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The Japan Times on April 3, 1997 |
Disney bankrolls Japanese cartoon@By NAO NAKANlSHI
Giant sci-fh beetles, bare bottomed heroines on gliders, and a pig-man aviator are not exactly classic Disney cartoon material. Yet Walt Disney is bankrolling the global release of the next cartoon from Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese director from whose fertile imagination the images sprang.
Miyazaki's view of his new employer is as quirky as some of his characters.
"They are boring", Miyazaki said of his Disney partners films at an interview at his studio in suburban Tokyo.
"Though l have friends there and they seem to like my work.
"Miyazaki believes that Disney films have lost the dignity they once had and do not address broad human issues any more.
"l despise films made purely for entertainment. It is not enough to make people laugh", Miyazaki said.
"Like other arts...film should give a glimpse into the world's secrets."
Miyazaki's last two films were smash hits in Japan. Cinema industry figures show that domestic distribution income from "Porco Rosso" and "Whisper of the Heart" surpassed that of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" and "Pocahontas." His new cartoon film, "The Princess Mononoke" is the first from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli to be distributed globally by Walt Disney since the two struck a cooperation deal last year. Around 100 artists are working to complete about 125,000 pictures for "The Princess Mononoke," which is planned for release in July.
Miyazaki said the film might be his last. He has staked everything- his future and the studio's-on the \2 billion film he has been working on for more than 15 years.
"I wouldn't mind too much if l cannot make films any more, "the 56-year-old director said."
I've lived long enough. I would love to retire." Studio Ghibli's films, at least technically, have the air of the early Walt Disney at his most detailed and inventive.
In a Miyazaki cartoon, the eye is captured not only by the main action, which is often the only moving part of a standard cartoon, but also by a group of subplot actions and events in a precise three dimensional space around it. Miyazaki and his colleague lsao Takabatake have captured a strong following by attention to detail, color and movement in space.
One recurrent theme in a Miyazaki cartoon is aviation in the 1920s and 1930s, which provides plenty of opportunity to display those traits. "Porco Rosso," featuring an aviator with a human body and the head of a pig, is essentially a violent aerial ballet in cartoon.
"In those days, planes often crashed and people were killed, "Miyazaki said.
"I like men and women who give up living an ordinary life on earth and vanish in the air."
Asked if he made films differently since the linkup with Walt Disney, Miyazaki said:
"No. We can make films only our way. We live in Japan and we see things from here."
He said the U.S. film giant has accepted his way of making films and does not regard Studio Ghibli as a subcontractor.
"Disney has grasped that the Japanese market is different," he said.
"They now think there might be some other markets that like films made for a Japanese audience."
Japanese animation generally favors dark and violent worlds as a theme, and some films like the post-nuclear fantasy "Akira" have global cult followings. Miyazaki's themes, in comparison, are gentler. The new film is about the environmental and spiritual impact of human encroachment on nature.
"'The Princess Mononoke' is our attempt to confront the largest problem of our time", Miyazaki said. And if he can make another film, Miyazaki wants it to be about worms: tiny worms, ugly worms, poisonous worms that fight for their existence.
"It would be wonderful," he said,
"if children didn't kill bugs after seeing the film."
(From a proper article)
