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Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) |
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.anotheruniverse.com/comics/interviews/neilgaiman100199.html
October 1, 1999
Neil Gaiman, Translator of Princess Mononoke: Neil Gaiman talks about Dream Hunters - Making Myth in the Japanese Tradition
by Steve Fritz
Neil Gaiman, never far from the forefront of critically acclaimed popular
culture, has been very busy. Translating Princess Mononoke, the most highly
anticipated anime movie of the decade, and returning to his most famous work--
Sandman in The Dream Hunters, Gaiman is giving his fans much to look forward to
in October--each with a distinctively Japanese flavor. [...]
Gaiman's translation of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke has to be considered
equally amazing. No small task considering, as Miyazaki admitted in an
interview elsewhere, that Gaiman wasn't working with modern Japanese, but an
archaic variation used in the medieval period. If that isn't enough, imagine
trying to convey various concepts Mononoke to a culture that has no reference
points to Japanese folklore.
"You pick the best solution that you can to provide the most information that
you can," says Gaiman. "What we wound up doing is saying those were the days of
gods and demons in an opening narration bit, which is more or less based on
stuff that Miyazaki had written anyway as an introduction to it. I just had to
rework that and put it as the introduction. Basically, what you have to do is
let people know as much as you can as early as you can."
[...]
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101). The Chicago Daily Herald
The following are relevant quotes only.
October 1, 1999
TIME OUT Main Event:
Look a little closer. Good buzz means better-than-B-movies this fall season.
by Dann Gire - Daily Herald Film Critic
[...]
"Princess Mononoke" - Could this be the greatest animated film ever created?
Andrew Osmond of AnimeFantastique magazine in Oak Park makes a strong case.
Japanese animator Hiayo [sic] Miyazaki combines history and world
mythology (but no computer-generated imagery) to create this variation on
"Beauty and the Beast." An innocent princess marries a mononoke, a flying cat-
beast. Meanwhile, a young exiled prince travels to the fortress of Tatara-ba, a
community at war with animal gods. This film has been the highest grossing in
Japan after "Titanic." Claire Danes, Billy Crudup and Billy Bob Thornton supply
dubbed voices.
[...]
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102). The San Diego Union-Tribune
The following are relevant quotes only.
October 2, 1999
LIFESTYLE DATELINE HOLLYWOOD:
Financing woes put Depp's "Don Quixote" project on hold until summer.
by George Rush And Joanna Molloy Unheard-of! Claire Danes isn't a household name for everyone -- even people in
showbiz. Director Hayao Miyazaki had never heard of the young starlet
until he was working with her on the English version of his Japanese animated
hit "Princess Mononoke". "I don't watch movies, so I don't know about stars, "Miyazaki
told us through a translator at the pic's premiere at the New York Film
Festival. "My producer said he had seen her in "Romeo & Juliet",
and I said, ´That's cool´ -- but it's not like I saw the movie". In fact, Miyazaki doesn't even pay attention to his own success, even though
his Japanese box-office receipts have topped those for "ET" and "Jurassic
Park". "I hide in my mountain cabin," he said, "and I
don't have newspapers there." Also at the post-premiere dinner at Calle Ocho were Danes, Antonio Sabato Jr.,
Rachel Leigh Cook, Michael Bolton and Julia Stiles and boyfriend Joseph
Gordon-Levitt.
[...]
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only.
October 3, 1999
SCN:
DENVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL VIP roster full of glitter.
by Steven Rosen - Denver Post Movie Critic The animated "Princess Mononoke" (11 a.m. Saturday) is a violent
but gorgeous environmentalist Japanese folk tale dubbed into English. It
set box-office records in its home country. "That's the Way I Like
It" (9:30 p.m. Oct. 13) is about the impact of the disco era on
Singapore. And "The Wisdom of Crocodiles" (11 p.m. Friday) is
a British vampire film. ("Princess Mononoke" and "That's
the Way I Like It" are Denver Post picks)
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/articles/fallmovies/2
October 1999
Fall Movie Throwdown 1999 — October Films
[...]
October 29th
The Main Event:
Strings and Killings — Music of the Heart vs. The Princess Mononoke
The Contenders:
"Wes Craven directing a Meryl Streep movie?" You heard right. Apparently, the
horror king wanted a change from Scream's skewered Noxzema teens, so he lobbied
hard to helm this combination of Dangerous Minds and Mr. Holland's Opus. Facing
this concerto of feel-goodisms is the highest grossing movie of all time … in
Japan. That's right, it's the eagerly awaited animated import The Princess
Mononoke, a lavishly illustrated fantasy from the creator of last year's
surprise video hit, Kiki's Delivery Service. But unlike that delightful morsel,
this adventure features enough complexity and combat to appeal to adults and
teens as well.
Box Office Odds:
Even.
Editors' Prediction:
Virtually every animaniac in the country was quivering in their ill-fitting
shorts to see Mononoke … until they discovered Disney had enlisted Claire Danes
to voice the fiesty warrior princess. Also factor in that unless it involves a
snappy sidekick and a crappy soundtrack, Class-A animation usually fails to
draw a crowd — just ask The Iron Giant. At the same time, Streep and sheet
music an exciting duet do not make.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only.
October 8, 1999
WEEKEND:
A preliminary list of film festival favorites
by Steven Rosen - Denver Post Movie Critic
Today, after last night's opening gala, the Denver International Film Festival
begins in earnest and continues through Thursday.
While there are far too many movies for me to have screened all in advance - or to see, period - I have watched enough to offer this preliminary list of my favorite new films in the festival. It's heavy on documentaries. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
[...]
Princess Mononoke : This animated Japanese feature is long, but also imaginative and beautifully rendered. And its folkloric, environmentalist tale is engrossing for adults, if perhaps too violent for small children. (11 a.m. Saturday and 6:15 p.m. Sunday)
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/1018/6410058a.htm
October 18, 1999
Anime Opens on Main Street
By Benjamin Fulford
[...]
"Japanimation" slowly gained fans abroad after the first translations of comic books began appearing in the late 1980s. But it only started getting serious attention in Hollywood after Princess Mononoke, an animated feature by Hayao Miyazaki (one of several Japanese animators likened to Walt Disney), broke Japanese box office records by raking in $163 million since opening in 1997. (Mononoke has since been surpassed at the Japanese box office by Titanic.)
[...]
This month Princess Mononoke becomes the first Japanese animated feature to open at mainstream theaters--as opposed to "art houses"--across the U.S. Since this tale of a wild princess allied with gods of nature against her fellow humans in no way resembles typical Disney animated fare, it will be distributed--dubbed--by Miramax, Disney's grown-up division.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/10/009l-101099-idx.html
October 10, 1999
Stepping Out in N.Y.
Directors Head in Daring Directions With Film Festival Entries
By Laura Winters
The 26 feature films at this year's New York Film Festival suggest that a
spirit of innovation and daring is flourishing among both independent
American directors and the more established foreign filmmakers, like Mike
Leigh and Hayao Miyazaki, whose new work took off in unexpected directions.
[...]
Miyazaki, whose seventh feature-length animated film, "Princess Mononoke," also played in the festival, is another prominent director who is expanding the boundaries of a genre. His movie, one of the two most successful films of all time in Japan, is an animated epic about a warrior in ancient times who falls in love with a half-savage princess and joins forces with her to protect the spirits of nature against mankind. The film, which will open here this fall in an English-dubbed version, has the kind of amplitude not usually found in animation: "You wind up comparing it to something like 'Lawrence of Arabia,' " says author Neil Gaiman, who turned the Japanese soundtrack into an English script.
