30th of November, A NEPPU INTERVIEW WITH MIYAZAKI HAYAO

Good news from our friends at NHK. After their Professional special on Suzuki Toshio, now Professional Shigoto no Ryugi Special - All about Miyazaki Hayao and the Birth of Ponyo in 300 Days will also receive a release. Starting January 23 the behind-the-scenes look at Miyazaki and Ponyo will be available on DVD in shops all over Japan. Pre-orders are open at Amazon.co.jp.



30th of November, A NEPPU INTERVIEW WITH MIYAZAKI HAYAO: The November edition of Studio Ghibli’s monthly report magazine Neppu features a highly interesting interview with Miyazaki Hayao in which he talks about the latest Ghibli Museum Library addition: 1954’s animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm (動物農場). One of the strengths of the interview is that it not only reveals the studio’s reason for re-releasing the film a half a century after its production, but that it also is very well able to portrait Miyazaki’s thoughts and explore his opinion on Marxcism, socialism and his labor union work. That being already a prime opportunity for Japanese fans, GhibliWorld.com would like to share it with the Japanese-impaired as well and so a summary follows below.

Question: What was your first memory of Animal Farm?

Miyazaki: The reason why I remember Animal Farm is because I read a book which Halas and Batchelor wrote about animation technique: The Technique of Film Animation written by John Halas and Roger Manvell. When I began working in the animation industry back in 1963, there were only a few books about animation techniques, like this and a Russian one. The Russian one was not so useful, but I can only remember one lesson "The one that is interesting in linguistically isn't always interesting visually".

J&H's book was very thick and told about their experiences on filming, sakuga and various techniques. In it, there is a phrase, "Those who try to make a feature length animation surely feel a sense of cultivating a waste land that was never plowed before." They really must have felt such a sense, because they wrote this book just after they made Animal Farm. The film terribly failed in business.

source : Ghibliworld.com