Can Hayao Miyazaki Save Disney's Soul?

IronicGrin writes "Even hard-core House of Mouse apologists have to admit that Disney's Feature Animation division has lost its way. After a half decade of pathetic failures (Atlantis) and epic disasters (Treasure Planet), the company shut its fabled Orlando 2D animation studios last year and announced that it was jumping on the computer animation bandwagon. A big motivation for the move to CGI was, of course, the Magic Kingdom's tenuous relationship with Pixar--the source of all of Disney's recent animated hits. But Disney is overlooking a better example of just what its toon team has been doing wrong...right under its nose. Howl's Moving Castle, which opened this weekend to rapturous critical acclaim, is the third masterpiece from Japan's Studio Ghibli that Disney has released theatrically. Today's New York Times has a feature by A.O. Scott [reg required, blah blah] calling Miyazaki the "world's greatest living animated-filmmaker"; meanwhile, last Thursday, I wrote a column for SFGate.com on why Disney animation, 3D rendered or not, is doomed to irrelevance if it fails to (re)learn some basic lessons from Miyazaki and his cohorts at Ghibli. What do you think? Is Disney destined to fade to black, or can a little Ghibli flavor (mmm....Ghibli) get it back on track?"

Re:Is there something wrong with me?

[PigBoyOhBoy]

Try watching Castle in the Sky and then while you're sitting there, amazed, at how it is such a shameless ripoff of Atlantis, note that it was made several years earlier.

Ghibli does use CGI

[Anonymous Coward]

They use it for background elements though, and work hard to make it look like the rest of the animation.

It started with Mononoke, and continues to this day. Howl's Castle is a 3D animated object, but you couldn't tell it by looking.

In Mononoke, where the boy is charging across the field of grass, firing his bow, the field is CGI, as is the grass. The writhing 'tentacles' on his arm are CGI as well. Watch the extras "Making of" bits on the DVD sometime.

Studio Ghibli has invested money in 3D graphics. They do use it, but they work very hard to make it look like 2D animation

Softimage even has a article on Ghibli and their use of 3D. They have 150 people in that division

http://www.softimage.com/Community/Xsi/Mag/Cs/Volu me_2/Issue_1/Ghibli.htm [softimage.com]

http://www.softimage.com/Community/Xsi/Mag/Cs/Volu me_2/Issue_1/media/Ghibli/2.htm [softimage.com]

Here's a image of a forest scene from Spirited away, when they first approach the area where the spirits' 'vacation center' is located. Oh nos! It's CGI!

But you can't tell it, can you? Why use CGI? Because for set pieces, for backgrounds, it makes relative movement for perspective pieces easier to animate. It makes deep, rich backgrounds easier to do. Else you have all your characters animated over a flat looking background, with no perspective shifts as the camera moves.

So Ghibli uses CG, but not exclusively. It's merely another tool in their chest.

Re:Hamlet?

[gandell]

Sorry...that didn't work.
THE LINK [kimbawlion.com]

Re:Miyazaki != $$

[Jack Taylor]

Miyazaki may be an ubelievably great artist, but his movies will not bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in movie sales, and billions in merchandizing

... Except in Japan. In Japan, Miyazaki's movies really do bring in this kind of revenue, and he's without question the most popular animator in Japan. Maybe the most popular film-maker in Japan. Of course there are cultural differences, but is the concept of what makes a good story really that different in Japan and America? And by the way, the article is talking about using Miyazaki's approach, not his actual films - Disney have already have already managed to procure global distribution rights to Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, as well as the video rights to most of the others. (They've done a really poor job of the region 2 DVDs so far, as well.)

Re:Animators won't save Disney...

[warmcat]

Disney != Google at any time.

http://www.answers.com/topic/disney-animators-stri ke [answers.com]

''...The salary structure remained crazy-quilt, and the only general wage increase Disney granted in those years was self-serving: he brought a number of workers up over the forty-dollar-a-week level, at which point, under the Wagner Labor Relations Act, they ceased being entitled to time-and-a-half for overtime." Schickel says that Disney "responded gracelessly to the pressures of his increasingly difficult economic situation." Story conferences became brutal. "An animator working on Fantasia took piano lessons at his own expense" to increase his understanding of music, and when Disney found out about it, he snarled "What are you, some kind of fag?"

