Disney and Studio Ghibli formed a partnership in 1996 which enabled Disney to be the sole distributor of Ghibli films in the USA. Hayao Miyazaki was promised uncut versions of the movies would be released in theaters, but it was hardly so.
In fact, both companies got into loads of issues with each other. Ghibli was trying to preserve the integrity of its films, while Disney tried to bend the plots to make them easier for the American audience to digest.
Ghibli executive recounts Disney’s nefarious actions with Ghibli movies
Stephen Alpert is a former senior executive of Studio Ghibli who headed their international department. He acted as Ghibli’s spokesperson with foreign third parties and was a crucial element during Ghibli’s negotiations with Disney and Miramax Films. Thus, the executive has a first-hand idea about the beef between Ghibli and Disney, and he has exposed the dark side of Disney in an interview with Cartoon Brew.
In the interview, Alpert was asked if the marriage between Ghibli and Disney yielded the expected results. Alpert replied that it didn’t and described how Disney mistreated Ghibli movies. He explained that being a huge company, Disney has plenty of people working for it, some of whom did not get along well with Ghibli representatives.
Disney had offered Ghibli to release the films theatrically in the USA without making any cuts or changes to them. This was the primary clause that convinced Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki. However, Disney did not go through with their initial promises.
The first thing that happened was that the theatrical group said they weren’t going to distribute the films after all. And the video group said they wouldn’t distribute them all, because there were “objectionable” things in some of them.
-Steve Alpert
These claims went beyond the ‘uncut’ movies clause that was signed by both parties. Thus, Disney was stuck with films that it didn’t want to release, and Ghibli couldn’t contact any other third parties for distribution in America.
Disney held back on releasing Ghibli movies
Steve Alpert also recounted how he did not think that Disney tried its best with the Ghibli movies that were indeed released. Of course, there is also the famous controversy between Miramax and Ghibli. The then-Miramax CEO wanted to release an edited version of Princess Mononoke and was adamant about it.
It even escalated to the point of mistreating Ghibli representatives to get the studio to greenlight the decision. The issue ended with Ghibli’s producer sent a katana to Miramax’s office with a note that indicated that Princess Mononoke should not have any cuts. Alpert further stated:
And when they did release the films, I don’t think they really put their best foot forward. They could have pushed harder with the marketing, done more.
-Steve Alpert
Alpert also described other issues that the partnership had. Disney even showed an incomplete dubbed version of Kiki’s Delivery Service to Toshio Suzuki, who didn’t admit to how bad it was during the viewing. But as he expressed how terrible it was later, Disney lawyers made a huge legal deal out of it so that the dub wouldn’t be canceled.
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