| Did
Miyazaki/Takahata/Ghibli make this? --clearing up the misinformation and myths |
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Q: Did Miyazaki made "Esteban/ Lost Cities of Gold"?
No. It was animated by Studio Pierrot in 1982, and the character design was done by Toshiyasu Okada. Miyazaki was at Telecom, making "Sherlock Hound" then.
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Q: Did Miyazaki/Ghibli make "Like the Cloud, Like the Wind"?
No. That's another Miyazaki, Akira Miyazaki, who wrote the script. It doesn't help that at least one fansub does mistakenly list Hayao Miyazaki as the scriptwriter. The only Ghibli connection to this anime is that a Ghibli animator, Katsuya Kondo, who did character design of "Kiki" did character design of "LTC, LTW". Some say the heroine, Ginga looks like Oriental Kiki.
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Q: Did Miyazaki/Takahata make "Little Nemo"?
Yes and No. "Little Nemo" was an American/Japanese joint project, and Miyazaki and Takahata were involved in the pre-production stage during 1982-83. However, due to the creative differences with the American producers, both quit the project. It was finally made into a movie with different staff members, and released in 1989 in Japan.
There has been some rumor that two pilot films in the Japanese "Nemo" LD box set were done by Miyazaki and Takahata, but actually, they were done by Yoshifumi Kondo and Osamu Dezaki, respectively.
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No. However, Nadia was originally a Miyazaki project. In the mid-1970s Miyazaki was working on stories for television for an animation company, Toho. One of which was to be called Around the World in 80 Days by Sea. This story would follow the adventures of two young orphans fleeing an evil power or government while being helped by some bumbling bad guys and the mysterious Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. The project was eventually shelved, but Miyazaki incorporated several of the elements of this story into the series he eventually made for NHK in the late 1970s, "Future Boy Conan". Some of these same elements reappeared later in 1986 in "Laputa". In the late 1980s, when NHK and Toho approached Gainax about doing a television series they suggested this story idea, and Gainax took it. To know more about "Nadia" and its similarity to "Laputa", visit the Marc Hairston's page.
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Q: Did Miyazaki/Takahata make "Pippi Longstockings"?
No. But they very much wanted to.
In 1971, Miyazaki and Takahata quit Toei Doga, and moved to A Pro
to make "Pippi Longstockings" into a TV series. They
put a lot into this project, but the author, Astrid Lindgren did
not give a permission to the project, so it was never
materialized. After this disappointment, Miyazaki and Takahata
made a movie, "Panda Kopanda".
The little girl in this movie, Mimiko looks a lot like Pippi,
with freckles and red pigtails.
(An Imageboard of "Pippi")
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Q: Did Ghibli make Romeo no Aoi Sora (Romeo's Blue Sky) ?
No. It's one of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater series, so we could say it's somewhat Miyazaki/Takahata related. SATO Yoshiharu, the character designer of "Romeo" was the supervising animator of "Totoro", so that could explain the "Ghibli look" of characters. Actually, there is another hidden connection to Miyazaki/Takahata. Sato was having a hard time designing the main character, Romeo. Then he saw the old pictures taken in Switzerland when Miyazaki and Takahata went there for location hunting for "Heidi". He saw a village boy in one picture, and "This is it!" and made Romeo after him. So we could say, if not for Miyazaki and Takahata, there was no Romeo ^_-.
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Q: Did Ghibli/Miyazaki make the Playstation game Jade Cocoon?
No. The artwork of Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (original Japanese title: Tamamayu Monogatari) is done by Katsuya Kondo, who did the character design of Kiki's Delivery Service and was involved as either the animation director or a key animator in many Ghibli titles. Some game magazine mistakingly reported that Miyazaki made this game, but Miyazaki has nothing to do with the game.
Genki, the developer of the game, has a web page. It is in Japanese, but you can see some of the beautiful artwork by Kondo. Also, You can read an interview of Kondo at Yomiuri Newspaper's site (in Japanese).
Crave Entertainment brought the game to the North American market in 1999 under the name Jade Cocoon.
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Q: Did Miyazaki make "Nan and Joe"?
No. It's one of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater series, so we could say it's somewhat Miyazaki/Takahata related. Wakakusa monogatari: Nan to Jo sensei (Tale of the Young Grass: Nan and Miss Jo) is based on Louisa May Alcott's Little Men. It is a sequel to Little Women. It has a Miyazaki look because the character designer was Yoshiharu SATO, the supervising animator of Totoro and Omohide Poro Poro. He also did Romeo's Blue Sky.
Additional information on the series can be found at:
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