Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo is on DVD
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 10:23 am by JamieAlright, all together now!
Today is the day that Disney releases Ponyo on DVD and Blu-Ray as well as special edition DVD versions of Castle in the Sky, Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. I was sent the Blu-Ray Hi Def version of Ponyo and the special edition of Castle in the Sky for review. I’ve already reviewed Ponyo and if you haven’t seen Castle in the Sky yet, this is version to get. The films are both excellent, as you’d expect from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
Now some of you may already have DVD versions of Castle in the Sky, Totoro, and Kik’s Delivery Service. I’m sad to report that you should have waited for these special editions. It’s not that the film transfers are any better, though they are lovingly reproduced for the DVD format. It’s that along with the Ponyo release, the special editions come with a second DVD with all the bonus features. If you get the Ponyo Blu-Ray Hi Def combo pack, the special features are on the Blu-Ray disc while an Hi Def version of the film is on a regular DVD. The special edition DVD of Ponyo is just like the other three with one disc for the film and one disc for the bonuses.
The bonus material makes it all worth it.
- The “Behind the Studio” feature takes you behind the scenes of Studio Ghibli with production documentaries and new interviews with Hayao Miyazaki. There are also interviews with the English language voice actors. By nature, I’m a subtitle fan but I’ve always been impressed with the quality of the voices that Disney is able to get for their dubs. For the most part, the English language voice actors match fairly well with the characters.
- “Enter the Lands” gives you an overview of the characters of each film.
- The “World of Ghibli” feature is a sort of interactive thingy that lets you click around this illustration featuring Ghibli characters. It’s sort of like an interactive preview of each film. For example, clicking on Totoro gives you a short clip from the movie with a voice-over explaining who/what Totoro is. Each area is dedicated to a Ghibli film. It’s a fun way to preview the films and it does kinda feel like you’re exploring the world viewed through Ghibli’s lens.
- You can also see the film as a storyboard. Storyboard features are usually kind of dull. The drawings are fairly simple and representational and don’t really add much insight to the film-making process. However, Ghibli storyboards are something else. Even though they’re unfinished illustrations, there’s so much detail in the boards. They don’t skimp on backgrounds. It’s all in there.
My only disappointment is that there isn’t a feature of just Miyazaki in his studio drawing. They cut to clips of him drawing a bit here and there, but no full on hour or so with just him and a piece of paper. Okay, so maybe only a handful of people would find that interesting. But I would love to sit there for a few hours and watch him draw and paint his fantastical worlds.
These are terrific releases. I’m so glad that John Lasseter managed to convince Disney to acquire the domestic rights to release Ghibli films. These special edition DVDs are the releases every Ghibli fan has been waiting for.
The special edition DVDs of Ponyo, Castle in the Sky, Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service retail for $29.99 USD. If you’ve got a great stonking big HD tele with a Blu-Ray player, the Blu-Ray of Ponyo is $39.99 USD. Although, Amazon somehow has them for much less. So whether you have a birthday or anniversary coming up or something equally momentous, tell your loved ones that you want these now.




