Daily post 08 Aug 2009 07:28 am
Ponyo & Laura & Amid
– Miyazaki‘s Ponyo is about to arrive on our shores. Delight of delight, I even saw a tv ad for it last night. Maybe, this time, Disney will support it; there have been rumors.
This week’s New York Magazine has a review that was heaven sent. The reviewer, David Edelstein, goes beyond the kiddie-fare surface to talk about animation itself:
Nothing in Miyazaki’s universe ever stops transforming: There are spirits tucked away, ready to turn what you think you see—the visible world—into something else. Miyazaki proves why two-dimensional hand-drawn animation will always be more thrilling than 3-D: It doesn’t need to pretend to be bound by the laws of physics. The borders between flesh and spirit are infinitely porous.Wha! Somebody gets it?! Let me repeat Edelstein’s last sentence: It doesn’t need to pretend to be bound by the laws of physics. The borders between flesh and spirit are infinitely porous.
All the cgi supporters should take note. There’s nothing wrong with your medium. It’s just that the limited imaginations displayed so far have styled the medium to little more than viewmaster puppets acting in a puppet universe. The sense of caricature is limited to the mundane in that view. Wall E trying to create his own universe out of the junk of the past. It has to go beyond that to be more. There have been hints of the glory, but so far things haven’t gone far beyond Toy Story.
The key word, to me, in Miyazaki’s universe is “Spirituality.”
Here’s more of the review:
Even with its radiant colors and Joe Hisaishi’s score, a lush mixture of Snow White, Wagner, and Shostakovich, Ponyo could be insipid. Its magic comes from someplace deeper. We constantly see movies that contradict their own messages—celebrations of mavericks that are slavishly formulaic, testaments to selfless love suffused with snobbery and narcissism. But when Miyazaki makes films that decry the threat to the natural world, every molecule onscreen resonates with that belief—a belief that dissolves the boundaries between form and content.
- Today in an article in the Daily News, there’s a wonderful quote from Miyazaki:
- “The world might be going toward high tech, but I would like to have [my animation company] Studio Ghibli to be like a wooden boat that journeys with sails,” he told The News through a translator.
“Of course, we can sink. I don’t know if we’re very strong, and we’re not confident about the future.”
I guess I’m happy to be in a rowboat not far from his sailboat still perplexed by the use of the tool that is cgi but content to have enough to do, myself. I will have to buy the new book by the Mr. Miyazaki, Starting Point. The man, obviously, has something to say.
- Laura‘s all over the place.
Over at Comicrazys, they’ve posted a handful of comic strips by Pat Sullivan.
That is to say that, like Felix the Cat, this strip, Laura, was actually done by the well disguised Otto Messmer in 1931.
Back then, a principal strip would have a short strip either at the top of the bottom of the page. Laura was the strip that ran just above the Felix the cat strip. The two, together, would fill a color Sunday page.
found via Mike Lynch Cartoons
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Additionally, Comicrazys posted some 22 color copies of the strip in August 2008.
There are also more strips to be found at the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archives which were posted in 2007. These include the Felix the cat strips; the entire pages are posted.
Amid Amidi has outdone himself writing an extraordinary post which celebrates the life of designer Victor Haboush. It’s one of the best recent posts on Cartoon Brew, and I’d encourage you to take the read if you haven’t yet had the opportunity.
Haboush was a remarkable designer and his contribution to animation – not to mention Disney animation – was enormous. He knew how to create a piece of art for animation without placing it in your face or calling attention to itself.
on 08 Aug 2009 at 2:14 pm 1.Richard O'Connor said …
You have my personal guarantee that you will love “Starting Point”.
If you’re not satisfied, I will refunded your money no questions asked.
