Did Disney really care about Studio Ghibli?

[GeffreyDrogon]

A thing I think about is Disney and Studio Ghibli. Did Disney really care about Studio Ghibli and the works of Hayao Miyazaki? Sure, they did give those films start-studded English dubs, but couldn't they have marketed those films better? There seems to have been little marketing for those films, despite Disney claiming that they care about those films.

If Disney cared about Studio Ghibli, why didn't it buy the company or make co-productions with it?

[Randall]

Ghibli had its champions at Disney and Pixar, but the executives really didn't get it. They liked the idea of being associated with something classy, but they didn't understand Ghibli, and never felt it was warranted to really promote the films like they needed to be in order to catch on. Perhaps they hoped the films would become "sleeper hits," but that never quite happened. Disney was content to have a few bucks dribble in off of smaller theatrical releases and then home video sales. That was the safe way to go. Spending $50M to market a foreign film might have been a great push, but ultimately was seen as a poor risk.

The films got awards attention, but audiences ignored them - largely because the films were not particularly well marketed, with less than half-hearted marketing budgets, because Disney didn't think it was worth the investment. And remember, this is the same clueless studio that couldn't figure out how to market A Princess of Mars, because they bizarrely didn't think teenage boys would actually want to see a Martian science fiction tale with a half-naked beautiful woman. They're not exactly wizards when it comes to product that they don't grok.

The bottom line, though, is that Disney had no real stake in a studio they didn't own, which produced films primarily for a culture (and general audience) they didn't understand. It's no mystery that they didn't do more to support Ghibli, it's amazing they did as much as they did.

And haven't we had this conversation before...?

[GeffreyDrogon]

I sometimes ask the same questions again because I am inquisitive to know how things work, and what went wrong for some things.

[Ben]

Disney had two dabbles with Ghibli, the first from Harvey Weinstein's wanting to import foreign films and make them arthouse hits, and then really as a way to appease fan John Lasseter, whose clout got those heavyweight star voice dubs produced. However, Disney did take a stake in many of the productions, being a producing partner among many others through their home video division. The arthouse mentality was always there, however, until Spirited Away gave the films a boost and they got nicer Blu-ray editions, but a sale or stake in Ghibli itself was never on the cards because they never wanted to sell. The fact that Disney let the library go almost the second Lasseter left kind of tells you the answer to your question. The two biggest mistakes I think modern Disney has done in terms of their library assets was to lose the Miramax titles and not keep the Ghibli licenses, just as such content was given new life with streaming coming along.

[EricJ]

Disney had a fairly good success with Kiki's Delivery Service on VHS, back when almost NO ONE had heard of Studio Ghibli (apart from Roger Ebert's praise for Troma's dub of "My Neighbor Totoro" in theaters).
They wanted to get into Japan's home-sale VHS market, which was almost non-existent at the time--since Japan's corporate synergy had made VHS a rental-only market, laserdisc ruled the sales market and Japanese home VHS sales of even favorite movies was difficult--and believed they'd clean up on selling some of the big titles.
It didn't hurt that a few other international animated films from France and Mexico were looking for a distributor at the time, and Disney thought Japanese releases would help create an "International animation festival" label to grab those up.

They did well enough in foreign markets, like selling Porco Rosso in Europe. Unfortunately, Ghibli and Tokuma, partly for home hype-value and partly to prevent reverse-import DVD's, contractually insisted that Disney release Princess Mononoke in theaters, as the signed deal's big US debut.
...Owie. Mononoke is NOT the first movie you show to Ghibli newbies who only know Kiki and Totoro. In Disney terms, it was the Princess & the Frog to "Spirited Away"'s Tangled.
Disney was so traumatized with egg on its face, they were ready to abandon the US arm of the deal right there and then, and even announced they had, until a fan petition for a bilingual DVD release of Mononoke changed their minds. (And Disney even went into that petition smugly expecting to "prove", Warner-style, that the mass audience didn't want one anyway.)

So, yes. The Lasseter dubs got glowing family-critic reviews, and Disney indulged them, although the non-Miyazaki dubs of "Pon Poko", "The Cat Returns" or "My Neighbors, the Yamadas" never quite seemed to be high on their list for re-release.
But the DAMAGE HAD BEEN DONE. (And at least good dubs had been created, for GKids posterity.)

