Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea Release Date
Studio Ghibli Casts English Dub For Hayao Miyazaki Film
Jan 5, 2009
Hayao Miyazaki fans rejoice: Disney plans to bring his latest film Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea to North American theatres sometime during the summer of 2009.
According to the Nikkei Financial News (via the Anime News Network), the Mouse House has agreed to bring the anime master's latest movie to domestic audiences in a renewed attempt to break anime into the North American market.
John Lasseter, Studio Ghibli Trying to Break Anime in North America
Despite Spirited Away winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film in 2002, and anime becoming an obvious influence on such successful properties as Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender and the live-action The Matrix movie franchise, the Japanese animation genre has so far failed to capture North American imaginations beyond a certain fanbase.
Pixar co-founder and Disney creative chief John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars) is producing the North American release, along with Steven Spielberg's long-time producers, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park).
A long-time fan and friend of Miyazaki's, Lasseter had also produced Hayao's previous North American releases for Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle. Last September, Lasseter hosted a charity auction at Pixar's Emeryville headquarters to benefit the Totoro Forest Project, an effort to save one of the forests that inspired Miyazaki's 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro.
Although Ponyo on a Cliff is the literal translation of the Japanese Gake no ue no Ponyo, the film is being retitled Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea for North American audiences.
Ponyo on a Cliff's English Cast
Disney has assembled an all-star cast to voice the Ponyo English dub, featuring Tina Fey (30 Rock), Liam Neeson (Batman Begins), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)) and Matt Damon (The Bourne Supremacy ).
Lily Tomlin (I Heart Huckabees), Betty White (Golden Girls), Frankie Jonas (The Jonas Bros.), Madison Davenport (Kit Kittredge: An American Girl), Noah Lindsey Cyrus, and Cloris Leachman (Frau Blücher from Young Frankenstein) fill out the supporting cast.
Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea has been another hit for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. In its Japanese theatrical release, it earned 14,227,107,731 Yen, the equivalent of $153 million USD.
It generated mostly positive reviews among movie critics, although there have been the occasional dissenting opinion. IMDb watchers have mostly given the film an aggregate score of 8.2/10, well below Spirited Away's 8.5, which for a while made it the most beloved animated film of all time among IMDb's readership.
