Cool News
A large National Release for SPIRITED AWAY!!!
Hey folks, Harry here! When I saw that angel decree that Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY was the winner of the ACADEMY AWARD for Best Animated Picture, I regretted that most Americans would have never seen the film she had just announced. Well, all of that is a thing of the past. It looks like SPIRITED AWAY will get a chance on 800 screens nationwide. Most likely it'll be the John Lassiter's overseen English version of SPIRITED AWAY, but at least those people will get a chance to see it. NOW, if only Disney will release the DVD in both languages, so that we can choose the version we wish to see and hear. Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
I got some news that I hope you can help to
distribute to the masses.
I've read on the website 'Cartoon Research,' that
with the winning of the Oscar for Best Animated
Feature, the film 'Spirited Away' is FINALLY going to
get the decent release it deserves. After Disney's on
again/off again thoughts of 'Oh, I don't think
everyone likes Miyazaki,' the Oscar was the swift kick
in the pants to show that this film is truly a magical
experience!
reports that the Mouse House will be putting this film
into rerelease starting this Friday, April 28, 2003,
on over 800 screens!! that's about 6 times what they
had the film on during the end of September, and is
about 1/4 of the amount of screens they normally put
their films on (like 'Treasure Planet' and 'Piglet's
Big Movie').
So, start spreading the word Harry. Wake the
children of Austin, hell, wake all the children of
Texas. Declare it a national holiday and take every
child (and child at heart) to see this film come this
weekend!
Emphatically excited,
uruseiranma- Lead Editor 'Countdown to Spirited
Away' and 'Countdown to Howl's Moving Castle'
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+ Expand All
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Finally. FINALLY!!! Jeez-Louise, Disney, it sure took you long enough. I just hope the Oscar inspires them to support the film not only with screens, but with a real marketing campaign on the level of their in-house Disney animated films. I think Miyazaki deserves at least as much advertising support as, say, Treasure Planet, wouldn't you say?
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It'll take a lot of resources to attract the audiences not familiar with Japanese animation (worse, they will criticize and ambitious fantasy. Best of luck to Disney on box office success of a re-release. Spirited Away is one of the best animated films ever made alongside The Iron Giant and Disney's Pinocchio.
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I will be seeing this one again, that's for sure.
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If there aren't enough commercials/print ads, Disney'll be happy to blame the American audience they worked so hard to dullen.
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If it flops, I mean. Can't let Disney get away with anything! Heh.
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A two and a half week run?
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...with news of the Oscar win, even a whole day later. That can't be a good sign. If this was one of _their_ movies, I doubt they would have wasted any time trumpeting their triumph. Sigh... (Stay tuned to Nausicaa.net for more news.)
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They're all 2-disc sets, aren't they?
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From all the reviews I have read of the Spirited Away DVD, it DOES have the original Japanese soundtrack in 5.1 and the English dubbed version in 5.1. Is Harry on crack or something?
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Spirited Away, as well as Kiki and Laputa, WILL have Japanese audio, with both literal AND adapted english subtitles. Did you even BOTHER to check the specs? :P
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Then Di$ney knows it's role, and must advertise the hell out of this movie. And show this movie at places people GO. The Lagoon and Uptown over here in Minneapolis are "art house movie" theatres, and only showed this movie 1 week on the first "test" release, and had NO ads here in it's "test market"! Spirited Away DESERVES the ultimate care that a well thought out ad campaign could give. Spirited Away DESERVES to make 100 Million, or even MORE. And Princess Mononoke should be RE-RELEASED with the same method. Di$ney, get a clue, talking mice $UX0R$!
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Mar 25, 2003 2:19:36 AM CST
F-ing Rugrats gets a wide release and Spritied Away only 800...
by alcamaeon
The world is being deprived by moronic executives. It's about time for "old" execs to die and "younger" execs to take over the industry. This is way overdue.
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Harry, Don't you have this one already anyway? I ordered the DVD months before the movie was released stateside so I could watch it in Japanese. I was really amazed at how different the translation was for Mononoke. It was one of the only DVDs that I've ever watched dubbed before watching it in the original language. Big mistake. Deer god, forest spirit, big difference. I will be glad to get a chance to see Spirited Away on the big screen. Hopefully some of the indy theatres around here will play the Japanese version again. Nothing better than showing SA to my friends who hadn't seen much anime and watching their jaws drop. "What the fuck is this tripper shit?"
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If Spirited Away gets re-released in theatres April 30, that would put it about a week and a half AFTER the dvd is released. Just how many people do they think are gonna see it on the big screen when they can buy the DVD for about the cost of two movie tickets?
