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Next Studio Ghibli Projects Announced

Caption: "The goldfish princess who thinks she wants to be a human."

This week, Studio Ghibli announced two new animated works that are in production.

During "NNN News Real Time", Hayao Miyazaki announced his new film "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" (Ponyo Above a Cliff), to be released in the summer of 2008. The story is about a 5-year old boy named Sousuke, and the goldfish princess Ponyo, who desires to become human. One illustration of the film is known, of Sousuke's hand holding a bucket. Inside the bucket is Ponyo. Location scouting began in the summer of last year, and production began in October 2006.

Meanwhile, Studio Ghibli announced another project, "Iblard Time", is a joint project between Studio Ghibli and Naohisa Inoue. Inoue is best known as the artist for the fantasy scenes in Whisper of the Heart. The project will be released straight to DVD and Blu Ray on the 4th of July as part of Studio Ghibli's “Ghibli ga Ippai Collection".

The feature depicts Inoue's imaginary world Iblard, which is found in Inoue's paintings. Inoue himself selected 63 locales, which were converted into digital data and fleshed out with CG, while the staff of Studio Ghibli added 2D animated characters. Iblard Time's music is being composed by Matsuo Kiyoshi and Komuro Kazuyoshi. In addition, both the DVD and Blu-Ray disc will be bundled with a soundtrack CD that comes with 8 tracks and a special video diary. The DVD release will cost 3,990 Yen (Dolby Digital stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1) and the Blu Ray Disc will be 4,935 Yen (Dolby Digital stereo, linear PCM 5.1).

Sources: Ghibli World, Nippon News Network