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Mononoke Hime DVD Update

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Hello everyone,

I would like to provide an update regarding the Princess Mononoke DVD situation, and the effort of fans in persuading Buena Vista Home Entertainment to release a DVD edition with a Japanese language track and english subtitles.

The effort to provide Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Walt Disney constructive feedback about the Princess Mononoke DVD is still ongoing. As of July 6th, 2000 here has what has been happening:

* On www.dvdtalk.com an electronic signature petition has collected over 3400 signatures so far. The petition requests that Buena Vista Home Entertainment release Princess Mononoke on DVD with the original Japanese language track and english subtitles. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do so by visting www.dvdtalk.com , a link to the on-line petition is located on the main page. News of the on-line petition has even spread to Business Wire, a global commercial news service, where it can be seen by millions of readers. To view the Business Wire article, please go here: http://ny-web1.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day1/201870509&ticker=

* As for providing constructive comments and feedback to Buena Vista Home Entertainment directly, the company is still open to hearing from DVD and animation fans. A July 6th, 2000 phone conversation with a Disney representative clarifies and officially confirms that feedback can indeed still be sent by postal mail (despite previous reports), to the following address:

David Jessen
c/o Buena Vista Home Entertainment
350 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4691

The same July 6th, 2000 phone conversation has revealed that letters have begun to be received and read by Buena Vista Home Entertainment representatives. They do state that feedback is absolutely important to them. However, "no more than a hundred letters" have been delivered to Buena Vista, and (in this writer's opinion) is an unfortunate number when compared to the 3400 signatures on the petition at dvdtalk.com.

Some fans have stated that an e-mail address should be established. It should be noted that the letters going to the address posted above are going to the appropriate and essential source at Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Fans who wish to send e-mail to Buena Vista, are advised to convert their constructive (but polite and non-offensive) feedback to a postal letter, place it an envelope with a 33-cent Stamp on it, and send it to Buena Vista's Burbank, California offices. Again, letters received by Buena Vista are indeed being read and are valuable to the company and their upcoming plans with Miyazaki's films. They are (in this writer's opinion), more official, and taken more seriously than e-mail stored on a hard drive.

Buena Vista/Disney currently holds the global (except Asia, but including Japan), video distribution rights for the following films:

Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind)
Tenkuu no Shiro Lapyuta (Laputa: The Castle in the Sky)
Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
Majo no Takkyūbin (Kiki's Delivery Service)
Omohide Poroporo (Only Yesterday)
Kurenai no Buta (Porco Rosso)
Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pom Poko (Pom Poko)
Mimi o Sumaseba (Whisper of the Heart)

None of these films have been released on DVD in the United States, however since global territories are involved, the DVD issue for these films affects almost everyone. Feedback on what should be included on future DVD releases of these films is essential and important, letters that incorporate your feedback should be sent to Buena Vista Home Entertainment no matter where you are in the world.

The above information on the global distribution video rights to these films was provided by www.nausicaa.net on their "Disney/Tokuma FAQ" page, which is operated by Team Ghiblink. If you would to seek further information on the background and history of these films and other works by Hayao Miyazaki and his staff at Studio Ghibli, please visit: www.nausicaa.net Team Ghiblink, through their hard work and devotion, have provided an excellent resource for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fans to learn about these beautiful works of animation on their website.

Again, your advance feedback is important to the Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Walt Disney Company, so please send those letters in. Also, if you have not yet signed the electronic petition on the website of dvdtalk.com, please do so.

Sincerely,

John Andersen

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Editor's note: On June 29th I stated that the above postal address should not have been published on the internet. It now appears that polite letters are more then welcome and are being read. Any other contact with Buena Vista regarding this or other issues should be made through their public relations department. I sincerely apologise to John Anderson for any damage my statements may have caused. It is because of the hard and honest work of fans such as John that the fan community has a voice with companies like Buena Vista. I also apologise to the readers of ANN for my failure.

Tempest
Christopher Macdonald
Editor in Chief
AnimeNewsNetwork.com

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