Ashwaq Hasan- Critical Essay2- HAYAO MIYAZAKI (Princess Mononoke)



Canon: The Boy in Future
 / عدنان ولينا



The animation TV series “Conan: The Boy in Future” (1978) which is a very known anime in the Middle East as (عدنان ولينا / Adnan wa Lena ) is one of the first’s animation work that was done by my hero and role model animation artist, the director HAYAO MIYAZAKI

.

       

Hayao Miyazaki

 

 Hayao Miyazaki is the most famous Japanese director of many anime feature films. He is the most influential animation director for all the animators in the world. He opened a new wave of the Japanese animation into the world. He writes, storyboard, draws, directs, and produces all of his works.

  He made movies that are masterpieces in the animation industry, which led Disney Company’s commitment to distribute his films to the rest of the world. He is loved and appreciated because of his high-quality works that draws people in it.
   




Studio Ghibli's Logo

Hayao Miyazaki was born in 1941 in Tokyo. In 1963, He started working as animator at the Toei Douga studio, where he involved in working in many early classics of Japanese animation. At his starting, he attracted many attentions regarding his incredible drawing ability and talent and his wild imaginations for movie ideas. Later on, he became the co-founder of the animation production company Ghibli (Sutajio Jiburi) where he produced and directed most of his successful and box office works. His works are Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo on a Cliff. Most of his movies are well known and awards winner, one of them and my favorite one is Princess Mononoke.
   

Princess Mononoke:
 Japanese theatrical release poster



Princess Mononoke is a masterpiece film that grossed more than $150 million at the Japanese box office in 1997. It was the most popular movie until Titanic appears. In 1999, it was released in United State of America and Disney's Miramax purchased U.S. distribution rights.

The film is an epic story that revolves around a princess and a worrier. Ashitaka is the worrier who falls under a deadly curse after killing a ramped demon boar-god. Then, in order to save his life from the curse and find about the demon spirit of the boar god, he starts his own journey alone to the west. There he finds himself in the middle of battle between the humans and the forest’s god animals. The humans are under the control of lady Eboshi who develops guns to kill the forest’s gods, and the forest is under the princess San who is a girl that was raised by wolves.

 

It is a classic once upon time story, a story about human verse nature, nature verse human, human verse human, and nature verse nature. In this film, no one is really evil and no one is really good, everybody is a human being. The film gives all the creatures a real physical manifestation such as the forest, animal, and spiritual beliefs. Everything is done dramatically and creatively that let the viewers to forget that it is an anime film and draws them in it. It is like a whole new unforgettable experience because of the great imagination of Miyazaki and breath taking story.

 

Princess Mononoke; Internation poster



About this film, I will talk about the drawing style aspect since I am seeking to develop my drawing style through studying others’ drawing style. Miyazaki is known for his beautiful illustration and drawing abilities that seems so real and natural. In Princess Mononoke movie, he drew all the cells by himself which is a total of 144,000 cells. Mostly, everything was done by hand and through traditional anime technique. However, Princess Mononoke film was the first film for Miyazaki to use computer-generated image. The characters were done by hand, frame by frame; the backgrounds and foregrounds also. Everything was painted traditionally by oil paintings. The computer images were added later on the hand drawing frames which were a small portion of the film. Miyazaki till now still prefers to use hand drawing over computer drawing in his movies and his latest released was Ponyo (2009) was done completely by hand. As for me as an artist, drawing by hand is something can drive a person crazy to do it for feature film length. It needs patience, great focus and real drawing abilities.

In the movie, sometimes I got lost with the story because of the beautiful details in each frame. He captures the movement of the objects and imitates it so realistically, especially the human body’s movements. For example, he emphasizes the hair’s movement, shivering, and breathing when the character is scared or fighting or in any intense situation. He makes the character comes alive and more than a just flat 2D image. For me, I can call him the king of the 2D image. Reviewer of the film Princess Mononoke Anthony Leong says in his review, “Like all of Miyazaki's work, the animation is pristine and often breathtaking, particularly the sharply realized action sequences. The care and attention to detail that Miyazaki's pays to each animated cell is the result of the master animator single-handedly drawing every single frame in the film. Those who believe that only the workshops at Disney can create vivid landscapes and dynamic characters with a paintbrush should certainly see the artistry at work here.” (“Princess”)

 

Spirited Away International Poster



 Another masterpiece, an Oscar winner film and other international awards is the animation feature film Spirited Away (2001). Spirited Away is a Japanese fantasy film done by Miyazaki and beat Titanic in Japan. This film is about ten-year-old girl and her adventure at the spiritual and magical world. Spirited Away is one of the greatest animation films in the history of Japanese animation films

Finally, Hayao Miyazaki’s works are a real inspiration for any animator or anime fans. I really admire his works and efforts to produce a high quality animation films and respect him as a person. His works are real art and science as well. It pleasures the eyes by its visual image and the minds by its brilliant and original stories. And I wish to meet Hayao Miyazaki and be able to produce my own animation feature film one day.

Work Cited

Leong, Anthony. “Princess Mononoke Movie Review”, MediaCircus 1990. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. < http://www.mediacircus.net/princessmononoke.html>

“Critical Essay of Hayao Miyazaki”, The Student Pages of Aaron Malcolm. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. < http://students.ou.edu/M/Aaron.W.Malcolm-1/index.html>

“Ghibli 101: Past, Present, and Future of Studio Ghibli”, The Hayao Miyazaki Web. Web. 14 Nov. 2010 < http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/ghibli/ghibli101.html>

“Hayao Miyazaki Biography”, The Internet Movie Database 1990-2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/bio>

Photos are from Google.com