Apollo 10/12: A Space Adventure, Weathering With You, Studio Ghibli, And More
Whether you still like to own your animation on physical media or whether you are more than satisfied with streaming there's been a great deal of news over the past few days.
Cult director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, School Of Rock, The Before Trilogy) is to make a third animated film, following on from the rotoscoped Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Adventure has been announced by Netflix and will use " a unique combination of hand drawn animation, live action, and CGI. The film is being co-produced by the Netherland based studio Submarine who animated the rotoscoped series Undone for Amazon- which might confirm that the film will evolve the techniques of his earlier animated outings. The story is set against the backdrop of the 1969 Moon Landings and is inspired by Linklater's childhood in Houston, Texas.
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure" tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives. It both captures the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and the lesser-seen bottom up perspective of what it was like from an excited kid's perspective, living near NASA but mostly watching it on TV like hundreds of millions of others. It's ultimately both an exacting re-creation of this special moment in history and a kid's fantasy about being plucked from his average life in suburbia to secretly train for a covert mission to the moon.
SpongeBob Squarepants: Sponge On The Run has joined the list of animated film to forgoe a traditional cinema release due to the pandemic. Paramount had already pulled the film's US cinema release in favour of a VOD release early next year before streaming exclusively on CBS All Access. Now it turns out that the international rights of the film have been picked up by Netflix, meaning it will stream there everywhere outside the United States and China.
Netflix will also stream the Indian animation feature Bombay Rose worldwide later this year. The 2D animated film is directed by Gitanjali Rao and has previously screened at festivals around the world, picking up 7 nominations and becoming the first Indian animated film selected to open Venice Film Festival's Critics Week..
UK distributor Anime Limited have announced that Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You will be getting its home video release on September 28. The film will be released on a standard Blu-Ray and DVD, as well as in a Collector's Edition that will be contain the Blu-Ray and DVD in steelbook packaging and the soundtrack on CD. Preorders are open now. Following on November 2, there will also be UHD Collector's Edition which will additinally contain the film on 4K Blu-Ray, a 104 page hardcover book, a poster and a sticker. The UHD version will be excluively available via Zavvi.
Shout Factory and GKIDS Films have announced that they will release Hayao Miyazaki's classics Princess Mononoke and My Neighbour Totoro in new exclusive Limited Edition Steelbook editions for the first time in North America. Each release will contain the film on Blu-Ray and DVD with new artwork and booklets and will be available from October 20. The special features on each release will be the same as those on the existing releases.
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO
Bonus Features:
· Feature-Length Storyboards
· Original Theatrical Trailers
· Behind the Microphone
· Textless Opening and End Credits
· Creating My Neighbor Totoro
· Creating the Characters
· The Totoro Experience
· The Locations of My Neighbor Totoro
· Producer’s Perspective: Creating Ghibli
· 8-page Booklet with Producer’s and Director’s Statements
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Bonus Features:
· Feature-Length Storyboards
· Original Theatrical Trailers
· TV Spots
· Princess Mononoke in USA
· Behind the Microphone
· 8-page Booklet with Producer’s and Director’s Statements
