Special Features:

• Storyboards
• Background Artwork from "The Baron's Story"
• 4 Masterpieces of Naohisa Inoue: from Start to Finish
• Behind the Microphone
• TV spots
• Original Japanese Theatrical Trailers
• Studio Ghibli Collection Trailers

Cast

Youko Honna

Kazuo Takahashi

Takashi Tachibana

Shigeru Muroi

Shigeru Tsuyuguchi

Keiju Kobayashi

Yorie Yamashita

Maiko Kayama

—---------------------------

David Gallagher

James Sikking

Jean Smart

Harold Gould

Courtney Thorne-Smith

Martin Spanjers

Mika Boorem

Abigail Mavity

Cary Elwes

Trailer

All reviews, articles and opinions © David Beckett & Film365. Various images © their respective copyright holders. All Rights Reserved.

Film 365 website designed and created by Richard Beckett

I can't remember what the first film Studio Ghibli I saw was but, if I had to guess, it would be Princess Mononke followed, three years later by Spirited Away, probably the most well-known of all their films and one which, for me, opened the door to numerous other films dating back to the 1980s. While working my way through their back catalogue, I rented the DVD of Whisper of the Heart early last year and, as it's was one of over 1000 films I saw in 2011, I'd completely forgotten the title when it was made available for review.

 

It was no surprise when, during the first five minutes of watching the new BD, I thought 'I've seen this film but I've no idea how or when' and it took me ages to figure out I'd seen the Optimum Releasing DVD. Whilst this wasn't like watching a film for the first time, there were bits I remembered and bits I didn't, so it was like meeting a friend for the first time in over a decade!

 

Whisper of the Heart follows Shizuku Tsukishima, a bookish schoolgirl in her mid teens who has a vivid imagination, lives with her parents and older sister and has to deal with their parents' expectations of following in her sister's footsteps whilst coping with the usual teenage pressures of schoolwork, friends and boys.

 

Having set herself the task of reading 20 books during the summer holidays, she is a frequent visitor to the school library (and the one at which her father works), Shizuku notices all the books she checks out had previously been checked out by Seiji Amasawa, a name she doesn't recognise. At school, she tells her best friend, Yuko about this and then shows her some lyrics she wrote for a school song, based on the Olivia Newton John song 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', which Yuko really likes. While sitting by the baseball field, Yuko tells Shizuku she has received a love letter, but has a crush on a mutual friend, Sugimura.

 

Escorting Yuko to a cram class in order to revise for an upcoming test, Shizuku suddenly realises she left her bag by the baseball field and, desperate to retrieve it and the library book she just checked out, dashes back only to find a boy reading her song lyrics, which he describes as 'corny', but that her parody, 'Concrete Roads', needs some work, which infuriates her. The next day, she takes a train to the library and is curious to see a cat board the train and then to sit next to her. Rather than go to the library, she follows the cat when it disembarks and it leads her to an old antique shop where she looks around and begins chatting to the elderly owner Shiro Nishi, who shows her a grandfather clock he's been restoring for the past three years and a statuette of a cat with a cane, top hat and formal clothing, who he calls Baron Humbert von Jikkingen.

 

Running to the library to bring her father his lunch, Shizuku realises she left the bag at the antiques shop but, just as she is about to turn and run back, the boy who was at the baseball field the previous day pulls up on his bicycle with the bag and, after commenting on what a huge lunch she has, cycles away singing her song and putting her in another foul mood. However, as school begins and she continues to visit the antiques shop, Shizuku comes to know and like the boy, whilst Yuko has some problems with Sugimura and doesn't appreciate her friend's help.

 

Deciding to write a story about The Baron, Shizuku asks Shiro Nishi if that's alright and he says it is with one condition: he is to be the first to read it, a condition to which she agrees immediately. Staying up until the early hours to do her homework and write her story, which she calls Whisper of the Heart, Shizuku begins falling asleep in classes, but finds the story coming to life.

 

Whisper of the Heart was the first Studio Ghibli film not to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who wrote the screenplay and was the chief/supervising producer. Yoshifumi Kondô, who Miyazaki thought would eventually replace him at the studio, and had been an animator and character designer for years before, directed the film – the only one he directed as he died the year after it was released. It is unmistakably a Studio Ghibli film, but unlike those which Miyazaki had directed before or has directed since. The characters, animation style and the way in which the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred is a feature common to several Studio Ghibli films and this doesn't discredit the renowned studio in any way.

 

If you're like me, you will watch this and notice how similar some of the designs and overall aesthetic are to The Cat Returns, something which is clearly no accident as both films are based on comics by Aoi Hiiragi. As Studio Ghibli tends to retain the same animators, artists and character designers and employ them for every film, such similarities are inevitable but, as Hayao Miyazaki seemingly creates the characters and locales for his films, they have their own distinctive look.