Needless to say, Miyazaki does not create his work with product tie-ins in mind. Nor is he afraid of darkness or moments of violence in his films. Rather, he has an unwavering faith in the sophistication of his viewers, especially children. "I see children as these amazing beings who are born with infinite possibilities," he says through an interpreter.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.anotheruniverse.com/movies/interviews/miyazaki.html
September 29, 1999
A Talk With Mononoke Hime's Creator, Hayao Miyazaki - Miyazaki Came To America To Talk
by Steve Fritz
[...]
But don't kid yourself about this man. It soon becomes apparent that he's still
a driven workaholic. Miyazaki will not tell anyone what his next project is
about, but he will tell you what he's doing on it.
"Unfortunately, I can not physically draw as much. I simply can not do the
physical labor," says Miyazaki. "As long as my staff will accept me in that
reduced capacity, then we will make another movie. As to what this new movie is
about, my brain is a mess and chaotic. I can not sleep at night for thinking
about this next film. But I think what you'll find is a wonderful blend of
contemporary Japan and historical Japan."
[...]
Mind-blowing in scope, and operatic for the sheer quantities of raw emotion and
raw bravado, Princess Mononoke is a film that has to be seen again and again
for the message to be truly understood.
Just don't think Miyazaki doesn't know what that message is. He most certainly
does.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/db/9909/20/
September 20, 1999
Daily Briefing: On the Ground
Below the Fold - Each in his own world
With anime becoming mainstream even in America (Miramax will release the
Japanese all-time hit Princess Mononoke this fall), the phenomenon of otaku is
intriguing scholars overseas. [...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/show/lead07.html
October 7, 1999
The beauty of anime
by Roger Ebert
If you've ever wandered through a video store, you've come upon shelves of
animated films from Japan--anime is the Japanese word. Who rents these films?
Someone must, because even the smallest stores have a big selection. But anime
rarely surfaces on the big screen in the United States, and only a few titles--
like "Akira" and "The Ghost in the Shell"--have found bookings in Chicago. When
U.S. moviegoers think of animation, they have tunnel vision: They want a Disney
movie, or something that looks like Disney.
It's not the same in Japan, where anime makes millions, and a movie named
"Princess Mononoke" passed "E.T." in 1997 to become the highest-grossing film
of any kind in Japanese history ("Titanic" finally toppled it). The Disney
animators themselves have always had great respect for Japanese animation, and
especially for the work of Studio Ghibli, which made "Princess Mononoke." And
after long negotiations, the resident geniuses of Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki and
Isao Takahata, sold the U.S. and world rights to their films to . . . Disney
itself.
"Princess Mononoke" will open in U.S. theaters Oct. 29, lovingly dubbed into
English with A-list voices like Minnie Driver and Billy Bob Thornton. If any
anime can win American audiences, this is the one.
Meanwhile, to prepare the way and celebrate Studio Ghibli, the Film Center of
the Art Institute will hold a special sneak preview of "Mononoke" at 6 tonight,
and follow it with a 10-film retrospective of the best work of Miyazaki and
Takahata, through Nov. 13.
To watch these titles is to understand that animation is not an art form
limited to cute little animals and dancing teacups. It releases the imagination
so fully that it can enhance any story, and it can show sights that cannot
possibly exist in the real world.
I've seen "Mononoke," and four other titles: "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's
Delivery Service" by Miyazaki, and "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Only
Yesterday" by Takahata. These are great films, some for families, some intended
for grown-up sensibilities.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.hollywood.com/pressroom/interviews/hmiyazaki/hmiyazaki.html
October 11, 1999
The Press Room: Japanese Director Brings 'Princess Mononoke' to U.S.
by Ellen A. Kim
BEVERLY HILLS -- One never expects a film legend to be pulling out chairs for
reporters.
But Hayao Miyazaki does, in such a quiet, unassuming way that makes him appear
more banquet host than director of one of the highest-grossing films in
Japan.
So it's no surprise that the soft-spoken, 58-year-old filmmaker seems
bewildered by not only the phenomenal success of "Princess Mononoke (Mononoke
Hime)" but America's fascination with his anime films, such that Miramax plans
to release "Mononoke" with English-language dubbing on Oct. 29.
[...]
"What I really try to achieve is to question if human beings will be able to
conquer hatred. And in terms of conquering, I don't think I actually won. But
also I feel like I didn't lose, either."
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112). Austin American-Statesman
The following are relevant quotes only.
October 12, 1999
BEST BETS
by Leigh-Ann Jackson
[...]
More on the Austin Film Festival front: Hollywood darlings Claire Danes and
Minnie Driver are just two members of the all-star cast who lend voices to the
English-dubbed version of the Japanamation epic "Princess Mononoke." There's
guaranteed to be a mammoth crowd at The Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave.,
for one of the most successful films in Japanese history.
[...]
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113). Premiere - The Movie Magazine
The following are representative quotes only.
November 1999
Previews - The Inside Line On The Movies That
Matter This Month
Princess Mononoke
by Nisha Gopalan
[...]
The latest in Disney animation doesn't involve flashy computer technology or
musical numbers by aging, squeaky-clean pop superstars. Instead, the studio is
rediscovering its classic, hand-drawn roots through Japan's own Walt Disney,
director Hayao Miyazaki.
"I think the comparison is a little unfair to Walt Disney," says
Miyazaki, whose film Princess Mononoke is being released stateside by
Disney subsidiary Miramax. "He established an entire system for
feature-length animation that has survived his death." Such modesty from
the writer-director - who is considered a master of Japanese animated movies
(known as anime) - belies his rabid global following. The late, great
director Akira Kurosawa adored his films. Even Pixar's computer-animation guru
John Lasseter (A Bug's Life) venerates Miyazaki's work. "I
remember when we were making Toy Story," Lasseter says. "I'd
bring in story guys, and we'd watch a section of [Miyazaki's] Laputa: The
Castle in the Sky or My Neighbor Totoro. It was so inspiring; it
just breaks you out of a logjam. The way he animates the elements - water,
smoke, fire - so simple but effective."
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/flickchick/991014a.asp
October 14, 1999
Ask FlickChick
by "FlickChick"
Question: I'm a big fan of animé, and there's a rumor that a movie from
Japan called The Princess Mononoke is being dubbed. Is that true? —
Norma
FlickChick: Yes. The animated Princess Mononoke, the second-largest
grossing film ever in Japan (Titanic was first), was shown at the New
York Film Festival and will open theatrically in the US later this year. It was
directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, and the English-language script was
penned by acclaimed comic book writer Neil Gaiman (Sandman). The American voice
cast includes Claire Danes (as the princess), Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob
Thornton and Minnie Driver. Like many animé, it is not a children's film.
[...]
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October 13-20, 1999
Why Princess Mononoke is a Big Deal
by Tak and Tracey Newman
There's been a buzz about this movie since it came out in 1997, albeit not as
much in America as Steven Spielberg's Prince of Egypt, but for similar
reasons. Until Titanic crossed the Pacific, Mononoke Hime was
one of the biggest selling films of all time in Japan. Mislabeled by the
American media as the "Disney of Japan", animation creator/director Hayao
Miyazaki is a master artist and storyteller. He is well known for adorable
children's viewing; My Neighbor Totoro was his first Studio Ghibli film
to be dubbed and released on video in the US. Most of his films feature young
people crossing the verge of adulthood (Kiki's Delivery Service,
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), but he's made his mark doing
action-packed (Laputa: Castle in the Sky) and more grown-up (Porco
Rosso) themed animated films. In fact, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli co-
founder Isao Takahata did the first Japanese non-kids' anime in 1968 as the
anti-Disney (Prince of the Sun, the Great Adventure of Horus) that paved
the way for future films.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.roughcut.com/talk/movie.chat/dp_991017_transcript.html
October 17, 1999
Movie Chat with David Poland
Minnie Driver Chat Transcript - Movie: Princess Mononoke
TNT ROUGHCUT DAVID POLAND: Hi. I'm
David Poland from www.roughcut.com and I'd like to welcome
Minnie Driver to Yahoo! Chat.
manolis_varnassinger asks: What is the new movie all about and how did you
decide to give your voice in an animation movie?