It is a singular achievement in writing around animation.
on 08 Aug 2009 at 4:41 pm 2.JaneD said …
I saw Ponyo last year, and aside from Princess Mononke, it’s one of the worst cartoons I’ve seen. I like the Totoro film fine enough–it’s nothing particularly special. But this Ponyo is a childish, mindless concoction not worth wasting your 2 plus hours on. Porous is right.
on 08 Aug 2009 at 5:42 pm 3.Michael said …
Considering that I think Princess Monokone close to the best of Miyazaki, I’ll wait to judge the film for myself. We all have different tastes.
on 08 Aug 2009 at 7:32 pm 4.Jason said …
Hear Hear on Miyazaki!
on 08 Aug 2009 at 11:54 pm 5.daniel thomas macinnes said …
I’ve been raving about Starting Point on the Ghibli Blog this week, and it is a spectacular book. The title is a misnomer, as Miyazaki discusses his entire career, his friendships and rivalries, his family, and his work. It’s a spectacular anthology that is sorely needed on our shores. This book should be sent to every major film critic in the country for required reading, if they are ever to view animation as something more than the electric babysitter.
Now if Viz Media could translate and publish the memoirs from Isao Takahata and Yasuo Otsuka, and Michiyo Yasuda’s book on color theory, we’ll really be cooking.
It appears the Disney corporate machine is working hard on Ponyo, for good and for ill (that reworked Auto-Tuned song is criminal), so I remain hopeful that Ghibli could finally have a success on our shores. Of course, we’ve long believed that these films, and many others like them, would become hits if only the studios allowed.
on 09 Aug 2009 at 8:15 am 6.Michael said …
Of course, I’ve been aware of your reviews of Starting Point, Daniel. Your comments as well as Richard O’Connor’s has made the book jump from the back of my mind to the click to buy it at Amazon. I’m looking forward to it.
on 09 Aug 2009 at 12:01 pm 7.Pierre said …
I’ve been somewhat disappointed with Miyazaki’s later work with the exception of “Spirited Away”. In my opinion, much of his later work is high on imagination but muddled in storytelling. I appreciate his goals but I found much of his work from Mononoke onwards to meander a bit too much.
Still, I am very much in awe of him and consider Totoro as well as Kiki’s Delivery Service to be near perfect for my sensibilities. I think the first ten minutes of Totoro to be absolutely brilliant, even if it only involved two girls exploring their new home. The shear joy of their movements is spot on. As a whole, the rest of the film holds up just as well in a place where reality, spirituality and fantasy co-exist.
I was not aware that this book on Miyazaki is available so I will certainly be be ordering it immediately! Thank you for the heads up!
Pierre
on 09 Aug 2009 at 12:51 pm 8.Michael said …
I’ve had little problem with Miyazaki meandering. I have the patience to ride with him and be lulled into the world he’s created. This is part of the world and important to it as well.
It’s hard to go from the world of Dreamworks or the last half of all the Pixar films (aggressive to the max) and accept the slower world of Miyazaki. I’ve accepted it and look forward to it.
As I said earlier, different strokes for different folks.
on 09 Aug 2009 at 5:18 pm 9.daniel thomas macinnes said …
@Pierre If you really loved My Neighbor Totoro, then you would love Gauche the Cellist, Isao Takahata’s 1982 film about a young musician who is visited by animals. Its scenes of nostalgic rural life, fused with the music of Beethoven’s Pastorale, are endlessly stirring, peaceful, and meditative just as much as Totoro.
Hayao Miyazaki has moved into surrealism with Mononoke, and it’s a real joy to see his Fellini side. Much of his narrative structure can be confusing to Westerners, who are used to a linear structure. Western art is all about building tension and resolving conflicts. Eastern art is different, more Zen, more interested in the journey.
I’ve long felt that the way to truly understand Miyazaki’s wandering episodic style is through his Nausicaa manga. His narrative focus is not overcoming some obstacle or defeating some cardboard villain, but the evolution of the characters.
I think Starting Point would be extremely useful as well, since Miyazaki’s work is so informed by his past, his culture, and his worldview. We’re the late ones to this party, so it’s understandable that we’re confused on the conversations.
Oh, finally, lest I forget, “Pixies” would be a really great name for Pixar fans. It’s the best one I’ve heard so far.
on 09 Aug 2009 at 7:04 pm 10.Richard O'Connor said …
I think “Starting Point” is an apropos title. This title represents a starting point to serious discussion on the animation form.
on 09 Aug 2009 at 7:51 pm 11.Pierre said …
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the heads up on Gauche The Cellist. I will certainly look into this. And yes, I know that I’m viewing his films from a western mindset and its unfair to judge the way he chooses to structure his films. All your points are well taken.
I’ve tried to think of his later work as animated “tone poems” of a sort but sadly for me, it still leaves me wanting. Oh well, I still think his work is fascinating nonetheless. Yes Michael, different strokes for different folks!
on 09 Aug 2009 at 9:16 pm 12.Brian said …
Just got back from the East Coast premiere and felt that visually the film may have been his strongest. Everything on screen was so absolutely full of life.
My gripes are that the plot was rather vague much of the time and there was a whole back story and development of Ponyo’s father that I felt was never realized.
None the less a very enjoyable film, worth everyone’s time and money even if for nothing more than the visuals and Ponyo’s character
And i’m definitely ordering starting point asap!
on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:04 am 13.Ray Kosarin said …
I enjoyed yesterday’s premiere also.
Miyazaki’s films are beautiful and mysterious and, at their best, brilliant. And there’s a lot to like in ‘Ponyo’—but it’s also, unfortunately, far from Miyazaki’s strongest work.
Visually, it’s often beautiful, striking, and sometimes powerful. But the story, aimed not just at a younger audience but also one, it seems, too easily unsettled by mystery (thanks, possibly, to a heavy hand from whatever role Disney had in developing the film) is strangely didactic for Miyazaki. Its premise–that Ponyo, a magical fish who becomes a little girl, and Sosuke, the young boy who loves her, must prove their love worthy in order to restore the physical balance of the universe and yada, yada—is overexplained in conventional terms that uproot the film from a poetic world and transplant it into a literal one. It’s an uncomfortable fit for Miyazaki.
Why should the science of this mystery matter? But for some reason it does, and the onerous burden of explaining it to the audience traps Ponyo’s father, especially, in a two dimensional character, and robs him–and us–of feeling the emotional anguish of father-daughter separation which ought be a powerful, even central, component of Ponyo’s exciting and scary journey. Without this emotional weight, Ponyo’s father mainly comes off as fussy, and her running away from home seems too much a no-brainer. Why don’t all her fishy sisters get a clue and do the same?
Miyazaki and this film are is their best when the visual flights speak for themselves, and fortunately ‘Ponyo’ has opportunities for this too. The most compelling character in the film might be the ocean itself. Untamed by the script, it behaves like a great animal feeling its oats: majestic, beautiful, and dangerous. The havoc it wreaks on the human characters and their helpless boats and cars, and the spectacular, deadly play between them almost ends up mattering most in this movie. The filmmakers’ hearts are clearly in these magnificent scenes. The menace of beauty and danger of death come together in a rush, and the exquisite animation and drawings tug at, but don’t quite break, the confines of this drawn world. The physics of the water and, say, Sosuke’s mother struggling to drive her tiny car through it are both incorrect and, miraculously, more believable than if they were. This is where our hearts go out most to her character and predicament and—by extension—ours. It’s what Miyazaki does best.
on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:18 am 14.Michael said …
I’ll see the film this weekend, and I’m looking forward to it.
on 10 Aug 2009 at 10:07 am 15.daniel thomas macinnes said …
I’ll be importing the Japanese DVD very soon, because I want to share the movie with my girlfriend in Bogota. It will be interesting to see how the Disney dub differs from the original soundtrack, and if Ray’s observations on overexplaining the plot were originally there or not. As a general rule, the Disney dubs exact a flattening effect, especially on the DVDs – plot points are simplified, dialog is inserted to “explain” things (Whisper of the Heart), revelations are tossed away (Porco Rosso), uncomfortable cultural/religious references are buried (Pom Poko), and so on. The dubs for Spirited Away and Howl were excellent, but even then, there was a need to intrude, explain, and edit the script.
I’m looking forward to seeing Ponyo on the big screen. Studio Ghibli’s movies are made for that large canvas.
Oh, and just to calm everybody’s nerves, Disney has no role whatsoever in the development of Ghibli’s films. Miyazaki answers to no one, especially the Americans.