Return Original English Voice Actors to "My Neighbor Totoro"

March 26, 2006

A petition to The Walt Disney Company/Buena Vista Home Entertainment to return the original English voice actors to the DVD version.

In 1994, the Buena Vista Home Entertainment (a sub-division of The Walt Disney Company) released an English dubbed version of the highly popular 1988, "My Neighbor Totoro" from Studio Ghibli.

This movie has not been available for DVD until this year (2006). This DVD version has been highly anticipated by many families, japanese anime fans, and general public. However, it was never made known to the public that Disney changed the entire voice acting cast to instead cast bankable well-known names to the characters (i.e. Tim Daly, Dakota Fanning and her sister, Lea Salonga).

In fact, the even changed the voice to Totoro! The original voice acting was very well received (what IMDB calls the 'Troma' version, but the 'Troma' version was released through Buena Vista Home Entertainment) and many loved the dubbed version.

Why Disney presumed that they needed to change the actors is unclear as well as why the original voice actors have not voiced a complaint.

So this petition is to voice that complaint against Disney and to urge Disney to re-release the DVD with the original voice acting cast.