Through fantastical storytelling - via animated movies - Miyazaki-san has touched the world.
Hayao Miyazaki (1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films, says wikipedia.
Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company.
The success of Miyazaki's films has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney. He has been named one of the most influential people by Time magazine.[1][2]
Miyazaki remained largely unknown to the West until Miramax released his 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film in Japan and the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki returned to animation with Spirited Away. The film topped Titanic's sales at the Japanese box office, also won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards and was the first anime film to win an American Academy Award.
Miyazaki's recurrent themes include humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. Reflecting Miyazaki's feminism, the protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women. Miyazaki is a vocal critic of capitalism and globalization.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Miyazaki Hayao Miyazaki and the Japanese sense of imagination
