disney blu-ray

My wife was out of town last week, which meant many things, but mainly that the DVR was off limits because it stores countless episodes of “our shows” and, as you know, “our shows” cannot be watched by “just me.” However, please note that it does fall within accepted social graces to watch any given show in its entirety despite my wife falling asleep on the couch well before the third act. I have this in writing.

But I digress. It was Sunday, she was gone, it was raining, and the boys and I were literally stuck to the sofa for hours—not “literally” by its original definition, but “literally” like people use it now, previously known as “figuratively.” English is a living language! Also, our couch is pretty gross.

We had three new Disney Blu-ray releases from Studio Ghibli, and pizza on the way. We were set. We watched all of the movies: Pom Poko, Tales From Earthsea, and Porco Rosso, in that order, and this is what we thought:

Pom Poko (PG), directed by Isao Takahata, is the classic battle between man and nature, where nature equals shape-shifting raccoons. Fun fact, they are only called raccoons in the U.S. version. A bit of real-time research (see, Google) revealed that they are actually called raccoon dogs. Why was I researching Pom Poko in the middle of the movie? For the same reason you will, because a good portion of the film had us asking “Is that?” and “What am I looking at?” and “Daddy, are those . . .” and yes, yes they are. Read More »A Look at Three New Disney Blu-ray Releases From Studio Ghibli