I've seen this on several websites recently, so it's probably old news to the Brits who were expecting to see Ponyo right about now. The UK release has been pushed back to February, 2010. Optimum, the company that handles the distribution of the Studio Ghibli films in Great Britain, has nothing about Ponyo listed in their upcoming movies list.
No official word has been given for the delay, and I'm sure this is going to royally suck for every one of you Ghibli Freaks across the pond. I really don't know why this is, seeing that the UK Ponyo will feature the Disney soundtrack from the States. When you factor in Ponyo's DVD release now in Japan, the Blu-Ray in December, and the possible US DVD-BD release in October, this decision to delay becomes frustrating, baffling.
This is the sort of sweep-under-the-rug treatment we're used to seeing from Disney here in the US. Now that Ponyo has been given the red-carpet treatment here, won't that be extended to the UK? Possibly not. That sucks.
12 comments:
This is getting silly now. Thats 19 months after it came out was originally released.
This is so frustrating.
I hope in a festival screening then!
-Emanuele
Hey Dan,
I actually talked to optimum today about this:
http://timmaughanbooks.com/2009/08/07/ponyo-uk-release-date-confirmed-a-nation-weeps/
It sucks, basically.
The UK aporeciates your support though man!
Have you heard the 'remixed' english version of the Ponyo theme song? -shudders-
I would really like to hear your thoughts about it.
Um...what?
Uh-oh. Please don't tell me Disney FUBAR'd the Ponyo song. They handed it to the producers who fake the Jonas Brothers, right?
Your timing is eerie. I was about to write a joke post this afternoon, claiming that Disney replaced the Ponyo song with Michael Bolton.
Here's the youtube link to the english version of the Ponyo theme song. It's scary, and strangely enough, catchy. Ugh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYDtPcRMlg
Nineteen months... I got three paragraphs into a sarcastic ranting blast at Disney before changing my mind on the grounds that there are already enough of those littering the Internet, and will limit myself to just a "Very Disappointing".
Yes...being in the UK has never been great from an Anime perpective, trust me, I'm one of the original fans who imported from the US 90's...cause you pretty much had to. This is simply crazy, and I prey that Disney don't mess with Ghibli's work too much. I hate seeing the Disney logo on any anime. I have the original dub of Totoro, and I'm sorry, but why did Disney have to change ot when they released it? No offence to Dakota Fanning and her sis who voiced the main characters, but there wasn't a need for it...it was fine the wasy it was!!
Without stating the obvious, this late release will only lead to more pirate anime...which we don't need, we need people to buy it in the UK, but it's unstandable why people will choose to download it when you have to wait so long!
Oh well, that's my two cents as they say... someday we may even get that Catbus (Totoro 2) movie...lol, yeah 2020!?
Very frustrating, indeed. My nieces in Japan saw it in 2008 with their mother during the summer holiday. My children, however, haven't and they are getting older. Still, I have been able to take my children to Ghibli Museum at two occasions. It happens to be very close to where I was brought up: in fact I went to the same junior high school as Hayao Miyazaki. I live in England now.
I wonder where they will be showing Ponyo, when it eventually arrive here... would it be restricted to London, Brimingham and Manchester? Anyone know? Should I just get the DVD from Japan and be done with it, I wonder...
I have lost the will to live waiting for the UK release, so I ordered the DVD from Australia.
If and when it is eventually released I will go also go and see it on the big screen, hopefully the distribution company will have the sense to keep the Feb release and make it during the half term holiday to get the kids in!
I see it's 'released' on Feb 12th 2010, but only Cineworld location I could see that was showing it was Enfield, London. Gaaaa.
Will an Australian DVD get here quick?
It's me again. It has miraculously come to Peterborough, so I took my family to see it on Saturday. I don't think it will be there next week, though. My youngest enjoyed it. The visual quality was superb! I cannot comment on the translation quality, as I have yet to watch it in Japanese.
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