By Monica Tarca
Netflix recently announced the start of what could be the greatest cinematic marathon of 2020: „From February 2020, 21 films from the legendary animation house Studio Ghibli are coming exclusively to Netflix. We’re proud to bring beloved, influential stories like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and My Neighbour Totoro to first-time viewers and high-flying fans alike.”
The iconic films will be dubbed in 20 languages and will have subtitles in 28 different languages.
„This is a dream come true for Netflix and millions of our members”, said Aram Yacoubian, Netflix’s director of original animation. „Studio Ghibli’s animated films are legendary and have enthralled fans around the world for over 35 years. We’re excited to make them available in more languages across Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia — so that more people can enjoy this whimsical and wonderful world of animation.”
Another great news after Studio Ghibli confirmed that they’re working on two movies in 2020.
The 21 Studio Ghibli movies will be available globally, except for the US, Canada and Japan. That is because, in the U.S., HBO Max secured the exclusive streaming rights. I read some pretty upset comments on Twitter by many North Americans who couldn’t see the point of being excluded, especially since the US are a huge consumer of anime and manga. I felt the pain of a whole US community after reading comments like „Me taking back my like and retweet after seeing “Excluding US” or „When Netflix single handily ruins your week with one Tweet” , etc. But Netflix is not to blame, the streaming rights were already taken.
For the rest of the world, the 21 Ghibli gems will be streamed in 3 batches:
February 1st:
Castle in the Sky (1986)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Ocean Waves (1993)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
March 1st:
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Cat Returns (2002)
Arrietty (2010)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
April 1st:
Pom Poko (1994)
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Ponyo (2008)
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
The Wind Rises (2013)
When Marnie Was There (2014)
Counting the days already… 🙂
Monica works as a writer and translator, and is a passionate researcher of pop-culture, anthropology and cinema. In her spare time she also enjoys toy photography and often searches for old Japanese art toys to enlarge her collection. She also loves to discover monsters from old movies, folk tales, myths and legends of various cultures.