[US] Summer Wars

[WTK]

via PR...

FUNimation Entertainment Acquires Japanese Academy Award Winner SUMMER WARS from NTV

An Anime Family Saves the World in this Film Festival Favorite

Flower Mound, TX – July 30, 2010 – FUNimation® Entertainment today announced that it has acquired the home entertainment, theatrical, broadcast and merchandise rights to the animated sci-fi action film SUMMER WARS from NTV.

Released in August 2009 in Japan by Warner Brothers, SUMMER WARS is produced by Madhouse and directed by Mamoru Hosoda. SUMMER WARS is the second full-length film that Hosoda has made as a freelance director. The first, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, an animated movie in which the teenage heroine discovers that she can travel to the past, received rave reviews from critics and audiences worldwide.

SUMMER WARS reunites many who worked on that film, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.

The SUMMER WARS story begins with Kenji, a timid math prodigy who seems better suited for virtual worlds than his more intimidating high school. When class cutie Natsuki asks Kenji to accompany her on a family trip to celebrate her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday, he instantly agrees, not realizing she intends to present him to her family as her fiance - a ruse that forces Kenji, who hides behind an avatar online, to role-play in the real world as well.

The plot thickens after Kenji solves a math riddle that inadvertently brings a worldwide social networking site to its knees and throws the real world into confusion. Suddenly, this large family in rural Japan must work together to stave off a world crisis.

SUMMER WARS has screened at film festivals worldwide, including the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Sydney Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the New York International Children’s Festival and was nominated for an award at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Hosoda’s previous offering, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, won the Special Distinction for Feature Films in 2007.

SUMMER WARS also won the prize for Best Animated Film at the 33rd Japanese Academy Awards earlier this year and made an impressive $18.3 million at the Japanese box office.

FUNimation Entertainment will release the film theatrically in 2010 and on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011.

[Waggman]

Well that was fast. Everyone can cancel their Taiwan preorders now.

Unfortunately it doesn't say when in 2011 they'll be releasing it.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Waggman

Well that was fast. Everyone can cancel their Taiwan preorders now.

Not sure I will. Since it can be a long wait with FUNi

[The Great Bear]

I can wait for the Blu-ray. I'm a patient man.

[oneeyedjacks]

Looking forward to this. Don't know too much about Summer Wars beyond seeing a trailer or two but everyone who's seen it says its beyond amazing.

[WTK]

So this is finally officially licensed. I will definitely be getting this. It wouldn't affect my plans on getting the TW BD release.

[WTK]

Originally Posted by Damius

Not sure I will. Since it can be a long wait with FUNi

I wouldn't be. I will still get the TW release. Keep mind it has theatrical obligation may affect the DVD / BD release. I'm not expecting this to get released within a year.

[u_nick]

I love that TW packaging and extras too. I think I'll be getting both as well.

My only wish that didnt come true is that I wanted to see them announce both this and Girl Who Leapt Through Time at the same time. I watched both fansubs around the same time, and the two are both so beautiful, in similar ways but at the same time in different ways. An amazing experience all around.

Someone else already put out GWLTT here on SD, right? Was it Bandai?

[WTK]

Originally Posted by u_nick

Someone else already put out GWLTT here on SD, right? Was it Bandai?

Yes. It was Bandai Ent.

[RyGuySays]

Originally Posted by Waggman

Well that was fast. Everyone can cancel their Taiwan preorders now.

Unfortunately it doesn't say when in 2011 they'll be releasing it.

Nah, screw that I'm not waiting until 2011 to see it.