Princess Mononoke US Home Video Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (from Nausicaa.net)

Seattle, Washington, 2:15pm Pacific Time.

I just got off the phone with Mr. David Jessen, VP of Special Acquisitions, Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Due to a schedule change on his part, he will only be attending Anime Expo on Friday, and we have made arrangements to meet Friday morning at 10am for breakfast. This will coincide with AX 2000’s Opening Ceremonies in Live Programming room 1, however.

To answer your most burning questions:

Q. Is the August 29th day-and-date release official?
A. Yes.

Q. What will be available on August 29th?
A. The English-dubbed DVD with a bonus French language track will be available for purchase. The English-dubbed VHS will be available for rental. The DVD will not carry a Japanese language track.

Q. Why will the English DVD not include a Japanese language track?
A. Because the Japanese office of BUENA VISTA (not Studio Ghibli) requested it. There has been no DVD release of Mononoke yet, and sales of a Region 1 version DVD could still threaten sales of a Region 2 version in Japan. DVD piracy and importation are significant enough problems, regardless of the benefits of region-encoding.

Q. Will an English DVD with Japanese language and subtitles be available after the Japanese DVD release of Mononoke?
A. No. However, *if there is sufficient interest*, when the VHS rental copies run out and have to be reprinted/remastered, he will request that two versions be made: the original VHS dub sell-through and a new VHS widescreen subtitled sell-through.

Q. How may fans let Disney know there is “sufficient interest” in a subtitled version of Mononoke on VHS?
A. Mr. Jessen and I will discuss this when we meet at AX 2000 on Friday. Meanwhile, please write to me with your vote, so that I can surprise him with your enthusiasm!

In an e-mail message sent DIRECTLY to me (michj@nausicaa.net), please provide the following information:

• the words “I will buy subtitled Mononoke” in the subject line
• your real name (no nicknames, please)
• your city and state (or province and country for non-US residents)
• the statement (or some reasonable variation)
  “If it is made available, I fully intend to purchase at least ___ copy/ies of the film Princess Mononoke in the Japanese language with English subtitles, in widescreen (letterboxed) format, even if this means it will be more expensive than the English-only version.” (Fill in the blank (“___”) with the number of copies you’d buy.)
• OPTIONAL: add the statement
  “I would prefer a DVD/VHS release with these features over the English-only releases currently scheduled for August 29, 2000.” (Erase the choice, DVD or VHS, that you don’t want.)

Please note that I will print out all of these messages and present them to Mr. Jessen on Friday morning, June 30th, 2000, so get your mail to me ASAP!

Privacy warning: If you would prefer not to have your name, e-mail address, or other personal information given to Buena Vista Home Entertainment, please do not send me this piece of e-mail.