Minnie: I went and saw the film and I only meant to stay for 30 minutes.
I just wanted a flavor, but I couldn't leave. It was too compelling, more than
any film I'd seen for a very long time.
Invu4urqt asks: Dear Minnie, I'm a huge fan. You're my favorite actress... So,
here is my question... What's it like working with Casey Affleck? Are you
ticklish? And what does it feel like seeing your voice coming out of a
cartoon?
Minnie: Casey is just one of the funniest, driest, most brilliant guys
I've worked with. His performance was completely spontaneous. He's great. Yes,
I'm ticklish, and I kick if tickled. And it was pretty weird having my voice
come out of an animated character. I like to think I'd have been a writer or a
teacher or maybe a musician. Those are my interests
[...]
eva_unlt_01 asks: How do you think Americans will react to a animated movie
that isn't for kids, especially when it's being released by Disney?
Minnie: It's Disney by proxy. Miramax gives it a different flavor. Those
Americans who love a really good story will see that it does fall into the kids
category.
[...]
ninapanama asks: Are you still a young girl at heart and still watch cartoons?
Minnie: I watch "The Simpsons" with absolute religiousness. I like "Tom
& Jerry."
[...]
cynthia_stars asks: The story seems to have only destruction, yes?
Minnie: Not in the slightest. It's about... my character destroys a lot,
but she creates a lot of good, also. Out of the destruction comes what is
ostensibly real harmony. It doesn't say destruction is good, but that good can
come from it. Maybe destruction is needed to engender change.
glendon_raines asks: Minnie, have you seen the original Mononoke, and if so,
what were your impressions of it compared to the one you voiced?
Minnie: It's the same film. I don't speak Japanese, so I can't know how
accurate the translation is. But it sounds pretty good.
[...]
DAVID: And with that, Minnie was dragged away. Sorry folks... that's the
whole chat today, but I hope that a bunch of you were happy with the Q&A. That
was Minnie Driver from Princess Mononoke coming on October 29 to
a theater near you. Thanks for coming and goodnight from TNT
roughcut.com and Yahoo! Chat.
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.roughcut.com/talk/movie.chat/dp_991018_transcript.html
October 18, 1999
Movie Chat with David Poland
Neil Gaiman Chat Transcript - Movie: Princess Mononoke
roughcut_neil_gaiman: Okay -- hello
everyone. Ask away...
bueno007 asks: Hayao Miyazaki has been nicknamed the Walt Disney of Japan. What
is it like to work with a legend such as Miyazaki?
roughcut_neil_gaiman: It was
a bit like getting to work with God, really. Intimidating, enriching and
fascinating.
roughcut_neil_gaiman: I only met Miyazaki-san at the end of the
process, at Lincoln Centre. He said he was pleased he hadn't listened to his
Japanese distributors
roughcut_neil_gaiman: Who had told him he should insist
that only a subtitled version of Mononoke be released.
[...]
FairyPriestess asks: Will Princess Mononoke be available in theatres like any
regular movie usually does?
roughcut_neil_gaiman: It will start out -- on the 29th of October -- in
about three markets, then will expand to the 20 major markets on the following
week. After that it's up to all of you. Go and see it: tell your friends.
Spread the word. If it goes big and it goes national it will have more to do
(in my opinion) with word of mouth and buzz and people wanting to see it and
packing out the cinemas in which it's showing than it will to do with Miramax's
PR campaign.
[...]
rowanlynn asks: Have you seen any other Miyazaki films (Totoro, Castle in the
Sky)? What did you think of them
roughcut_neil_gaiman: I've seen Kiki, Totoro, Nausicaa, and
Laputa/castle in the sky (in the old dub, not the new Jack Fletcher one). I
loved them.
[...]
meva_anime asks: How did you think about the ending to "Princess Mononoke?"
That is if you believe that there was an ending to the movie.
roughcut_neil_gaiman: It certainly has an ending. But I tend to think of
it as a truce, not as the end of every battle. After all,t he conflict in
Mononoke is one that, in many ways, still goes on today.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991025/nycu/animae.htm
October 25, 1999
Beyond Mickey: Disney's new release is daringly . . . un-Disney
by Holly J. Morris
No musical numbers, no wacky animal sidekicks, no tidy resolutions, and no tie-
in toys. The newest Disney animated release breaks all the American rules about
cartoons–and does so brilliantly, aiming at older kids and adults rather than
tykes.
Made in Japan and opening on October 29 via Miramax, Disney's arty division,
Princess Mononoke marks the American big-screen debut of one of the
world's finest animators. Director Hayao Miyazaki is likened to Akira Kurosawa
by Helen McCarthy, author of Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese
Animation. "He tells a universal human story set very much in his own
culture." Princess was a huge success at the Japanese box office,
taking in over $150 million.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991025/nycu/miyazaki.htm
October 25, 1999
Web extra: An interview with Hayao Miyazaki, director of Princess Mononoke
Interview by Sara Hammel, Sept. 27, 1999, New
York
The sober mood of Princess Mononoke is lightened by the kodama, charming
tree spirits that resemble abstract Pillsbury Doughboys.
Basically, the idea came to me because what I was interested in portraying was
a sense of the depth and the mystery, the friendliness and the
awe-inspiringness of a forest, and so I came up with the idea of a kodama. I
think you can draw all the huge, giant trees in the world that you want to. It
won't have the same impact. And I wanted to choose a form that represented the
liveliness and the freedom and the innocence that a baby represents. And that's
why I chose that form. As you know from—if you've ever walked in a forest, you
hear—the forest is filled with all kinds of mysterious sounds. And so the sound
effects that I gave to the kodama I wanted to actually kind of echo the sound
of a woodpecker.
[...]
It was widely rumored that Princess Mononoke would be Miyazaki's last film.
And [I] still wish it could have been. Because of certain external and internal
circumstances, it looks like I'm going to be making a few more, at least one
more. And a very dear friend told me, "How dare you retire with Princess
Mononoke as your last film! How dare you try to look so cool!"
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.film.com/reviews/rev_coming/previews/1999/13159/
October 1999
Princess Mononoke Preview
Anime master Hayao Miyazaki's new film
Princess Mononoke doesn't open in North American until October 29, but
it's already receiving high praise. "One of the most wondrous films I ever hope
to see . . . If the Motion Picture Academy truly does seek out the five best
features of the year, then it is hard to see how it can fail to nominate this
one," said Roger Ebert after seeing the film at Telluride. "This intricate,
epic fable is amazing to behold . . . [An] exotically beautiful action film,"
echoed the New York Times' Janet Maslin, who viewed it at the New York Film
Festival.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://movies.ign.com/news/2741.html
October 20, 1999
IGN Movies Exclusive: Princess Mononoke Pictures
by Chris Bernier and Den Shewman
Anime is busting its way into the mainstream with films like Perfect Blue and
the soon-to-be-released epic Princess Mononoke.
