The player assumes the role of a 13 year-old boy whose actions lead to the death of his mother. He encounters a fairy that gives him a magic book that allows him to go to the world of Ninokuni, a reality parallel to his own. There he encounters alternate versions of people he knows; for instance his cat is a king there.

The game literally oozes with the whole "magical" Ghibli feel. Watch:

Watch in higher quality

I just came. MUST... GET...

Hayao Miyazaki é um daqueles nomes que dispensam apresentações. Também pudera, ganhador do primeiro Oscar de Animação por este “A Viagem de Chihiro” em 2003, Miyazaki conseguiu construiu uma carreira invejável na cadeira de direção do Studio Ghibli, criando autênticas obras-primas do desenho (ou Anime, como são conhecidos no Japão) como “Princesa Mononoke” (1997) e “Meu Vizinho Totoro” (1988). Seu vasto acervo de pérolas no gênero é no mínimo fantástico, garantindo um reconhecimento internacional só reafirmado pela citada - e justa - premiação na Academia de Ciências Cinematográficas. “A Viagem” (ou “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi“ no original) já nasceu clássico, sendo tecido no berço esplêndido de um homem cujo talento e sensibilidade lhe imputariam inúmeras comparações com outro gênio da área: Walt Disney.

Não por acaso, os filmes de Hayao já chegaram ao Ocidente pelas mãos da corporação de Mickey e Cia, ratificando a primazia “sem fronteiras” destes singelos exemplares. Que ainda se apegam as técnicas mais tradicionais de animação, deixando a computação gráfica (tão popular hoje em dia) restrita a poucas passagens (quando necessário). E é nesse clima de “tradição” que Miyazaki desfila seu talento enquanto contador de histórias. Com a mocinha título inspirada na filha de um de seus amigos, o diretor japonês desce a “Toca do Coelho” para nos levar, em companhia de sua protagonista, para dentro de um mundo mágico e recheado dos simbolismos tão característicos na riquíssima cultura nipônica. O passeio entre os personagens deste “mundo invisível” é puramente imaginativo - como poucos seriam capazes de transcrever sem usar das mesmas imagens e palavras que Hayao se utiliza para montar este perfeito “A Viagem de Chihiro”.

Construindo figuras que conseguem impactar adultos e crianças com a astúcia de seus significados, escancarados pelas inúmeras representações que eles mesmos personificam. Como a imundice de um rio, que envenena um dos “espíritos” que buscam se limpar na “casa de banhos” onde Sen (a mesma Chihiro, agora renomeada) vai trabalhar para salvar seus pais - transformados em porcos após ingerirem (inapropriadamente) alguns alimentos deste miraculoso - aka perigoso - universo. Restrito aos humanos e povoados por criaturas (deuses) abissais. O cuidado na caracterização de cada figura, seja qual for sua importância para a trama, pequena ou gigante, é notável. Assim como a atenção desprendida para tornar a jovem Chihiro numa criança tão esperta e inocente quanto demanda sua idade. Sem apelar para estereótipos. Apenas, deixando claro que a pequena representa a nova geração de “baixinhos”, de criação e comportamentos diferentes da infância comum as gerações anteriores, e a do próprio Miyazaki, em pessoal.

E aqui vale fazer outro tremendo elogio ao cultuado trabalho desse “monstro da animação”, mesmo “datado” tecnologicamente e quase saudoso no seu tipo de retrato infantil, “A Viagem de Chihiro” consegue se sobressair irrestritamente para expectadores de todas as idades. Quebrando todas as barreiras que poderiam separar (caso fosse um conto menos universal) seu veterano realizador das platéias mais jovens. Estas, tão encantadas com o produto final quanto os velhos - e inúmeros - fãs de carteirinha do autor de “Nausicaä no Vale dos Ventos” (1984) . Dos créditos iniciais aos letreiros finais, quando surge a bela canção tema “Always With Me”, interpretada por Yumi Kimura, cujo emocionante relato sobre “a vida & morte” serviu, inclusive, de fonte de inspiração para a pronta realização deste espetacular longa-metragem. Extremamente indicado tanto quanto seria qualquer outro DVD (VHS ou Blu-Ray) com a marca indelével e consagrada de Miyazaki-san.

