All right, the big news today for you Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fans is that Disney has set the Ghibli animated titles Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, and Tales from Earthsea for Blu-ray release on 2/3. This is official – you can see the cover artwork below and the titles are now available for pre-order. One would expect that the latest film from Studio Ghibli, The Tale of Princess Kaguya will be coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Disney in 2015 as well. Hopefully, Disney will pay more attention to the English subtitles on these discs than they did with Princess Mononoke. We’re still waiting to hear if they intend to fix their error on that BD – we’ll let you know.
[Editor’s Note: Looks like GKids – the same company that distributed From Up on Poppy Hill – has the North American distribution rights to The Tale of Princess Kaguya and will be releasing it on Blu-ray and DVD in early 2015. In fact, it’s already up for pre-order on Amazon at this link – street date TBA.]
And on a related note, the early Miyazaki animated film Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro is coming to DVD from Discotek Media on 12/23. The disc will include the 1992 Streamline English dub, the 2000 Manga Entertainment English dub, the 2000 Family Friendly English dub, an all new English subtitle translation, the 1980 Theatrical subtitle restoration, audio commentary with Reed Nelson, original trailers, a collection of openings and endings, and translation notes. The main movie also has the original Japanese opening. Word is the company will release it on Blu-ray here in the States early next year, probably in February or March.
Here’s also some great news: Warner Home Video is releasing Batman: The Complete Television Series on Blu-ray in a regular edition (sans swag). SRP is $239.99, but Amazon has it for pre-order at $215.99 – you can see the cover artwork and pre-order link below. It’s currently listed as “out of stock” on Amazon, and our guess is that it’s because WHV is going to fix the episodes with missing footage (as reported by readers – there are at least two episodes missing footage). As soon as we have official details on the fix from WHV, and a possible exchange program on the Limited Edition set, we’ll let you know.
In other news today, Lionsgate has set The Devil’s Hand for DVD only release on 12/16.
Paramount and Comedy Central will release Kroll Show: Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD on 12/9.
Olive Films has announced their January Blu-ray and DVD release slate, which is set to include The Big House: The Complete Series (DVD) and Fugly! (DVD + Blu-ray) on 1/13, La Belle Captive (DVD + Blu-ray), Track the Man Down (DVD + Blu-ray), The Weapon (DVD + Blu-ray), Woman They Almost Lynched (DVD + Blu-ray), and World for Ransom (DVD + Blu-ray) on 1/20, and Sanctimony (DVD) and Blackwoods (DVD) on 1/27.
PBS has set American Masters: Bing Crosby Rediscovered for DVD release on 12/2. PBS will also release the documentary To Catch a Comet on DVD on 1/13 – this is the story of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission.
The Cinema Guild will release Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/13 (SRP $34.95 and $29.95).
Film Movement will release 1,000 Times Good Night on DVD on 12/23.
RLJ Entertainment has Love The One You’re With coming to DVD on 12/16.
And Kino Lorber has set 52 Pick-Up set for BD release on 2/24, along with Black Sunday: The U.S. Release Version, and Ten Seconds to Hell. Cult of the Damned and Le Pont du Nord are also coming on 2/17. And F.I.S.T. and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming are expected on 2/10.
Now then… here’s a whole bunch of new Blu-ray cover artwork…
Back on Monday with more. Have a great weekend and stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt