Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

Discuss North American DVDs and Blu-rays or other DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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manicsounds
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#101 Post by manicsounds » Wed Apr 30, 2014 10:58 am

DVDTalk review of Gamera Volume 2 with screenshots

Well, 1080i, just like the Japanese blu-rays, no lossless Japanese audio (the Japanese discs had PCM audio), but considering the price...

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StevenJ0001
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#102 Post by StevenJ0001 » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:03 am

manicsounds wrote:DVDTalk review of Gamera Volume 2 with screenshots

Well, 1080i, just like the Japanese blu-rays, no lossless Japanese audio (the Japanese discs had PCM audio), but considering the price...
Some of those screen shots look very good! As you suggest, for the price, looks like a great value!

Movie-Brat
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#103 Post by Movie-Brat » Wed Apr 30, 2014 2:22 pm

Yeah, um, I've heard mixed things about the Sony Blu-Rays. So, the masters are really from Toho's vault?

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manicsounds
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#104 Post by manicsounds » Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:40 pm

Movie-Brat wrote:
Yeah, um, I've heard mixed things about the Sony Blu-Rays. So, the masters are really from Toho's vault?
Says so here


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manicsounds
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#106 Post by manicsounds » Sat May 03, 2014 10:16 am


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StevenJ0001
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#107 Post by StevenJ0001 » Sat May 03, 2014 2:20 pm

Would like to get a confirmation of which of the Sony releases have dubtitles--clearly some of them do, based on that review. :(

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#108 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat May 03, 2014 2:56 pm

Megaguirus has proper subtitles. Don't know about the rest.

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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#109 Post by Movie-Brat » Sat May 03, 2014 11:05 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:Megaguirus has proper subtitles. Don't know about the rest.
Good to know but I assume not so much for Vs. Destroyah?

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StevenJ0001
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#110 Post by StevenJ0001 » Wed May 07, 2014 10:24 am

There's talk over at Blu-ray.com that the Sony releases have two subtitle tracks, one of them being a true translation and the other being dubtitles (maybe SDH?) No idea if this is true for all the discs but it seems to apply to some at least. Good news, perhaps!

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#111 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed May 07, 2014 10:32 am

Megaguirus does have both subtitles and SDH, but both are identical (except for the captioning of sound effects). So both are for use with the Japanese track, as they are true subtitles which do not match the English dub. The KG/Mothra set also has proper subtitles, according to this thread (on further reading, I'm now seeing contradictory information about Megaguirus! Ugh.)

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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#112 Post by Movie-Brat » Wed May 07, 2014 5:59 pm

What about Destroyah? That one also has accurate subtitles?

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dx23
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#113 Post by dx23 » Tue May 20, 2014 1:10 am

Apparently Wal-Mart has many of these new BDs for $8 but I haven't found any of them. The only thing I saw on my near Wal-Mart was the sticker with $8 price tag on the shelves where the Godzilla BDs are supposed to be.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#114 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:31 am

Movie-Brat wrote:What about Destroyah? That one also has accurate subtitles?
I have all of the new discs now except for the Millennium films, and have gone through each one to ascertain which have dubtitles. The answer is: basically all of them. Well, sort of.

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
This is mainly dubtitles, with a few phrases differing when the dub gets really stupid. I've heard these described as hybrid subs before, but they're definitely mainly dubtitles.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster
As above, though since the dub is even stupider, they've had to make more "corrections". It's like they started with pure dubtitles, and then went through and excised the more contentious lines and re-translated them properly.

Godzilla vs. Gigan
Definitely the best of the bunch. About 50% of the film is proper subtitles, mainly during detailed conversation or expository dialogue. The more simple dialogue remains dubtitles. Presumably the further the dub veers from the original script, the more they've had to go back and correct.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Mothra
These are both similar to Sea Monster and Smog Monster; mainly dubs with a few proper translations thrown in.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
These two are definitely the most dubby of all of them. Particularly disappointing in the former's case because my Australian DVD has proper translated subtitles throughout. Still, I spotted a couple of minor corrections here and there.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Surprisingly, this is the only new disc that is entirely proper subtitles. Why only one of the films gets this treatment I don't know, but it's better than nothing.

All in all, the fact that most of the dubtitle tracks have had translation corrections done to them, in Gigan's case basically half of the film, suggests that what has been left was already a fair translation. So for the most part I'm pretty happy with these.

Godzilla vs. Biollante also has proper subtitles (and even identifies them as such in the menu), and I haven't got Destroy All Monsters or Godzilla vs. Megalon yet, but will update when I have.

criterion10

Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#115 Post by criterion10 » Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:30 am

So, basically, Sony fucked up the subtitles big time on these releases, amirite?

I bought all of them, but haven't watched them yet. Hopefully, the dubtitles don't ruin the experience for me; then again, that's probably the only way I've seen the films in the first place.

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StevenJ0001
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#116 Post by StevenJ0001 » Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:34 am

EddieLarkin wrote:I have all of the new discs now except for the Millennium films, and have gone through each one to ascertain which have dubtitles. The answer is: basically all of them. Well, sort of.

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster... [etc.]
This is very helpful info--thank you!!

You mentioned that the Australian DVD of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II has real subtitles--have you determined if the translation is vastly different from the dubtitles, or is the meaning essentially intact? If the dubs are still a fairly accurate translation, that's less of a concern.
criterion10 wrote:So, basically, Sony fucked up the subtitles big time on these releases, amirite?

