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Spirited Away Still Has a Chance

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the moving-picture dept.

Dean Siren writes "Disney chairman Richard W. Cook says that they've budgeted to market Spirited Away in up to 1,000 North American theaters, and if the Oscars endorse it as much as Metacritic has, Disney will launch it. They'll spend the same time and money promoting Spirited Away for Academy Awards as they will Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. Cook hopes that it will win not only Best Animated Film, but get nominated for Best Picture, as Beauty and the Beast got in 1991. Thanks to Jack Mathews at New York Daily News for getting Cook to explain."

2 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Argh! I feel faint... by jwiegley · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm pretty unhappy that anybody made a comparison between Spirited Away and Beauty and the Beast.

    Except for both movies being presented as animation, comparing SA to BATB is like comparing gold to crap.

    Its a comparison between true visual art and typical, run-of-the-mill disney fare. Want to see BATB again? go rent The Little Mermaid.

    And let's not even begin to compare the story lines. SA is far, far more creative, deep and moving.

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  2. Disney doesn't own the merchandising rights. by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Disney doesn't know how to promote a movie without the usual BurgerKing/McDonalds/Target/Sears tie-ins.

    Because Disney doesn't hold the merchandising rights to the Ghibli catalog, they will never promote these movies as they should be promoted. Remember: Disney gains nothing from the success of these movies, and loses nothing if they fail.

    There is also quite a bit of Not-Invented-Here attitude that is quite apparent in what little promotion there has been.

    I was lucky enough to see Spirited Away on the big screen. My girlfriend and I went to the 7:45 PM showing on a Saturday. We were the only ones in the audience. The print looked almost new, as if the theatre hadn't been bothering to run it to an empty house. Local promotion? There was only the simple one-line listing in the newspaper. There were NO posters, one-sheets, lobby cards, stand-ups, or anything in or around the theatre. No wonder I got a private showing. Even if the general public had heard of the movie, no one would know it was playing at that theatre.

    To sum up: Disney is burying this movie, just as they did with Mononoke. It may not be entirely intentional, but it is still occuring.

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