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Disney Spends Millions on Voice Talent for Anime Movie It Won’t Promote



I promise no anime rant this time, but I couldn’t let the news of the English voice cast of Hayao Miyazaki’s new film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea pass without notice. Like almost all of Miyazaki’s films, Disney has the U.S. rights, and thus has hired Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, and Cloris Leachman, amongst others, to voice the animated movie’s roles. I don’t know why, because Disney never puts Miyazaki’s films in more than a few hundred theaters at one time, no matter how insanely successful it is in Japan or critically acclaimed. Why not save a few million bucks and hire some regular voice actors, who almost certainly need the work?

And–I say this as a big Miyazaki fan–Ponyo looks absolutely batshit insane, even considering the plot is about some little fish-girl-thing who comes to the surface and has adventures. I’ve had LSD experiences that made more sense than the above trailer. And I guarantee there’s no amount of Matt Damon or Tina Fey that will make that scene with the hundreds of horrible, squirming little faces acceptable to a mainstream American audience. (Via Cinema Blend)