Release date for Howl's Moving Castle on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Lamb]

I've been searching the web and can't find any official results. Has the DVD release date for this great film been announced yet?

 

[TheLongshot]

No US release date yet. It is just getting released in Japan on Nov. 16, so it may be a little bit yet.

Jason

 

[Elijah Sullivan]

It's very, very tentatively scheduled for DVD release sometime in January. It was announced at one point for December, so additional delays may occur. Probably box office performance is the variable. More box office = longer DVD window.

 

[Joel C]

It, of course, did poorly at the box-office, as Disney never marketed it very well or sent out many prints.

I hope when it is released, it comes along with another wave of Ghibli films... I need to see Totoro someday soon, people.

 

[PaulP]

Howl's Moving Castle details via UltimateDisney:

 

[Arnie G]

Other info Per DVDactive:

Title: Studio Ghibli
Starring: N/A (Animation)
Released: 7th March 2006
SRP: $29.99

Further Details:
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has kindly made available highres artwork for Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, as well as Studio Ghibli's new releases of Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro and Yoshifumi Kondo's Whisper of the Heart. Each title will be available to own from the 7th March, and should set you back around $29.99 a piece. Each disc will carry an anamorphic widescreen presentation, along with the original Japanese soundtrack. English dubs will also be provided, with Christian Bale providing a voice in Howl's Moving Castle, and Dakota Fanning appearing in My Neighbour Totoro. The full specs have yet to be revealed for these I'm afraid, although numerous making of featurettes etc are expected to be included

 

[Anthony Thorne]

I bought the Japanese 2-disc version recently, which includes the subbed and dubbed versions. Very nice transfer and an enjoyable movie. It's a huge shame though that the majority of extras from the big 4-disc set that also came out in Japan (lots of long docos, many more than seem to be included in the announced Region 1 edition) couldn't be ported over. I'm aware that the Japanese 4-disc set has two discs alone devoted to variant soundtrack versions of the film (Japanese in 5.1 DTS, subbed, no subs, dub etc) but that still leaves two discs of extras that look to be greatly trimmed down for the Region 1 release. I gather the 4-disc set is getting a Korean release soon - I might grab that one, as if it has Korean subs my Korean girlfriend can translate for me.

The 4-disc HOWL can be seen here.

 

[Max Leung]

Does the Japanese version have black bars on all sides? I've seen a few Japanese releases that are 1.85:1, but have black borders on all sides - perhaps they do this because most Japanese people have TVs with excessive overscan?

If so, then I would expect the region 1 version to have the superior transfer - it would work perfectly on my DVD player which has virtually no overscan on my projector.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

The Japanese version doesn't have black bars at the sides, only top and bottom - the 16x9 image seemed perfectly framed on my widescreen 83cm Loewe CRT. I thought the transfer on the Region 2 disc was outstanding but suspect the eventual Region 1 will probably match it.

 

[PaulP]

Details of this Ghibli wave are up on DVD Times.

My Neighbor Totoro:

 

[Joel C]

Oh, great, more smug Lasseter interviews/ "Let me tell you about my friend, Hayao Miyazaki..."

I'm so glad Totoro is finally coming; I've never seen it, even though my brother at one time owned the Fox disc. I figured the dub was bad, and b the time I heard it wasn't, he had sold it in anticipation of this release and it was OOP.