Following the tremendous success of Howl's Moving Castle throughout Japan and many parts of Europe, Pixar animator Peter Docter (who describes himself as himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons."[1]) initiated a distribution deal in North America through Walt Disney Pictures. The only differences between the North American release and the foreign version would be the English dubs, which were added for obvious reasons.
Although the film was immensely popular in foreign countries upon it's initial release, Disney's assistance concerning the American market garnered the film considerable financial success. The move could be seen as somewhat of an expansion of territory for Disney, as they have always sought to be a figurehead in the animation world. With the growing popularity of Anime films in general, combined with director Hayao Miyazaki's notoriety and brilliance, this was a brilliant marketing move from all standpoints.
[1]The Wizard of Up. By Colin Covert. Star Tribune. Published May 27, 2009.
Comments (1)
Sean Desilets said
at 12:10 pm on Dec 11, 2009
* I bet there's stuff on the HMC special features disc, though of course that will be entirely pro-Disney
* The disc also contains the film in Japanese with subtitles, though of course the theatrical release was dubbed
* Might be interesting to talk a bit about what might make one hesitate about Disney releasing Studio Ghibli films.
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