Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie Review

Tales from Earthsea (2006), the feature debut of Gorô Miyazaki (son of Hayao), has been re-released by Shout! Factory as a Blu-ray & DVD Combo Pack. The new disc pressing retains all of the extras that appeared on the Disney/Buena Vista version from three years ago. While it adds a bonus item, the uncompressed sound track loses the extra channel(s) that was on the US Disney and some of the overseas releases. For a review of the film and an analysis of the a/v from the earlier edition, you can read my colleague Ken Brown's critique here.

Front of slip cover and back of BD case.

Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tales from Earthsea appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a BD-50. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded video transfer carries an average bitrate of 29999 kbps while the full disc reaches a total bitrate of 41.43 Mbps. Click on Screenshot #s 5-9 to view frame enlargements.

Shout! has provided twenty-five scene selections for the feature.

Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The three sound track options consist of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (4334 kbps, 24-bit), the original Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (4304 kbps, 24-bit), and a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (448 kbps) dubbed in French. Shout! has not included any of the boosted uncompressed mixes on the other releases: the US Disney's Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1, the UK Studio Canal and AU Madman Entertainment's Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 ES Discrete, and the DE Universum Film's Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 are all absent on Shout!'s disc.

There are three subtitling options: English SDH for the English sound track, English subtitles for the original language version, and French subtitles.

Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Shout! touts "NEW BONUS FEATURES" on the front slip but its more apt to state they're previously unreleased in North America. The two big additions are the forty-three-minute Japanese TV special and a half-hour featurette about Therru's song, both of which first appeared on the European BDs. This set would have been complete had Shout! also ported over the forty-seven-minute "Behind the Microphone" featurette which I couldn't find. All extras come with English subtitles where needed.

• Feature-Length Storyboards (1:55:38, 1080p) - the complete storyboards are framed in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. At least three of the other BDs incorporated them as solely a picture-in-picture option with the main feature but PiP is not available on this disc.

• "The Birth Story of the Film Soundtrack" documentary (1:00:18, 480i)

• NEW "The Birth Story of 'Therru's Song'" (30:08, 480i)

• NEW NTV Special (43:52, 480i)

• TV Spots (1:25, 480i)

• Original Theatrical Trailers (10:02, 1080p)

• NEW Exclusive Booklet - an eight-page leaflet with two essays translated in English and four color stills of the animation.

Tales from Earthsea Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This reissue of Tales from Earthsea enables anime fans to experience the talent and creativity of Miyazaki's son as well as his team of animators. The Shout! package would have been complete had it included the "Behind the Microphone" piece and added one of the JP DTS-HD MA 6.1/7.1 tracks. Completists and hard-core fans may want to grab the Studio Canal or Madman release. Nonetheless, this pack is currently $15 cheaper than the discontinued Disney release and comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.