Is Disney preparing to dub Kokuriko-zaka Kara in English?

Walt Disney Studios may be in the process of prepping Gorō Miyazaki's 2011 film Kokuriko-zaka Kara for an English language dub.


Japanese theatrical poster for Kokuriko-zaka Kara

Den of Geek! published an interview last week with producer and long-time Steven Spielberg collaborator Kathleen Kennedy, who served as producer on Disney's English language dubs of Ponyo and The Secret World of Arrietty, due in North American theaters February 17, 2012. 

In the interview, Kennedy discusses her years of work as a producer as well as Spielberg's recent films War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin, and briefly touches on her collaboration with Disney and Studio Ghibli on the English dubs of their two recent films:

"They came to us because, for a wide variety of reasons, they wanted to understand why Miyazaki’s movies were so popular in Japan, and didn’t necessarily translate to an American audience. And I can’t say that, by any means, we’ve come up with the answer, but I think that each time - and we’re going onto the third collaboration with them - we learn something. And that’s really been what the process has been, we’ve been trying to help them bridge the gap with the people that are doing the marketing and distribution of their movies in the United States."

At this point, I think it's safe to assume that the "third collaboration" she mentions will be on Kokuriko-zaka Kara, Goro Miyazaki's second film, released in Japan on July 16, 2011.

It is still way too early to tell whether Disney plans a theatrical run of the film in North America or if they will go the Tales of Earthsea route, which was released direct-to-DVD alongside Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's North American Blu-ray debut last March.  If they do go the home video only route, let's hope it's straight-to-Blu-ray this time around, since by then the film will definitely have already been released on the format in Japan.