Can Hayao Miyazaki Save Disney's Soul?

IronicGrin writes "Even hard-core House of Mouse apologists have to admit that Disney's Feature Animation division has lost its way. After a half decade of pathetic failures (Atlantis) and epic disasters (Treasure Planet), the company shut its fabled Orlando 2D animation studios last year and announced that it was jumping on the computer animation bandwagon. A big motivation for the move to CGI was, of course, the Magic Kingdom's tenuous relationship with Pixar--the source of all of Disney's recent animated hits. But Disney is overlooking a better example of just what its toon team has been doing wrong...right under its nose. Howl's Moving Castle, which opened this weekend to rapturous critical acclaim, is the third masterpiece from Japan's Studio Ghibli that Disney has released theatrically. Today's New York Times has a feature by A.O. Scott [reg required, blah blah] calling Miyazaki the "world's greatest living animated-filmmaker"; meanwhile, last Thursday, I wrote a column for SFGate.com on why Disney animation, 3D rendered or not, is doomed to irrelevance if it fails to (re)learn some basic lessons from Miyazaki and his cohorts at Ghibli. What do you think? Is Disney destined to fade to black, or can a little Ghibli flavor (mmm....Ghibli) get it back on track?"

Comments

Management

[May Kasahara]

Disney has to ditch the current management in Feature Animation before it can go anywhere-- the bean counters who are more likely to follow others' trends than to create their own (remember when Disney was the animation trendsetter?). There are still a couple of good creative types at the studio (such as Chris Sanders, who directed the quirky Lilo and Stitch), but such creatives also need management who cares about and understands animation. It's no surprise that Pixar, and not Disney, is Ghibli's biggest cheerleader in the states :P

PS: Here's an excellent series of articles about what went wrong with Disney feature animation.

Re:Management

[TheoMurpse]

It's no surprise that Pixar, and not Disney, is Ghibli's biggest cheerleader in the states

I can tell you, the respect goes both ways, too. I was at the Ghibli Museum in Japan last semester on a trip with my classmates, and they had one of the areas of the museum dedicated to Pixar, with tons of sketches, figures, models, etc. It was amazing and inspiring to see two animation houses in separate countries share their art with each other.

Meh, they will just abuse this relationship

[antifoidulus]

just like they abused their relationship with Pixar. IIRC, the announcement that they were closing their 2d animation studio came right before Pixar announced that after their current contract was up they would be bolting from Disney? Why? Because that asshat Eisner assumed that Disney was invincible and Pixar would come crawling to Disney no matter how much they were abused.
I still don't think Disney learned their lesson. Eisner didn't have one creative bone in his body, all he did was bleed dry whatever he could(and took a lions share of cash for himself) while Disney's main properties languished. I suspect the same will go for this relationship.

I think maybe, no.

[dangerz]

It's sad to see the state that Disney is in. My fiance is an animator, so we've had our fair number of trips down to Orlando. She knows a number of animators, most of which have been fired.

A lot of the animators have started up their own studios though. I think Firefly Studios is one? Regardless, I think the Disney that Walt had imagined is long gone and far from coming back. They need to stop pumping out sequels and start creating movies with good stories.

It doesn't matter what medium the movie is delivered in; it's the story that delivers.

Re:Solution: don't focus on blockbuster/masterpiec

[Overzeetop]

Setting aside the fact tht TS and FN were not, properly, Disney films, I don't think that the hits are the problem. Someone at Disney has given up on animation. There have been pretty good films (not ohmygodgottaseeita100times good), and the young audience doesn't really care that much about the nuances of story line.

The best example recently is the Heffalump movie. It's a little-kid movie, not the traditional epic, but its great for little kids (I'd say under 5, maybe up to 7 or 8 depending on the child). We saw it with my 2 year old in the theater. When it came out on DVD, we got it. So, if you were head of marketing, and you had a fairly big DVD release, how would you handle the marchandising? Lots of Roo and Lumpy stuffed animals, right? Midshare, get the kids playing with them. Give them something tangible to reinforce the whole Pooh franchise, right?

WRONG! Not only do most of the retail outlets have nothing in the Pooh line except - maybe - a stuffed Pooh bear that isn't tied to the release at all, but even the freakin' Disney Store online doesn't have a Lumpy. None. Nada. Zilch. Now, they did have two Lumpys in the local Disney Store . And those were left over from the shipment after the theatrical release, when the original (meager) shipment of Lumpy and Roo sold out in about a day and a half. Flew off the shelves, according to the DS worker.

No, in my opinion somebody at the top has purposely set the 2D animations up to fail.

Re:"Howl's Moving Castle" ruined with dubbing

[Masami Eiri]

Disney's contract with Ghibli requires them to not edit it. Localization in the dub is allowed, as long as the story doesn't take a big hit, but nothing else.
Rumor is, Miyazaki even sent them a genuine katana with a note to that effect attached to drive the point home.

Re:Will Anime last?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up...

This is exactly right. Ghibli movies are not good because they are anime. They are good in their own right and they just happen, as animation produced in Japan, to fall under the label of "anime".

Don't get me wrong. I watch a fair amount of anime. In fact, I'd even go so far to label myself an anime fan. But the simple fact is that 95% of the anime that gets produced is dreadful. And, believe me, I'm including an awful lot of the popular stuff in that assessment. For every Evangelion, Noir, Excel Saga or Mononoke-hime, there's at least a dozen formulaic "big robots hitting each other" shows, Pokemon clones, Dragonball clones and insanely-insulting-to-the-intelligence precisely-pitched-at-the-desperate-fanboy-market "Love Hina" style harem shows. Oh, and most of it *is* for kids.

In short, anime is like pretty much any other genre. A few titles which really stand out in the mind and endure, set against a sea of tripe. Not so different from the broader TV and cinema output of the US or the UK, really.

Right now, Miyazaki is one of the most talented people making "family" movies. In fact, Studio Ghibli and Pixar are basically the only people in the world making animation that's entertaining for both children and adults. That's the real story here.

As for Disney's woes, its animation division desperately needs to break out of its tired formula for mass producing identikit movies. Can we PLEASE get lead characters who aren't wisecracking late-teens-early-twentysomethings. In fact, while I'm on that particular rant, I'll address it to the anime industry (excluding Ghibli and one or two others) as well. How about some characters who actually fall outside the 16-21 age range for once? Please? Oh, and Square-Enix, how about letting me have an FFXI avatar who looks as though he needs to shave more than once a week.

Ok, just got completely sidetracked and can't even remember where I started. I'll shut up now.