Spirited Away 'manga'

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:26 am

Whilst shopping today, I came across in my local sci-fi, fantasy & manga bookshop a rather peculiar little collection of five 'mangas' of Spirited Away. Now, the inverted commas are due to the fact that these contain the storyline of the movie in a manga-style layout, only they use stills from the movie instead of artwork (if there's a proper technical term for this, I apologise). Now, on the front it says in nice big writing "Spirited Away Written & Directed by Hayao Miyazaki" and all that, but what I found a little interesting was that there was a golden sunburst sticker on the front cover also, which reads as follows:

Sunburst wrote:Based on Disney's 2002 Academy Award (tm) winning motion picture!

Discuss.

J-0080 · Post by **J-0080** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:52 am

Hey,

I wonder if this means Disney might be trying to buy Studio Ghibli. Now that would be bad.

Or maybe Disney owns the North American release so they feel that its theres alone?

Or it coulda just been a mixup at the printer(though unlikely).

J-0080.

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 11:59 am

Additional note: this is in England, where the movie never got a general cinema release.

And yes, although I doubt it would ever happen, Disney buying Ghibli would be very, very bad. I believe that the ground-level staff, animators etc have a very great deal of respect for Miyazaki-san and his work, but frankly they don't run the company, the businessmen do. However, Ghibli's 'business model' (spend every last penny on each film and make the next one on whatever it reaps) should be enough to scare off any Western company ^_^

J-0080 · Post by **J-0080** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:39 pm

Savia wrote:Additional note: this is in England, where the movie never got a general cinema release.

And yes, although I doubt it would ever happen, Disney buying Ghibli would be very, very bad. I believe that the ground-level staff, animators etc have a very great deal of respect for Miyazaki-san and his work, but frankly they don't run the company, the businessmen do. However, Ghibli's 'business model' (spend every last penny on each film and make the next one on whatever it reaps) should be enough to scare off any Western company ^_^

J-0080 · Post by **J-0080** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:43 pm

Hey,

Doh my text got deleted anyway what I said was.

The only reason I can see Disney would buy Ghibili is to get thier name, and a foot in the door of animation shown in Japan.

Heh, I can just see a theather full of people anxiously awaiting Studio Ghibli's new release, only to thier horror discover that it's "Mickey Mouse Goes to Tokoyo"

.

J-0080.

Milk-Toast! · Post by **Milk-Toast!** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 7:20 pm

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney was just trying to make money....
Bastards....

flammie · Post by **flammie** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 8:10 pm

Most likely it is because most Europeans/Americans have heard of Disney and not Studio Ghibli. Viz knows this and markets accordingly.

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Mon Aug 25, 2003 9:01 am

But do they have the right to claim it as their own, just because they're responsible for the distribution?

Pie Row Maniac · Post by **Pie Row Maniac** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 4:33 am

Milk-Toast! wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Disney was just trying to make money....
Bastards....

Poor dopes need it, they're going under, what with all their sequels and lack of ideas.

Although I have to give them props for Emperor's New Groove.

Savia · Post by **Savia** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:12 am

Pie Row Maniac wrote:Although I have to give them props for Emperor's New Groove.

Agreed. That was one of their only really good recent movies- fresh and different.