Hayao Miyazaki on Blu RAY???

[STI Jaguar]

This needs to happen so bad. So Bad!!

[AnimeOnBlu]

Well, Studio Ghibli has had 2 releases:

Iblard Jikan (Released)
Kazuo Oga's Art Exhibition (Being released around Christmas)

I'm assuming they will start to role out the big titles in 2008.

[Verbal]

Originally Posted by AnimeOnBlu

Well, Studio Ghibli has had 2 releases:

Iblard Jikan (Released)
Kazuo Oga's Art Exhibition (Being released around Christmas)

I'm assuming they will start to role out the big titles in 2008.

Aren't several of the "big titles" under the control of Disney for distro outside of Japan?

[EricJ]

Not to mention, those with long memories (ahemmononokedvdcough) know that we're pretty well going to have to wait for the Japanese editions to come out first, before the NA "embargo" is lifted...

Anyone know how the Disney-Ghibli alliance deal still stands? Does DisneyJP still corner the market, or is Tokuma back to handling its own product?

[Konfusion]

i want to see castle in the sky on blu-ray

[WickyWoo]

The Disney Ghilbi alliance is in fine shape and will continue. Disney does all distro including inside Japan for southeast Asia and North America (several like Taiwan and HK are done under subsidiary names)

You won't see anything until Miyazaki's next release, and probably not anything until it hits video. 2009 or 2010

It took 4 years to get the first Ghibli DVDs

[Brandon B]

Is that an educated guess, Wicky, or direct knowledge? Lasseter is more in the loop on those titles, and he might be interested in getting something out a bit sooner. That's sort of my hope.

BB

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

The Disney Ghilbi alliance is in fine shape and will continue. Disney does all distro including inside Japan for southeast Asia and North America (several like Taiwan and HK are done under subsidiary names)

You won't see anything until Miyazaki's next release, and probably not anything until it hits video. 2009 or 2010

It took 4 years to get the first Ghibli DVDs

Yes, but that had actual catalysts to spark it:
A) Most Japanese companies in '98-'99 didn't think there was anything to this "DVD" fad, since laserdisks were still in every household,
B) Disney/Miramax's own stateside "Mononoke mutiny", when they discovered they couldn't squeak under the "embargo", when US audiences refused to buy an English-only disk, causing
C) Japanese studios to realize they'd better get on the DVD bandwagon with their own product before every other company did it for them...The gaijin import-DVD demand for Ghibli and Godzilla was becoming too big to handle, and if Toho and Tokuma didn't grab it by the horns, US and France would.

Reason we're asking about Ghibli on Blu is, we DON'T have that situation today--The Japanese seem quite happy with their Blu-ray in Sony's home country, thank you, just that they've spent all their time on concert events, and haven't gotten around to enough anime movies or native-son classics yet.
So, what do we use to give them that inspirational kick in the pants THIS time?

[w_tanoto]

i hope spirited away will get its BD release. Buena vista (USA) is BD exclusive, while Optimum Release (UK) is known to have released on BD. So, that will secure future availibility on BD

[WickyWoo]

Is that an educated guess, Wicky, or direct knowledge? Lasseter is more in the loop on those titles, and he might be interested in getting something out a bit sooner. That's sort of my hope.

Educated guess. No matter what they'll tie into Miyazaki's next film, which comes out June 21 in Japan.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/

It will hit video in spring or summer 2009. His movies typically stay in theaters there for 9-12 months.

Personally I'd like to see them get a major cleanup, Totoro especially could use some work. Waiting for 2009 would allow this