Disney Severs Ties with Studio Ghibli

[Sotiris]

We all know that Disney stopped distributing new Ghibli films a while ago and lost the theatrical rights to the previous ones but now they have lost the home video rights to their entire Ghibli catalog (with The Winds Rises as the sole exception which was distributed under Touchstone). GKids now owns both the theatrical and home video rights and plans to re-release all of the Ghibli catalog on DVD and Blu-ray starting on October 17, 2017. It's not known yet if this new deal means that the Disney DVDs and Blu-rays will be going out of print soon, but it's very likely.

You can find more details about the new deal, here.

[unprincess]

what a prize for GKids! and a loss for Disney(not that they care.)

[stevemcqueen]

Could this mean a possible digital distribution deal as well? Or is that still off the cards?

[magicalwands]

Oh man, hopefully GKIDS takes care of Studio Ghibli's films. I've always been comfortable how Ghibli was with Disney because of how big of a company they are.

Guess this means I will be buying the rest of the blu-rays Disney has released!

[JTurner]

That thread title is a bit of an exaggeration. There are some people at Disney who will always be fond of Ghibli. Lasseter was the one who, after all, got Miyazaki recognized with Spirited Away. And of course they still own the master tapes for the dubs they provided.

Disney is still selling the movies in Japan, though, and that's where I feel the relationship between them and Ghibli will still be.

[Spottedfeather]

I just tried to order Howl's, Kiki's, and Totoro from the Disney club and got a letter saying that they weren't available. I checked the website and those movies aren't there any more. Weird. Am I wrong in thinking that Disney doesn't have distribution rights to Ghibli movies any more ?

[estefan]

I just tried to order Howl's, Kiki's, and Totoro from the Disney club and got a letter saying that they weren't available. I checked the website and those movies aren't there any more. Weird. Am I wrong in thinking that Disney doesn't have distribution rights to Ghibli movies any more ?

No, you're not wrong. GKIDS has the distribution rights to most of the Studio Ghibli titles now. The only one Disney still has is The Wind Rises and even that one might not be for long. GKIDS released their Blu-Ray editions of Spirited Away, Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo and Howl's Moving Castle last week. Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa are getting released next week. And in the end of November, we're getting Porco Rosso and The Secret World of Arrietty.

[Sotiris]

A very interesting interview with Studio Ghibli’s Steve Alpert about the relationship between Ghibli and Disney. This is just an excerpt; you should read the entire thing.

Q: With hindsight, did this marriage between Ghibli and Disney get the results you were expecting?

Steve Alpert: No, it didn’t really. Disney is obviously a huge company, and there are a lot of different people who work there. Some we got along with very well, some not so well. The first thing that happened was that the theatrical group said they weren’t going to distribute the films after all. And the video group said they wouldn’t distribute them all, because there were “objectionable” things in some of them. So that was a problem. And when they did release the films, I don’t think they really put their best foot forward. They could have pushed harder with the marketing, done more.

In retrospect, we were lucky. We offered to buy back the films, and they said no — they preferred to hold them and not release them, which was very devastating. But — I think I mention this in the book — Mr. Tokuma wouldn’t give them digital rights. [In fact, Disney hadn’t even wanted the rights initially — they] had one of their heads of operations do a study on dvd, and decided it would never be important, so they didn’t think they needed the digital rights. When that proved not to be true, it gave us an opportunity to fix a lot of things. So we got better distributors in a lot of the other countries.

Q: So when Mr. Tokuma later handed Disney the DVD rights, it was in exchange for your right to buy back any unreleased titles?

Steve Alpert: All kinds of things. I took advantage.

Q: It’s crazy that Disney failed to predict the importance of DVD.

Steve Alpert: I’ve since talked to the guy who wrote the report. Technology moves really rapidly, but I think we forget the problems they were experiencing at the time. They just didn’t think they were ever going to get to the 90-minute mark on a single side. And it would probably have killed the technology if they hadn’t figured out how to get over that hump. They also had trouble solving pixelation.

Source: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/ ... 92870.html

Q: You explain how Suzuki worked hard to publicize Princess Mononoke to Japanese people as “the film Disney had bought” – even extending to you being forced into an appearance on late-night Japanese TV! Of course, Princess Mononoke ended up being a record-breaking blockbuster hit in Japan. If the Ghibli-Disney deal hadn't happened, Princess Mononoke would surely have still been a hit in Japan, but do you think it might have earned far less?

Steve Alpert: I learned from Suzuki-san that when you're promoting a film everything is important. Whatever you can do, you do. Ghibli was built to make feature-length theatrical animation. The filmmakers run the studio, so they make the films they think should be made the way they want to make them. How popular the film might be and what kind of money it will make doesn't influence the making of the film as it might in a large commercial studio. They decide to make the film first and figure out how to promote it after. [...] I'm not sure it's possible to say what portion of the film's commercial success came from the association with Disney. Suzuki-san had a lot of things in his promotional bag of tricks. He knew the Japanese theatrical market better and in finer detail than anyone. He spent a lot of time thinking about how Japanese people behave and how best to optimize his promotion of the film.

Q: In Chapter 5, you describe how Joe Hisaishi created an expanded orchestral score for Castle in the Sky for the Disney dub. You said Miyazaki vetoed this score. However, the Disney English-language dub for Castle in the Sky does indeed feature a much-expanded score by Hisaishi. Did Miyazaki change his mind later, or was there another reason why the score made it into the dub?

Steve Alpert: I'm afraid I don't know. That would be something that happened after I retired.

Source: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interv ... li/.160678

[blackcauldron85]

I just read the whole interview; I agree that it's worth a read. So, Disney initially agreed to release all the Ghibli movies in theaters and on VHS, it was in their contract, but then they decided not to? Were they going to theatrically release them all, or just the newer ones? Was something like Grave of the Fireflies part of the agreement? You'd think they would have watched all the films first to see if they fit the Disney brand before agreeing to distribute them. As far as marketing goes, the Disney Sing Along Songs tapes often had ads for the Ghibli films...I remember being little and wondering why those ads were on Disney tapes!

[estefan]

I remember seeing trailers for "Castle in the Sky" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" on the "Lion King II" VHS, I believe. Kiki got a VHS release, but then Disney cancelled the "Castle on the Sky" VHS and people had to wait until the DVD in 2003 to see the movie. They they hurried up and started releasing other Ghibli titles.

I thought Disney did a good job with the dubs, but I'm really pleased with how GKIDS has handled the Ghibli catalogue. The restorations are stunning.

[Sotiris]

Disney has lost the home video rights to The Wind Rises which was distributed under the Touchstone label. This marks the official end of Disney's connection to Ghibli in America.

Studio Ghibli Feature 'The Wind Rises' on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital this September from GKIDS, Shout! Factory
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press- ... ry/.160529