Ponyo Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Ponyo Blu-ray Movie Review

Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo arrives on a 2-disc Blu-ray and DVD set courtesy of Shout! Factory. Shout! has retained several of the featurettes that appeared on the Buena Vista BD and added a slew of other extras that have been previously included on overseas releases of the film.

This release comes with a slipcover and an Elite case for the discs. Cover art on the slip and keep case covers is the same (see #s 1 and 10). For thoughts on the movie and a review of a/v specs, you can see my colleague Kenneth Brown's review of Disney's 2010 BD/DVD twin pack here.

Front cover of slip and back cover of BD case.

Ponyo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! presents Ponyo in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a BD-50. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded disc sports a standard bitrate of 30000 kbps for the main feature while the whole disc clicks in at an average of 40.78 Mbps. Capture #s 5-9 are struck from Shout!'s transfer.

The main feature has been given eighteen chapter breaks.

Ponyo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Soundtrack options for Ponyo consist of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (3879 kbps, 24-bit), the original Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (4142 kbps, 24-bit), and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 dub (448 kbps).

There are three subtitling options: English SDH for the English sound track, English subtitles for the original language version, and French subtitles.

Ponyo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Although Shout! drops two mini-featurettes ("Meet Ponyo: Introduction by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall" and "A Conversation with Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter") from the prior Disney edition, it licensed several different bonus materials that make their US debut. Extras come with English subtitles where needed.

• Feature-Length Storyboards (1:40:52, 1080p)

• NEW "The Five Geniuses Who Created Ponyo" TV special (48:52, 1080p)

• "The Locations of Ponyo" featurette (9:46, 1080p)

• NEW "Press Conference: Theme Song Announcement" featurette (11:12, 1080p)

• NEW Theme Song Music Video (3:43, 1080p)

• NEW Interview with Hayao Miyazaki (14:45, 1080p)

• NEW Interview with Toshio Suzuki (29:40, 1080p)

• NEW "Opening Event at Hibiya Scala-Za Theatre" featurette (9:58, 1080p)

• NEW Hayao Miyazaki Press Conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (39:40, 1080p)

• "Behind the Microphone" featurette (6:03, 1080p)

• "Creating Ponyo" (3:58, 1080p)

• "Ponyo & Fujimoto" featurette (3:00, 1080p)

• "The Nursery" featurette (2:00, 1080p)

• "Producer's Perspective: Telling the Story" (2:27, 1080p)

• "Scoring Miyazaki" featurette (7:22, 1080p)

• Original Theatrical Trailer (3:15, 1080p)

• TV Spots (3:39, 1080p)

• NEW 8-page Booklet with Producer's and Director's Statements and Lyrics

Ponyo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This re-release of Ponyo brings together a more substantial collection of extras than its American predecessor, which is now out-of-print. It's worthy of a "Special Edition" banner and comes VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.