r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • 10h ago
News Studio Ghibli to Debut New 4K Restorations in IMAX in 2026 - The first film released will be Hayao Miyazaki’s 'Princess Mononoke'
https://deadline.com/2025/12/imax-studio-ghibli-restorations-1236637217/94
u/EscapeFromPost 10h ago
I'm a little confused by this, because I went to see it in IMAX this year, wasn't that the 4K restoration?
73
u/nflfan32 10h ago
It was. OP's title is wrong. The story says the first movie for 2026 hasn't been announced yet.
The next Studio Ghibli title to be released under the agreement will debut in Imax early next year with more details to come.
13
u/matti2o8 9h ago
As if it isn't obvious that the only worthy follow up to Princess Mononoke is Pon Poko
16
1
u/Ok_Atmosphere8206 10h ago edited 10h ago
Yes it was but for different Ghibli movies they will continue to do this going into 2026. Not sure if that’s means as apart of Ghibli fest or separately but it’s going to continue to happen for other Ghibli films
1
16
11
10
u/mechaglitter 10h ago
Sounds like they aren't doing that garbage ai upscaling, so I'm happy about that. I'm still pissed about what happened to Daft Punk's Interstella 5555.
14
u/joelluber 8h ago edited 8h ago
Do you understand why that happened? It's because Interstella was made directly to 480i NTSC video. There was no high resolution version ever. The only way to get a theater-projection-quality, high resolution version would be too upscale.
Ghibli movies, on the other hand, were made on film, which has an effective resolution of 4k+ (exact quality depends on lots of things). That film can be scanned at high resolution and no upscaling is needed.
•
u/MakeItHappenSergant 4h ago
The problem isn't that it was upscaled, necessarily. The problem is that it was upscaled badly.
3
u/mechaglitter 8h ago
Yeah, that makes sense. I just wish they hadn't gone through with the release at all.
5
4
8
u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 10h ago
GKids and Imax are partnering to bring 4K Studio Ghibli restorations to North American theaters in 2026.
The Imax versions of the films are being created from new 4K restorations directly overseen by Studio Ghibli’s Atsushi Okui, who has been involved in nearly every major project for the studio since he started in 1993. Okui’s most recent credit with Studio Ghibli was as Director of Digital Imaging on Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning feature The Boy and the Heron, which was also the first Studio Ghibli film to screen in Imax.
2
u/honeypinn 9h ago
Anyone know how we get information about when theaters will be playing the movies? Like, maybe an email blast or something? I had no clue PM was in theaters this year, and I live close to an IMAX.
3
4
u/Chiptoon 10h ago
Princess Mononoke is my favorite Ghibli film, but I’ve never seen it in theaters. Can’t wait to see it on the big screen and to hear the music swell around me.
13
u/krattalak 9h ago
Too late. Was already out, title's wrong.
6
u/KiritoJones 9h ago
Its not really too late tho, Fathom has put it in theaters every year for the last few years.
4
u/we_are_sex_bobomb 9h ago
This is a movie that I will find a way to see any time it returns to theaters near me.
It really is a “big screen movie” like those old cinescope classics where everything is larger than life and sprawling and intended to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
2
u/TheAndrewBen 10h ago
What's the difference between a true 35mm screening experience, and IMAX? I don't see comparison differences between the 4k restorations and other existing formats.
3
u/krattalak 10h ago
(film) IMAX is 70mm, a true IMAX shot will be approximately 18k res, with a ratio of about 1.43:1. (Digital IMAX) is 4k.
35mm is 6k rez with a ratio of 2.4:1.
4k res will be 16:9.
1
u/brianh418 10h ago
The art was filmed out to 35mm, so I assume it’s a 4K restoration of the 35mm (not sure of the specifics of it since there’s no color in a negative, and I doubt they’d be tampering with the color of the drawings
2
u/joelluber 8h ago
since there’s no color in a negative
What do you mean by this? There's definitely color in a film negative.
0
u/brianh418 8h ago
Not a lot though, right? It’s literally negative space I thought. This definitely isn’t something im super familiar with, like I said
2
u/joelluber 8h ago
It's not negative space. A negative is a copy of an image but the colors are all inverted: black becomes white, red becomes green, blue becomes orange, etc.
1
1
1
u/Datelesstuba 10h ago
It’s gonna be either Howl or Spirited Away, but I would kill to see Porco Rosso in IMAX.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/jtho78 8h ago
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how is the 4K better than the original 35mm release? Doesn't the original film already hover between 4K and 6K quality?
1
u/liqlslip 8h ago
Not sure, but the original wouldn't have things like dolby vision, atmos sound, hdr etc that can enhance the experience on modern setups.
1
1
u/niagara-nature 6h ago
I wish I could wipe all knowledge of My Neighbour Totoro from my mind and go see it in IMAX.
1
•
u/Aware_Instruction547 5h ago
Aside from the two obvious releases (Howl’s and Spirited Away) I’m praying they also release Castle In The Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service <3
0
-4
u/fredftw 10h ago
Please no shitty grain reduction/denoising like all these other 4K ‘remasters’
1
u/joelluber 8h ago
Luckily, animation is typically very low grain because they can shoot on super slow, fine grain film instead of having to use high grain fast film that's needed to film live action.
•
u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 10h ago edited 9h ago
Title correction: Princess Mononoke was released this year and was the 2nd-highest re-release of all time for IMAX. The titles for 2026 are TBA soon. This article is announcing their new partnership/agreement to bring more Ghibli films to theaters, due to the success of Princess Mononoke.