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At LEAST 2,000 theaters is a national release, 800 is practically nothing! I still don't think many people are going to see this...
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Long as they advertise the living shit out of this movie, right along with that "Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Film" to boot, money will be made, release may expand....Gods willing, this will lead to a national Princess Mononoke rerelease and lead into Miyazaki's other stuff getting theatrical as well...Disney's got some serious fuel to work off of now...if they fuck it up this time, there's absolutely NO saving them....Revolution is my name
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Just to let you all know, the DVD is in both languages.... and there's no red tint either:
http://dvd.ign.com/articles/389/389319p1.html
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Mar 25, 2003 9:44:53 AM CST
I would think after the stink people raised after they were goin
by horseflesh
Then again it's Disney, they learn hard.
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This is good news UNLESS they announce that the Miyazaki DVDs (or at least Spirited Away) will be delayed a few months. Of course they could also market the DVD by putting an ad for it at the beginnig of the theatrical film: "After you enjoy this Academy Award winning film, you can take it home!". Yeah - that had better be their plan. I've waited too long to own this one, and the ign.com review has me salivating that much more.
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It turns out someone needs a calendar. When I first read the article I focused in on "April 28th" and missed the "this Friday". Yay - a win/win. I get to see this on the big screen (hopefully, along with a couple of gazillion others) AND own it in 2 1/2 weeks as well! Disney - promote this movie!!!!!
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http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030325/latu060_1.html
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Mar 25, 2003 2:05:13 PM CST
Hmmm, an Oscar finally embarassed Disney into giving it a decent
by fatal discharge
But I still don't see how people will turn up to see it with no advertising. Couldn't they have put as much effort into releasing this as they did should-be-straight-to-video dreck like Piglet's Big Wallow In His Own Filth.
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What took so long? I'm oh-so happy about this, as now I'll be able to finally see "Spirited Away" on the big screen, but I've been waiting for a long while now, and although I adore Disney animation, I'm still upset that it took this long to give this beautiful film it's proper due. It's as if Disney waited 'til it couldn't deny it any longer, and wow, gives us "Spirited Away" at a theater near you. I saw ONE commercial for it last year, and that was it. After all the praise, all the hope by fans to get to watch it and not have to travel to San Francisco or Los Angeles (me in California), now Disney decides it's time. OK, I won't tempt fate and be too bitter, but just had to say that. I'd love for "SA" to capture the imagination of the country and by sheer demand, keep it in the theaters for a long while. But it's coming out on DVD in three weeks, so I guess Disney will have to feel it through the DVD sales and rentals.
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I got it when I was in Japan last summer. They had already released "Spirited "Away" on DVD about a year before, but then they released a special edition series of all of Miyazaki's films. One day I was in a store and I saw SA on sale for 1000 yen less than the normal price. (An amazing thing, mind you, since there is uniform pricing in Japan. i.e. A brand product in one store will be the same price in 99.9% of all the other stores in Japan). I was so shocked at the reduced price that I bought it, even though I didn't have a multi-region DVD player at the time (though I planned to get one). Fast forward seven months, and I still don't have a multi-region player. So my Japanese SA is just sitting on the shelf. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to find some way to compare how the American release of the DVD differs from the Japanese special edition.
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Get it right. Stop sabotaging things! If anyone says anything else, they're a plant! Read that frigging Yahoo press release!
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Firmware hacks for computer dvd drives are fairly easy to find. It's ridiculous that is so hard to watch movies from whatever region you want. Jack Valenti can suck my smelly ballsack.
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English 5.1, Japanese 5.1, and French 2.0. Check your facts before you rile up the stupid fanboys.
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Mar 26, 2003 1:29:43 AM CST
Man, no wonder I've been inundated by Spirited Away commercials
by hellboy
If this is going into wide release for all of America to enjoy, Disney sure isn't telling anybody. God forbid Spirited Away cut into Piglet's precious grosses.
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Speaking of Di$ney, they've been giving Winnie The Pooh way too much exposure! They have so many other characters that are waaayy better than that stupid old bare! (Hell, A Humphry The Bear movie would be A million times cooler than another Pooh movie!) They should be giving Scrooge McDuck his due by making another "DuckTales" flick with A stronger plot! And where the hell is my Darkwing Duck movie?!? A Gargoyles theatrical movie would rock, too (as long as it's animated of course!) The more exposure they give Pooh, the more they reinforce the stereotype that animation is only for kids reguardless of what the contrary may be! My local theater better get "Spirited Away"! And one more thing for you, Di$ney! X2 will destroy your stupid little "Lizzie McSkank" movie! (At least it better!) Revolution is my name!
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March 28th is A-Day! ANIME DAY! Take a friend! Take a relative! Take a significant other! Give all of America a taste of Anime goodness! March 28th... Remember... Remember, I will.
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Mar 27, 2003 9:27:03 AM CST
They *are* advertising it this time around...saw one yesterday.
by minderbinder
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That's right! Let me be the first to say it! I thought maybe there were 2 films called Spirited Away and I accidently saw the crap one, but NOOOOOO, there was the clip on Oscar night, the same lousy animation, garish colours, bad music, jarring pacing, uninspired directing, Henson-reject characters and pointless subplots that I remember from that one excruciating night I paid $13.70 to see Spirited Away. I love art films and foreign animation as much as the next person, so some one PLEASE tell me what the big deal is with this before I go crazy!!!!!!
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Mar 27, 2003 2:45:24 PM CST
I don't blame Disney for distribuing a niche anime film on just
by kiyone
...since they licensed it mainly for the profits from the video/DVD sales, where the overhead's much lower. They released it as wide as they thought the could and still make a profit... Sony (Columbia/TriStar) releases anime films theatrically with much smaller runs then even that. Now that SPIRITED AWAY has the Oscar, a few more animation enthusiasts and film buffs will be interested in seeing it, so it will be worth playing it on 800 screens, but "Joe Multiplex" and "Jane Blockbuster", the mainstream movie-going public that abhors animation, will see BASIC, HEAD OF STATE or THE CORE this weekend, which is why SPIRITED AWAY's only playing on 800 screens tops. (I'm one of those evil people that far preferred LILO & STITCH in the Oscar race, and far prefer KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE and WHISPER OF THE HEART as Ghibli films... I'd see SA yet again this weekend, but I'd already been looking forward to seeing BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM since last summer...)
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Mar 27, 2003 3:24:18 PM CST
As for why Nickelodeon films and substandard Disney sequels play
by kiyone
...for better or for worse, they have a built-in audience, so it's not quite so much a risk (but it still is a risk, as the failure of the POWERPUFF GIRLS movie proved). And these films pander to the tastes of American children; I think the motion picture studio executives give American children too little credit in terms of their ability to enjoy things that don't quite pander to their tastes, but I'm not a motion picture studio exective, nor am I a shareholder, so, really, my opinion of their opinion of American children's intelligence and $6.55 Canadian will get me a spicy chicken burger combo at Wendy's and nothing else.
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Mar 27, 2003 6:39:16 PM CST
America has been brainwashed by the media tha animation is only
by mbaker
Another interesting note, unfortunately (in my opinion) was not an american animated film that won. Not sure if that says anything about the publics feelings or not. It seems to me, though, that "cool" is typically applied to 3d and anime whereas "kids" or "baby" stuff is applied to american 2d animation. (Nothing against anime, though. At least it's still 2D.) Perhaps the reason why people look at 2D animation as Kiddy fare has to do with how television schedules these shows on either saturday morning, and weekday syndication from studios like Filmation, DIC, Hanna-Barbers, and such. It's been going for about 3 decades that by now, the average amaeican (read "American Idol" watching sheep) will look at A television cartoon, and think "duh, kids stuff. I'm gonna watch Jerry Springer instead". It pisses me off that the average "reality tv" fan dosen't embrace animation as much as the rest of the crap the like! It's further proof that the public is A bunch of morons who have absolutely no taste what so ever!
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AMEN Mintox!! This piece of dung being pushed as the future of animation stole 2 hours of my life and I wanna sue the mouse to get it back! I bought into the reviews, and was looking forward to seeing my perceptions of what animation could be change. Well, they changed allright, but not for the best. The animation itself is gorgeous, I have to admit. But the story, or lack of I should say, was infuriating. Maybe if I was tripping on LSD, this would have made sense, but this movie never made me want to care what happened. Say what you want about the current state of american animation, but at least there is a story, and most of the time, an attempt with a little bit of a soul. I thought I must have stumbled into a print copy that was missing a couple of the reels, and judging by the other viewers looks around me, I wasn't the only one who thought this was a plodding, muddled piece of dingleberry. And, judging by all the comments I overheard as I left the theatre, I was right. If I can prevent at least one other soul from enduring this torture, my life will be complete. And by the way, I consider the bar for worst film of ALL time to be Batman n' Robin, but at least I could laugh at the batnipples and A'nuld's "feel the icy chill of doooooommmm!!" I mean there is nothing but numbness awaiting a viewer of this....NUMBNESS!!!
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Mar 28, 2003 4:34:33 AM CST
Maybe Di$ney should make "Whinnie The Pooh, and The Giant Killer
by mbaker
I'm feel A rumbly in my tumbly, brother!
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