Miyazaki - "Animation needs the pencil."

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Miyazaki - “Animation Needs The Pencil”Maiku_Ando | September 1, 2008 @ 10:32 am · Filed under Anime

Hayao Miyazaki-san said at a press conference on Sunday that he intends to keep his work hand drawn for as long as he can, and that he believes that CGI and computer animation can sometimes be used too much.

“I think animation is something that needs the pencil, needs man’s drawing hand, and that is why I decided to do this work in this way,”

“Currently computer graphics are of course used a great deal and, as I’ve said before, this use can at times be excessive,”

“I will continue to use my pencil as long as I can.”

This was while speaking about his latest work, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” during the press conference at the Venice Film festival on Sunday.

You can read the full article on the link below, but for one I am glad he intends to keep to the hand drawn style, for me, the original hand drawn animation gives a much better feel and really shows the hard work and talent which has gone into each character and feature, with CG, characters can appear much colder, and just don’t have the same appeal as the original art work can. Thats not to say CG doesn’t have its benefits, but I believe theres just no substitute for the time and effort put into hand drawn animation.

Quote and story from the News article on Yahoo at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080901/tot-uk-film-venice-miyazaki-566e283.html

Via:
http://blog.fansub.tv/maikuando/2008/09/01/miyazaki-animation-needs-the-pencil/

I must say I agree. Not only are Miyazaki together with Isao Takahata the gods of animation, but here Miyazaki is so right. CG is pretty and all but handdrawn has to be the most worthwhile. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea will be really cool, can't wait for it to come out on R2 NTSC DVD. :)
 
Miyazaki is one of the great modern masters of animation. Frankly there just aren't that many artists or production studios who are willing to invest in hand drawn animation, especially when the revenues are stacked so much in favour of CGI.

But Miyazaki's last film Castle in the Sky was a disappointing mess, despite the wonderful animation. I hope this next one is a comeback to form for him.
 
cerebus said:
Miyazaki is one of the great modern masters of animation. Frankly there just aren't that many artists or production studios who are willing to invest in hand drawn animation, especially when the revenues are stacked so much in favour of CGI.

But Miyazaki's last film Castle in the Sky was a disappointing mess, despite the wonderful animation. I hope this next one is a comeback to form for him.
Click to expand...

'Laputa - Castle in the Sky' is very old film of Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki.
It most certainly isn't his last.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/laputa/
That movie was incredibly popular in Japan and in the West (in the
areas it was shown when it first came out) and even now DVD
versions of this movie have been translated into over a dozen languages.
You can read about Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki on www.nausicaa.net

Maybe you meant the last movie of Studio Ghibli's - ie
Tales from the Earthsea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Earthsea_(film)
While this film is not as good as the other Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata
films, its still decent. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Goro.

You should also remember that Miyazaki's movies are no 1 animated
films in Japan and more and more surrounding Asian countries are starting to agree.
The West outside of festivals, was slow to take off on the Miyazaki bandwagon because
Disney licenced his films and then refused to release them or show them in
theatres in order to avoid competition with their own Alladin/Beauty and the Beast/Little Mermaid
etc.

Certainly Studio Ghibli films (by both Miyazaki and Takhata) are
superior not only in drawing style but have rich stories and deep psychology.
Read Roger Ebert's review of Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies, the best Ghibli movie
(arguably):
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000319/REVIEWS08/3190301/1023

In contrast Western films by Disney and Pixxar are nothing but computer eye candy. Watch once and forget, while Studio Ghibli can be rewatched many times and each time you'll notice something new or be amazed by the
characterisation, script, cinematography and animation.

Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, Howl's Moving Castle,
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/howl/
uses the English voice of Billy Cristol :)
and he's funnier than any cynical character in any Pixxar flic.
 
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Sorry I meant Howl's Moving Castle, my mistakem got confused. Yes I didn't enjoy that so much (though Billy Crystal was good). Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away - those are real classics of modern animation. I felt he had lost his touch a bit with the storyline in HMC.
 
cerebus said:
Sorry I meant Howl's Moving Castle, my mistakem got confused. Yes I didn't enjoy that so much (though Billy Crystal was good). Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away - those are real classics of modern animation. I felt he had lost his touch a bit with the storyline in HMC.
Click to expand...

