Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie Review

Flying Phantom Ship is a classic action-adventure anime feature-film. The feature is based on the original work by Shotaro Ishimori. Produced by Hiroshi Ōkawa (Horus - Prince of the Sun, Alakazam the Great), Flying Phantom Ship features exquisite animation produced by Toei Animation (Digimon Adventure, Dragon Ball Z). The key animation for Flying Phantom Ship includes contributions by the legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service).

One of the most mysterious things of all is a ghostly Phantom Ship traveling across the word: under-the-sea, across the land, and even flying through the air as if the ship were a spaceship. Along with the ship comes a giant and intimidating Golem. Hayato Arashiyama (Masako Nozawa) is a brave young boy on a new mission – the mission being to seek vengeance for his own parents.

Setting out on a big adventure, Hayato is joined by the Phantom Ship Captain (Gorō Naya) on a journey far more epic in scope than Hayato ever imagined. As the Phantom Ship traverses throughout the land, Hayato comes across giant crab-shells, otherworldly monsters, and other epic obstacles unlike anything his own imagination could have ever dreamt as possible. Will Hayato be able to be the hero of the tale and succeed where others have failed?

Hayato makes a compelling protagonist for the theatrical feature. The character goes on a big adventure with friends and his pooch. The emphasis on the character dynamics in Flying Phantom Ship adds to the experience. There is plenty to appreciate about the journey of Hayato – going from living the life of an ordinary boy to living the life of an adventurer. This aspect of the characterization is essential to the storytelling.

The production of Flying Phantom Ship has excellent hand-drawn animation. The traditional style of cell based animation is something that provides Flying Phantom Ship with a lot of unique qualities – this is something essential to the film. Flying Phantom Ship features art by Isamu Tsuchida (Galaxy Express 999, UFO Robo Grendizer) and animation direction by Yôichi Kotabe (Heidi - A Girl of the Alps, Marco - From the Apennines to the Andes).

The creative team brought together an exceptional production and the animation shines throughout the film. One of the greatest contributions came from a young Hayao Miyazaki and anyone wanting to see an early pre-Ghibli film with art by Miyazaki will consider this an essential film to see. Miyazaki is the master behind Studio Ghibli and classic anime feature-films including My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and many others. Any Miyazaki fan should consider checking out Flying Phantom Ship.

The score composed by Kousuke Onozaki (Pink Lady Monogatari: Eiko no Tenshitachi, Oraa Guzura Dado) is a lot of fun and adds to the viewing experience of Flying Phantom Ship. Composer Onozaki manages to add many wonderful elements to the film. The score is engaging and adds a nice action backdrop.

Directed by Hiroshi Ikeda (Animal Treasure Island, Ōkami Shōnen Ken), who co-wrote the screenplay alongside co-screenwriter Masaki Tsuji (Cutie Honey, Urusei Yatsura), Flying Phantom Ship is a fun adventure. The filmmaking is excellent and Ikeda has a good time exploring the journey of these characters and their epic odyssey. Ikeda has such a creative vision and the filmmaker brings out wonderful work from the team of animators involved with the production as well as the other production team members.

The energetic action sequences in Flying Phantom Ship are reason enough to see the feature. The sequences are ambitious and a lot more engaging than some might expect to find. One particularly stunning sequence involves the dangers of a giant Godzilla-sized crab. These types of sequences add considerable adventure to the viewing experience. The journey of the ship itself is also remarkable and these moments add to the unique charms of Flying Phantom Ship. Fans of classic anime with compelling hand-drawn animation and plenty of imagination will find this to be a worthwhile film.

Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Discotek Media, Flying Phantom Ship is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1 widescreen. The video presentation looks excellent on the release. The filmic transfer is wonderful looking and offers outstanding clarity and detail.

The scan is remarkably clean and has little in the way of print damage or wear. The color reproduction on the release is excellent as well and is consistently impressive during the feature-presentation. The encoding by Discotek is excellent and the transfer capably handles the action sequences in the film. Discotek provides a healthy bit-rate for the video and this is one of the key strengths of the video presentation. It is nice to consider the significant boost in clarity offered by the Blu-ray disc format (compared to streaming alternatives – which tend to offer presentations with a lower bit-rate video encode). Consider that streaming encoding often has video compression problems and streaming data rates can vary compared to a more consistent high-quality bit-rate as is provided on the disc for Flying Phantom Ship.

Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options. The release includes English uncompressed PCM 2.0 and Japanese uncompressed PCM 2.0 (with English subtitles). The main audio track on the release is the original Japanese (with English subtitles).

The English dub is newly produced for the release. The clarity of the audio on the release is excellent. Purists will want to opt for the original Japanese presentation, which has good clarity and detail for a classic anime production. Though fidelity on the Japanese track is somewhat limited compared to newer anime productions the track has good depth and fans will be pleased with the overall quality of the track. The track is free from any significant issues such as hiss, crackle, pops, clicks, and other audio related anomalies. Some audio elements sound a little harsh and less pleasant than on modern productions but the clarity remains impressive overall.

The subtitles are free from any egregious spelling or grammatical errors. It is good to consider the benefit of the lossless encoding in contrast to streaming video services. By comparison, streaming video services offer lossy audio quality (at a paltry bit-rate compared to lossless offerings found on the Blu-ray disc format).

Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release comes with an attractive looking o-card slipcover featuring unique key artwork. The inside sleeve for the release provides additional key artwork so that the main cover of the slipcover is different from the beneath artwork. The release also includes inner sleeve art as well and these design elements add to the special quality of the edition from Discotek. The combination of the slipcover and the unique sleeve artwork helps the release to stand out and it looks great on the shelf. Unfortunately, the release does not include any art galleries with key artwork from Flying Phantom Ship. This would have been a fantastic inclusion for the release given the involvement of key animator Hayao Miyazaki.

On disc supplements include:

Audio Commentary with Mike Toole and Dave Merrill

Theatrical Trailers (SD, 3:44)

Dub Outtakes (HD, 3:38)

Flying Phantom Ship Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Flying Phantom Ship is an entertaining theatrical anime feature-film. The action-packed adventure of the film is engaging throughout. The production has outstanding animation and benefits a great deal from contributions by key artist Hayao Miyazaki (as Flying Phantom Ship is an early pre-Ghibli work involving the legendary filmmaker).

The Blu-ray release from Discotek Media provides an excellent video presentation of the feature-film. The release also includes lossless audio in either Japanese (with English subtitles) or in English (for a brand-new English dub). The release includes a selection of extras as well – including audio commentary featuring contributors Mike Toole and Dave Merrill. The package even comes with a nice o-card slipcover. Fans of classic anime will want to consider seeing this under-the-radar gem. Highly recommended.