Extras

“A Viagem de Chihiro” tem pouco material extra, formado basicamente por “peças padrão” estilo “Notas Sobre a Produção/Notas Sobre o Diretor” (ou seja, textos que informam sobre o filme e seu cineasta), além dos trailers, claro. A única atração mesmo é o documentário/reportagem, acompanhando o cotidiano dos trabalhos no estúdio, o making-off revela algumas curiosidades dos bastidores, incluindo a impagável passagem onde Miyazaki fica incumbido (na rotação de tarefas entre os funcionários) de fazer, humildemente, o almoço do dia (constituído do indispensável “macarrão instantâneo”, vejam que curioso...). Vê-lo preparando a comida, com o mesmo cuidado/carinho desprendido nos desenhos e rascunhos, nos faz questionar seriamente se "grandes" como Steven Spielberg se submeteriam a tal serviço? Provavelmente não, Hayao é realmente único e insubstituível. Em praticamente tudo.

Junto a Tonari no Totoro es de esas películas que te hacen volver a ser niño, a creer en la inocencia y la magia de las cosas que los niños ven y que perdemos cuando crecemos. Aunque en Ponyo, esta cualidad no se limite tan sólo a Sosuke.

Lloré un montón, para qué negarlo, pero no por los momentos tristes, sino por lo conmovedora que es y la felicidad que te transmite y te impregna el corazón los 90 minutos que dura la película. Además, el guiño a Totoro, mi película favorita me hizo morirme de amor, y es que ambas películas tienen tanto que ver y tan poco a la vez.

Estoy siendo muy poco coherente, lo se, pero es que estoy escribiendo esto y me está cayendo la lagrimilla de pensar en la película, así que sólo puedo recomendar que no perdáis la oportunidad de ver esta joya. Eso sí, si tenéis un entendimiento básico del japonés, merece la pena que la veáis sin subtítulos, porque los que hay son bastante malos y los diálogos son los suficientemente sencillos como para entenderlos básicamente y darte cuenta de lo mal traducidos que están los subtítulos... ^^U

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo sakana no ko Aoi umi kara yatte kita
Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo fukurannda Manmaru onaka no onna no ko

Un chu~

-Japan Times-

Jag har alltid sagt att Miyazaki är en av de största, och kommer nog alltid att vara det. Det faktum att han lyckas fånga i stort sett alla med sina filmer, inklusive mig måste betyda någonting. Jag kommer nog alltid kunna luta mig tillbaka och se någon av de fantastiska filmer som denna man har gett oss, regniga dagar med Miyazaki, alltid nummer ett.

Andra åsikter om Anime, Regisson, Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, Japan

this coming-of-age film centers on Kiki, a young witch-in-training who sets out for a city/town of her choice and learn to live and manage her way around ‘normal’ people (sort of like a finishing school before young trainees can actually concentrate on the serious business of practicing their craft).

with her familiar (a spunky black cat named jiji) in tow, Kiki finally decides to live in a seaside city because she has never seen the sea before. after a shaky start, she finds lodging and part-time work with a kindly bakeshop-owning couple. meanwhile, she has her hands full as she tries to get her fledgling business off the ground: delivering packages/parcels by air --- courtesy of her broom. at first, city folks are amazed to see a young witch at their midst, and would often watch in fascination as she goes off into of her delivery trips. eventually, they grow used to her presence.

after a while, kiki’s business begins to thrive. she also manages to form bonds with several people: ursula, a young reclusive artist who lives in a remote village; tombo, a young boy of her age who is passionate about planes and flying; oku-sama, a rich and elderly customer.

soon enough, however, kiki undergoes a crisis of confidence that shakes her to the core. at some point, her self-doubts begin to affect her ability to fly and this leads her to question her choices. how she resolves this setback and finally regain her confidence is handled by Miyazaki et al. (Studio Ghibli) with delicacy and bittersweet detail -- it’s the kind of stuff that inexplicably tightens your throat long after ending credits had rolled.

with Kiki’s Delivery Service, miyazaki once again validates his deft touch in dealing with issues that confront young people who are in the brink of adulthood. nothing really earth-shaking or emotionally shattering happens in this movie, but you can easily empathize with the characters. the european setting has a comfortable, nostalgic feel to it. for some reason, there is something captivating about seeing life’s wonders and terrors from the vantage point of a young girl who is desperately trying to hold on to her broom as a source of comfort, security, and ultimately, strength.