The story comes from the mind of anime god Hayau Miyazaki, weaving together
many Japanese myths over an ancient backdrop. As the balance between man and
nature tips precariously out of balance, a god is plagued by a demon sickness.
He passes the sickness on to a young prince, who embarks on a quest to discover
what caused the god to go mad. There's adventure, mysticism, massive battles,
forest spirits and a beautiful girl raised by wolves.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/102199miyazaki-mononoke.html
October 21, 1999
A Darkly Mythic World From Japan Arrives in Hollywood
by Rick Lyman
HOLLYWOOD -- Admirers of Japanese animation, including many of the leading
figures in the American animation community, get a certain catch in their
voices when they mention the name Hayao Miyazaki, as though describing someone
not quite human, like one of the ghostly forest spirits who populate his
work.
[...]
So it's a little disconcerting to find the great man himself, seated quietly on
an outdoor patio at the Four Seasons Hotel, a pack of cigarettes nearby, his
plain dress shirt open at the collar, a cascade of salt-and-pepper hair hanging
across his forehead and an oblique grin on his face. A translator is nearby, as
are three or four aides (their faces and numbers shift as they blend in and out
of the surrounding tropical foliage) and a handful of publicists and
representatives from Miramax, the company that will distribute "Princess
Mononoke," the legendary animator's latest work.
[...]
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123). Coming Attractions by Corona
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/princessmononoke.html
October 20, 1999
Princess Mononoke
by Patrick Sauriol
[...]
Comments: This film, known in Japan as Mononoke
Hime, was released there in 1997. It is currently the box office
winner in that country, second only to Titanic. It's also the
most expensive Japanese animated film (equivalent of $20 million US) made to
date. Since Disney can't seem to do anything really original in animation on
their own, their subsidiary Miramax decided to import something and show them
how it's done.
[...]
October 20, 1999... Ten days to go until Princess
Mononoke opens, but you can check out CA's resident reviewer
'Fierce Trikes'
nutritional
breakdown of the flick right now.
Does it fulfill the needs of all your entertainment food
groups? Click and see, click and see.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/miya24.html
October 24, 1999
Director Miyazaki draws American attention
by Roger Ebert
Most movie interviews are a job or work for the journalist, but sometimes you
find yourself in the presence of a genius, and then you grow still and
attentive, trying to remember everything. So it was when I interviewed Bergman,
Hitchcock and Fellini, and so it was again in September, when I interviewed
Hayao Miyazaki in Toronto.
The name is unfamiliar to you because, while you love movies, you have not yet
discovered that you would love his movies. He and his Studio Ghibli
collaborator Isao Takahata ("Grave of the Fireflies") are arguably the greatest
directors of animation in the world. [...]
Yet few people in North America know his name because when we think of
animation (which the Japanese call "anime"), we think of Disney. And although
we spend a quarter of a billion dollars on each new Disney cartoon, we are shy
of work by anyone else. So let me point out that Miyazaki's lifework has been
purchased for this continent by Disney itself, and "Princess Mononoke" is being
released by Disney's Miramax. Since it comes with the Disney seal, just pretend
it's the next title after "Lion King" or "Tarzan."
Actually, it is much more than that--a visionary epic set at the dawn of the
Iron Age, based on Japanese myths about a time when men could still speak with
the spirits of animals and nature. It is not a "children's movie," although any
child old enough to have an intelligent conversation about a film will probably
love it. It is a real movie, using animation instead of live action, but
expressing the vision of its maker, a man whose work has given me some of my
best moments as a moviegoer.
[...]
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125). The Los Angeles Calendar
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/calendarlive/suncal/19991024/t000000007.html
October 24, 1999
At the Head of the Pack
Hayao Miyazaki's distinct visual style has made him the envy of American
animators
by Charles Solomon
Director Hayao Miyazaki makes his animated features primarily for Japanese
audiences. Yet in his celebrated career as a filmmaker, he's become one of the
most respected figures in animation in the world.
Miyazaki is one of the few directors working in feature animation with an
immediately recognizable visual style. His swooping aerial shots suggest a
child's dream of soaring through the air; he contrasts these visual and
emotional flights with moments of quiet intimacy that heighten the reality of
his fantasies.
[...]
"I'm completely baffled by the popularity of my work in America," Miyazaki said
with a shrug during a recent interview in Los Angeles. "I think it must prove
that for all our superficial differences, we humans have a great deal in
common."
[...]
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126). The Los Angeles Calendar
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/calendarlive/suncal/19991024/t000000006.html
October 24, 1999
AT THE HEAD OF THE PACK
In its native Japan, 'Princess Mononoke's' ancient theme strikes a wildly
popular chord
by Valerie Reitman
TOKYO--The heroine in "Princess Mononoke" is no Snow White: She wears an
animal-fang necklace and sports a matching temperament. She makes her debut in
the animated film by sucking poisoned blood from the wolf-god beast that raised
her.
Nevertheless, with its bizarre plot line and brilliant animation, "Princess
Mononoke" scored the biggest hit ever among Japanese-made films, racking up
sales of $150 million. When the film opened two years ago in Tokyo, Japanese of
all ages camped out overnight waiting for tickets. For weeks, theaters opened
at dawn for special 7 a.m. shows and squeezed in another seven or eight
showings each day to accommodate the crowds.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only.
October 24, 1999
Painting with words
Writer Neil Gaiman got the scripting call
by Betsy Sherman
Neil Gaiman spent much of last year painstakingly composing an English-language
dialogue script for the Japanese smash hit animated feature "Princess
Mononoke." But when asked what his favorite part of the movie is, Gaiman
unhesitatingly chooses a passage that doesn't involve words at all.
"The moment when you're looking at a rock, and then a raindrop hits the
rock. Then another raindrop hits the rock. Then another raindrop hits the
rock. Then the rock is slick with rain, then we pull back and it's
raining.
"I love that scene because it's so un-Disney, so un-American. It's a
beautiful scene that could have come from any Japanese movie. Except that this
movie happens to have been painted. Every time I watch the film I wind up in
awe of that magical little scene. And you're talking to somebody who must have
seen it now a thousand times."
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/297/living/Waiting_for_Mononoke_+.shtml
October 24, 1999
Waiting for 'Mononoke'
MIT club hopes 1997 film will open more doors to Japanese animation
by Vanessa E. Jones
CAMBRIDGE - When Jennifer Chang became the librarian for MIT's Anime Club, she
inherited half of the 500 tapes of Japanese animation, or anime as it's called,
that the club has accumulated in its 10 years of existence.
[...]
The consistently large turnouts are a testament to the avid underground
following the art form has gained over the years, thanks to the Japanese
creators' groundbreaking design, complex characters, and involving story lines
that surpass any animation produced by US studios. With such an avid and
constant exposure to Japanese animation, it's no wonder many club members are
greeting the release of the feature-length animated film, "Princess
Mononoke," with enthusiasm. (The movie opens Friday at the Coolidge Corner
Theatre in Brookline.)
