Watching Howl with his rightly youthful Japanese voice took my breath away. I fell head over heels for him. When we switched over to dubbed I thought Christian Bale's husky voice being used for the lithe and youthful Howl was ridiculous. Totally took me out of the movie.
Billy Crystal is Billy Crystal, not a pesky fire character. Again, there's no way I could have watched it that way. The Japanese voice was wonderfully, well, Japanese.
I'm still miffed that we had to watch Kiki's with dubbing. CERTAIN people overrode us on that one.
Phil Hartman's worst hour, and I definitely count myself a fan of his.
If I want to try another culture's food, I don't smother it in Cheez Whiz. If I want to try another culture's art, I want it sans Americanization.
As for the movie itself - a beautiful thing to behold, but in the end the story was too disjointed for my taste. The author is a well-published children's fantasy novelist, but I haven't read anything by her. I think I may hunt down a copy.