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Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away' Wins Best Animated Picture
DavidBrown writes "Moments ago, Hayao Miyazaki won the Best Animated Picture award for 'Spirited Away.' It's about time."
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Cripes, it was only minutes ago. I hope we don't hear every little detail before its done. :)
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features Chihiro interacting with a monkey called mono. great cartoon :^)
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Does this mean I'll have to start caring about the Oscars?
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I showed this movie to my whole family. Great flick and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching fantasy. The story is very good-hearted and the plot and fantasy aspects are amazing.
Some would compare it to Harry Potter, but really it's much more... intellectual.
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Let's see now if Disney makes good on its promise to re-release Spirited Away to theatres with equal backing as Lilo and Stich was given.
was the BEST movie that i saw in a long time. It had a wonderful story that appealed to adults and children. The cinematography was excellent as well. It too bad americans still make a distinction between animated movies and live action ones.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
But then again, Disney and Dreamworks put forth anything *that* good or *that* original.
Spirited away had originality and a nice fuzzy feeling with it too, with a sense of wonder too.
And it's gonna change the way the critics view anime from now on, too. I wonder if maybe they'll do "Best anime film..." Nah...
It isn't from Disney. Disney just dubbed it into English for the American audiences.
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Disney only distributes/markets Miyazaki/Ghibli's films here in the US.
Miyazaki has directed an unusually large number of very nice animated pieces, and Studio Ghibli is well known as delivering some of the highest quality films out there, live or animated. I hope that this may do something to bring more mainstream appreciation to animation as an adult story telling medium in the United States.
As a note, if anyone is interested in seeing a list of other films by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, they can look at nausicaa.net.
...The movie is coming out on Region 1 DVD April 15, 2003. Along with Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky.
Spirited Away was fighting against such notable animated features as "Treasure Planet."
In the field of drawn animation, Japan is a whole other ballgame.
Doing the Right Thing should not be preempted by making a buck.
It's exactly the details that make it wonderful.
As Kirosawa used to say...
Q: What's the message of your movie?
Kirosawa: If I could answer that, I would have printed it on a card and held it up in front of the camera.
See this movie. It's art, and it's very finely crafted. Truly a masterpiece.
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I had to drag and con my 4 kids into seeing this film. They'd never heard of it, or seen ads or anything and they really did not want to go, nor did my partner. In the end we went (I used a pointed stick :-) and they all absolutely loved it and went and told all their friends by which time they movie was pulled from all local cinemas. My daughter (10) especially loved the movie, as did my partner. Wonderful stuff!
pithy comment
At least, in my opinion. Miyazaki has done many, many films, and Spirited Away was actually one of my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, I still loved it, but anyone who liked Spirited Away really needs to see:
* Laputa - Castle in the Sky (Possibly the best anime ever)
* Girl From the Valley of the Wind
* Princess Mononoke
* Kiki's Delivery Service
* Porco Rosso (this one's just weird, but very good)
* My Neighbor Totoro
He's done plenty of others, but those are the best, IMHO.
I'd suggest getting the whole "Studio Ghibli Collection" from Anime on DVD.
Just my two cents...
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So let's get this straight. Spirited Away wins the Oscar, yet Disney didn't market this movie worth sh*t! I'm in a top 15 media market and all the ass clowns at Disney do is put it in a couple art houses.
Just FYI, here are some other awards Spirited Away won. Note that many are purely film awards, where Spirited Away beat out non-animated features:
- Best Film; 2001 Japanese Academy Awards
- Golden Bear (tied); 2002 Berlin International Film Festival
- Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Feature Production; 2002 Annie Awards
- Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production; 2002 Annie Awards
- Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production; 2002 Annie Awards
- Best Music in an Animated Feature Production; 2002 Annie Awards
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- Special Commendation for Achievement in Animation; 2002 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 Critics' Choice Awards
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 New York Film Critics Online Award
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 Florida Film Critics Circle
- Best Animated Feature; 2002 National Board of Review
- Best Original Score in the Category of Comedy or Musical; 78th Annual Glaubber Awards
- Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media; 7th Annual Golden Satellite Awards
- Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature; 45th San Francisco International Film Festival
- Special Mention from the Jury; 2002 Sitges Film Festival
- Best Asian Film; 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards
- Best Film (tied); Cinekid 2002 International Children's Film Festival
- Best Animated Feature; Online Film Critic Society
- Best Animated Feature; Dallas-Forth Worth Critics
- Best Animated Film; Phoenix Film Critics Society
- Best Family/Animation Trailer; Fourth Annual Golden Trailer Awards
- Award Winner, Film; 2003 Christopher Awards
List courtesy of Nausicaa.netNetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Nope, the US DVD lack the red tint. The storyboards extra on the second DVD is tinted, but not the main feature.
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Sig.