As the biggest and most successful animation studio, Disney was an obvious target for the Screen Cartoonists' Guild. There was a layoff which seemed to target members of the Guild selectively, and things reached a boiling point when Disney fired animator Art Babbitt, whom Disney regarded as a "troublemaker." Three days later, on May 29, 1941, the strike began. ...''

Re:I'll go for...

[tepples]

As I understand it, it's impossible to "steal" from the public domain.

Understand this [answers.com].

Re:Will Anime last?

[TomHandy]

This is actually a common misconception (about the origin of the word "anime"). The french word for animation is, in fact, animation. "Anime" in french is actually a verb, to animate (and I think it can also mean animated, but it's been a long time since I took any french).

The Japanese word "anime" is a shortened form of animeshon, itself essentially a Japanese word that is based on the English word "animation".

I think the assumption that it's a French word comes from the accent that is often used for the e in anime, or just that it sounds like a French word because of the pronunciation.

And anyway, I agree with you. Anime in various forms has been popular for a long time now in many countries.......... the popularity of individual shows or movies may wane, and not everything will last forever (I notice that a lot of modern fans simply don't like some of the classics because they can't deal with the lower quality animation compared to what is being done currently), but when you consider how much of the world's animation is produced in Japan, it is not surprising that it would maintain a strong foothold.

Re:Different strokes

[pcgabe]

Compare something like Trigun or DBZ (as examples of shows in which motion is very important) to Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast and the differences in the way motion is portrayed are just phenomenal, and there's more and smoother motion in American animation, hands down.

I'm going to set aside the fact that you are comparing American movies with Japanese TV shows (would you say that The Simpsons is better animated than Trigun?), nor will I ask you to find a part of FLCL (Fooly Cooly) that's static (besides the manga), and instead suggest that if Cowboy Bebop is your frame of reference maybe you should watch something more recent. Take a look at the body movements in, for example, episode 133 of Naruto (big fight scene there). Now find an American-style TV show that matches it. Not to say that anime is inherently well-animated (DBZ and Ranma come immediately to mind as popular counter-examples).

I would instead say that anime encompasses a wider spectrum of animation quality (compared to American-style animation) both higher and lower. I wouldn't call anime a style (as there are many different styles of anime); it's more just the country of origin. As Japan produces much more animation (and for a wider range of viewers), it makes sense that the quality spectrum is likewise wider.

As such, arguments can always be made that American-style animation is worse than or superior to Japanese anime, as appropriate examples of both can be found as the need dictates.

Re: Pixar Exhibition

[ll1234]

A small feature on the Pixar Exhibition at the Studio Ghibli Museum: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/museum/pixar/ [nausicaa.net]

Re:slashdot needs a "factually incorrect" mod opti

[Anonymous Coward]

If the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons went into the public domain, the character itself would also become public domain.

This is factually incorrect (how appropriate). Mickey Mouse is protected by copyright and trademark. If/when the copyright protection expires, the trademark will still be in full force. And trademarks, properly protected and maintained, never expire.

Save Disney Error: The Lion King

[Draconix]

It fails to mention that The Lion King is not Disney's original story, but was instead plagiarized from Kimba the White Lion [straightdope.com].

Re:Is there something wrong with me?

[Blakey Rat]

I liked Atlantis (I wouldn't buy it, but it's worth watching once), but I didn't think Treasure Island was worth the price of admission.

Neither of those two are as good as The Emperor's New Groove or Lilo and Stitch, probably the best two animated features *period* during this supposed dry spell...

Disney might not be cranking out huge blockbusters recently, but they can still tell a good story and make a good movie. What else matters?

And remember: Pudge controls the weather.

Re:Save Disney Error: The Lion King

[pyrrhonist]

As for the plot similarities, Disney claims that they're all cliches anyway - the ex-Disney guy quoted in the Straight Dope article you linked to points out, quite correctly, that most of them appear in Hamlet.

It's not quite as cut and dry [50yearsofkimba.com] as Disney makes it sound.

Let's just say that it is not at all obvious that Disney plagiarised Kimba.

It's painfully obvious [kimbawlion.com].