I bought all of them, but haven't watched them yet. Hopefully, the dubtitles don't ruin the experience for me; then again, that's probably the only way I've seen the films in the first place.
I guess it depends on whether or not the dubs are, for the most part, accurate translations. If they are, and any big changes in meaning have been corrected, that doesn't sound too bad.

By the way, has anybody else had trouble getting the DTS-HD audio working on the Kraken Blu-rays? My receiver won't output the HD track from Hedorah.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#117 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:15 pm

Yeah I suspect that only Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla are going to give any one issues. Some examples of the differences between the sub on my GvMII AU disc and the Blu-ray:

Subtitles:
No special skills, no medals, no particular experience. Your hobby is... the Pteranodon?
Do you know them? They're a winged dinosaur that flies.


Dubtitles:
Single, with no children. Hobbies, pterandodons?
Right, sir. Don't you know what they are, sir? They're small flying dinosaurs.


Subtitles:
It's been a long time, Miss Saegusa.
Yes, it's a pleasure to see you!
Yes, and you are...?
Aoki, from G-Force
You're from G-Force? Not very impressive


Dubtitles:
Well I never! This is a surprise.
Hello, sir. It's lovely to see you again.
You too. And who's this?
Aoki, G-Force, sir.
G-Force, did you say? I don't trust you guys one little bit.


Different, and definitely dumbed down a bit, but not so much they actually change the story or anything.
StevenJ0001 wrote:By the way, has anybody else had trouble getting the DTS-HD audio working on the Kraken Blu-rays? My receiver won't output the HD track from Hedorah.
Just checked and it works fine for me.
Last edited by EddieLarkin on Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#118 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:40 pm

Here is an example of a scene that has been cleaned up from the mainly dubtitled Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah:

Dub transcription:
Those bones that were caught the other day in the fishing boat's net, they look to me like they were the bones of a Plesiosaur.
The bones of a plesiosaur in New Zealand... Professor this is 1977!
All scientists say dinosaurs are extinct, but I no longer believe they are. There are still some among us!
So what are you trying to say?
I'm just trying to say, I believe the old man's story. That thing may not have been a tyrannosaurus rex, but I'm almost positive of one thing; what he saw on that island was a dinosaur!


Hybrid dubtitles from the BD:
Those bones that were caught by the Japanese fishing boat, look to me like they are from a Plesiosaur.
A plesiosaur just off New Zealand in 1977?
All scientists say dinosaurs are extinct, but I don't agree.
So what you're saying is...
I would believe that old man's story. That thing may not have been a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but in 1944, there was a dinosaur on the Marshall Islands.


Subtitles from AU DVD:
The bones retrieved by the Japanese vessel... must have come from a Plesiosaur.
They found a Plesiosaur in New Zealand, in 1977?
Everyone thinks dinosaurs are extinct, but I don't believe it.
Then you think...
I believe the man's story. It may not be a Tyrannosaurs, but I think he really saw a dinosaur on the Marshall Islands, in 1944.


You can see how they've redone this scene so it's closer to the (presumably accurate) subtitles. The very next scene is pure dubtitles, because sure enough the dub is already pretty close to the AU subtitles. So in these cases I'm perfectly fine with it. For whatever reason they seem to have not bothered with Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, and then weirdly (thankfully) have just done a full translation of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

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StevenJ0001
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#119 Post by StevenJ0001 » Thu Jun 05, 2014 12:12 pm

Thanks Eddie for all of that valuable info! And thanks for checking out the Kraken disc.

The subtitle/dubtitle situation is very weird. I'd certainly prefer straight subtitles without any dumbing down or reworking, but overall it's not disastrous, and I'll be happy to purchase all of these.

I'm curious what happens with Sony's eventual (hopefully) release of GMK, since I read somewhere that the subtitle translation on the DVD is not satisfactory. Haven't seen the film yet but I'm looking forward to it as it's reputed to be the best of the MIlllenium series.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#120 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:36 pm

That will be another annoying one as again my Australian DVD has proper subtitles. It's definitely my favourite of the Millennium Series.

arromdee
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#121 Post by arromdee » Sun Jun 08, 2014 1:42 am

There's a post on blu-ray.com which says that Destroyer is badly dubtitled: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... count=1488" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That thread also says that vs. King Ghidorah and vs. Mothra don't have dubtitles and suggests that that's because those films were originally released with no subtitles for them to reuse now.

It's also odd that there are dubtitles on Sea Monster, Smog Monster, and Gigan. Those come from an anime company and because of the demands of anime subtitling, and the importance of subtitles to anime, anime companies usually subtitle better than anyone else (including non-anime companies who try to subtitle anime).

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dwk
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#122 Post by dwk » Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:00 pm

Sony is releasing Godzilla 2000, GMK, Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla and the Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy on Blu-ray on 9/9. Sci Fi Japan has the details and cover art

Movie-Brat
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#123 Post by Movie-Brat » Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:09 pm

dwk wrote:Sony is releasing Godzilla 2000, GMK, Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla and the Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy on Blu-ray on 9/9. Sci Fi Japan has the details and cover art
Finally. I was hoping for Godzilla 2000 and GMK. Guess the other ones sold well and good timing too.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#124 Post by EddieLarkin » Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:53 pm

Very pleased about Mothra, as I've never seen them before. Hopefully the original will follow. I'm shocked that the original Japanese version (never before released outside of Japan!) of Godzilla 2000 will be included. Fantastic news!

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manicsounds
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Re: Godzilla on DVD and Blu-ray

#125 Post by manicsounds » Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:53 pm

Considering the 3 Mothra movies are still not out in Japan on Blu-ray, this is quite a surprise.

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