Howl made its home video debut on March 7th, 2006, accompanied by Whisper of the Heart, My Neighbors the Yamadas, and one more film. Fox’s rights to Totoro had expired in 2004 and Disney was quick to buy it. Lasseter produced Disney’s dub, which featured Dakota Fanning and her sister Elle as the young sisters that meet the strange forest spirit Totoro, with Pat Carroll and Lea Solonga providing additional voices.
The next film Disney was eligible to release domestically was Ponyo, a Hayao Myazaki film loosely inspired by The Little Mermaid. With cute kid characters that would appeal to a younger audience, Disney cast Frankie Jonas (“The Bonus Jonas”) as Sosuke, the little boy who finds a fish named Ponyo, voiced by Noah Cyrus, Miley’s sister. With a built-in adult fan base, Disney cast Matt Damon, Cloris Leachman, Tina Fey, Betty White, Lilly Tomlin, Liam Neeson, and Kate Blanchette to voice the adult characters. A heavy marketing campaign succeeded, earning $15 million for Disney in 2009.
Tales from Earthsea was released in Japan in 2006, a film directed by Hayao Myazaki’s son Goro. However, the book series upon which the film was based was also used for a TV movie on Sci-Fi Channel in 2004, which prevented Disney from releasing it in the United States until 2010. The film had a much darker tone than Spirited Away and Howl and was both a critical and financial flop domestically. The film also carried a PG-13 rating with it, the first time Disney has released an animated film with a rating higher than PG. With sales so low, some may have worried that the magical partnership was over.
In September 2011, Disney made a decision to no longer be the exclusive American distributor of Studio Ghibli films, making an agreement with a company called GKIDS (Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate). Disney signed over theatrical distribution rights to thirteen Studio Ghibli films (including a film Disney has never released on home video called Only Yesterday). While Disney still owns home video rights to all of these films, GKIDS is able to use them theatrically, where they have been frequently shown at animation film festivals ever since. Hayao’s next film was based on a popular children’s book called The Borrowers by Mary Norton, which was developed into a live action film in 1997 starring John Goodman. In Japan, the film was released as simply Arrietty on July 17th, 2010, but Disney wanted a catchier title and renamed it The Secret World of Arrietty. Disney Channel stars Bridget Mendler and David Henrie voiced the main characters, while Carol Burnette, Amy Poehler, and Will Arnett created adult appeal for the English dub. Disney struck gold making nearly $20 million domestically in 2012, the most successful Studio Ghibli film in America to date.