The dazzling anime eco-fable set in 16th-century Japan is directed by Hayao
Miyazaki, the man some people call the Walt Disney of Japan. Like Disney,
Miyazaki created a successful animation studio that produced characters like
Totoro, a cuddly cross between an owl and cat, and Kiki, the teenage witch star
of Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service." They are as instantly recognizable
in Japan as Mickey Mouse is here.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.eonmagazine.com/archive/9910/features/big_picture/princess_mononoke/features_frameset.htm
October 22, 1999
THE AMERICANIZATION OF MONONOKE
NEIL GAIMAN AND A HIGH-QUALITY AMERICAN CAST HOPE
TO MAKE HAYAO MIYAZAKI’S MASTERPIECE OF ANIMATION PLAY FOR YANKEE AUDIENCES
by Jeff Bond
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated epic PRINCESS MONONOKE is already the highest-
grossing film ever to play in Japan. Now Miramax Films faces the challenge of
making the movie play in America at all. For American audiences who just showed
THE IRON GIANT the door, any animated movie that doesn’t feature Broadway-style
production numbers and wisecracking, adorable sidekicks in the classic Disney
style just won’t cut it. Cartoons are for kids, and there is no adult audience
for animation. That’s a challenge enough, but PRINCESS MONONOKE also faces
hurdles due to its powerful ties to Japanese folklore and mythology, a
background that parochial American audiences will be hard-pressed to
understand.
Nevertheless, Miramax has thrown an unprecedented group of talent into the mix
in order to present this unusual film to America. One of them is writer Neil
Gaiman, best known as the writer behind the SANDMAN comic series. For him, the
PRINCESS MONONOKE adventure began with a phone call.
[...]
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130). Minneapolis Star Tribune
The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=ANIM22
October 22, 1999
Asian Children's Film Festival to screen 'Princess Mononoke'
by Colin Covert
Hayao Miyazaki has been called ''Japan's Disney,'' but a more apt description
might be "animation's Kurosawa." He's a master of film whose materials are
brushes and paints. Some of his feature-length works are playful and suitable
for all ages; others are darkly dazzling and too intense for the youngest
viewers.
Miyazaki will hit U.S. screens full force in the next two weeks with the
nationwide release of his 1997 masterpiece "Princess Mononoke" (it's scheduled
to open Nov. 5 at the Uptown in Minneapolis). Dubbed into English by actors
including Billy Bob Thornton, Claire Danes and Gillian Anderson, "Mononoke" (or
"beast-spirit") explores Miyazaki's recurring themes -- the quest for personal
freedom, the love of nature and the nature of love -- in a mystical, medieval
Japan.
Tonight, Twin Cities viewers can see the widely praised film when Asian Media
Access screens it as part of the 1999 Asian Children's Film Festival, a
weekend-long tribute to the decades-long careers of Miyazaki and his associate
Isao Takahata.
[...]
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131). Minneapolis Star Tribune
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=ANIENT&date=24-Oct-99&word=mononoke
October 24, 1999
The Princess & the Pikachu
by Colin Covert
Anime, Japan's graphically sophisticated animation genre, may break out of its
cult status soon with the U.S. releases of "Princess Mononoke" and "Pokemon:
The First Movie."
These two films provide the strongest example yet of how Hollywood has caught
the anime bug, though they hardly could be more different. The former, opening
this week on the East and West coasts and nationwide Nov. 5, is a serious,
sometimes violent fable of ecology, good and evil that is not intended for
small children. The latter, opening Nov. 12 . . . well, if you have any
dealings with pre-teens, you probably know a little about this comic
book/trading card/stuffed toy/videogame avalanche.
[...]
"Mononoke" (pronounced Moe-no-no-keh) is another story entirely. Syndicated
film critic Roger Ebert sums up the consensus when he calls it "one of the most
wondrous films I ever hope to see."
The film, by Japan's preeminent animation director, Hayao Miyazaki, is a
complex, transcendently beautiful adult fable that happens to be animated. Its
heroes are flawed, its villains' motives understandable.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only.
October 23, 1999
Inside Trek
X-Files' Gillian Anderson Featured in 2 Upcoming Films
by Ian Spelling
[...]
Gillian Anderson is unusally animated.
No, not about the seventh and presumably final season of the 'X-Files',
though she seems reasonably upbeat about that. But it would take an
alien invasion force to suppress her exitement about two upcoming films,
the animated feature 'Princess Mononoke' and the live-action drama 'The
House of Mirth'.
"I just loved the idea of working on a Hayao Miyazaki film," Anderson
says, referring to the revered Japanese director [...]
[...]
"The aspect of almost all of Miyazaki's films that appeals most to me
is the spiritual aspect," Anderson said after wrapping a day of 'X-Files'
shooting in Los Angeles. "Miyazaki films take the environment, nature
and respect for nature as entities in and of themselves. I think it's
important that audiences view that and see nature being so appreciated."
"Miyazaki's films also have really strong meassages," she says. "They're
messages that we see now and again, but he delivers them in a different
way, in a more complex way and kind of elusive way than you usually see.
He makes you think, and it's not an immediate way that you react.'
"The messages strike you subversively and in a very powerful way."
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/1999-10-24/New_York_Now/Movies/a-44741.asp
October 24, 1999
Animated Genius
But will new film by 'Japan's Walt Disney' play in the West as it did in the
East?
by Lewis Beale
Just because Hayao Miyazaki has been called the "Walt Disney of Japan," don't
think for a minute his animated films feature bombastic Phil Collins
soundtracks and cute, wisecracking animals. The title was given to Miyazaki
more because he owns his own studio and is wildly successful commercially.
Take "Princess Mononoke," opening Friday. The 133-minute animated feature —
paced with the deliberation of a long story told by campfire light — is an epic
tale set in 15th-century Japan about the clash between humans and nature. It
features samurai warriors, forest gods and mythical beasts, with nary a pop
tune or a furry feline in sight.
[...]
The biggest genesis for 'Princess Mononoke' was that I wanted to set a
challenge for myself, to pose a problem in a film that is most difficult to
resolve," says Miyazaki, who was interviewed in New York through a translator.
"The issue is that human beings had to struggle against nature to create
civilization, yet now that nature is about to be destroyed by civilization,
civilization itself is at risk. How do we resolve this issue?"
[...]
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134). City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/20/985/article8086.asp
October 20, 1999
The Land of Youth
Hayao Miyazaki has devoted his films to mapping the idylls of childhood. Now,
with his masterly Princess Mononoke, Japan's Walt Disney sets out for a new
wilderness.
by Peter Ritter
It is said that in the days after the firebombing of Tokyo, the sky over Japan
turned crimson. Hayao Miyazaki, who was then four years old, would have watched
the glowing firmament from the hills of Tochigi Prefecture, where his father,
an airplane-parts factory owner, had evacuated the family in 1944. It was his
only memory from the last year of the war. And in the way that the small hurts
of childhood often become the obsessions of a lifetime, it may help explain
Miyazaki's lingering fascination with the moment of transition between
adolescence and adulthood. Here was nature's retreat in the face of perverted
technology. Here, also, was a child's dream world of sunsets and pirates and
fantastic airplanes threatened by a grim truth. In the image of a small boy
watching the sky burn, one might be tempted to look for the genesis of
Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, the brilliant 1997 eco-parable screening at
Metropolitan State University this week as part of a ten-film retrospective
organized by Asian Media Access. For all of the film's gentle beauty, there is
also sadness--a remembrance of a childhood paradise lost. It is, in many ways,
the culmination of a career spent chasing memories.
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.pathfinder.com/ew/daily/0,2514,1993,newyorkfilmfestival.html
September 22, 1999
EW Daily - Hot Topic - Foreign Film
by Ty Burr
The New York Film Festival starts on Friday. Right, you don't live in New York,
so you don't care. Or you don't live in New York AND you don't care. Fine: Go
check out Jim Mullen's Pie Chart instead. In fact, anyone who has an aversion
to movies that aren't made in Hollywood, that may not end happily, or that you
have to read, leave right now.
[...]
Some of these movies may actually be good. (Me, I'm jonesing to get a look at
Hiyao Miyazaki's bizarro animated fantasy ''Princess Mononoke.'') But it's
extremely doubtful you'll hear about any of them out where you live. And the
chances that you'll get to see them, in a theater or even on video, are
virtually nil.
[...]
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136). Entertainment Weekly Online
The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.pathfinder.com/ew/archive/1,1798,1|27008|0|mononoke,00.html?name1=mononoke&lastresult=0&query=mononoke%20%3cIN%3e%20MAJOR%20%3cOR%3e%20mononoke&major_ref=OFF&mtype=0&list_size=25&direction=
October 29, 1999
IN 'TOON
Japanimation rules on the Web. Can it take over U.S. movie screens?
by Noah Robischon
The saucer-eyed heroines and hell-spawned demons of Japanese anime flourish
online, and not just because the rich colors of this hyperrealistic animated
genre translate perfectly to the digital palette. The Web has always proved a
fertile home to niche-oriented fan bases, and the term anime is broad enough to
include styles that run from cutesy (Sailor Moon) to violent (Legend of the
Overfiend) to erotic (the subgenre known as hentai). But all anime-niacs seem
to agree that the 1997 eco-fable Princess Mononoke is a classic of the form.
Japan's all-time biggest hit until Titanic sailed over, Mononoke comes to
American theaters Oct. 29, complete with celeb voice-overs by Gillian Anderson
and Claire Danes. While it isn't likely to gross the $150 million it did
overseas, the surprisingly complex drama may awaken a few dormant Japanimation
spirits in the crowd--who will want to head for the keyboards in search of more
info.
Start at Nausicaa.net (www.nausicaa.net), where Hayao Miyazaki, Mononoke's
creator and Japan's premier animator, is given godlike treatment. The
official-looking fan site has an English-translated script of Miyazaki's
previous hit, the witch-in-training story Kiki's Delivery Service; links to
video clips and sounds from his 1978 TV series Conan the Future Boy; and a
chronicle of his early manga (comic-book) work, such as 1969's Puss in
Boots.
[...]
The release of Princess Mononoke (whose Miramax site is at
www.princess-mononoke.com) should give the genre enough critical respectability
to move it beyond cult-video status--and the November arrival of Pokemon: The
First Movie (www.pokemonthemovie.com) should firmly position anime in the U.S.
mainstream. Will this J-pop invasion affect the style--if not the fate--of such
all-American animated faves as King of the Hill? Stay 'tooned.
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137). Gaming Intelligence Agency
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.thegia.com/features/f991026.html
October 26, 1999
Interview with Neil Gaiman
by Andrew Vestal and Nich Maragos
Neil Gaiman is one of the premier fantasy authors of our time. [...]
Now, Gaiman is diversifying yet again--this time into fields which will
undoubtedly interest GIA readers. His first filmed screenplay, a translation of
Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, (Mononoke Hime) is coming
to theaters this Friday, October 29th. [...] The GIA caught up with him to ask
about working with Amano and the difficulties of localizing Japanese works.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/movies/movie053.htm
October 27, 1999
Japan's anime matures in 'Mononoke'
by Elizabeth Snead
Over the past three decades, highly stylized Japanese animation, known as anime
(AH-nee-may), has become Japan's most influential cultural export.
The genre has slowly seized video and computer games, gained a powerful
presence on video and locked in chunks of children-targeted TV time slots.
Now anime's big, round eyes are staring at Hollywood, with Princess Mononoke
opening Friday and Pokemon: The First Movie due Nov. 12.
[...]
After Mononoke comes the PG-rated Castles in the Sky, a two-hour Indiana Jones-
style action adventure scored by the Seattle Philharmonic and dubbed with Anna
Paquin, Cloris Leachman, Mark Hamill and James Van Der Beek. Disney plans a
spring or summer theatrical release.
"We have a library of Miyazaki films ready to be redone for U.S. audiences and
released over the next few years," says Michael O. Johnson, head of Disney
Asia. "We want to educate the audience about Miyazaki, get his name out there
and let audiences discover him."
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMovies/oct27_cartoons.html
October 27, 1999
Animation goes to the monsters
by Bob Thompson
PRINCE MIYAZAKI: There aren't many animators celebrated as legendary
filmmakers, but Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki is.
Some might be familiar with his work through the child-friendly films, Kiki's
Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro.
His latest, Princess Mononoke, is certainly designed for more mature responses.
Miyazaki suggests "anyone older than the 5th grade."
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/16965.htm
October 27, 1999
DISNEY'S HEIR
by Megan Turner
PUT aside your preconceptions and prepare to be enchanted.
Japanese anime, that sometimes hard-to-follow style of animation so popular in
Asia, has so far had only a limited appeal in the United States, but a stunning
new film opening Friday could change all that in a hurry.
"Princess Mononoke," a masterful work released in Japan in 1997, has taken that
country by storm, raking in $160 million to become the nation's
highest-grossing film ever after "Titanic."
The film's writer and director, Hayao Miyazaki, is considered a genius in his
homeland. His epic and occasionally violent fable, with its strong ecological
message, well-developed characters and exquisitely detailed visuals, have many
hailing him as the next Walt Disney.
[...]
"I've been wanting to make a movie like this for 30 years," Miyazaki told The
Post through an interpreter on a recent visit to New York.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9943/vincentelli.shtml
October 27, 1999
BITTERSWEET SYMPATHIES
For a Japanese Animator, Grown-up Messages Are Kid Stuff
by Elisabeth Vincentelli
"It's a great struggle to make movies for children," says Japanese animation
director Hayao Miyazaki, who has always strived to reconcile an essentially
pessimistic worldview with a sense of responsibility to his young audience.
That such a filmmaker has a distribution deal with Disney is only the latest
wrinkle in a story that's been unfolding for three decades.
With the release this week of Princess Mononoke—Japan's all-time
box-office champ until Titanic showed up—many Americans will
discover a man who's become a cultural icon in his native country.
Three years ago, Disney
struck a distribution deal with Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki cofounded in
1985; Disney tested the waters by releasing a dubbed version of 1989's
Kiki's Delivery Service on video last year. Now its subsidiary Miramax
is trying to figure out how to sell to American audiences Princess
Mononoke (1997), an epic, wildly ambitious effort dealing with the kinds
of issues not usually associated with animated kid flicks. Set in medieval
times, the movie takes its time (a leisurely two hours and 15 minutes) in
telling the story of a man-made ecological disaster and nature's subsequent
retaliation; the film alternates between the sound and fury of ferocious
battles and long stretches of exquisite visual beauty.
In town to introduce Princess Mononoke at the New York Film Festival
(a rare honor for an animated movie), the 58-year-old Miyazaki was a quiet,
thoughtful presence, though he quickly revealed a deadpan humor. [...]
[...]
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142). EX - The Online World of Anime and Manga
The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.ex.org/4.6/02-editorial.html
October 20, 1999
The Princess Speaks (finally)
by Charles McCarter
Well, after nearly two years of rumors, title and release date worries fraying
the nerves of the USA anime community, the American release of MONONOKE HIME
(official English title: THE PRINCESS MONONOKE) is almost at hand.
[...]
The most noticeable thing about this dub is that it doesn't sound like a dub.
When watching the movie, you're not distracted by how the voices "should have
sounded" versus how they actually sound. Of course, hard-core otaku will always
find something to complain about, but in reality, this is truly an exceptional
adaptation which both anime purists and the general population are sure to
enjoy if they give it a chance. You owe it to yourself to see this movie.