Började i morse, runt femsnåret, med Tales from Earthsea och avslutade just Porco Rosso. Åh, vad det känns bra.

Jag tänker inte argumentera mig blå för japansk animation - anime. Sätt dig bara ner och titta. Börja med Spirited Away eller My Neighbour Totoro. Öppna sinnet och låt dig svepas med i ärlig, oknusslad underhållning som roar och berör. Följ upp med Princess Mononoke och Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind och Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Känn äventyrslystnad och kamratskap och en god portion vördnad inför ett fantastiskt hantverk. Argumenten ligger framför dina ögon. Har du ett hjärta i bröstet så kommer du att förstå vad jag menar. Spik.

Estudios Ghibli es sinonimo de animes de gran calidad y que dejan una enseñanza . . . Level 5 es una desarrolladora que tiene una gran forma de presentar los videojuegos, evitando formulas repetidas, siempre tratando de innovar . . . pues ambos se han unido para desarrollar juegos y uno de los primeros que se desprendera de esta alianza es Ninokuni: THE ANOTHER WORLD. Asi Ghibli creara la animación de este titulo, mientras que Level 5 se encargara de crear una interfase digna para un juego que combinara elementos de aventura y RPG. Considero que sera un gran trabajo, que obviamente se desarrollara para el Nintendo DS, por se una consola tan versatil. Pronto les traere mas información.

The Totoro Forst Project Auction Benefit Event took place on September 6 and I’m very happy it was a great success, tickets were sold out in 48 hours! After my previous post I've been closely following this initiative on their blog and I’d like to put some of the works of art from this cool initiative in the spotlight starting with Alive by Enrique Fernández.

In this work Fernández tries to capture the aliveness of the forest, thereby touching upon the topic of the difficult relationship between us humans and nature: do we really care about nature? Of course we do! Well, I do at least, but I know many people who don’t care at all and that’s very sad. That’s why these initiatives are so wonderful, especially coming from a company like studio Ghibli that has a worldwide platform. Fernández further more wants to put a smile on the face of the viewer and he certainly succeeds. He has really drawn inspiration from Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro and the creatures are absolutely adorable!

She's been watching television, sadly, since she was little (something which elicited much hand-wringing from Patrice and I from when she was in-utero onward . . . how much is too much? What should our policy be? At what age is an hour's viewing appropriate? Which piece of research is definitive? What do we do about Patrice's dad, for whom the television is a constant friend?): first, those useless and exploitative Baby Einstein DVDs* (never for very long, mind you. 15 minutes here and there), then a little bit of morning ABC TV (Playschool etc) and films on DVD. Not to mention videos of Pocoyo and other things on YouTube (my brother-in-law, Tiggy's Nouno, suggested that I would become Google Inc's darling if I managed to film Tiggy saying what she did to him one day: 'I LOVE YouTube, Nouno!' What can I say? Content-on-demand is king).

The most successful of these media has been films on DVD. I think Tiggy's attraction to narrative through the medium of books, plus the participatory, interactive way that we watch films with her** has meant that an extended story, with characters, plot and development is her favourite, surpassing short series or activity-based children's entertainment. She adores the younger end of the Studio Ghibli ouevre such as My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service (I tried her on Spirited Away, but the scene where Chihiro's parents get turned into pigs, as well as the arachnid bellows-blower Kamaji, were a bit much. It is rated PG, after all), as well as virtually all of the Pixar films (including the short films).

So what was the film?

Wall-e, of course! As I said, some of her favourite films over the last year have been Pixar ones. At the end of last year and through the first few months of this year, it was Cars and Finding Nemo, and just recently, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (curse you, Zurg).

