When will Disney release this?

Could be LEgal Issues/ Music Rights of some kind. Similar to what's currently leaving Whispers of the Heart in Limbo.

If Not That, IT oculd possibly come as a Future Wave. I'd love to own it on DVD.

Randy D said: "Only Yesterday is being shown on TCM? Isn't TCM in something like 70 million homes? How can this be allowed? I guess the fundamentalist right and social conservatives are taking the week off. "

I listen to 8 or 10 hours of conservative talk radio daily (I spend a lot of time in my car) and I've never heard any complaints about Only Yesterday, about TCM and Disney, or about Miyazaki and his films.

My guess is the "fundamentalist right" has other pressing issues.

"I never paid much attention to Japanese animiation until TCM started showing some examples this month. I just didn't realize that watching them would breed paranoia and intolerance for other people's views. "

Where is the evidence of this paranoia and intolerance you speak of?

The question is not whether or not the American Taliban is conducting a witchhunt right now. The question is whether they would in the event that Omohide Poro Poro were to be released on DVD in America with a Disney label. As we've seen this past year, it doesn't take much to start one of these little campaigns. Remember when Spongbob Squarepants was condemned for, ahem, "being gay?" Or Tinky-Winky? Or, if you're old enough, remember the witchhunts against 80's rock music? Backwards masking? Judas Priest was actually implicated in the suicide of an American teenager. The Terri Schiavo fiasco is a textbook example of the power and influence of the far right, when they want to spread their propaganda of fear.

We're talking about a movie - a masterpiece that should be required viewing, btw - that includes the following: 1) a ten-year-old girl shown in a series of public bath houses, completely naked; 2) her older teenage sister, who is lesbian (she is in love with an actress from a famous all-girl troupe); 3) an extended segment in which girls are taught about, and freely discuss their periods, including 4) the taunts and torments from the school boys, who try to pull their skirts up.

Now, the movie very clearly makes no improper suggestions or implications. But dark minds will see what they want to see. A right-wing political party mired in scandal, war, and low approval ratings, all in an election year, desperately needs some form of distraction. The American Taliban needs to shift your attention elsewhere, and truth is irrelevant.

Imagine the new talking points memo: "Disney Peddling in Child Porn." Is this true? Of course not, it's absurd. But it's something that can be manufactured, and sent through the mass media echo chamber. Who at Disney is willing to withstand this? It's not even one of their movies, but any such negative publicity would affect their business. Retail mega-chains like Wal-Mart have tremendous influence. Could they be coerced by a right-wing boycott?

I can't say that this scenario would certainly happen. It is a real possibility. It's in Disney's interests to either shuffle the film under the rug, or simply not release the DVD altogether. Pom Poko is an excellent example of a DVD that is swept under the door, from the lack of media coverage to the noticably scrubbed American dub script (notice how referances to non-Christian religions are handled). They've always been a little edgy about the Ghibli movies, and they surely wouldn't have bought the DVD rights to all of them if they weren't required to; they only wanted a couple family-friendly Miyazaki films, but got the whole lot, and they couldn't make any cuts. That no-cut rule is one major reason they've scuttled the theatrical releases of Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's.

The bottom line is that there's a lot of politics involved, and politics is dirty pool. Let's hope having John Lasseter in charge of Disney animation will enable some much-needed changes.

The blurb about America was regarding the national outlook of animation in general, not the probable outcry over the bathhouse scene early in the picture (apologies for being so vague). I almost excised it from my post, but decided to keep it (for reasons I can't remember, honestly).

I'm not pointing a finger at moviegoers here in the US, but studio execs. will not provide the neccesary funding for someone to produce an animated feature here that isn't grossly pandering to children or an ironic gag-reel. If something more is going to be attempted, it will be at the hands of a maverick filmmaker working with a small budget, such as Richard Linklater a few years ago with Waking Life.