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143). San Francisco Bay Guardian
The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/33/49/apoc.html
September 8, 1999
Apocalypse already -A second look at Akira's anime prophecy, a first look at the American Princess Mononoke
by Alvin Lu
[...]
These thoughts came to me as I watched the dubbed Miramax version of Princess
Mononoke. A brief rundown: the original Japanese version has attained legendary
status as the late masterpiece of Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery
Service); in 1997, Mononoke shocked the world by becoming Japan's highest-
grossing film ever, this with a plotline that seems, to me, to be muddled at
best, and with philosophy and imagery that would hardly be considered childlike
or even adolescent (but then anime isn't really only for kids, is it); and ever
since Disney's acquisition of the rights a long time ago, we have all been
impatiently awaiting its stateside release, which is finally happening.
[...]
|
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://cnn.com/chat/transcripts/charles_solomon_chat.html
January 19, 1999
Charles Solomon - A chat with the author of 'The Prince of Egypt: A New Vision in Animation.'
[...]
Chat Participant: Have you studied Japanese animation or "Japanimation?"
Charles Solomon: To a degree there is an enormous amount of animation done in
Japan so watching all of it would be a full-time job. Some of it that I've seen
I'm rather impressed with. But, on the other hand, how many giant robots can
you watch? People interested in Japanese animation should watch Miramax which
will release "Princess Mononoke," which until "Titanic" was the most popular
film ever in Japan. It is an exceptional film that one should plan on seeing.
Chat Participant: Are they going to re-name "Princess Mononoke?" Please I hope
not!!
Charles Solomon: The title will stay the same but the version will be dubbed.
[...]
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145). Hollywood.com (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.hollywood.com/pressroom/interviews/hmiyazaki/hmiyazaki.html
September 22, 1999
Japanese Director Brings 'Princess Mononoke' to U.S.
by Ellen A. Kim
BEVERLY HILLS, Sept. 22, 1999 -- One never expects a film legend to be pulling
out chairs for reporters.
But Hayao Miyazaki does, in such a quiet, unassuming way that makes him appear
more banquet host than director of one of the highest-grossing films in
Japan.
So it's no surprise that the soft-spoken, 58-year-old filmmaker seems
bewildered by not only the phenomenal success of "Princess Mononoke (Mononoke
Hime)" but America's fascination with his anime films, such that Miramax plans
to release "Mononoke" with English-language dubbing on Oct. 29.
[...]
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146). Hollywood.com (Gaiman interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.hollywood.com/pressroom/interviews/ngaiman/ngaiman.html
October 16, 1999
'Princess Mononoke' Boasts All-Star Cast for U.S. Debut
by Ellen A. Kim
BEVERLY HILLS, Oct. 16, 1999 -- The task: Bring a Japanese animated classic to
the U.S. with English dubbing, voiced by some big Hollywood names.
The project: "Princess Mononoke" (or "Mononoke Hime" in Japanese), the highly
acclaimed film by director Hayao Miyazaki, which stands as Japan's highest-
grossing film save for "Titanic."
The challenge? Do so without losing your audience in the translation.
[...]
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(Note: This article is substantially the same as Article no. 146.)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.hollywood.com/news/topstories/10-20-99/today/1-3.html
October 20, 1999
'Mononoke' Brings Japanese Classic to U.S.
by Ellen A. Kim
[...]
"Mononoke" finishes with an open-ended conclusion - the battle between humans
and nature still continues, though there is hope -- which Gaiman says is
radically different from what U.S. audiences are used to.
"In a Western film you could almost make exactly the same movie, except the
last two minutes you'd cut to [the little girl] in the village and she'd go,
'Ashitaka's here!' And you'd pull back; he'd be riding up in his red elk and
San [Princess Mononoke] would be by his side on the wolf," Gaiman said. "And
the village would erupt into cheers, and the little old woman would come out
and say, 'Welcome home!' And he'd say 'Yes, and I brought my bride,' and the
film would end."
[...]
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Archive99/991021c.html
October 21, 1999
Gossip - The Awful Truth - dish, dirt & juicy bits
[...]
Hello, Goodbye
...Not so Minnie Driver.
At a press junket for her latest, the animated job Princess Mononoke
(don't ask--something about nature and humans and Japan), Miss D. couldn't have
been snippier when it came to the discussion of her whatever, Josh Brolin.
[...]
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The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.variety.com/search/article.asp?articleID=1117756959
October 25, 1999
'Princess' rules
by Bill Higgins
It certainly wasn't just another cartoon movie Miramax was preeming Wednesday
at Westwood's Festival theater.
In the words of writer Neil Gaiman, "Princess Mononoke" is a "combination of
'Star Wars" and "Lawrence of Arabia" set in a 13th century Japanese forest.
It’s a two hours and 13-minute animated film with mythological themes and
complicated people."
Epic though the film is, it's not eligible for Oscar consideration since the
Japanese submitted it for foreign-language film two years ago.
Among both the simple and complicated people on hand for the preem and
after-party at Eurochow were Miramax exec Scott Martin; and voices Billy Bob
Thornton, Billy Crudup and Gillian Anderson.
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150). AsianWeek (Helen McCarthy interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.asianweek.com/1999_10_28/ae_mononoke.html
October 28, 1999
“Princess Mononoke” Comes to Life
Author reflects on Japanese animator and “Princess Mononoke”
by Kimberly Chun
[...]
Nov. 5th, Princess Mononoke, the 1997 film the 58-year-old Miyazaki once
said was his swan song, will finally open in American theaters. Seething with
action, an environmental message, Japanese folklore, and darker, more adult
themes than Miyazaki’s earlier films, Princess Mononoke is Japan’s highest-
grossing domestic movie at more than $150 million and is backed by some heavy
hitters: distributor Miramax and voice-over talent such as Claire Danes,
Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Crudup and Billy Bob Thornton. The time
seemed right to get the inside scoop on the mild-mannered and
seldom-interviewed anime superstar from Helen McCarthy, the London author of
Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation, recently released by
Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley.
[...]
Q: How does the new film, Princess Mononoke differ from past work?
A: It’s much darker in tone overall, although it builds on elements that have
been present in all his works.
I think it’s a profoundly responsible film, in that it tells us that our every
action has an impact, and that nature and the world we live in don’t make any
allowances for good intentions.
[...]
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151). Time Out New York (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only.
October 28, 1999
Film: Interview:
14th century fox: Hayao Miyazaki's ravishing, intelligent Princess
Mononoke liberates animation
by Liza Bear
Meteorologically speaking, with the recent spate of earthquakes, hurricanes and
floods around the ever-warming globe, this could hardly be a more apt time for
the release of Princess Mononoke, which explores the archetypical
conflict between man and nature. Set in a virgin forest and loosely based on
Japanese folklore, this anime legend by master animator Hayao Miyazaki depicts
funky, feisty female protagonists, giant bristling supernatural monsters and
rival factions all vying for supremacy in an almost mythical, wooded
landscape.
[...]
[...] Miyazaki, 58, is utterly forthright, with a wry sense of humor that casts
his uncompromisingly bleak view of the future into sharp relief. He's also
refreshingly low-key about his role in creating the second highest-grossing
movie in Japanese history, trailing only titanic. "I don't really know why
Princess Mononoke was such a monstrous hit in Japan," he says,
speaking through an interpreter. "But I imagine that the film has awakened
something that was long slumbering inside people's hearts."