We had been out for a Sunday afternoon, couldn't-be-bothered-cooking, fish'n'chips dinner, and we were running a bit late. We had to zoom into the car, and race down to the local cinema to make it (dropping Patrice and Tiggy off in order that they could purchase the tickets while I found a park), but we got there. Tiggy was thrilled that two of her favourite things in the world, chocolate and ice-cream, can be combined into the one object and called a choc-top. So the WALL-E and EVE toys that she already had and wanted to bring with her got a little sticky.

Unfortunately, we'd seen a segment on Saturday Morning Disney the day before where the presenter, in a neatly synergetic advertorial spot (the TV show being produced by Disney, and Pixar being owned by the same), interviewed a to-scale WALL-E animatronic robot, so Tiggy's expectations of what was going to happen at the cinema were a little skewed. I think she did expect to see a film, but she kept asking (right until the credits rolled and the lights went on again) when WALL-E was going to come out. She desperately wanted to meet him, I think . . .

But she loved being in the seats, she loved being between mummy and daddy, and she loved the customary Pixar short that precede their features (Presto—a film about a magician and his rabbit). There were other families with young children, and the atmosphere was good. She wasn't frightened when the lights went out, and her eyes went wide at the stereo sound and the size of the moving picture.

Probably the most endearing thing about the whole experience was the running commentary that we got on what was happening. She was like a 1920s audience, not shy about voicing thoughts as the moving picture unfolded, shouting out to EVE 'Don't worry, EVE! WALL-E will be ok!' and asking questions about characters, where they had gone, and what was happening next.

She loved MO, she squealed when WALL-E was collecting bits and pieces of rubbish and oddments for his neatly taxonomised collection, she cooed when WALL-E and EVE were holding hands. She didn't like the security robots, or the nasty ship's Autopilot. And she loved the human babies levitating in perfect rows on their grav-chairs, identical in red romper suits, raised en-masse on the spaceship Axiom, humanity's life-raft.

For us, there were environmental, social and political themes galore. What happens to a species so greedy, so short-sighted that it fouls its own house? What happens to dignity, pride and purpose when people need not lift a finger to satiate any urge? Plus the deeply ironic awareness that the film, a gentle critique of mass-consumption, has mounds of merchandise.

I just hope that we don't look back in fifty years and realise that the film was a blueprint, rather than a fantasy, and that it is not Tiggy's future.

---

* Useless in that children of the age for which they are intended—babies—lack the means with which to process them (Ooo. Lights. Oooo. Sounds. Ooo. Unrelated and juxtaposed imagery, contextless and narrativally void), and exploitative in that they attempt to pander to parents' natural desires that their children be given the best start possible in life: may as well start at zero to make your child smarter than anyone else's! Baby Einstein must have seemed a crackerjack investment: Disney bought them in 2001, and sales of their DVDs have amassed a cool 500 mill so far. Thank God we didn't pay for them. And thank God we didn't subject her to any longer than 15 minutes at a time, either. The flash cards that accompany these DVDs, on the other hand (and which we did pay for), if not over-used, have proven useful, because they can be talking points . . . but then so can books. Just read your kids books, people.

** To allay my guilt at letting her watch more televisual media than I was comfortable with, I frequently sit down with her and provide a running commentary on what we are seeing. I do this both to interpret it for her—some of the concepts presented are too complex and need to be filtered for her level, as well as to make it more like a moving book (our reading style allows for lots of questions about what's on each page, digressions, mini-plots, circling back, and alternative stories). Plus, I've long been an annoying heckler of advertisements and TV programmes (if I can deconstruct it on the fly, it won't persuade me to buy), and I want her to realise that you don't have to be passive in taking in media.

No Golden Lion for Japan

There was little consolation for Japan's three entries at the Venice International Film Festival, which ended Saturday. None managed to capture the Golden Lion award for best film, which went to Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," starring Mickey Rourke. Miyazaki Hayao's "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) picked up a "collateral" award from the Mimmo Rotella Foundation, which annually honors a film that "shows a firm connection with the arts." A hit with audiences and critics alike, it also received the audience award from the magazine CIAK. The rival anime entry, Oshii Mamoru's "The Sky Crawlers," received the Future Film Festival Digital Award. Oshii said, "I guess it will take time before Japanese anime gets its due respect." But the festival jury considered giving Ponyo a Special Lion award this year, deciding against it as Miyazaki received a lifetime achievement award in 2005. And director Marco Mueller said, "Anything other than a Lion award would have been rude." Meanwhile, 1997 Golden Lion winner Kitano Takeshi had to settle for the Bastone Bianco Award for his entry, "Akiresu to Kame" (Achilles and the Tortoise).

