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Anne of Green Gables I'm not very interested in but 3000 Leagues was warmly recomended on a film blog, and has a Ghibli connection because of Isao Takahata. No english subs is a shame. 52 episodes to rip and join with fansubs (if there are any). Ouch. Too much work. Thank you for the info manicsounds. Have you seen 3000 Leageus?

3000 Leagues was released in Taiwan on DVDs with English subs through two box sets (each comprised of 5 discs), but it may be out of print now. It's a lovely series. The animation and artwork are obviously not as rich and beautiful as the Ghibli films, but it's got Takahata's imprint all over it, and the episodic format suits his modest, low-key view of life well. Definitely worth watching for Takahata/Ghibli fans.

A lot of the early World Masterpiece Theatre shows are worth watching. Yes, they have TV quality budgets, but you'll see many of the same philosophies in terms of storyboarding, character animation and scene setting that is evident in the later Ghibli movies. All of the Takahata-directed shows in particular are especially impressive. I have seen Anne of Green Gables and while it's not the most riveting show ever (it's extremely faithful to the book), it has a sense of place and observational detail that is characteristic of Ghibli's more down to earth, non-fantasy films.

"My Neighbour Totoro" UK BD review
"Castle Of Cagliostro" UK BD review, which shows it is the same 1080i transfer as the Japanese disc, sadly.

My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle are being released on May 21st.

Grave of the Fireflies and Kiki's Delivery Service coming from StudioCanal UK on May 27th 2013

Looks like Porco Rosso is the next one in line.

I suspect this will feel like old ground, but- has anyone gotten to see and compare the dubtitled US version of Castle in the Sky to the literally subtitled version? I know the one I saw theatrically was the latter- my understanding is that the line about Gulliver's Travels doesn't appear in the dubtitled version, and it's one I specifically remember in the theater- but I'm trying to get an idea of whether or not the difference is great enough to justify importing the Hong Kong release, which is significantly pricier.

A way to compare this is to take the old Disney 2-disc DVD, watch the movie with English dialogue and turn on the English (translated from Japanese) subtitles and see the difference.

(Although keep in mind that the Blu-ray and the reissued 2-disc DVD have a slightly altered English dub. So it won't be the same.)

DVDBeaver compares the Disney Howl's Moving Castle BD

Looks good, has the English credits, (UK and Japan has Japanese credits only) but the US BD actually has LESS extras than the old DVD and the newly created featurette which was on the UK and Japanese discs is not included.

Only got the Totoro Blu-ray so far.

Contains the untouched Japanese titles/credits and the two different English subtitle sets. No problems to speak of. Looks wonderful.

Sounds like Howl's Moving Castle also turned out right.

Does Disney only release 2 of these on Blu-ray a year? I'm hoping I don't have to wait until 2014 for Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

Looks like that's how it's going to be. You might be waiting even longer for Mononoke and Spirited Away depending on when Japan gets around to them; they will probably be the final two (out of five total to go, counting Ocean Waves.)

So the US disc of Totoro contains both the Japanese and English text credits?

Yes indeed.

Grave of the Fireflies UK BD review and Kikis Delivery Service UK BD review at BlurayDefinition.

Both seem to have some DNR handling applied, yet again. Also, Kiki seems to have yellow subs (like Totoro) while Grave has white.

JonasEB wrote:Looks like that's how it's going to be. You might be waiting even longer for Mononoke and Spirited Away depending on when Japan gets around to them; they will probably be the final two (out of five total to go, counting Ocean Waves.)

Does Disney have the rights to Mononoke? I only ask because, if I recall correctly, this would beits first time releasing the film as a Disney title. Of course, it was originally released under Miramax while still a Disney subsidiary, so it certainly makes sense.

Was the agreement between Disney and Ghibli renewed within recent years, or has Disney maintained the rights to Mononoke over the entire period?

Grave of the Fireflies UK BD and Kiki's Delivery Service UK BD reviews at DVDActive

FakeBonanza wrote:Was the agreement between Disney and Ghibli renewed within recent years, or has Disney maintained the rights to Mononoke over the entire period?

Disney probably renewed it. Practically every Miramax title since the Disney split has been reissued through their new distributors but Mononoke has not. Surely it would be one of the higher priority titles so it seems that Miramax is no longer involved. Disney also still advertises the old Princess Mononoke DVD on their official site.

The Studio Ghibli/Disney relationship continues but it has changed. It's no longer an exclusive relationship. Theatrical distribution of the back catalog is handled by GKids. New Studio Ghibli films may be accepted for U.S. distribution by Disney or turned down, which would then go to GKids (like Poppy Hill this year.) Disney now only publishes the back catalog on home video (up to Arrietty, minus Grave of the Fireflies - which is held separately from the rest of the Ghibli catalog in Japan - and the two they aren't interested in) or those they opt to release theatrically in the future.

November release.

"Porco Rosso": UK Studio Canal BD will be released on November 18th 2013.

From Up on Poppy Hill BD reviews:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/From-Up-O ... 52/#Review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/review ... eview.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not mentioned in these reviews is the inclusion of a 20 page booklet with stuff written by both Hayao and Goro Miyazaki. This is easily the most extra-filled Ghibli BD release to hit North America.

This looks like a pretty sweet package. Kinda makes you wish they handled some of the past Ghibli releases for home instead of Disney.

Not a huge deal, but it's a shame whoever encoded that didn't shut the lowpass filter off (Cinema Craft / Sirius Pixels encoder I guess). All of the ones Disney put out (I think all of which got done at Panasonic) were 100% full resolution 1080p.

Still looks really good though.