Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea

Totoro101 · Movie Executive Producer

Yep i saw this over in japan on many posters and such and that does look like Yukie Nakama ^-^.Im looking forward to this immensly and will be buying it as soon as it comes available.It actually looked quite dull when i saw a trailer of it in the cinemas there.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

A review of this new film has surfaced online:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20080711a1.html

Totoro101 · Movie Executive Producer

Im not going to read that.Im going to wait until it comes out or ill buy it over there on dvd when im bck there in december.My friends all think its quite good so ill trust there words,lets hope its better then tales of earthsea anyway ;).

Man In Black · Anime Mod

There are no spoilers in that review Totty, just a synopsis.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

GhbiliWorld.com has an interview with Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii who share his thoughts on Ponyoamong other issue:

12th of August, GHIBLI ASEMAMIRE 45 WITH OSHII MAMORU

This weeks guest was director Oshii Mamoru. He created an outspoken talk about Ponyo, as having a long friendship with Miya-san and Suzuki enables him to tell anything he thinks of.

"That movie doesnt have any theme and structure. It is just the result from Miya-san's delusion. There is no inevitability in the story development. For example, why does Risa take such a risk coming back home from Himawari-no-ie in the storm? After she comes home, she again returns to Himawari-no-ie. She could have stayed with Sosuke. There is no reason in her behavior." Suzuki replied, "Maybe it is needed for Ponyo to meet Sosuke again." Oshii disagrees, "That is nonsense. Audiences never accept a story that does not show any rationality. Still, every single scene was interesting. The first 10 minutes are amazing. That jellyfish scene is really fantastic. The reason why we can somehow watch the movie till the end is just because of its excellent expressiveness during every single scene." Suzuki didn't make an effective rebuttal on him.

Oshiis The Sky Crawlers, which like Ponyo is also going to be screened at Venice, was also discussed. Suzuki told, "It was interesting. I felt it contained a lot less dialogues than what your films usually contain. And the characters were lacking facial expression as well." Oshii, "That is just because I intended so." Suzuki, "Before the cuts change the characters speak their dialogue and show some small gestures. Like touching their hair. How would the movie have been, if you had removed all of these gestures?" Oshii "Nothing would have been left. Telling a story, the effect of a small gesture and the presence of silence can be found in Japanese traditional plays like Nou or Joruri. I intended it that way." (note: Nou is a kind of traditional masque play from 500 years ago, Joruri is a traditional puppet theater from 300 years ago).

"The characters that are on the ground are depicted by 2D, while the air battle scenes are depicted by 3D-CG. What did you intend?". Oshii replies, "This has a simple reason. No animator can draw fighter planes or moving clouds by hand now. Generally, we can't choose hand drawn animation if we want to keep preserving quality. If it's so, I should have taken CG positively. In the air scenes, the pilots wearing helmets were drawn on cels and later on added to the CG. The taste of keeping the pilots hand-drawn filled the airplanes with soul. However, I believe none will try that way again. It takes so much time and effort. Maybe the mass media will admire Miya-san's try on insisting to use hand-drawn animation as a kind of touching tale, but I doubt it will. We cannot rely on high quality hand drawn animation anymore. At least not for theatrical features. For mass-produced anime TV series they dont even care about its quality (note: most of them are outsourced to other Asian countries)."

(note: honestly, Oshiis clever talk is very interesting, though it is hard to transfer all the nuances into this summary)

Oshii, "Indeed Ponyo shows the appeal of handling skills. Even if CG could have showed the jellyfish scene more realistically than how it was done in Ponyo, it can never show the taste we can enjoy due to the handling skill of Ponyo. However, hand drawn animation is a kind of craftwork. Craftwork cannot be mass-produced, because it takes a lot of time and sacrifices to grow skilled craftsmen. Behind one skilled craftsman growing up, lots of young talents are dumped into the dustbin. About 20 of the very skilled animators that have supported the high quality of Japanese hand drawn animation are already in their 40s now." Suzuki, "No. They are over 50." Oshii, "We don't see any skilled animators after them." Suzuki, "Haven't you cultivated any young animators at Production IG?" Oshii, "Yes, I tried. But the ones having that kind of level haven't appeared." Suzuki, "That is why we are planning to make another try to cultivate young animators at Nishi Ghibli" (note: Western Ghibli, Studio Ghiblis training center in Toyota)

Suzuki, "When we were young, the anime industry was rising and lots of young people rushed in. That was something from which many skilled talents grown. It was the same in each kind of business." (note: this was during the baby boom after WW2). Oshii, "Indeed, many peopled rushed towards the anime industry as if there weren't any recruitments. However, there was another point of view. They didn't have any place of employment. I was in the same position. I wanted to work in the movie industry, though I couldn't find any work and was finally forced to an animation studio. In that age I found that business allowed us to try everything we wanted to do. Due to the luck of that age, many skilled animators were grown during that time. I don't think it is possible to recover the bad situation artificially." Suzuki, "From a historical point of view that is usually true." Oshii, "However, if there is demand and the will to make anime movies, we should apply using CG."

Totoro101 · Movie Executive Producer

Nice read mib.My gf and friends have all seen Ponyo recently and found it to be excellent,it might actually be out on dvd when im back there so ill probably do what i always do with Ghibili movies and buy the special limited edition huge box set of it to go with all my others :).

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Yeah yeah, rub it in....

Man In Black · Anime Mod

AnimeUKnews has the scoop on the UK release date of this film from the Venice Film festival :

During the film festival, the BBC were profiling the films and directors in attendance, including an interview with the legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki; an article which reveals in-passing that 'Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea' "will be released in the UK in April next year" (2009).

No information was provided as to who the distributor may be, though Optimum Releasing with their history of releasing Studio Ghibli movies in the UK are no doubt favourites.