Miyazaki's Ponyo

Viz Media announced today that they will be producing a series of new releases based on Ponyo, the new animated film from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki.

Viz Media will offer a 4-volume full color Ponyo film comic, a Ponyo picture book, and the ART OF PONYO. The film will be released by Walt Disney Studios in North America on August 14, 2009.

Ponyo is a retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”.

“Hayao Miyazaki is without question Japan’s most celebrated animation director, and we are privileged and extremely excited to announce the release of this new collection of titles in support of his newest film, PONYO,” says Gozalo Ferreyra, Vice President Sales & Marketing, VIZ Media. “The film garnered rave reviews and grossed more than $165 million during its initial theatrical run in Japan, making it that country’s highest grossing movie for 2008. In an age of computer graphics, Miyazaki made a very bold choice to animate this film by hand. As domestic audiences have come to know and love this creative visionary, we look forward to them discovering PONYO and this new collection of impressive releases from VIZ Media!”

We hope to have more coverage of Ponyo from events at San Diego Comic Con. An interview with Miyazaki is unconfirmed at this point.