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The Disney-Tokuma Deal is an agreement made in 1996 between the Walt Disney Corporation and Tokuma Publishing. As a result of this agreement, Disney was granted:

• The worldwide (including Japan, but excluding the rest of Asia) home video distribution rights to certain Studio Ghibli works [see list at left].
• The worldwide (excluding Asia) theatrical distribution rights to the film Princess Mononoke.
• The worldwide distribution rights to several live action movies produced by Tokuma Publishing, such as "Opium Wars" and "Gamera 2."

• Disney's worldwide film and video distribution rights do not include Asia.
• Disney's worldwide video distribution rights do include Japan, as an exception to the above.
• "Grave of the Fireflies" is not included in the deal because Tokuma Publishing does not hold the rights to it. It was produced by a company called Shinchosha. English-subbed and dubbed "Grave" is currently available from Central Park Media.
• "I Can Hear the Sea/Ocean Waves" was not included either, probably because it was a film made specifically for television.

In North America: "Kiki's Delivery Service" was video released on September 1, 1998. It is also available on Laserdisc. Kirsten Dunst (as Kiki), Phil Hartman (as Jiji), Debbie Reynolds (as Madam), Janeane Garofalo (as Ursula) and Mathew Lawrence (as Tombo) are in the voice casts. "Kiki" has been also shown at various film festivals around the US, including Seattle, Nashville, Florida, Atlanta, and Hawaii. An English subtitled version is also available.

"Mononoke Hime" was released in the United States and Canada as "Princess Mononoke" on October 29, 1999 by Disney-owned Miramax [official site]. The voice cast includes Claire Danes (Romeo & Juliet, The Rainmaker) as San, Gillian Anderson (X-Files) as Moro, Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting) as Eboshi, Billy Crudup (Sleepers) as Ashitaka, and Billy Bob Thornton (Slingblade) as Jiko Bou [more information].

"Laputa, Castle in the Sky" has been renamed "Castle in the Sky", because "Laputa" is an offensive word in Spanish. Disney was considering releasing "Castle" in theaters, not just on video, but nothing has been decided as of December 2000. Joe Hisaishi rescored the soundtrack in Seattle in 1999 to make it more suitable for a North American theatrical release and the American market. The trailer available in the "Kiki's Delivery Service" home video says that "Castle" is coming out in 1999, but the official web site of Joe Hisaishi says that he was told by Disney that it is coming out in the year 2000. Anna Paquin (The Piano) plays Sheeta, James Van Der Beek (Dawson's Creek) plays Pazu, Mark Hamill (Star Wars) plays Muska, and Cloris Leachman plays Dola. Mandy Patinkin and Michael McShane are also in the voice cast.

Disney has no concrete plan for other titles, yet.

In Japan [see schedule at left]: Disney (Buena Vista Home Entertainment) has been releasing the sell-through videos of the following films:

• "My Neighbor Totoro", June 27, 1997.
• "Whisper of the Heart", July 25, 1997.
• "Nausicaa", September 19, 1997.
• "Kiki's Delivery Service", November 21, 1997.
• "Mononoke Hime", June 26, 1998
• "Grave of the Fireflies", August 7, 1998
• "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", September 18, 1998
• "Pom Poko", December 26, 1998
• "Porco Rosso" April 23, 1999
• "Only Yesterday" July 2, 1999.
• "I Can Hear the Sea" July 23, 1999.

Each costs 4,500 yen (excl. tax), and is letterboxed, HiFi stereo (except Nausicaa), and digitally remastered.

They are in Japanese. Inside information from Disney says that they will eventually be released in Japanese, English, and Japanese/English (a multilingual format for those who want to learn English). However, we do not know when the English versions will become available.

In Europe: "Mononoke Hime" was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 11, 1998. It has been also reported that MH will be released in UK, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. There have been news reports in Japan that French and German versions are in production. There is an official French site of Princess Mononoke.

Other Areas: It has been reported that "Mononoke Hime" will be released in theaters in Brazil and Australia. Portugese dub of Mononoke Hime for the Brazilian market has been completed.

