Search - Sherlock Hound - Case File 1 on DVD

Alot of fun, especially the Miyazaki directed episodes!

H-man | 04/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is solid entertainment for kids and anime fans alike, especially those interested in the works of master anime director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle of Cagliostro). He directed three of the five episodes (A Small Client, Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage, and The Blue Carbuncle)and his flair for great action and pacing (see Castle of Cagliostro) is especially evident in these episodes. The other two unfortunately lack that kind of energy and invention but are still fun. Sure the animation is a bit dated but the story, characterizatons and humor are still top quality. I personally prefer the Japanese language with English subtitles(you get the Japanese vocals for the opening and closing themes to boot) but the English dub is certainly decent in of itself.Overall, a must have for Miyazaki fans and for parents who want their children to watch wholesome yet inventive anime that's not the usual Pokemon-derived dreck."

Sherlock Has Gone To The Dogs

Urban Spaceman | USA | 02/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes all of my life. I am not locked into tradition as some Sherlockians. I am open to new and different interpretations of the Great Detective. This DVD is a delight. True it takes several big liberties with Holmes, but that's OK. It is not intended to be a straight retelling of the Canon. The stories are well told and the Anime is very good. This disk can serve as an introduction to Sherlock Holmes for young children and as a pleasant variation on a theme for older Sherlock Holmes fans."

Famous Detective Holmes!

Benjamin Mcnully | Hillsboro, Oregon USA | 10/18/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Or so the series is called in Japanese. Known around here as Sherlock Hound, this series was originaly produced in 1981 as a joint project between Tokyo Movie Shinsha and an italian studio called RAI. Hayao Miyazaki became involved, directing six episodes, and writing a few of those. Afterwards, probably after the ones covered in the first few volumes, the production was put on hold due to some conflicts with copyrights involving Sir Arthur Conan Doyles estate. But, in 1984, the next batch were released as planned on TV, with a different crew directing, writin and animating. So, these 5, and the first one of the next volume are all done by Miyazaki and a great group of creators.

For this first Case File disc, we get the first five episodes, which include: (I'll just use the Japanese titles, but they are different in the english dub.)

-'He's The Famous Detective!'
-'The Evil Genius, Professor Moriarty'
-'Little Martha's Big Mystery'
-'Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage'
-'Blue Ruby'

I won't waste your time with plot analysis for all five, because the Spotlight review features this. I will say that this is the japanese translation of the stories, and the reimageining of the characters. They are, of course, all dogs. And while some are direct stories out of the many books, some are new scripts. They both measure up, with the original scripts being full of crazy machines from Moriarty and flying and all kinds of great excitement (you can tell Miyazaki was inventing some of the flying bits).

The disc contains no features, unless you count it being dual-sided with the english dub on one side, and the original japanese on the other.
The dub is a little dry, sounding like a grown up interpretation of Holmes, with dry british accents and cliched voices (even I could do a better Watson impersionation), but all the japanese voices are spot on, with a correct and actual translation in the subtitles. You would do best to watch the original language tracks.

The quality is good, especially for an '80s TV series. And the sound is great. Sometimes the music is nearly muffled or even drowned completely, in typical Saturday morning flair. A bit annoying, contributing to it losing a star. The other factor being no special features (wasn't expectin much from a TV series, but this is the DVD age)

Overall, anime fans, cartoon enthusiasts, Holmes-a-maniacs, or adventure seekers of all ages will find this fun. If your looking to buy the whole series, there are no plans on making a boxed set, so start shelling out 27 dollars for all 6, because this is one to collect!"

It's better if you pretend Miyazaki wasn't involved...

Feelah the tigress | 02/05/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I'm reviewing the whole series under Vol. 1 since I don't want to be repetitive and post this review under all the volumes.

I decided to rent this since I heard that it was one of Miyazaki's first works. However, I later found out that he only directed a few episodes, so it's not as though the entire series is his. I must say that the series really bears little resemblance to anything Miyazaki later did under Studio Ghibli, or even to "Panda Go Panda!", which was pre-Ghibli. Furthermore, the cartoon (I can't bring myself to call this anime) suffers from serious flaws. Despite this, it is enjoyable if you pretend that Miyazaki had nothing to do with it. Then, your expectations are not quite as high and you can enjoy this as a simple, child-oriented, 1980's-era cartoon.

"Sherlock Hound" posesses many flaws that make it seem dated by today's standards. First, the animation is rather simple-looking. I'm not sure if it looked good for it's time or merely looked mediocre, but by today's standards, it's rather poor. Another strike against the series is that the voice acting is bland. Although Hound's voice is okay, several other characters either have inconsistent accents or very stereotypical accents (I cringed when I heard the Japanese man in one episode). Lastly, the plot became rather repetitive since Moriarty was ALWAYS the villian-as though no one else ever commits crimes. It would've been less dull if some of the crimes were done by other people. After awhile, you always know it's him (even Hound starts to assume it's Moriarty by the end of the series even before he's gathered any evidence).

Plot-wise, it's typical cartoon fair for the time period (if you've ever seen Scooby-Doo, you know what I mean). In other words, there's a typical good guy (Hound), a typical villian (Moriarty), and a typical plot arc (Moriarty steals something, Hound gets it back, Moriarty escapes anyway, etc) for every episode. If you've seen Miyazaki's later works and are judging them against this, you'll notice how very poorly this compares. "Sherlock Hound" is very shallow in plot and character development compared to, say, My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service. I suppose this is to be expected since Sherlock Hound wasn't really Miyazaki's work anyways.

Despite all these flaws, I actually enjoyed watching Sherlock Hound. It's still entertaining, funny at times, and charming. If you forget about Miyazaki and take into account it's age, Sherlock Hound can be a reasonably likeable experience. If you're not looking for deeper meanings and just want to watch a mildly amusing "Saturday-morning" cartoon, I would say it's worth a rental."