I have never seen the movie before so can't judge what it was like in other releases. In the DVD I bought, I had widescreen, dialog in English and Japanese and two disks. One for the regular film and the other was the entire soundtrack with story boarded pictures. I found the dialog in English beautiful and well done. The picture and the care the film had in transferring it over into DVD was marvelous. A man and his two daughters move to the country in a new house while the mother is hospitalized. They meet two very nice neighbors but the girls become attached to forest spirits who seem to take care of them when their parents are unavailable. Beautiful moving story with lots of hope.

This was my favorite movie of all time when i was a little kid. Since those Disney has taken the movie and completely screwed it by re-doing the voices. If you're a true fan of the original, then do not buy this movie. It is the disney version. And if you know where i can get the original (non-disney) version i would appreciate it if you let me know.

I first saw this film in 2004. I'm a voice-actor and was going to be voicing an anime series. I asked around to see what the best films and series were and, of course, Myiaskai's films were highly recommended. I instantly fell in love with this film and it started me on the journey of seeing all of the films produced by Studio Gibli. I now have a 2 year old son and bought it to share with him, although I fell in love with it as an adult. It is my favorite film of any genre (not just children's). Give it a watch, then start your own Myisaki collection!