In Asia: The Disney-Tokuma deal does not include the Asian market (except Japan). Tokuma still retains the rights to the Asian market. "Mononoke Hime" was shown in theaters in Hong Kong and Taiwan in August, 1997.

"Princess Mononoke"'s foreign releases have been available both subtitled and dubbed, depending upon the language. The English theatrical release was dubbed. However, the DVD is confirmed to contain English and French subtitles.

Disney has released a English-subbed VHS of "Kiki's Delivery Service" in the US in September, 1998.

The laserdisc of "Kiki's Delivery Service" includes original Japanese language track with English closed captioning, though they are based on the dub script.

It is also possible, but increasingly unlikely, that laserdiscs in this format will be released in other parts of the world for other titles. However, we have to point out that no details about future Disney LD releases of Studio Ghibli films is available yet.

Four of the Ghibli films have already been dubbed into English by Carl Macek, but Disney is going to redub all of them, including "Totoro", which was considered to be an excellent dub, even by dub-haters. Since Disney has vast experience in dubbing (not to mention money), we are expecting the new dubs to be superbly done. Disney hired "Class A talent" to dub "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Princess Mononoke." Inside information from Disney says that Disney is spending 10 times the money when compared to the average anime dubbing job. Neil Gaiman, the writer of "The Sandman", has worked on the English script of "Princess Mononoke", and Disney reportedly spent about $2.1 million to dub "Princess Mononoke".

"Kiki's Delivery Service" is available on LD, as well as on video. It is very unlikely that Disney will release any other film on LaserDisc.

When the original deal was struck in 1996, Disney was still not sure about DVD's future, so they didn't negotiate DVD rights as part of the deal. Disney has later negotiated for the DVD rights to "Princess Mononoke", but it might or might not get the DVD rights to future Studio Ghibli film releases.

The "Kiki" subbed VHS and laserdisc are letterboxed. The "Princess Mononoke" DVD is confirmed to be letterboxed, too. (The dubbed version of "Kiki" is pan & scan.)

Will Disney modify (i.e. cut scenes from) these films?

No. This will not happen. Disney can not cut even one second from the films, according to the contract. Ghibli has officially stated that "With Disney's commitment to maintain the quality of the original titles, there will be no changes to music and sequences in foreign language versions." According to Mr. Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli, other companies such as Fox and Time-Warner contacted Tokuma, but Disney was the only company willing to agree to this condition, and that was the main reason why Tokuma chose Disney as a partner.

The term means that Disney can not touch the films, but that does not prevent Disney from asking Ghibli to cut or change the contents of the film, as Tokuma and Ghibli retains the editing right. In an interview, Mr. Suzuki said that Miramax faxed Ghibli, asking if they can cut several scenes from "Mononoke Hime". But nothing was cut from Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke).

In the "Kiki's Delivery Service" English dub, the opening and the ending songs were changed, and several music scores were added (to the scenes with no music in original). However, nothing was cut, and nothing was greatly changed.

"Tonari no Yamada-Kun (My Neighbors the Yamadas)" a film directed by Isao Takahata, was released in 1999. Among the investors for this movie, Tokuma Shoten invested 50%, Nippon TV invested 30%, Hakuhoudou (a Japanese advertising agency) invested 10%, and Disney invested 10% of the production cost (2.4 billion yen). In return, Disney acquired the rights to TV, theater, and video release in the US and Europe.

"Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" is currently scheduled for release in Japan in Summer 2001. There is currently no information about releases in countries other than Japan. Disney is contributing to the production costs of the film in return for distribution rights, so there is a high likelihood of Disney (or a subsidiary) releasing it in other countries around the world. [Source.]

Currently, Disney only has video and movie distribution rights, not merchandising rights of Ghibli films. That doesn't mean that Disney can not negotiate with Tokuma to expand the deal. Mr. Tokuma has stated, "Eventually, we will cooperate in such fields as magazines, CDs, and game software."

Some "Princess Mononoke" merchandise is available from Miramax's official site for the film.