 

Miyazaki's screenplay effortlessly blends the daily life of a real teenage girl with the right amount of fantasy and adventure to prevent this from becoming your average film about a (junior) high school, making it something much more (and I don't use of this in its pejorative sense) charming, endearing and exciting. The characters are all extremely well rounded and plausible. Although this may not have the epic nature of Princess Mononoke, the fear and otherworldly nature of Spirited Away or the sheer sense of wonder found in My Neighbour Totoro, it is a beautifully told story which could you involved from first minute to last, really caring about the characters.

The Disc

Extra Features

Studio Ghibli releases aren't usually replete with extra features and, as Whisper of the Heart was released before DVD/BD bonus material was a major selling point for the home video market, the disc just contains the following:

 

Storyboards aren't a standalone montage of pencil drawings, but the whole film in storyboard form which you can watch whilst watching the film itself, using the angle button to toggle them on or off. This is a good addition as it shows the difference between the initial storyboards and the finished animated sequences with full colour and more background information.

 

Background Artwork from "The Baron's Story" (4:46, SD) is, as the title suggests, a series of images showing the great detail which went into the backgrounds during the sequence when Shizuku is reading from her story. Taken out of context, you can really appreciate the level of time and effort which went into these drawings to make such detail.

 

4 Masterpieces of Naohisa Inoue: from Start to Finish (34:43, HD) shows four pieces of artwork and, using timelapse photography, how they were developed from a Jackson Pollock-like painting to something with a great deal more detail and a beautiful painting of a town. You probably don't need to watch these unveil at the speed they play on the BD (or DVD) and could appreciate them as much by increasing the playback speed. If these were by Rolf Harris and not Naohisa Inoue, you'd probably have someone saying 'Can you guess what it is yet?' at certain points!

 

Behind the Microphone (7:59, SD) concentrates on the English cast, containing interviews with Brittany Snow (Shizuko), Ashley Tisdale (Yuko), Ned Lott (producer, English-language version), Rick Dempsey (director, English-language version), David Gallagher (Seiji), Martin Spanjers (Sugimura), Cary Elwes (The Duke) and other members of the cast, with footage of them in the recording booth and split screen footage showing the actors seeing their lines and the corresponding scene from the film.

 

Rounding off the set are five TV Spots, two Original Japanese Theatrical Trailers and six trailers for other titles in the Studio Ghibli Collection, from Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind to Spirited Away.

 

As this is a dual format release, you have both a BD and a DVD, so it's perfect for watching as a family in the living room where you have the main TV and Blu-ray player and, with the DVD, playing elsewhere in your house (such as a children's bedroom).

The Picture

Although the hand drawn animated features from Studio Ghibli and Disney wouldn't appear to be the sort of films which would benefit enormously from a restored HD encoding, the difference between the new BD releases and older DVDs is astonishing. In this case, the picture is a great deal sharper with more clearly defined edges, stronger and brighter colours and more definition in darker scenes.

 

As much as I like the digitally animated films from the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks, it's always great to see 'old school' techniques being used such as stop motion and hand drawn animation. I know the films made on computers take years, but films like this make you realise the painstaking process of bringing a story to the screen with people drawing every frame.

 

With that in mind, it's incredible how beautiful the backgrounds are, how consistent and well designed each character is, the various styles within the film and the detail which goes into the backgrounds.

The Sound

The menu gives you the choice of DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English or Japanese, with optional English subtitles. Although this isn't a film with expansive action sequences, instead being predominantly dialogue dominated, the surrounds are used quite well by delivering atmospheric sounds, background chatter and other parts of the soundstage very well.

 

As you'd expect, the dialogue comes across extremely clearly on both the English and Japanese tracks and the voice actors from both Japan and America have been cast very well, perfectly suiting their characters. If a voice doesn't fit its character, you have trouble buying into the film so it's crucial to cast the right people so, just as with live action films, they fit the part and have the right dynamics.

 

Yuji Nomi's score is very good composition, with the mix of playful, serious, uplifting and high tempo music really emphasising and underscoring the tone of the on-screen events and character interactions. Given the close relationship between the two films, it was no surprise to learn he also composed the music for The Cat Returns.

 

The English subtitles are very well written, clear and, due to the font, easy to read against all backgrounds. Please bear in mind the subtitles are for the Japanese script and not the English adaptation so you'll become quite confused if you watch the film with the English audio and subtitles.

Final Thoughts

Whisper of the Heart may be a strange translation of the Japanese title of If You Listen Closely, but it perfectly fits central relationships between Shizuko and Seiji and between Shizuko and the life she envisions for 'The Baron' which becomes the titular story. The film itself is beautifully told, animated and acted, with great rhythm to the editing so the scenes are paced perfectly.

 

If you already have this on DVD, the decision to upgrade will depend on how much you like the film but, for those who don't own a copy or haven't yet seen it, this is well worth a blind buy, particularly if you're a fan of films from Studio Ghibli. I hope many more of their films are given a similar HD restoration and are released on this format.