Studio Ghibli movies coming to DVD this year? (1 Viewer)

[Raphael]

http://www.animetourist.com/article1049.html
is an interview with Toshio Suzuki (Executive Managing Director and Producer for Spirited Away), John Lasseter (Executive Vice President, Pixar), and Steve Alpert (Executive representative for Tokuma Publishing). It's a cool interview for anyone who's a fan of Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki/anime, and amoung other things, they mentioned that 2 Ghibli films will most likely be released to R1 this year, with more to follow!
I know I shouldn't get excited until I have the discs in my hot little hands, but I may finally get to put off buying that R2 player indefinitely.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Right now it looks like the R2 Spirited Away will be my last R2 disc, I don't want to wait that long to see it
Right now, I'm going to venture this guess, based on available info and Japanese releases
THIS YEAR
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
2003
Porco Rosso
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Spirited Away
Whisper of the Heart
2004
Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind
???Kemushi no Boro (Boro the Caterpillar), Miyazaki's current project??

 

[Chris Beveridge]

Why wait for the R1's? Considering the R1's are going to be mastered in Japan by the same people with the same subs and dubs, all they're going to do is slap some US Disney logos and new English menus on it and reship. The transfers and audio and subs are going to be identical and you'll get them far earlier.

Whisper of the Heart this year or late next year? I don't think I could wait. hell, I can't wait until it comes out next month.

 

[David Lambert]

Jeff, I sure hope you're right...I'd kill for Totoro and Kiki!

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Why wait for the R1's?

To save a few bucks and to get a disc I can play on ALL my players, at friends houses, etc.

I have an all-region player. I have non-R1 discs. But my DVD budget is getting strained. Not getting a bunch of $30+ imports right now allows me to not skip some R1 titles that I crave that are coming out today, and pick up the other discs as they come out.

Also, buying the R1 discs supports more R1 anime in the future.

 

[Carlo]

I've already ordered my Spirited Away DVD from YesAsia.com. I can't wait to see it. I have most of the other movies from Ghibli Studio. I have to see this movie before it comes out in theaters. Hopefully, the red tint problem plaguing the R2 version won't show up.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Carlo said:



Are you aware that it's being released here in the states next month? Why not wait to see it for the first time on the big screen?

 

[David Lambert]

Hey Jeff: whatever happened to those Totoro and Kiki videos?... :frowning:

 

[Brook K]

This is good news, one of the reasons I bought the Malata was for the Ghibli discs, but at their +$40 cost I keep bumping them out of my budget.

Jeff, any word on My Neighbor, The Yamadas?

 

[Anthony Thorne]

John Lasseter's involvement or not, SPIRITED AWAY will likely be a different experience in the American theatrical version when compared to the Japanese release. Joe Hishaisi's(?) music for the Japanese version of SPIRITED AWAY is extraordinarily powerful, and I can imagine Disney toning down some of its intensity for the Stateside English-language edition. I'll be curious to see whether Disney go the extra mile and include the original Japanese soundtrack on their eventual DVD, different score and all. If they don't, its a key reason to invest in the current Japanese DVD, and some folks might care to watch the original before seeing how the film's tone has been (presumably) lightened somewhat for its Western theatrical release.

 

[Jim Peavy]

Again, the MONONOKE DVD has both, so why not expect the same for SPIRITED AWAY?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

This review of Lasseter's dub of Spirited Away does not frighten me as far as content goes:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature.php?id=20
In fact, it sounds pretty damned good. And no nasty RED tint like the R2 DVDs. I doubt the R1 DVD has the red tint either.
I like the look of the english trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/spirited_away.html
And you can expect ALL future Ghibli releases in R1 to have the ORIGINAL soundtrack like Mononoke. The fans made their voices heard and Buena Vista has listened. In fact, we might have had another release or two by now if this weren't the case, they want the R2 releases to sell for several months before an R1 NTSC release comes out which could be parallel imported.

 

[Brian Kidd]

I don't think that Lasseter is going to let them screw this one up. He seems to be the only person connected with Disney who knows and cares about animation. All one need do is watch Pixar's films to see that Lasseter is a creative force to be reckoned with. Honestly, I hope he's made head of production for the Mouse House. He could whip them into shape and bring back the creative spark that has been so sorely lacking since Katzenberg left. I'm soooo looking forward to SPIRITED AWAY.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

And you can expect ALL future Ghibli releases in R1 to have the ORIGINAL soundtrack like Mononoke. The fans made their voices heard and Buena Vista has listened

If that was the case, they would have stopped butchering and dub-only Hong Kong movies by now. No, TOKUMA SHOTEN listened, and gave a "Japanese track or die" ultimatum

 

[John Parker]

I regularly go to a site called anime news network. The editor there recently got an opportunity to see a dubbed print. Read his review here. Sen Review
The best news is that ALL of the original music was used. They even saved as many of the sound effects as they could.
Now I just need to find out when it is getting released in Kansas City. Sigh, We were a tertiary market for Mononoke as well. Here I had been kind of hoping seeing the movie three times would have skewed the results .

 

[Talal]

Red tint, red tint...

I kept on hearing about this "nasty" red tint.

I finally got to see this magnificent film on dvd, and lo and behold, i found myself asking: What red tint?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Talal, look at the whites of Chihiro's shirt. They're pink

 

[Anthony Thorne]

I stand corrected on the soundtrack change, and the review linked above makes me more hopeful that the Japanese soundtrack will be included on the American DVD. (I thought possible music changes might hinder that option, but the news that the score is intact makes my qualms irrelevant now).

The Japanese MONONOKE disc has received some reviews (along with some telling screenshots) that rank it above the American disc in quality. The red tint blunder on the current Japanese disc removes that possibility here, so (like others here) I'm now obviously looking forward to the American DVD. MONONOKE in Japan was nevertheless supplemented with a separate multi-disc package entirely devoted to extras documenting the making of the movie. If Buena Vista wanted to knock their SPIRITED AWAY disc out of the ballpark, they'll hopefully include some decent extras (if any exist) on their eventual release. Heck - a double-disc set with proper supplements would be one of my releases of the year.

Interesting to hear of the future Ghibli titles hitting DVD in the near future. I'm up for that, especially if they remove the subtitle/dubtitle issue on KIKI and TOTORO, enabling interested fans to skip the hassle of acquiring properly subbed R3 versions from HK and Taiwan...

 

[Juan C Toro]

The two Miyazaki films will likely be Spirited Away and Totoro... I read this week the Q&A with Roger Ebert in the Canada Post newspaper, and he mentioned this two films being released by Disney this fall. I guess for both he was talking about theatrical releases, which I assume would be followed by the DVD releases.
Just a guess....
JC

 

[Jay W]

Juan: As Jeff mentioned I don't think we'll see a Spirited Away DVD release till early next year (since the theatrical release is next month), which would leave a 'slot' open for another movie to be released on DVD this year. KDS seems the likely candidate, I was just about to pick up a few of these on R2 but given this news I think I'll hold out a bit longer .