Slashdot Mirror
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."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
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.
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.
Best. Webhost. Ever. Dreamhost.
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...
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
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
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.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
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.
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.
jello.
aka aron.
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.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
... oh right, those towers"?
TWIN TOWERS
Did anybody else read this and think "since when was that a documentary
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
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.)