Enter your email to get the latest movie news
|
  
Throughout January, FilmFour is screening a season of films by the masters of animation at Studio Ghibli. Daniel Etherington traces the story of the company behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away
 BackNext  page 3 of 4
As its title suggests, sprites make up much of the cast of Spirited Away, the 2001 Studio Ghibli film that won an Oscar, the Berlin Golden Bear and myriad other awards, and would finally give Miyazaki the recognition he deserved. It was a long slog, though. Miyazaki and Takahata had shied away from dealings with the West after their experiences on Nausicaä. Indeed, the film had been so mishandled and abused in the US that it would take a decade before Ghibli would negotiate a distribution deal outside Asia, signing with Disney in 1996.
Disney gained video distribution rights for all the films by Miyazaki and Takahata, as well as theatrical rights for 1997's Princess Mononoke. The latter proved problematic, however. Given Miyazaki's experiences on Nausicaä he was emphatic about the Americans not messing with the film beyond an English dub. He even sent Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein a samurai sword and a note saying 'No cuts!' The Disney subsidiary was handling the belated release - effectively it was relegated to the arthouse circuit. Despite comparatively meagre takings in the US, a cult following grew. And key among the Ghibli fans was John Lasseter.
The Pixar impresario would oversee the US-English dub of Spirited Away, which, like Mononoke, had broken records in Japan, with admissions amounting to a fifth of the country's population. Like all of Miyazaki's films, it was an eloquent, elaborate coming-of-age tale featuring a girl who becomes involved with the denizens of a magical "Other" world.
Since the huge commercial success of Spirited Away, the other films of Studio Ghibli (which went independent in 2005) have become more available, while Miyazaki, despite seeming to retire on a couple of occasions, came back to direct another feature, Howl's Moving Castle, after its original director dropped out.
BackNext page 3 of 4
|
|