Source: Japan Zone News

"Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki foregoes computer graphics and returns to the pencil and crayon for his latest film, an East-meets-West nod to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." Hayao Miyazaki waves to the crowd at the Venice Film Festival where his newest film opened Sunday. Already a hit in Japan, "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," opened Sunday at the Venice Film Festival, where it is competing for the coveted Golden Lion. "Ponyo" tells the story of a goldfish who longs to become a girl after getting a glimpse of the human world when she is rescued from a jam jar by 5-year-old Sosuke, a boy who lives on a cliff above the sea. As in "The Little Mermaid," Ponyo's transformation is opposed by her father, an underwater sorcerer who was once human, and she must make a sacrifice, in this case her magical powers, to become human. Only true love can guarantee her transformation."

I'm just as excited for this as "Where The Wild Things Are", if not more. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli do animation the way it should be done. All of Ghibli's releases are very family oriented reminiscent of the glory days of Disney with good moral themes surrounding the story. To get the full story and preview on quite possibly Miyazaki's final movie read the rest of the entry.

http://totoroforestproject.org/

http://totoroforestproject.org/tfp_blog/

Reporting on the Venice Film Festival screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated opus, Time Magazine confirms that Disney will release Pony on the Cliff By the Sea in North America sometime in 2009. Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, who last year brought Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis to U.S. auds, are producing the English-language version.

Ponyo centers on a five-year-old boy’s friendship with a “girl-fish” who wants to be human and ventures out of her underwater world. The plot echoes elements from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid fairy tale, as well as traditional Japanese folklore, and boy’s character is based on Miyazaki’s own son, Goro. Miyazaki was reportedly directly involved in many aspects of the animation himself, preferring to draw the sea and waves himself. The movie debuted in Japan on July 19 and opened to roughly $17 million. --Animation Magazine

The pic has been a big hit with critics and fans in Venice. No U.S. release date has been announced, though some say we could see begin its limited release it in April. --Animation Magazine

It was expected, yes, but hearing some confirmation is always a good thing.

Time Mag Confirms Disney's U.S. Ponyo Plans for 2009

Miyazaki's latest movie to be released in United States next year

A positive review of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, written by Time magazine's Richard Corliss, confirms that Disney will release the movie in English next year. The specific plans for the release, including whether the film would be screened theatrically, are not yet public. Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park) reportedly will co-produce the American release.

Of the last two movies that Miyazaki directed, Howl's Moving Castle took less than a year to make it to the United States for a theatrical run, and about a year and four months passed between its 2004 Japanese premiere and when the Disney DVD became available. Spirited Away opened in Japan in July 2001, and in the United States in September 2002, a year and two months later. The home video release took another seven months.

Last winter, I took some time away from watching some of the currently airing series and went back to watch and re-watch all of Miyazaki Hayao's films from Castle Cagliostro to Howl's Moving Castle. After going through most of them, I opted to also go back and watch all the other Studio Ghibli films chronologically (never did get to Pom Poko or Only Yesterday unfortunately). As anime fans it's hard not to have seen at least one Ghibli film, but often times it seems like they get lost in the mix of newer series and current trends. To honest, prior to my Ghibli marathon, the last time I even thought about Studio Ghibli at length was when I bought Howl's Moving Castle on DVD sometime in 2006, and before that in 2004 when I got around to buying Spirited Away. Really whether one think Studio Ghibli's works (and Miyazaki's in particular) are godly standards or complete crap is besides the point. It's always nice to go back and watch some of them for whatever reason.

