After Hayao Miyazaki retired and shut down Studio Ghibli (a move he reversed), several of the key players went off and formed their own animation company called Studio Ponoc. The new studio proved worthy of it’s legacy as Mary and the Witch’s Flower was well received. Now they’re back with Modest Heroes, an anthology with three cartoons about various levels of heroic actions. The collection comes out June 18. Here’s the press release from Shout! Factory and GKIDS:
From the Creators of Mary and The Witch’s Flower
STUDIO PONOC’S ANIMATED ANTHOLOGY
MODEST HEROES
ARRIVES ON BLU-RAY™ + DVD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
JUNE 18, 2019
FROM GKIDS & SHOUT! FACTORY
“Dazzling! Joyous and courageous”
Toussaint Egan, Paste Magazine
Los Angeles, CA (March 18, 2019) – GKIDS and Shout! Factory will issue MODEST HEROES on Blu-ray + DVD and digital download on June 18, 2019. The release, which features both Japanese and English audio tracks and comes complete with bonus features, is available for pre-order now on shoutfactory.com.
From Studio Ponoc (Mary and The Witch’s Flower), the acclaimed new studio founded by twice-Academy Award®-nominated producer Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There), comes a thrilling collection of stories exploring ideas of heroism in their own unique way.
MODEST HEROES is an ambitious collection of three thrilling tales created by some of the greatest talent working in Japanese animation today. Kanini & Kanino is directed by Academy Award®-nominee Hiromasa Yonebayashi (When Marnie Was There, Mary and The Witch’s Flower); Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, featuring the voice of Maggie Q (Nikita, Designated Survivor), is helmed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who was a key animator on Isao Takahata’s films at Studio Ghibli; and Invisible director Akihiko Yamashita was a key animator on many of Hayao Miyazaki’s best-known films. Each is produced by Studio Ponoc’s Yoshiaki Nishimura.
Special Features:
· Modest Heroes of Studio Ponoc
· Film Completion Press Conference
· Interviews with Japanese Voice Cast
· Art Galleries
· Trailers and TV Spots
Modest Heroes: Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume 1 – Available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital on 6/18!
About GKIDS
GKIDS is a producer and distributor of award-winning feature animation for both adult and family audiences. Since 2010, the company has scored an astounding eleven Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations with The Secret of Kells in 2010, A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012, Ernest & Celestine in 2014, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea in 2015, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There in 2016, My Life as a Zucchini in 2017, The Breadwinner in 2018, and most recently Mirai in 2019. GKIDS also handles North American distribution for the famed Studio Ghibli library of films, one of the world’s most coveted animation collections with titles Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and others.
GKIDS recently launched ANIMATION IS FILM, an annual LA-based film festival. ANIMATION IS FILM embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form and is a vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of expression that the medium is capable of.
About Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform media company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s entertainment offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials. In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast entertainment distribution network which delivers culturally relevant programming, movie and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America and across multiple platforms. Shout! Factory owns and operates Shout! Studios, Scream Factory, Shout! Factory Kids, Shout! Factory Films, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Timeless Media Group and Shout! Factory TV. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Los Angeles, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com.
About Studio Ponoc
Studio Ponoc is an animation film studio based in Tokyo, Japan. Founded by Studio Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura in 2016 and staffed with veterans of Studio Ghibli and some of the finest talent in Japanese animation, Studio Ponoc creates beautiful hand-drawn, hand-painted animated films for families to enjoy together and for general audiences around the world. Producer Nishimura was nominated for two Academy Awards for Studio Ghibli’s The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There, and produced Studio Ponoc’s first film, Mary and The Witch’s Flower, directed by Oscarâ-nominated director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There) and released in 2017 to worldwide acclaim. The Studio’s newest project, Ponoc Short Films Theatre, begins with Modest Heroes (2018), an anthology of three short films.
