 2 Disks and features 2 hours worth of extras including vintage 1950 ‘ One Hour in Wonderland ’ making-of feature hosted by Walt Disney.

I find it quite irritating that as a Disney fan I need to buy copies of the same edition of a movie from both continents just to enjoy the extras- why release Special Editions if they aren ’ t as special as ones released in other countries? Does this mean that in a few years we will get yet another ‘ Special ’ Alice in Wonderland DVD in the UK?

And this is the only reason I am giving this DVD a 3 star rating to direct fellow Disney fans and collectors attention to the existence of a superior edition of this film [even though it is in Region 1]. The movie itself gets 5 bright and shiny stars.