Disney Goes Anime

[D'Snowth]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876563/

Or at least distributes one to U.S. theaters.

Um... while we're on the subject, forgive me for being a complete idiot... but what in the world is the difference between anime and manga? It all looks alike to me.

 

[MrsPepper]

Anime is the word used to describe Japanese animation. Manga (pronounced mawn-ga, rhymes with lafonda) is the word to describe Japanese comics and graphic novels.

I don't think this is completely unusual because they also distributed Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, both of which are pretty weird but cool movies. I think they're being distributed by Disney in north america/ english speaking countries, because they are all Miyazaki (spelling?) films, and he's basically the Japanese equivalent of GLen Keane or John Lasseter or any of the big Disney/Pixar directors.

 

[D'Snowth]

That sounds somewhat poetic...

One day I was reading some manga,
About a hero who was named Lafonda,
But then they found out she stuffed monsters in her pockets,
So they all ran off, taking her locket,
She got back at them when her monsters attacked,
Until somebody stabbed her in the back,
Then came Godzilla so everybody ran,
But due to international copyright laws they just ate some spam.

 

[Colbynfriends]

I actually want to see that movie. It looks good.

 

[Drtooth]

Disney has been doing this for a while, and quite poorly I might add, at least when it came to distribution. I remeber trying to find a theater that Spirited Away actually played, and it was only in art house theaters late at night. However, they gave the "Every single movie theater in the country" treatment to that abortion Jungle Book 2... man, I was ticked.

They do release these to DVD... they initially weren't hard to find, now I think they stopped producing them, and they're probably going for fortunes on Amazon.

 

[Yorick]

I love My Neighbor Totoro! So I might try this.

 

[bazooka_beak]

I want to see Ponyo but it might be awhile :/ I also saw Spirited Away in theaters.

Disney also has actual ANIME I believe. I think there's a Lilo and Stitch anime that was made. And there's also a manga series or two.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I'm so glad there has been actually promotion for this movie!

The only adversing I saw for Spirited Away was like at two o'clock in the morning.

 

[Drtooth]

Apparently, they shoved Disney's "Stars" into the dub. And people whine about 4Kids.... Really Disney. That stuff isn't end all be all. Cut it the heck out!

 

[frogboy4]

Apparently, they shoved Disney's "Stars" into the dub. And people whine about 4Kids.... Really Disney. That stuff isn't end all be all. Cut it the heck out!

But along with the Hannah and Jonas kids (Noah Lindsey Cyrus and Frankie Jonas) they did include so many surprisingly good stars to dub for Ponyo. Cate Blanchett, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Tina Fey and Matt Damon. They're covering the bases there.

The one critique that I've heard about both versions of the film that kind of freaks me out is that Miyazaki allows the mother character to leave her 5 year old son at home unattended during a storm in order to resume her duties at the hospital. Over the years I have learned to appreciate *good* anime like Miyazaki's work, but weirdness like that keeps my Western-sensibilities from enjoying it as much as a traditional Disney film like The Little Mermaid. There always seems to be underdeveloped obvious holes that are hard for me to look past. I’ll probably just turn my brain off and enjoy the visuals.