Sorry, I submitted this post, so I guess I'm responsible. It's significant not just because it's recognition of Hayao Miyazaki and his body of work (Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, Cagliostro's Castle, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, etc.), it's also an historic Hollywood recognition of Anime as an art form. This is the first time that any Anime has won an Oscar - and it was up against "Ice Age", a CG wonder, and two Disney films, "Treasure Planet" and "Lilo and Stitch".
It's also recognition that animated films don't have to be musicals for children in the Disney style.
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The weird thing about PM is the way Disney tried to "localise" the English version. Fortunately they didn't meddle with the story. But they hired a bunch of Name Actors to do the dubbing. Which was a waste of money, because none of the people they chose has a really distinctive voice!
Weirdest of all is hiring Neil Gaiman to "adapt" the script. God knows what that means. He didn't even make the obvious change: correcting the translators misnaming of various smoothbore weapons as "rifles".
Miramax hired one of the best writers alive today, Neil Gaiman, to do the American version of Mononoke Hime. He went to Japan, studied the language and culture, met prominent artists there, and did his damn best (and also teamed up with Yoshitaka Amano to make a wonderful companion book to The Sandman) to not only translate it, but make it sound just as good as the original version, and yet still seem as if his script were the original. Unfortunately(?), Disney used some of its own writers to dub Spirited Away, so it's most likely not up to the caliber of Princess Mononoke, but (knock on wood) they couldn't have screwed it up too bad, right?
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
My Japanese wife collects all of Miyazaki's movies. Spirited Away definitely deserved to win. If you enjoyed this one I highly recommend seeing his other movies as well. Interestingly, Spirited Away and Totoro (one of my all-time favourites) are the only ones I've seen either in English or subtitled, and I don't understand Japanese, but it hasn't detracted at all from my enjoyment of these movies. Basically, I just read an English summary of the movie on the Internet and then go enjoy. "Princess Mononoke" is incredible (but gory - not for young children) and you don't have to understand Japanese to enjoy it un-subtitled. "Castle In The Sky" is also great and is so vivid in it's animation you can "see" the words and intentions of the characters.
Any parents among you should introduce your child to "My Neighbour Totoro". This is by far my most favourite animated film ever and my 3 year-old daughter's as well. The magic in Miyazaki's story telling is just incredible.
For those who didn't watch: Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Treasure Planet.
I can only claim to have seen two of these, but I think I can say that "Lilo & Stitch" was the only worthwhile competition in this category. Still, it should rightly be considered remarkable that a dubbed foreign film won in this category, especially since Disney put almost no effort into promoting this film when it was released.
And on that note, it looks like Miyazaki's film "Castle in the Sky" will be released in the US on DVD at the same time as "Spirited Away", both of which should get a lot more attention from Disney now than they did last calendar year. Hey, whatever works....
Supposedly, someone at Disney claimed that they had already set aside a much larger advertising budget similar to that Lilo and Stitch got for a S.A. rerelease if it won the Oscars. Traditionally, films that win the Oscar take on new legs and get wider release after that: for instance, Life is Beautiful. The details are somewhere in the Nausicaa.net archives; I lack the time to dig them up now.
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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE: Adrien Brody THE PIANIST
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Chris Cooper ADAPTATION
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: Nicole Kidman THE HOURS
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Catherine Zeta-Jones CHICAGO
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: SPIRITED AWAY Hayao Miyazaki
ART DIRECTION: CHICAGO John Myhre (Art Direction); Gordon Sim (Set Decoration)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: ROAD TO PERDITION Conrad L. Hall
COSTUME DESIGN: CHICAGO Colleen Atwood
DIRECTING: THE PIANIST Roman Polanski
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE Michael Moore and Michael Donovan
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: TWIN TOWERS Bill Guttentag and Robert David Port
FILM EDITING: CHICAGO Martin Walsh
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: NOWHERE IN AFRICA Germany Directed by Caroline Link
MAKEUP: FRIDA John Jackson and Beatrice De Alba
MUSIC: (SCORE) FRIDA Elliot Goldenthal
MUSIC: (SONG) 8 MILE 'Lose Yourself'
Music by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto; Lyric by Eminem
BEST PICTURE: CHICAGO Martin Richards
SHORT FILM: (ANIMATED) THE CHUBBCHUBBS! Eric Armstrong
SHORT FILM: (LIVE ACTION) THIS CHARMING MAN (DER ER EN YNDIG MAND)
Martin Strange-Hansen and Mie Andreasen
SOUND: CHICAGO Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella and David Lee
SOUND EDITING: THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS Ethan Van der Ryn and Michael Hopkins
VISUAL EFFECTS: THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke
WRITING: (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY) THE PIANIST
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
WRITING: (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY) TALK TO HER
Written by Pedro Almodóvar
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It's too bad that I cannot find any *serious* comments about Spirited Away even here at Slashdot. It's not a simple animation film for children. Nor is it a fun movie for mature adults either.
The main point of the movie is how Western civilization *devastated* the Japanese people, especially in the form of capitalism. One funny (and tragic) reality addressed by the director is that Japanese are totally ignorant of the fact that they have lost their Japanese identity adopting capitalism and that the western people enslaved (I hate to use this word) Japanese people under the hierarchical structure of capitalism.
