March? Seriously, we have to wait until March 2nd for Hayao Miyazaki‘s Ponyo to show up on Blu-ray here in North America?! That sucks. But it’s now been confirmed by producer Frank Marshall via his Twitter account tonight. Guess I had better sit tight or start saving my pennies for that Japanese import, available December 8th.
Marshall didn’t reveal any details of the Blu-ray release beyond sharing the date and the fact that the disc will have “…great extras…”. He did, however give us a TwitPic sneak-peek at an upcoming 2-disc DVD/Plush gift set hitting store shelves the same day in March:
My take on this whole thing? I think it’s a major misstep not getting these Ponyo discs out before Christmas. Clearly the products are ready. Sounds like all the encoding is done. What are we waiting for? Better be something pretty great. Like, Disney is busy translating that lengthy “making-of Ponyo” doc for inclusion in the Blu-ray set. I would wait an extra year for something as amazing as that!
UPDATE: Marshall has just added,
- “Yes, (the Ponyo Blu-ray/DVD release date) was Dec 8, but we have added a fabulous journey into the World of Ghibli, and it will all come together March 2nd.”
And I’ve just confirmed with him that the Japanese “making-of” doc won’t be showing up on this side of the Pacific in any form. Let’s hope that whatever feature Disney is putting together to give us a look inside the “World of Ghibli” is worth that extra 3-month wait! Could it be possible that they’re busy working on a couple more Ghibli discs for simultaneous release with Ponyo, to ride the wave of its publicity?! Totoro and Spirited Away please!
Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: Studio Ghibli/Disney Ponyo Japanese Blu-ray Bonus Features, Release Date Confirmed
