Director Hayao Miyazaki personally corrected or redrew more than 80,000 of the film's 144,000 animation cels. Disney/Miramax, which released the film in North America, was contractually obligated not to edit any footage out for its North American release. They asked to, but were refused. Although they kept their end of the bargain in not editing the film, they did release it into far fewer theaters than promised and expressed surprise that it had made little money at the box office. Contr ...[Read Story ]