I am actually really excited about finally getting to see Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I have been watching anime for nearly 10 years now, but it is probably the first time I have really cared about a Ghibli release. Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle were just passing thoughts, and probably the only reason I even looked were because Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke (two films I had seen) were mentioned along with them. These days I have quite a bit more appreciation for Studio Ghibli's works and have really taken a liking to Joe Hisaishi's music, so I have a lot to look forward to with Ponyo's release (DVD and/or theatrical).

Richard Corliss
Venice

While Hurricane Gustav was chewing up Cuba and storming toward Louisiana, the screen of the Venice Film Festival's Sala Grande was showing a very sweet tsunami. In the animated movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, the swelling waves take the form of dolphins, and when a Japanese coastal village gets submerged no one is killed or hurt — just amusingly displaced. The rising up of the marine world is not insurrection against humanity but gently cautionary instruction for it. Treat the oceans with respect, the movie says, and they will provide you with food and wonder.

That thesis might not be embraced by the tens of thousands swept away by the Indonesian tsunami, or the like number displaced by Katrina. But Ponyo, which the Disney Company will release in the States next year, is a parable for children, and they're entitled to the gift of hope. Besides, it's the genius of anime deity Hayao Miyazaki, the movie's writer-director, to create elemental images more wondrous than alarming — whether they're the forest demons of Princess Mononoke or the the bathhouse ghosts who transform the heroine's parents into pigs in Spirited Away. In Miyazaki's fantasy realm, people, even his putative villains, are less likely to be destroyed than transformed.

Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001) were enormous hits at home: the first becoming the all-time box-office winner in Japan, until it was overtaken by Titanic; the second breaking that record and remaining the country's top grosser today. Those were also the first of Miyazaki's movies to receive a wide theatrical release in North America. So U.S. audiences know him from those films, and from the 2004 Howl's Moving Castle, whose characters (and their dwellings and vehicles) seemed to spring from the mind of Joel Hodgson's Gizmonics Institute. People who hadn't seen Miyazaki's pictures might have heard his name mentioned on Oscar night: Spirited Away won an Academy Award for best animated feature, and Howl's was nominated in that category.

It happens that these three films found Miyazaki in an epic mode; their multilayered plots, teeming cast of characters and considerable length (each running at least two hours) made them more daunting than embraceable to many viewers. But back in the '80s the filmmaker contented himself with kids' movies that were both simple and sophisticated. Laputa: Castle in the Sky, about a pair of orphans in pursuit of a floating island; My Neighbor Totoro, where two girl meet forest spirits more domesticated than the ones in Princess Mononoke; and Kiki's Delivery Service, with a 13-year-old witch starting her own business. Those movies, which in their Disney DVD versions have diverted many an American child, prove that Miyazaki is more than a giant brain hatching grand schemes. At heart, at 67, he's a kid — to be precise, a little girl.

And, in Ponyo, a little fish who wants to become a little girl. In this very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid — really, a dream triggered by a distant memory of the Hans Christian Andersen tale — we see her and her dozens of sisters navigating Miyazaki's notion of the sea. The director doesn't bother much with the usual cartoon bubbles; he trusts the blue-green palette, the gentle undulating of the creatures and the haunting buoyancy of Jo Hisaishi's score to establish the location with the waves of a watery wand. One little adventuress, known to her kin as Brunhild, escapes this seeming paradise, floating up under the umbrella-penumbra of a jellyfish. Nearing land, she gets her snout stuck in a jar, and a five-year-old boy on the rocks by the shore yanks her out. He is Sosuke (voiced by Hiroki Doi), and he decides to call his new pet Ponyo (Yuria Nara).

Ponyo has interspecies powers and a low immunity system. Sosuke has cut his finger breaking the jar; she heals it with her touch, and in briefly tasting his blood, she starts to become human. She sprouts rudimentary hands and feet; for an instant she looks like a child's drawing of a chicken. She also develops a taste for the things humans eat. Mmmm, ham! — more savory than plankton. And in one of the film's many wonderful vignettes, she enjoys her first sip of honeyed tea. Ponyo is accepted into the household by Sosuke's mother Lisa (Tomoko Yamaguchi), who works in a Senior Center; the boy's father, Koichi (Kazushige Nagashima), is a fisherman whose job keeps him at sea for nights on end. Absent parents, absent children: the theme of Ponyo.

