Search

2009-08-16

Ponyo - Buy This DVD

If you're planning on buying the Japanese DVD for Ponyo, I've added a direct link to YesAsia at the "Buy These DVDs" section, middle column. Two caveats: 1) I don't know if the Disney dub is included, but they usually are; 2) I don't know when the Ponyo DVD and Blu-Ray will be released in the US. In this post, I discussed a trade magazine which listed Ponyo for October 29, but still no official word. Caveat emptor.

8 comments:

Chris said...

I have it, and, sorry (but not really), the Disney dub is not included.

Daniel Thomas MacInnes said...

D'oh! That's what the YesAsia page said, too.

Sean L. said...

I would buy the Japanese DVD (and the Japanese bookstores here in NYC have it which is awesome), because I really want to see it in Japanese, but I don't have a compatible DVD player. The thing is, I'm really scared that the US release will end up with inaccurate subtitles-- or worse, DUBTITLES. AAAAAHHH! I hope they won't do that to me.

Daniel Thomas MacInnes said...

The subtitles on the US DVD's are just as good as the Japanese ones. There's nothign to worry about their. Of course, you could just do what Miyazaki suggests and learn Japanese.

As for your DVD player, you should check to see if that model contains a region-code override. Nearly all of the players built today contain easter egg codes (just like your old Nintendo videogames) that are activated by the remote control. I do this for my portable DVD unit.

Unknown said...

¿What was the release date for the special edition with all the extras? I'm really tempted to buy it since it's very possible that here in Spain we won't see the DVD released for ages...

Daniel Thomas MacInnes said...

In Japan, the special edition Ponyo DVD and Blu-Ray will be released in December. Those will include the mammoth making-of documentary, which should really be wonderful to see.

The deluxe DVD also includes the Joe Hisaishi Live in Budokan DVD. The entire box set is nine discs!

Unfortunately, the Ponyo documentary will only be in Japanese, and with no subtitles. This will be a job for the fabsub community, just as with the Mononoke documentary.

Sean L. said...

I've started learning Japanese in college, but it will probably take a few years of classes and hard work for me to get to the point where I can understand anime without the help of subtitles. It is a goal of mine to become fluent; I absolutely love the language. The reason I brought up "dubtitles" was because I recently got The Cat Returns DVD, and... yeah. With what little Japanese I know, I quickly realized they weren't quite right, not to mention some subtitles for non-existent dialogue that popped up here and there.

Daniel Thomas MacInnes said...

Hmm, that's too bad. I have the Japanese DVD of The Cat Returns, which includes the short film Ghiblies Episode 2. They both played together on a double bill and compliment one another nicely.

The Ghibl DVD's usually have excellent subtitles. There are exceptions, however. Kiki's Delivery Service has "dubtitles," as does the Japanese Totoro. I do hope those issues will be resolved for the eventual Blu-Ray discs, because Ghibli always does such a great job on this front. It really is rare for Japanese anime DVDs to include English subtitles.

I do expect the Ponyo DVD to sell pretty nicely. These movies often find their audience more easily at home than at the theater. I do forget how expensive a trip to the multiplex with the kids can be. Once you pay for tickets, popcorn, soda...ouch! My ticket at Eden Prairie yesterday cost $10! Of course, for that price, I had plush seats and a HUGE screen, but that's still a lot of money in a tight economy.

More Ghibli Blog Posts To Discover