[...]
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152). Christian Science Monitor (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/10/29/fp18s1-csm.shtml
October 29, 1999
ARTS & LEISURE, MOVIES
Interview/Hayao Miyazaki
Japan's anime master makes powerful films
by Gloria Goodale
One of the first side trips animation master Hayao Miyazaki took upon arriving
in Los Angeles was a tour of the animation studios at The Walt Disney
Company.
"I love watching my colleagues at work," he says with a tranquil smile.
It is a fitting, if ironic, start to the American visit of a man whom younger
disciples of the art form around the globe regard with awe-like reverence.
[...]
Miyazaki is pleased with the translation into English because he is eager to
get his films before more eyes. "I believe in the power of the artist," he
says, noting that despite his success, he has always been an artist before a
businessman. "You have to rely on your core values and make the best films you
can."
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The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text was originally available online at:
http://cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/reviews/
October 29, 1999
Ready for a movie? Here's what's out
(CNN) -- It's fall -- time for school, sweaters and star-studded films with
Oscar ambitions. Which are worth watching? Take a few minutes for some light
reading here.
Recent releases
[...]
Princess Mononoke (limited)
Release date: October 29
Based loosely on Japanese folklore, this animated film tells of the war between
man and the beast gods of the forest to keep the balance of nature. Directed by
Japan's leading animator, the acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki.
Official site.
[...]
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154). The Dallas Morning News (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/1031arts6mono.htm
October 31, 1999
Distant cousin of 'Cinderella'
Japan's 'Princess Mononoke,' Disney films are worlds apart
by Charles Ealy
TORONTO - Animation has been undergoing a renaissance in Japan, as any parent
with a Pokemon-loving child can tell you. But Americans are finally going to be
able to grasp the depth of Japan's artistic achievement with the Friday opening
of what may be the greatest animated movie ever to come from outside Hollywood
- Princess Mononoke.
Hayao Miyazaki, widely considered the most influential animator alive today,
has drawn a sophisticated, lush and violent story that pits civilization
against nature, gods against mortals and understanding against indignation. Yet
he declines to label the warring sides as either right or wrong - a sharp
departure from the Disney animated formula of good vs. evil.
"It's not a matter of choosing one over the other, or judging one to be correct
and the other wrong," Mr. Miyazaki says of the conflicts that propel the story
of Princess Mononoke. "It's a matter of an individual who sees both
worlds and makes a choice on how to live, knowing that both worlds exist." And
it's a choice more typical of King Lear and Go Down, Moses than
of Snow White and Cinderella.
[...]
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155). Detroit Free Press (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.freep.com/fun/movies/qhayao31.htm
October 31, 1999
Japanese animation poised for breakout in U.S.
by Terry Lawson
[...]
[...] the director says it is inevitable that his movie, hailed in Japan as a
masterwork, will be changed by translation.
"Shakespeare, unfortunately, is not the same in Japanese as it is in English,"
says Miyazaki, who wastes no time inaugurating his new ashtray. "Not, of
course, that I would ever equate myself with Shakespeare. But there are
cultural changes that are inevitable, no matter how scrupulous one tries to
be."
What was more important to him, he says, was that the film not be edited.
[...]
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156). Orange County Register (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/miyaz031w.shtml
October 31, 1999
The making of a 'Princess'
INTERVIEW: Miyazaki, a giant of anime, reflects upon the state of the art.
by Henry Sheehan
[...]
Miyazaki does not wear these issues lightly. Rather than being imported ideas
which burnish an animated tour-de-force with an intellectual gloss, they are
part and parcel of his entire concept. With its emphasis on graphic design over
fluidity of motion, anime clearly draws on traditional techniques of Japanese
painting. And Miyazaki has a classic style that falls neatly into that
tradition. But he also breaks with it in a precise way that ties directly in
with his ecological concerns.
"In traditional Japanese painting techniques, there's no sunlight, there are no
rays of sunshine," he pointed out. "And how to incorporate sunlight into our
animation has been an important element that we've consciously dealt with. The
thing is, we intentionally strive to communicate the idea that human beings are
not alone on this planet. We share the planet with plants and air and wind and
water; we're just as interested in portraying those elements as we are in human
characters."
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157). San Francisco Chronicle (Introduction)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/10/31/PK95325.DTL
October 31, 1999
An Animated Response
by Liz Lufkin, Editor
[...]
Disney directors Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft proclaim, ``Miyazaki is like a
god to us.'' And Glen Keane, Disney's supervising animator for characters such
as Ariel, the Beast and Aladdin, is also among his many fans.
Hmmmm.
But when Ruthe Stein, The Chronicle's assistant arts and entertainment editor,
talked to Miyazaki about the similarities between his work and other Disney
films -- especially his trademark facial gestures, and large mouths and eyes --
he had an interesting response.
``It is a give-and-take,'' he said. ``You are influenced by some people and you
influence others.''
Says Stein, ``The fact that all these people are giving him credit as an
inspiration doesn't mean they're copying him. It's that his work is so
original, it helps spark their creativity. It speaks to what an icon Miyazaki
is.
[...]
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158). San Francisco Chronicle (Miyazaki interview)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/10/31/PK55707.DTL&type=movies
October 31, 1999
`Princess' Rules in Japanese Anime
Hayao Miyazaki's film, his country's biggest hit ever, gets an English-language
wide release in the U.S.
by Ruthe Stein
[...]
The only time Miyazaki gets at all animated is while explaining why he thinks
it's fine for children to see ``Princess Mononoke,'' despite these images.
``Violence is simply the easiest and handiest yardstick by which to measure
whether a film is appropriate for children or not,'' he said. ``I think the
larger problem is the overall values that are espoused in a film -- whether
that is appropriate for children.''
When he started working on the film, he wasn't targeting young children. ``But
as I was making it, my feelings changed. I began to feel that not only would
this be right for a 5-year-old, but that in a way a 5-year-old would more
intuitively understand the deepest levels of this film than someone older.
Children intuitively understand the ways in which human beings now have our
backs up against the wall and the kinds of huge issues we confront. I think
children aren't fooled by happy, hopeful
let's-everybody-live-happily-ever-after kinds of movies.''
[...]
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159). San Francisco Chronicle (books on Miyazaki)
The following are representative quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/10/31/PK29167.DTL&type=movies
October 31, 1999
Introduction to Anime
Books offer insight into Miyazaki's films
by Patrick Stack
In the increasingly popular field of Japanese animation, the arrival of Hayao
Miyazaki's ``Princess Mononoke'' in U.S. theaters is an event. And for anime
fans, two new books about Miyazaki and his art are suddenly hot sellers.
Berkeley publisher Stone Bridge Press has just come out with ``Hayao Miyazaki:
Master of Japanese Animation'' by London-based animation expert Helen McCarthy.
The paperback, with color and black-and-white illustrations, is $18.95.
Hyperion, the Disney publishing company that has made beautifully detailed
``making of'' hardcovers for Disney animated films, has published ``Princess
Mononoke: The Art and Making of Japan's Most Popular Film of All Time''
($39.95).
[...]
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160). Yahoo News - Entertainment Headlines
The following are relevant quotes only; the full
text is available online at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/eo/19991031/en/19991031001.html
October 31, 1999
"Haunted Hill" Tops Halloween Box-Office
[...]
Miramax however scored with the critically praised, re-voiced, animated import
Princess Mononoke. The magical fable with more than just kid appeal
only opened at eight sites, but with a huge $17,500 per screen, and seems set
to blossom big in wider release.
[...]
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