Disney tosses Miyazaki plans?

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Well, uh, not sure if anyone in this particular board cares (other than maybe Calhoun or Madhatter) but this article here implies that Disney is not going to go ahead with any other Hayao Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli releases after being so-called "burned" by the miniscule money brought in from Princess Mononoke.

This kinda sucks

I find it amusing that they were "shocked" PM would be so much edgier than they expected. This was the reaction AFTER they bought the rights to it. So much for viewing what you buy first, eh?

Me, I don't believe it one bit. Sounds like a bunch of execs trying to cover their *****es.

No Kiki DVD? No Porco Rosso? No Spirited Away? No Whisper of the Heart? *Sob*

[Vigo Sprax]

Bah, lame excuses. How do you expect a movie to do well with the limited run they gave it?

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I presume they expected that PM, like the later "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," would create a large buzz in the indy ghetto and burst into wide release and make a whole moolah of money.

Again, this article is very vague, so I would take it with a grain of salt. It's possible that plans are on hold until they can "figure out" what to do with it.

I wish they would stop being so greedy and just release the danged things on DVD. IMO, I don't mind about theatrical releases and whatnot, I just want to own them. But maybe they paid a lot for the rights and want to maximize their profits.

Of course, this comes hot off the heels of the symphony of disappointments Disney has had in general lately. After the somewhat lackluster receipts for Atlantis and Dinosaur (relatively speaking), I hope that they don't conclude that non-singing edgier animated films don't sell, because so far that's exactly the message moviegoers seem to be giving them.

I guess Shrek is the exception, but as I noted before, it could very well have passed as a kid's movie to a lot of parents (looking at the trailers), whereas Atlantis may have scared some away.

[Calhoun07]

Disney just doesn't get it, do they? They are the ones who shot themselves in the food with Princess Mononoke. They flubbed up the original DVD release by not including the Japanese language track, which forced them to delay the DVD for about 4 months so they could do it right. By the time the DVD came out, only die hard anime fans could have cared. The great cross over audience they were hoping to reach turned away and went on to the Next Big Thing. And they did a pretty poor job in marketing it when it was at the theater. They expected it to pull in some great box office dollars???? How could it when it had the feeling of a small indy release the entire time it was out?

So now we may have to suffer without seeing Spirited Away. I can always hope that some company in Hong Kong will put out a region free DVD for us, but this is not looking good. These movies have the potential to reach the Titan AE crowd, which included many people who discovered it on home video that would never be caught dead in a theater watching a CARTOON. And Spirited Away, if released right and not jacked around with, could take off on home video. But now we may never get the chance. That bites.

[The Mad Hatter]

What? No theatrical release I can understand... but no DVD?! Good freakin' lord! Producing DVDs for movies that have already been made costs next to nothing... surely they could see how they could make at least a little money releasing this, since the critics will fawn over it and generate some buzz!

Arrrrgh....

[Joe Tully]

Thanks, Jojo, I was pretty interested in any future Miyazaki releases after getting Koko and Mononoke on video. Are they still going to release Castle In The Sky on video and DVD? I assume so, since they've already finished work on it and have screened it at festivals, according to the article.

After being launched at the New York Film Festival, the film grossed just over $2 million. "That's kind of embarrassing, to have the most successful film in the history of Japan come to the U.S. and not do that well," says Alpert.

Hey Disney! It would help you get more money from ticket sales if you put the film in more theaters! Maybe the reason why the most successful film from Japan did so poorly in America is because you did a crappy job! Do ya think that might be a problem?!?

I just hope they release the future ones on video and DVD after putting things "on hold" for a while. I'm not sure how likely that is though. They already bought the rights so I'd hope they'd do something with them, even if it means using less well-known actors.