The news of a four-year-old running, let alone swimming, away from home would upset any parent. But Ponyo's dad, Fujimoto (George Tokoro), isn't just any parent. He's the king of the sea, at least in these parts, and quite the dude. With his gaunt face, form-fitting red-and-white-striped jacket, flowing seaweed hair and a perpetually haggard look, he suggests an underwater rock star; he could be the Ron Wood of the deep. Fujimoto calls himself an "ex-human" (apparently he's undergone a sea-change operation) and has the imperious zeal of the reformed mammal. When not presiding over his hundreds of daughters, he's mixing liquid elixirs that could clean up the mess man has made of the sea — if Ponyo doesn't accidentally release them and cause a wave of trouble.

Ponyo nicely portrays the agitation of a wife raising two kids (one of them part-piscine) while her husband's away; but for long stretches, when Koichi's life is imperiled by the storm, the movie forgets about him — perhaps because he's doing a bit of illegal whaling. Fujimoto's wife, Gran Mamare, is a magnificent sea goddess, with the perfect posture and forehead jewel of a Bollywood queen, but she doesn't show up till late in the film. Miyazaki also creates a tsunami that, however fantastical and benign he portrays it, can't help recall the fatal force of nature. By American animation standards, these are plot holes, which the guys at Pixar, Disney or DreamWorks would caulk in an afternoon's brainstorming session. But Miyazaki, though highly esteemed by those bright folks, isn't of their breed. For one thing, he's never gone fully CGI; he sticks with the two-dimensional cartoon style established by Walt Disney, which he, through stubbornness as much as subtlety, has brought to anachronistic perfection. Ponyo is totally handmade. "I think animation is something that needs the pencil, needs man's drawing hand," he told the press at Venice, "and that is why I decided to do this work in this way."

More important, his movies don't work on Hollywood logic. They are children's tales, and little kids rarely worry about the absence of secondary characters, let alone a story's connection to the nightly news. They want to be coaxed into another world, through words and pictures. Miyazaki has done that here. He's learned the secret language of children, and speaks to them as one gifted five-year-old to his enthralled peers. That's how an anime veteran turns animation into ani-magic.

Dopo l'annuncio dell'acquisizione da parte della Lucky Red dei diritti per l'Italia di Ponyo, il nuovo film di Hayao Miyazaki che tanto favore ha riscosso a Venezia, altri dettagli sulla sua distribuzione nelle nostre sale cinematografiche giungono dal sito di Licensing Italia:

Hayao Miyazaki ha entusiasmato pubblico e critica alla Mostra di Venezia con il suo nuovo lungometraggio di animazione, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.

Per vedere in sala la nuova opera d'arte di Miyazaki dovremo aspettare il periodo pasquale quando Lucky Red distribuirà il film.

[via: licensingitalia.it || animeclick.it]

The Totoro Forest Project is an exhibition/auction being held by the non-profit organization, "Totoro No Furusato National Fund". It's goals are to help protect and preserve the Sayama Forest, also known as the "Totoro Forest" which is located on the outskirts of Tokyo. For the past few decades, this forest has been the subject to major urban development. The Totoro Forest Project not only wants to help preserve these iconic woods but also send a statement to the rest of the world about enviromental and social awareness. With great support from filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter over 200 artists all over the world will be donating a piece of work revolving around the theme and film that inspired it all "My Neighbor Totoro". These internationally acclaimed artists come from fields of animation, comic books, illustration and fine arts. Pieces like the one above, which was crafted by Katsuya Terada who is most famous for his creation of the character for the anime "Blood: The Last Vampire" will be up on auction on September 9th at the Pixar Animation Studios.

As the days of the exhibition come closer, there has been a bigger push to bring the event to a success with other artists creating teasers to help promote the cause which can be found here.