Japan produces a lot of cheap schlock as well, from all ends of the spectrum, but the format is devoured so insatiably over there, and they're willing to produce them at such cheaper costs, that there's considerably more creative freedom. American audiences didn't flock to Princess Mononoke, despite it's enormous international following and critical accolades, and as a result Disney has limited theatrical distribution on the latest two Miyazaki pictures. This is indicative of the animation industry in the US.

I could very easily be wrong, but I think you may be overestimating the popularity of anime in the states. It's grown considerably in the last 15 years, but it's still little more than a cult from my perspective. Ghibli's one of the most successful and revered production houses in the world, yet most people would only be able to name a few of their titles (if that). Miyazaki has become a bigger name here, probably thanks to the internet as much as anything else, but I don't think anything to come from Japan has really toppled the kind of popularity Akira and My Neighbor Totor had in the early-mid 90's (possible exception being Spirited Away). Miyazaki's entire catalogue of Ghibli titles has been released at this point, and little fuss was made over them. Moreover, Takahata is supposedly retired (though I've heard he's made arrangements for one more feature), and Miyazaki may not have much left in him either. Given Yoshifumi Kondo's unfortunate passing and the spottiness of Hiroyuki Morita's debut (with Miyazaki looking over his shoulder, even), the future of Ghibli is very much in doubt. I'm not saying the quality of anime will take a nosedive, but I don't think it's popularity will ascend all that much more here.

I think most people here are still weaned on Disney and, nowadays, Pixar. With the current rage of CGI, cel animation in it's entirety is beginning to be brushed under the rug, and I sincerely doubt anyone will front the cash to produce anything that has even a token amount of intellectual depth to it through CGI. The only possibility is if someone takes a cue from Linklater and tries to help pioneer some sort of "independent" experiments, but we're a ways off, methinks (and I doubt Linklater will continue his exploits in this field, as he's not an animator to begin with). Moreover, there's no guarantee that it would take off if even attempted. Look at The Brothers Quay. Here is a duo that is easily comparable with Wladyslaw Starewicz and Jan Svankmajer, yet despite the cheap costs they still have to work overseas to get their projects off the ground. That may be unfair seeing as they're not in traditional cel-animation, but there's still a fair amount of credence to it.

I'm open minded about the issue and I'll be ecstatic if I have to eat crow on this subject a decade or so down the line, but at the moment I think we'll have to stick with the imported goods in this case.

I'm hoping it'll get debutted sometime later in 2006.

Depending on how long it would take to create a script for the anime.

Shouldn't be too hard,j ust have to create the best lines to fit the mouth movement and then you'll have a half decent English speaking Anime.

Because it's the most adult-oriented of all the Ghibli. By adult oriented, I don't mean *adult* content. It means that there are matters in this film that Disney feels are not appropriate for the young to watch. Even with the script changing processes put to lessen the extent (Pom Poco: Scrotums - Pouches), it still won't censor some of the stuff that happens *minutes* into the film. In the case of Princess Mononoke however, Disney hadn't known of how Princess Mononoke until they had seen the trailer of the English-version. In other words, they were so content into getting distribution rights of the film without watching the film because it's a Miyazaki film. To them, a Miyazaki film is a *kid-friendly* storyteller. Little do they know his capabilities.

"There are sick weird people ou there who see what they want to see, rather than what is there."

I've read what some of the people post about the bath scene in Totoro. Most of the people who complain haven't even seen the film or understand context.

"They try to spread a radical conservative agenda and..."

But what does that have to do with spreading a "radical conservative agenda?" I don't see the relevance. I still think the movie isn't well known enough for people to get the publicity out of it. I mean have the people who protest Harry Potter demonstrated against every other book that contains sorcery and witchcraft. Probably not, I bet they only protested against something everybody's heard of.
When you say there were protests against previous Ghibli movies, any sources or links?
Anyways the people who try to censor stuff like that aren't conservatives, they're not liberals, they are morons.

Thanks for the petition... but it's not over yet!
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