Thinking Miyazaki Skies

And why was I thinking of Miyazaki animations yesterday?
Because of those skies and windswept landscapes which sometimes...
....we do get here a little bit.

Hayao Miyazaki Tribute Video Clip From Madman Entertainment

Because Miyazaki's  "last" animation is out now - "The Wind Rises" -  I have to share this tribute from Madman Entertainment, Australia.
Me? I still love "My Neighbor Tortoro" and "Spirited Away" most.

Animated Discussions: Miyazaki and Giraud (aka Moebius)

Two "Greats" talk and give us an insight into the meeting of the European and the Japanese worlds of imagination and film-making. The late Jean Giraud, French comic book artist and animator  and Hayao Miyazaki.... the "Man" of Japanese anime... discuss the influence of each others work in the (previous post) video.

Animated Discussions: YouTube Interview with Hayao Miyazaki and Jean Giraud (Moebius)

Animated Discussions: Japanese Gods: Hayao Miyazaki & Princess Mononoke

So... I must be passing through a Japanese phase.

I'm listening to a Japanese crime story on my MP3 player.... and the other evening I turn to my comfort food - animation .... in this case "Princess Mononoke" by Hayao Miyazaki.

Released in 1997 it is one of Miyazaki's greats. Gods and men battle for ownership of the land.... or should I say the earth. I like the "foreign" quality of the spirit-world in Japanese anime. Westerners love to make their gods look like human kings and queens. Anime spirits are definitely "other".

I'll leave the critical discussion to this here video clip from New York Times.

Critics' Picks: 'Princess Mononoke' - NYTimes.com/Video

S-S-Steam Thinking: Japanese Anime, Goth-Lolis, etc.

Thought I'd bounce around up here again for a bit.

Cos I am reading up about Steampunk in Wikipedia... and the article mentions Hayao Miyazaki's anime, in particular "Howl's Moving Castle", and I do really love that one cos I never grow up (Click the link for a trailer viewing.)

And I am thinkin that maybe there's a steampunk connection with the Japanese street fashion thing of girls dressing in pseudo Victorian stuff. We are talkin Goth-Lolis here - "Gothic Lolitas".

So I should enjoy the film "Steamboy" . But sadly I don't. I remember quite a lot of "Bang! Bang! You're dead". So much so, that I get bored with it. I also think that the film is package heavy, content light. And the trailer (click on the "Steamboy" link above) shows that it does indeed look very sumptuous and kind of breath-taking and also...well.... Steampunkish.

Animated discussions : Japan

And by the way... all this travel to Japan through the eyes of Ozu and Hirokasu Kore-eda which repeat the images of piled up buildings, steep steps, railways and roads? Well, I experience a weird overlay of the cloud-swept, steep townscapes of some Japanese anime films. Most notably the Studio Ghibli animations. And the sound of the wind in the trees and the high-pitched cicadas are all there too.

Why do I think of this? Well I watch "Whisper of the Heart" - all to myself - and see and hear these very things. This animated film is written by Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Yoshifumi Kondo. And I'm really glad I take time out on a cold rainy afternoon to watch it. I'll never grow up.

You can watch a trailer for "Whisper..." by clicking here.

Animated discussions: Fairy Tale Dreams

The Old Man say: "You can tell my story."
I say: "Oh Yeah?"
He say: "The first cartoon film I saw in the cinema was "Snow White". I was four. I was so frightened by the Wicked Witch, I had nightmares for months. The worst was when she baked me in a pie with the apples."
Long silence.
"Get your own blog" say I.

Nevertheless, that's what's so powerful about animation. It makes real the fantastic, the impossible, the surreal. "Look. It moves around, it walks, it talks, it must be real," Our Little Child's Brain says.

Yes OK, I too have a Walt Disney Witch image burnt into my Little Child's Brain. But mine was Sleeping Beauty's Wicked Fairy. Towering tall, all cheekbones and scarlet lips. Like Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard", she was "... ready for my close-up now, Mr De Mille".
Clothes rippling behind her in the wind of her fury.

Which reminds me. Why is the wind always blowing in Japanese Anime films? Hair blows, skirt hems flap, the grass ripples and clouds sail across the sky.

And so whilst on the subject of Fairy Tale, I'm thinking Hiyao Miyazaki now. And some of my favourite animated films have been his. "Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle" and my current absolute - "My Neighbour Totoro". Which is gentle, with a hint of something else - the world of the spirits. There's a cicada-ringing countryside; a crazy surreal bus ride through a rainy night; and the wonderful, wonderful Totoro himself.

(My current Mozilla FireFox look is called Parasol Totoro.)

So am I a sentimentalist? Because I like cute cartoons? But they don't have to be cute.

Let me tell you sometime about "Waltz with Bashir". That's not cute.