CONFIRMED: Disney to release Spirited Away, Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service

[Lhadatt]

New rumor from AICN:

Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky and Kiki's Delivery Service will be released to R1 DVD this April. Each movie will come in the form of a 2-disc collector's set. MSRP: $29.99, minimum advertised price: $19.99.

Now, this came from comic book artist Stephen Bissette's message board, and he says his Disney rep faxed it to him -- so I guess this holds a bit more weight than standard AICN rumors. Hopefully this will indeed happen.

Sources:

• AICN
• Stephen Bissette's message board

EDIT!

CONFIRMATION

January 14, 2003: Mostly Confirmed: Three R1 DVDs on April 17
AICN is running an article stating that three films are scheduled for R1 DVD release in April, "Castle in the Sky", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Spirited Away".

This report is based upon a fax from a Disney rep, we'll try and find additional sources for confirmation.

Update: Zach B noted on the MML, "in the insert in Disney's "Country Bears" DVD (R1), it mentions Kiki being available "for the first time on DVD" in Spring 2003."

Update #2: AnimeonDVD.com received news from the Right Stuf (an anime retailer) that places the release dates for the three films on April 17, 2003.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/new...2570345,15227,

And as anal as the nausicaa.net guys are about confirming stuff, if it's posted there, you know it's happening. Happy day!

[CynicalSphere]

I heard about this a couple hours before you posted, but had to go to class. :/

Anyway, sounds great if it is true, but in all honesty I won't hold my breath on that one. That price sounds a bit too low for 6 discs, if the rumor that they will all be sold in a box set is also true.

EDIT: Scratch that, I misread. It was $19.99 EACH, not for all. That's honestly reasonable but if they also come as a collection I'll probably just spring for that. Maybe Disney will actually do these releases as well (or better) than Mononoke, which despite all the bitching about the Mouse, was actually a respectable release despite the lackluster dub...

EDIT 2: Well, a About.com or about.MSN is also saying that Kiki and Laputa are slated for April 15, so maybe there is some truth behind it...

[Wolffen]

Damn, this would be nice. Let's hope for the inclusion of the Japanese language tracks as well. C'mon, Disney. Do something nice for a change.

[CynicalSphere]

Originally posted by Wolffen
Damn, this would be nice. Let's hope for the inclusion of the Japanese language tracks as well. C'mon, Disney. Do something nice for a change.

I don't think there's too much to worry about, personally. Especially if you keep in mind what happened when Disney said they weren't going to put a Japanese track on Mononoke. Surely even Disney can learn from their mistakes.

[Scourge]

I dunno, the Totoro dvd looked lame. Full screen pan-and-scan? Ug. But I didn't notice if it had the Japanese track or not. Laputa is seriously close to my favorite! I hope they give these all their due respect. And rerelease Totoro [even if I have an evil copy of it in widescreen and Japanese.] Hell, *especially* since I have an evil copy of it...

--Scourge .

[CynicalSphere]

Originally posted by Scourge
I dunno, the Totoro dvd looked lame. Full screen pan-and-scan? Ug. But I didn't notice if it had the Japanese track or not. Laputa is seriously close to my favorite! I hope they give these all their due respect. And rerelease Totoro [even if I have an evil copy of it in widescreen and Japanese.] Hell, *especially* since I have an evil copy of it...

Er, the US Totoro DVD was produced by Fox, not Disney, and is essentially just a DVD port of the early-90s VHS release. Disney is supposedly going to rerelease it once Fox's rights expire in 2004 or so...

[Scourge]

Er, yeah I thought that might be the case. But ya know... the point was I hope the new dvds have the appropriate bells and whistles regardless of who releases them. Disney is suspect with it's handling of Miyamoto's properties, even if the Mononoke dvd was pretty nice. It was also a movie that, while they didn't back it much with marketing, it at least got a theatrical release, to little fanfare, much like Spirited Away. They didn't bother releasing Laputa for the theater as they'd said they would. We'll see how the dvds come out. For the record, I *do* believe they'll do a good job, but that's not without reservations.

--Scourge .

[Lhadatt]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

This is the original book, translated into English. Notice both the crappy cover art and the wacko availability date.

EDIT! Updated original post, check up at the top.

[Green]

First thing I did when I went online was go to AICN and that link was the first I clicked on, then I went here to post it

GREAT news (release date is near my birthday, too)! Then again, I just started buying Miyazaki movies from R2, good thing I started with Porco Rosso. Also, I sure hope they fix the red tint problem for Spirited.

[Lhadatt]

The red tint is being fixed in the Japanese version, even if they haven't said anything. There's a class-action lawsuit over it there. It probably won't be on the US version.