This is taken from Howl's moving castle with origianl song:

Chi si nutre di Anime non puo tralasciare anche la negatività che si scatena sull'isola a nord est della Cina e che viene stupendamente dipinta nelle storie e sui volti delle animazioni dei capolavori di Studio Ghibli. Ecco come vengono costruite le immagini:

La fase di realizzazione dell'animazione vera e propria gestita dal direttore dell'animazione (作画 監督,, sakuga kantoku^?, contratto in sakkan), comprende i cosiddetti keyframe, ossia le immagini che illustrano i momenti chiave dell'azione realizzate dagli animatori (原画,, genga^?), e gli in-between, ossia quelle di passaggio da un keyframe all'altro realizzate dagli intercalatori (動画,, dōga^?). Nell'animazione tradizionale tutti i disegni, all'infuori degli sfondi, vengono quindi trasposti su fogli di plastica trasparente (cel), dove vengono anche colorati, e poi sovrapposti in più strati sugli sfondi per comporre i frame da fotografare: ad ogni scatto/frame corrisponde la sostituzione di uno o più cel contenenti la variazione necessaria per rendere il movimento. Questo procedimento è ripetuto per ogni scena. Nel caso dell'animazione assistita dal computer (anche detta "animazione 2D"), invece, tutti i disegni (keyframe e in-between) vengono digitalizzati tramite scanner, colorati e ombreggiati al computer,^[52] sovrapposti agli sfondi, pure digitalizzati, ed animati impiegando software appositi con i quali i vari frame vengono composti e memorizzati in sequenza, anziché fotografati uno per uno, per poi essere fissati direttamente su pellicola, con un consistente risparmio di tempo ed abbassamento dei costi. A partire dai primi anni duemila, circa il 95% degli anime prodotti ogni anno si avvale di processi di animazione digitalizzati, anche se la maggior parte dei disegni è tuttora realizzata a mano, con un impiego ancora marginale (seppure in crescita) delle tecniche di generazione digitale di immagini 3D e di computer animation. [da wikipedia]

There's a lot to be said for narrative complexity, but sometimes the most effective tales are the simplest. The story at the heart of Grave of the Fireflies is very simple: in a Japan ravaged by World War II, two young children, orphaned by the war, attempt to fend for themselves, and slowly starve to death. We are told what the outcome is to be from the film's first frames, so there is never any tension or hope that things might just work out, only a slow and painful grind through desperate suffering and towards inevitable death.

Grave of the Fireflies has no great complexity of message or thematic development. What it does pack is a powerful gut-instinct emotional punch; the two children, older brother Seita and younger sister Setsuko, are drawn so believably and endearingly in every minute detail of their daily routine that it is impossible not to feel devastated as they gradually succumb to disease, malnutrition, and the unwillingness of those around them to share meagre resources. Its tale is told with an unmerciful directness - neither the children nor the audience, for instance, are spared the sight of their mother's horribly disfigured, maggot-infested corpse - but the omnipresence of death is mitigated by a poetically melancholy, twilight beauty occasionally shining through the gloom.

The film was originally released as a double-bill with Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbour Totoro, and it's difficult to imagine a more perfect pair-up. In Grave's more peaceful moments, it echoes the whimsy and innocent, awed child's-eye view of the world that characterizes Miyazaki's equally brilliant film - as, for instance, in the scenes with the fireflies that give the film its title. Like Totoro, the plot is barely present, serving only as a framework on which to hang the flow, rhythm and little moments in the daily life of its sibling protagonists. The difference, of course, is that while the rapturous wonder and cartwheeling joy of childhood is allowed to flower in Totoro, in Grave it is surrounded by, cut down and eventually consumed by decay and death. In one of the siblings' last joyful moments - a trip down to the beach - their playful energy and echoing laugther are undercut when we catch our first glimpse of the sores on Setsuko's back; moments later, their excursion is cut short, first by the discovery of a corpse washed up on the beach, and secondly by an air raid siren. Totoro and Grave represent two sides of the same coin - both display an uncommonly keen understanding and sensitivity to the nuances of childhood experience, but while one is intent on exploring its limitless possibilities, the other focuses on the ways in which these possibilities are wiped out.

Grave of the Fireflies, then, is not an easy film to watch, but then an easy watch would have been a betrayal of its theme. It stands as one of the most powerful war films (and one of the best films about children) ever made and one of the masterpieces of the anime genre, and deserves to be more widely seen.