Howl's Moving Castle is based on a Western Novel. Maybe that's why its different while virtually every other previous film has been written by Miyazaki/Takahata, or is based on Japanese folklore. Maybe that's why you didn't enjoy it as much.

I enjoy Japanese movies based on their own folklore but I hate Ninja/warrior flics/samurai movies except for Kurosawa. The association between Japan and Ninjas/Samurai is just so fixed in Western minds that seeing anything else
is a breath of fresh air. Wathing Shunji Iwai's live action films like Lili-Cho-Cho which deals with school bullying, teen prostitution and suicide was for
example fresh air, as were other similar films such as Gaichu (Insect) (a
film available only in Japan, about how uncaring adult world and loneliness of childhood), Eureka (which won at Cannes) and is a film
about the destruction of everyday life by violent trauma and Nobody Knows which also won a Cannes award for the best actor and deals with the desperation of children in a world which doesn't care about them, with tragic consequences.

Japanese cinema is definately more than horror, ninja flics and big robot anime shows.
 
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Well, I just felt it was inferior to some of his other work. I don't think I have so many preconceptions about Japanese cinema. I don't follow it so closely. I just admire the work of Miyazaki very much; I consider him one of the living masters of cinema.

But I don't think I was the only one with that opinion about Howl's Moving Castle. Metacritic gives it an 80 compared to Spirited Away's 94. The animation was of course stunning but the storyline blundered, especially towards the end. It certainly wasn't a breath of fresh air. And I felt that it was beginning to become too apparent that he only has a limited repertoire of storylines at his disposal. His themes are wearing a bit too thinly.
 
cerebus said:
Well, I just felt it was inferior to some of his other work. I don't think I have so many preconceptions about Japanese cinema. I don't follow it so closely. I just admire the work of Miyazaki very much; I consider him one of the living masters of cinema.

But I don't think I was the only one with that opinion about Howl's Moving Castle. Metacritic gives it an 80 compared to Spirited Away's 94. The animation was of course stunning but the storyline blundered, especially towards the end. It certainly wasn't a breath of fresh air. And I felt that it was beginning to become too apparent that he only has a limited repertoire of storylines at his disposal. His themes are wearing a bit too thinly.
Click to expand...

Umm yeah. Well like I said, the book that Howl's is based on is Western
as is the Tales of the Earthsea series which the latest Studio Ghibli
anime is based on. Maybe if they went back and dug up some
of their own Japanese folklore they could make better stories.
 
eh, I guess it's a matter of opinion in the end. Go watch the last 45 minutes again - do you not feel that he lost his grip on the plot structure? Really I wouldn't get too hung up on the Western/Eastern source thing. I will definitely watch Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea when it is released here in South Africa....so perhaps never then.

*sigh*
 
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cerebus said:
eh, I guess it's a matter of opinion in the end. Go watch the last 45 minutes again - do you not feel that he lost his grip on the plot structure? Really I wouldn't get too hung up on the Western/Eastern source thing. I will definitely watch Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea when it is released here in South Africa....so perhaps never then.

*sigh*
Click to expand...

I'd say Western vs Japanese which is quite unique to overall Eastern.
Even Western is variable. If we talk Eastern, is it Chinese, or
Korean or Tibetan etc?

If you look at their older animes, they are Japanese in origin,
Totoro, Mononoke, Spirited Away etc. Latter releases are
mostly English/US stories. Seeing as the target audience
is Japanese, they will probably stick with something more
mainstream and keep going Western, as long as they
keep ninjas out of it, it'll be good.
 
oh I just noticed that you said the latest is from Tales From Earthsea. I know those books. Ursula Le Guin...I think I read them. That's a very unexpected source for them to be adapting from.
 
cerebus said:
oh I just noticed that you said the latest is from Tales From Earthsea. I know those books. Ursula Le Guin...I think I read them. That's a very unexpected source for them to be adapting from.
Click to expand...

Directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao's son. The author was under the impression that the elder Miyazaki would direct but it turned out to be Goro.

The movie is GOOD IMO, but not as good as the other Miyazaki films.

The film still did well in Japan: Wikipedia.
"The film reached No.1 at the Japanese Box Office on its opening week with a gross of over 900 million yen, or approximately 7.7 million USD,[8] pushing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to second place and became the number one movie in the country for five weeks,[9] until it was pushed out of the top spot when X-Men: The Last Stand was released.[10] The movie went on to be the #4 top grossing movie for the year in Japan."

As was the case with the earlier Studio Ghibli releases, copyrights
are delaying the US release of this film. Sci-Fi has the TV rights
for a series - so the earliers this movie can be shown in the US
is 2009.

The film is available on Region 2 NTSC (Japanese domestic
release with Eng subtitles and audio) and recently in UK Region 2 PAL
and Region 4 PAL Australia.
 
I see, but Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea seems to be written/directed by Hayao the elder. Looks promising. Have you seen it yet?
 
I guess to each his one(as seems to be the rule in all things), but i find Mizayki's persistence in drawing his animations quite stupid.Besides which they(his drawings) are becoming very predictable and boring.

Don't get me wrong, stuff like Nausicca and Monoke were great, but as a truly creative artist, he shouldn't categorically cut himself off from the new possibilities.

As it is tho, it seems all too much like a gesture to preserve the "old guard", commonly reffered to as tradition.
 
I disagree. He does things with pencil that could never be accomplished with computer animation - unless it was tailored to look like pencil. The hand-drawn artwork infuses a kind of life into his animation. Even though I thought he missed the mark with HMC, nevertheless the artwork was miles beyond for instance Pixar's films.
 
pos(t)er said:
I guess to each his one(as seems to be the rule in all things), but i find Mizayki's persistence in drawing his animations quite stupid.Besides which they(his drawings) are becoming very predictable and boring.

Don't get me wrong, stuff like Nausicca and Monoke were great, but as a truly creative artist, he shouldn't categorically cut himself off from the new possibilities.

As it is tho, it seems all too much like a gesture to preserve the "old guard", commonly reffered to as tradition.
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstand Japanese culture. The drawings are of a different style and with different emphasis to typical Western animation. Hence you call it 'stupid' and 'predictable'. Thankfully your opinion is not the one which counts or we wouldn't see these masterpieces in the West or on DVD.

All of Miyazaki's works are great, and each one is unique. I'm not sure if you've seen them all but there are a dozen Miyazaki/Takahata films
out there, and while some are better than others they all need
an ounce of thought over and above the typical Disney/Pixar drivel
which IMO is all from the same cannon - same animated cynicism and
BS just with high end Sillicon Graphics workstations. If anything Disney is predictable
because we know to expect animated Hollywood, with Miyazaki we're getting
a Japanese view of things from this great director.
 
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I'm not comparing it to Disney, tho.That would be absurd.

CGI when done badly is disgusting, but when your able to gain the amount of realism seen in something like Beowulf, there' no exscuse not to use it.

The reson Miyzaki doesn't want to use it, is to my mind because he tries to create a Romantic atmosphere and a certain naive simplicity in his work.

Which is fine and good.I question his refusal to move from that way of doing things, even if only for one movie.

Look at some1 like Spielberg who mostly does these blockbuster adventure movies, but has also done stuff like Schindler's List, which is unrecognisable to those.

As for drawing in Japanese culture, indeed it is very popular and important, but as we all know they love technology just as much.
 
Yet I've never seen a CGI movie - including the best of Pixar - that manages to convey with its artwork the atmosphere and sense of artisanship of a great Miyazaki film.

For that matter even some of the earlier Disney masterpieces like The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations and Bambi accomplished something with traditional pen animation that CGI still can't do.
 
Well that's a personal opinion.

As i've indidcated both have different roles:

Romaticism(Miyazaki)

Realism(CGI like Beowulf)

by refusing to go CGI, Miyzaki is basically saying"I'm a Romantic, so there."
 
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