Just forget the words and sing along

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Right now, I'm spending my Remeberance Day by playing with Firefox. Firefox is a new web browser from the good folks at Mozilla. Firefox was suggested to me by my old friend Streiff, as Firefox apparently kicks Internet Explorer's ass all over the place. Some of the features that Firefox boasts that IE doesn't have:

- built-in spyware blocking
- built-in pop up ad blocking
- built-in Search Engine toolbar. (Yeah, IE has this, but usually as a spyware-laced plug in. Not with Firefox)
- tabbed browsing. See, everytime you open a new window with IE, you get another IE program running and eventually your taskbar is cluttered with IEs. But, with Firefox, you've only got one program running, and you switch back and forth between websites with tabs at the top of the screen. Very handy.

And, as with the good old days of web browsers, it's absolutly free. Just go to Get Firefox.com to download it.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I've done updates of DVDs coming out in the distant future. So, let's do that.

On February 15th, we'll finally get the long-in-development special edition DVD of Orgazmo. For bonus materials, you have over an hour of cut scenes and bloopers, a documentary about the film, and three running commentaries. One is a "drunken commentary," just like on the Cannibal!: The Musical DVD. There's even more stuff that hasn't been announced yet.

And, on February 22nd, Disney finally releases their latest batch of dubbed Studio Ghibli films. You may remember that these disks were originally going to come out back in August, but Disney put them off so they could work them into their Howl's Moving Castle hype. And there's been one change in the line-up, too. Originally, they were going to release Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, Porco Rosso, and My Neighbor Totoro. But now, Totoro has been replaced with the Cat Returns. I remember The Cat Returns. It came out in the summer of 2002, shortly after I arrived in Japan. Advertising for it was everywhere. It has to do with a little girl who meets a 3-foot tall talking cat and goes on an adventure in the Cat Kingdom. It was directed by Hiroyuki Morita. Anyway, here's the rundown on the three discs and their bonus material:

Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind:
- "Behind the Microphone," featuring interviews with the American voice cast, including Allison Lohan, Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, and Edward James Olmos.
- The storyboards for the entire film
- The original Japanese trailer
- "The Birth of Studio Ghibli" featurette. (This was Ghibli's first film, after all)
- Original Japanese language track

Porco Rosso:
- "Behind the Mircophone," featuring interviews with the American voice cast, including Michael Keaton, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett and David Ogden Stires
- The storyboards for the entire film
- the original Japanese trailer
- interview with Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki
- Original Japanese language track

The Cat Returns:
- "Behind the Microphone," featuring interview with the American voice cast, including Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Andy Richter, Tim Curry, and Rene Auberjenois.
- The storyboards for the entire film
- The original Japanese trailer
- "Making of" featurette
- Original Japanese language track

Don't forget, that's all on February 22.

And don't worry. If you can't wait for Disney's new dub of My Neighbor Totoro, you can still get the 20th Century Fox dub from 1993. You can fish it out of most discount bins now for $5.99.

One last thing before I go. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists have announced that these are the films eligible for this year's Best Animated Film Oscar:

* Clifford's Really Big Movie
* Disney's Teacher's Pet
* Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Japan)
* Home on the Range
* Polar Express
* Shark Tale
* Shrek 2
* Sky Blue (aka Wonderful Days, Korean)
* The Incredibles
* The Legend of Buddha (Indian)
* The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

As there are less than 16, there will be only three nominations in the category. Nominees will be announced in January.

Next Issue...The Fire of the Fox

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