Notice that this film is overpainted with Japanese cultural artifacts everywhere. However, only Yubaba shows characteristics typical in the Western people. A big nose, flurry dress, and her big room with carpet and bonfire, to name a few. Her room is located on the very *top* of the building, dominating all other Japanese workers.
Haku symbolizes Japanese people who strived to learn the power from the Western civilization. He wanted to learn the *magic* from Yubaba, but what he actually experienced was that he had to lose his own name in order to do that. How Yubaba enslaved Haku? Haku himself had to *sign a contract* which forced him to *lose* his name.
So, what happened? The japanese lost their souls. The poor people who lost their identities do not have any virtues in their life other than to get more gold to be rich. The remaining value created from their priceless labor is *stored* as a form of gems in Yubaba's safe.
Why does Yubaba have a twin sister? It symbolizes director's view that the Western culture became a mutant from its origin. The _good_ western culture is the other twin Yubaba. Notice that Yubaba's sister also lives in a totally western environment. A small cottage, hand-cooked cake, tea, and so on. She, the original tradition of the western culture, is a person with bright rationaility.
Then what must Japanese do in order to destroy this terrible structure created by the evil Yubaba? Do they have to organize a revolution? Do they have to kill Yubaba?
Miyazaki Hayao's message is superior to that. Chihiro succeeds in finding and sympathizing with the common values appreciated both by Japanese people and Yubaba's sister. She symbolizes the young, future Japanese generations. From the sympathy and understanding of the *rational* Yubaba's twin sister, she proceeds on to the next stage of mutual understandings. She wakes up Haku, and he realizes his Japanese identity. After Chihiro came back to Yubaba, Yubaba is no longer her boss. She calls her name as "Oba-tsang", not as "Yubaba-sama", which can be translated into "grandmother" and "my boss Yubaba". She peacefully disarms Yubaba with her Japanese identity.
Overall, "Spirited Away" should be a movie that many Western people will get angry with (or be ashamed with); however, the great point of this movie is that it shows a way to solve this conflict peacefully, especially with the language of *rationality*, a concept which Western people are so accustomed to. It suggests a way that leads to the mutual understandings and the world peace. Here lies the greateness of this movie.
So, please, take this animation seriously. Although Yubaba's sister totally became friends with Chihiro, Yubaba refused to understand Chihiro to the end of the movie. The reason Yubaba released Chihiro and her parents is only because her contract with Yubaba became void. She is still ignorant of the terrible mistakes she inflicted on the Japanese people. I do not like to see Western people watching this movie continue to repeat this foolish mistake of Yubaba's in real world. Just by trying to remember Yubaba's twin sister, you will be able to sympathize _at least_ with the japanese people.
It's not so much that, but that it's an Oscar for Miyazaki. The guy spent at least 30 years directing anime, which for those of us in the know, extends well beyond just what came out under Disney. Here, to the best of my knowlege, is what he's done:
Lupin the Third (TV), during the 1970s.
Lupin the Third (movie) The Castle of Cagliostro (or to the retrogaming crowd, the base footage used in "Cliff Hanger").
Nausicaa (AKA: Warriors of the Wind), early 1980s.
Laputa: Late 80s.
My Neighbor Totoro: Late 80s.
Kiki's Messenger Service: Late 80s.
Porco Rosso: Early 90s
Those are just the ones I know of, before the Disney imports began. This is a man who has literally pushed the envelope in terms of both realism and storytelling in animation, moreso than what has been done by Disney in the last 20 years.
The fact is, there is a reason why Miyazaki is known as "The Japanese Disney". Because he exceeds the standard that we hold American animation directors to. Considering that Disney bought the rights to his work because Mononoke Hime (that's Princess Mononoke to those who still pronounce anime to rhyme "time") made over $100,000,000 in the Japanese box office.
So frankly, this is something that applies two ways in Slashdot terms: One, it's anime. Two, it's a direct slap in the face to DISNEY. I rest my case.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
It is important to mention that, whilst Ghibli accepted the award, nobody came to the ceremony to collect their Oscar.
Miyazaki is a well documented Marxist (look at Mirai Shounen Conan and the book it is based upon, The Incredible Tide, for proof), so I doubt he would attend an awards ceremony at a heart of American capitalism. Not to mention that he is hugely anti-war anyway.
Whilst he very much deserves the award, there are other more poltical agendas at work here.
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I'm not pissed off that he is against the war. First of all, his comments were inappropriate for the Academy Awards... it's not the time to get up on your soapbox. Second, to say that we live in "Fictious times" while there is a very real war going on is sickening. People are over in Iraq dying and he's ranting from his safe little place on stage in California. All he had to say was "Support our troops, bring them home."
Finally, what is really interesting is that he is against something whose end result might give the same freedom he just exercised to millions of people who haven't had that freedom in more than 24 years.
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