[Ben]

Ghibli and Tokuma, partly for home hype-value and partly to prevent reverse-import DVDs, contractually insisted that Disney release Princess Mononoke in theaters…

…before DVDs were even a Thing! Wow.

Actually, Mononoke was a one and done Weinstein deal through a Miramax pickup. If it had gone better he probably would have got into deeper business with them, but it didn’t go well and Ghibli stepped back just as much as Miramax did, which was an autonomous division of Disney, which wasn’t interested one way or another, indeed, Mononoke wasn’t part of the Disney-Ghibli titles, being a Miramax holdout until Disney sold off the library and they folded a select few titles into other portfolios. I’m not even sure it got a Disney branded Blu release, did it?

[Randall]

Yes, the PM Blu says "Disney Presents."

[Evergreen]

Disney had a fairly good success with Kiki's Delivery Service on VHS, back when almost NO ONE had heard of Studio Ghibli (apart from Roger Ebert's praise for Troma's dub of "My Neighbor Totoro" in theaters).

Kiki was the first Ghibli film I'd ever seen, back in the '90s when I was a child, because it aired on Toon Disney (I think that channel's called Disney XD these days). I remember taping it when it re-aired because it was such a lovely, charming movie, and re-watched it pretty often. It's still my favorite Ghibli film, but it does have the extra benefit of nostalgia that no other Ghibli film had. I didn't see the rest of the Ghibli films until they started to get released when I was in high school. I would save up lunch money from school to buy the Disney sponsored DVD releases.

I wish Disney did still have a partnership with them. I was thinking a couple of weeks ago about how it would be much easier to get the Ghibli Blu-rays if they were a part of Disney Movie Club, they almost never seem to be on sale on Amazon. Ah well.

[EricJ]

…before DVDs were even a Thing! Wow.

They weren't much of a thing in the US in 1999, but they existed, and they barely existed in Japan at the time (since, again, the LD had never lost popularity over there).

That made it difficult to license either Studio Ghibli or Toho Godzilla, since Toho didn't see a need to get into their own market, but didn't want foreign competition for their few techies at home importing US disks.
Miramax was only allowed to release an English version of their own dub--which, of course, caused the Disney-paranoid anime and DVD fans to Q-theory that Disney was out to "crush their competition"--and the surprise results of the petition not only helped change Disney's mind about getting out of the US market, but also persuaded Toho to start catching up with the rest of the world.

(Up to that point, the only bit of Toho-zilla that had been allowed on US DVD was ADV Films' version of the redheaded-stepchild "Destroy All Monsters", and then dub-only with no chapters or extras.)

Actually, Mononoke was a one and done Weinstein deal through a Miramax pickup. If it had gone better he probably would have got into deeper business with them, but it didn’t go well and Ghibli stepped back just as much as Miramax did, which was an autonomous division of Disney, which wasn’t interested one way or another,

It got one later--The story going around was that Disney wanted to distance themselves from the bloody PG-13 rating and sell it under Miramax's label for arthouse value.
Which Disney believed was the only audience it would attract, and even more so when they got their first look at it. And when they did, it explains a lot about why they weren't interested afterwards.

That also prompted the "No cuts, no changes" rule on Disney, knowing how other Asian imports had gotten through the Weinsteins before.
If it had solely been a Weinsteins deal, Disney would never have had the restrictions placed on them for the remainder of the titles.

I was thinking a couple of weeks ago about how it would be much easier to get the Ghibli Blu-rays if they were a part of Disney Movie Club, they almost never seem to be on sale on Amazon. Ah well.

The Disney ones are out of print (but still affordable), and the current editions, now distributed by GKids but still with the Disney dubs, are now handled by their own label and/or Shout Factory:
https://www.amazon.com/Kikis-Delivery- ... 074128LDG/

[Daniel]

DVDs were most certainly a thing in 1999. That's when Disney launched the short-lived Limited Issues line.

[Ben]

Yeah, DVDs were a thing from 97 onwards. I remember umming and ahing over buying Contact on LD or DVD at the time, and certainly picked up early animated film releases like Quest For Camelot and Anastasia on DVD in '98.

[Randall]

I think that Quest for Camelot may be the oldest disc that I still own. Not too many snapper cases left on my shelf.

[Daniel]

Just the Pokémon films and Cats Don't Dance for me. Ah, those early days!

[GeffreyDrogon]

I like DVD's. They provide a sturdy backup that can come in handy if you lose a recording of a film on a TV or if you can't find it on streaming.