Hayao Miyazaki and My Neighbor Totoro

A lot of my friends have been telling me to check out Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli’s films for a while, and this week I finally did. When I was younger I had seen Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke, but it was so long ago that I definitely don’t remember either of them. This week I watched My Neighbor Totoro and I absolutely loved it. It had an engaging, heartwarming story that I was very invested in and characters that are easy to sympathize with. Those were probably the biggest reasons that I liked the movie, but one thing that did stand out to me at certain times was the sounds design. Sound is something that can really make or break a movie/video, and especially an animation. In this case, the sound design definitely added to the film. Good sound design is something that is going to be very key in my name project - it could either make the final product cool and believable, or cheesy and lame. I’m really hoping for the former.

Studio Ghibli Animation Software Free

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech/heres-download-opentoonz-studio-ghiblis-free-animation-software-138465.html
Apparently the software Studio Ghibli uses to animate has been made free to download within the last couple days.

Along with the main software package, they've also released an effects development kit for advanced image processing like lighting and distortion effects, as well as GTS, a scanning tool developed by Studio Ghibli that allows for efficient scanning of sequentially numbered drawings.

A great new resource will soon be available!!

Like Studio Ghibli films and Futurama?  Ever wanted to create animations like them?  Well there's great news for animation enthusiasts, because it was recently announced that the software company Digital Video will release an open-source version of their software Toonz.  (It should be set for release on March 26.)  This new version of the software will have features developed by Studio Ghibli themselves, which will certainly be interesting to see how the animation process in the east differs from here in the west.  I've always had a fascination with Japanese-animated films like the works of Miyazaki and other Ghibli films, so I might give this a shot.

The company will still offer its Premium version of Toonz for animation studios at a competitive price, so whether or not the open source version will be drastically simplified is one of my main questions. It may not be a bigwig animation software like ToonBoom, but if you're at all interested in the anime and Ghibli animation style, definitely check it out.

The full story can be found right here on Digital Video's website.

Studio Ghibli's 'When Marnie Was There'

When Marnie Was There is about a young girl who meets a mysterious girl, Marnie, who changes her life forever. Here is the US Trailer for what may be the last ever Studio Ghibli feature film.

It is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the director of The Secret World of Arrietty. In the English dub, the voice cast includes Hailee Steinfeld, Kiernan Shipka, Kathy Bates, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara, John C. Reilly, Raini Rodriguez, and Vanessa Williams.

It will be released on May 22 in Los Angeles and New York. It will be released nationwide shortly after.

The Castle that Moves

   
    In most recent news, Japanese film-maker and animation master, Hayao Miyazaki just received an honorary Oscar for his work. This comes close to the anniversary of one of his most well-known features, Howl's Moving Castle (a Studio Ghibli film). It's a fantastical story about a girl named Sophie who meets a wizard named Howl, and the adventures they have in dealing with a land ridden with an impending war and a corrupt hierarchy of power that plots to go against them.
    Miyazaki always has a very distinct look to his films, from the incredibly detailed backgrounds to the fluid lines of his animation. In fact, Miyazaki was probably one of the last big name animators that has stuck to animating his features (for the majority) by hand. It's safe to say that there is quite a difference between 2D and 3D animation, but what Miyazaki does when incorporating both together is something that is not often seen when attempted.
    Looking at little pieces of this film, on of the most notorious is Howl's moving castle. From the very first moment we see and hear it clunk across the screen, shrouded in an eery mist, it's becomes iconic to visual look of this movie.

    You can see that is combines a unique mixture of animation that looks to make a two dimensional object 3D while maintaining it's traditional looking roots. It's truly a masterpiece of its kind and something that once again, only goes to see the hard work that was put into setting up the atmosphere of this film.

   It's worth it to take a look at the process that went into the creation of this movie. Because while it may not be you cup of tea, you can't argue that there isn't a certain type of skill and finesse that went into making it. Whether you decide to see if for yourself, in either the Japanese sub or English dub, it's worth checking out. 

Miyazaki's "Final Film"

After 51 years of writing and animation, as well as thirteen award winning films famed director Hayao Miyazaki lays down his pen for The Wind Rises…for now.  The writer of Ponyo, From Up on Poppy Hill and The Secret World of Arrietty, has claimed these to be his last films before allowing new talent, like his son Goro Miyazaki take the reins of writing/directing the Studio Ghibli franchise. But almost every time he’s said this, the wizard always seems to have one more trick left up his sleeve, and creating his most recent features that continue to astound us. Unlike his previous “last films,” this one seems to be his grand finale, as he returns to the director’s chair after five years. The film is adapted from Miyazaki’s 2009 serialized manga of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Mitsubishi A5M aircraft used in WWII. 

Much of the film’s story parallel’s with Miyazaki’s personal journey as a storyteller. Miyazaki and Horikoshi both share an enjoyment craft of what they do and sought to create beauty and art in story, animation and aviation respectively.

Like some some of his other projects it contains the following things one usually associates with a Miyazaki film.

1) Prominent Female Protagonist that resembles the pervious ones

Naoko Saotomi

          2) Fantastical Images 

        3) Highly Detailed Environments

These elements are the main reasons I continue to watch Miyazaki's films. When I found out this film is supposed to be Miyazai's last I was disappointed. Personally I don't think this is the end for Miyazaki as far as a storyteller. But if this is his final film in the director's chair, I think he couldn't have chosen a better story to end his directorial rein at Ghibli. Most likely Miyazaki will continue in the as the mentor for the upcoming directors at Ghibli.

Like his son's film created 2006 where he presented the concept, while his son handled the screenplay and directorial aspects of the project.

Miyazaki

So as most of you probably know, Hayao Miyazaki announced recently that he is officially retiring from the film business. For those of you who don't know, Miyazaki is a renowned animator and film maker. He was the creator of "My Neighbor Totoro",   "Howl's Moving Castle", and "Spirited Away" to name a just a few. It is because of this that today I chose to post a scene from "Howl's Moving Castle". I chose this particular clip because there's a lot going on in it. In this scene the interior of the castle is transforming into a small almost cottage-like setting and that process is shown here. Along with that, there's the wind that billows Howl's clothes, and Calcifer, the fire demon's sudden transformation. I think looking at a piece of hand drawn animation is not only an opportunity for admiration, but also to understand where a lot of the techniques we use today came from. Things like tweening and other processes we still use today started with animating in this manor. I'm always impressed by the shear amount of work that goes into something like this, and by how much movement and life these animators can create with 2 dimensional images. Animation like this has amazed me since I was about 6, and Miyazaki was always a prevalent part of that inspiration.

Hayao Miyazaki

If one person could represent my childhood, it would be Hayao Miyazaki. I grew up with his movies, I still love his movies, and I still wait with anticipation for a new one to come out. The first movie of his that I've seen, and that I still own on VHS, is Kiki's Delivery Service which is about a young witch going off into the world. In the english dubbed version, Kirsten Dunst provides the voice for Kiki

I love Hayao Miyazaki's films for their stories and his style of animation. If I didn't know the title of a new film coming out, what it was about or anything, I would be able to tell it was a Hayao Miyazaki film just from watching one second of the trailer or looking at a screencap of the film. His style is very well known and established. I prefer his style over movies like Wall-E, Toy Story, and The Lion King. Some of my personal favorites are Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away (Which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002) , My Neighbor Tortoro, and Howl's Moving Castle (Which I do own on DVD if anyone wants to borrow it) and you can watch the trailer here and get a taste for what his films are like:



All of his films are generally family friendly and extremely heartwarming, I recommend every single film to everyone.