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."

Comments

Lake-berating news?

[the uNF cola]

Cripes, it was only minutes ago. I hope we don't hear every little detail before its done. :)

interesting fact maybe?

[Miguel de Icaza]

features Chihiro interacting with a monkey called mono. great cartoon :^)

Right On!

[itistoday]

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.

Theatrical run

[Sarauble]

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.

Re:Theatrical run

[Sparks23]

Whisper of the Heart was directed by Yoshifumi Kondou, who was considered by many to be Miyazaki's protege and eventual successor. After Kondou's amazing work on his directorial debut (Whisper), Miyazaki planned to retire and turn over the helm to Kondou.

Tragically, Kondou died in January 1998 of an aneurysm, never having a chance to direct a second film.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/kondo/

spirited away

[minus_273]

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.

It's so damn good...

[Peterus7]

To see an anime finally get best animated picture!

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...

Re:It's so damn good...

[lunatik17]

Disney didn't dub Spirited Away, John Lasseter from Pixar was in charge of that.

Re:Anime?

[itistoday]

It isn't from Disney. Disney just dubbed it into English for the American audiences.

Re:Anime?

[Crescens]

Disney only distributes/markets Miyazaki/Ghibli's films here in the US.

A very enjoyable piece...

[Zergwyn]

I am very pleased that Spirited Away has recieved the recognition it deserved. I was fortunate enough to be able to see it on the big screen, and both the animation and the story were very pleasant. Spirited Away is one of the rare films that I could take a bunch of kids to watch, yet still enjoy the movie myself, because the story can be appreciated on a number of levels.

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.

And for those who haven't seen it....

[MtViewGuy]

...The movie is coming out on Region 1 DVD April 15, 2003. Along with Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky.

There was competition?

[lavalyn]

Spirited Away was fighting against such notable animated features as "Treasure Planet."

In the field of drawn animation, Japan is a whole other ballgame.

Re:Great movie.

[grumpygrodyguy]

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.

Great movie - shame about the marketing

[Michael Snoswell]

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!

Re:Great movie - shame about the marketing

[kaworu-sama]

Exactly. I wish these american marketing people would realize there is a real market for widely-appealing anime such as this, and not just to hardcore otaku. If feature-film anime had serious marketing in america, maybe everyone would realize its not just "one of them there japanese cartoons". Maybe miyazaki's next hit movie will have a better reception here.

Interestingly, not really his best...

[Dimwit]

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...

Re:It's odd

[Mononoke]

Why, when I see any white speaking Japanese, watching "anime," wallowing in pseudo-Japanese culture, or wishing he were Japanese, do I immedately think "lives in his parents' basement with a career at the local Blockbuster"?

Why, when I see any boy speaking l33t, watching Sci-Fi, wallowing in gamer culture, or wishing he were a hacker, do I immedately think "lives in his parents' basement with a career at the local CompUSA"?

Ironic the Disney didn't market this movie at all

[Kagato]

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.

Re:Good news

[Mononoke]

When an anime movie wins best foreign language move wake me up.

It could happen. Of course, the academy created the Animated Feature Award expressly to keep from 'diluting' their other categories with animation.

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.net

Re:What!!!

[DavidBrown]

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.

Princess better than Spirited? Not to me.

[fm6]

Princess Mononoke is the only other Miyazaki film I've seen. I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away like Spirited Away. The latter impressed me with its elaborate art, its overall beauty, and it's thorough sense of place. (The last was really striking, for an animated movie. Most live action movies don't do such a good job creating an illusion of place, despite having a fundamental advantage!) PM had these things too, but less so. And it was more preachy, less focused. I mean the title character didn't even have a central role!

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".

Re:Princess better than Spirited? Not to me.

[aronc]

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".

Being a huge fan of both Gaiman and Miyazaki I can shed some light here. Much of the script for the film (and any film really) has to be changed for a dub. Jokes, word-play, historical references, and the like usually have to be either somehow explained (with added exposition) or modified to similar item in the new language. That sort of thing is what Gaiman did. They used him in particular so he could help maintain the mythic feel and tone the movie had.

So essentially what happened was a few professional translators went through the film and did the literal word-for-word translation of the whole thing. Then they sat down with Gaiman (plus Gaiman did a lot of research on his own) and walked through it all and converted that into an english script that was both comprehensible to an american and stayed true to the original vision. As for calling the muskets/blunderbusses rifles, that was Disney's call. They had final editorial control and for some reason were adamant about calling the things rifles. Gaiman actually mentioned this in particular in his blog as one of the things he was confused by/unsatisfied with, believe it or not. There's more detail to be had if you search in his archives here.

Dubbing

[Draconix]

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?

All his movies deserve an Oscar

[forgetmenot]

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.

The competition

[mblase]

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....

Re:Ironic the Disney didn't market this movie at a

[Robotech_Master]

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.

Winners List

[marvy666]

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

Re:Winners List

[Space Coyote]

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
TWIN TOWERS

Did anybody else read this and think "since when was that a documentary ... oh right, those towers"?

Re:Michael Moore Nominated Biggest UnAmerican

[TheShadow]

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.

Re:Get serious, please.

[mumblestheclown]

What a load of psudo-intellectual crappetty-crap-crap crap.

You are taking a basic, generic thesis--the capitalist west encroaches on some native populace, seduces it, which causes it to lose its soul. Sure, this is a common story that can be applied to many places throughout the world.

But not here.

Perhaps more than any other country that I know Japan has done a credible job of managing a harmonious coexistance of traditional culture with an international one. Notions that the west introduced capitalism to japan is bullshit. While arguably democracy (or something close enough to it) didn't come to japan until after the war, Japan developed a parallel capitalist culture along the lines of that of western europe regardless of the dutch, perry, or whoever else you want to point to.

The japanese have famously "embraced and extended" outside technologies, but have not done it at the expense of their cultural soul as, say, Shanghai or Jakarta is in the process of doing. Japanese culture is alive and well, and we have no particular need to sympathize with the Japanese for the reasons you suggest. The movie might be interpreted as a reminder to japanese to be mindful of the importance of traditional values, but your suggestion that it is an apt allegory for the japanese condition as pitiful victim of the west is absolute and total nonsense.

(disclaimer: 10 years lived in japan, saw movie in both languages, etc.)