#the great adventure of horus prince of the sun

[p-s-bmc-3012-haruni]

Assignment 1 - Industry Model - Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist.

Over the years, he has created extraordinary, magical and whimsical worlds for both children and adults to lose themselves within.

Miyazaki is a genius, and his films succeed on many levels – technical, emotional, intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and political.

He is a co-founder of one of the biggest animation studios in the world, Studio Ghibli,

Miyazaki has directed masterpieces like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke which have earned him critical acclaim as well as immense popularity on a global scale.

In 2003, Miyazaki won the best-animated film Oscar, for the spooky and surreal Spirited Away.

Early years

Hayao Miyazaki was born on 5th of January, 1941, in Bunkyo, Tokyo.

He is the 2nd Oldest of 4 brothers.

Father was director of his uncle's factory, Miyazaki Airplane, which made rudders for fighter planes, during WW2

He constantly liked to draw, especially planes.

His childhood dream was to become a manga artist.

During his 3rd year in High School, Miyazaki's interest in animation was sparked by “Panda and the Magic Serpent (1958)”, Japan's first feature-length animated film in color.

Miyazaki attended University in the department of political economy, majoring in Japanese Industrial Theory.

He joined the "Children's Literature Research Club", as it was the "closest thing back then to a comics club".

Around this time, he also drew manga; he never completed any stories but accumulated thousands of pages of the beginnings of stories.

Early Work

These are the studios he worked in;

In 1963, he began his career, working in television at Toei Animation as an in-between artist.

The first large-scale animation studio in Japan, between 1963 and 1971.

Following are some examples of his animation in early work;

1963 Watchdog Bow Wow

1971 Lupin III - Series

1984 Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind

He became chief secretary of Toei's labor union in 1964.

Miyazaki later worked as chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968).

Miyazaki’s first trip abroad was an important source of inspiration, and his great love for the European landscapes were integrated into these shows.

Following are some examples of his Manga in early work;

1969 Puss in Boots

1972 Animal Treasure Island

1998-1999 Tigers Covered With Mud

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli was founded with Miyazaki’s friends and colleagues Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki in 1985.

Ghibli halted production in 2014 when Miyazaki announced his retirement, but reopened in 2017 when he decided to go back to work on How Do You Live?, which is currently some three years away from completion.

Miyazaki’s career as a feature-film director at Studio Ghibli:

Castle in the Sky (1986),

My Neighbor Totoro (1988),

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989),

Porco Rosso (1992),

and later works Princess Mononoke (1997),

Spirited Away (2001),

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004),

Ponyo (2008)

and The Wind Rises (2013).

All of Miyazaki’s films are aimed at children or young teenagers. But he makes his films resonate with adults as well as children by keeping the emotions authentic.

Miyazaki does not underestimate the intelligence of children, or their powers of understanding. Characters in his films, they experience loss and sadness as well as joy, despair as well as hope, in a way that is relatable for both children and adults.

Miyazaki draws heavily on Japanese landscapes and culture, although the humanism of his films means they can be appreciated by international viewers. He loves the country’s woodlands (which he says contain more bugs than those of Europe), and he and his team made field trips to forests to research films like My Neighbour Totoro.

Themes and approach

Miyazaki tends to focus on female heroines, and his work has a feminist angle.

Miyazaki says he likes to create female characters because, he does not want his films to reflect only his own experiences.

Heroines that are powerful women in control of their own fates, and the destinies of whole cities and countries.

Flying is an activity which Miyazaki loves to animate, and it is a big theme of his films. Miyazaki’s father designed planes, and Ghibli shares its name with an Italian aircraft manufacturer.

Miyazaki likes the connection between creative design and engineering that goes into aeroplane design, and thinks it is similar to the process of making animated films.

Miyazaki’s approach to animation is based on Japanese anime, but is uniquely his own. Each of his films looks different, and each uses a unique colour scheme and library of shapes. His skill at depicting human movement has played a big part in his success.

Instead of writing the scripts and then adding the animation later – the modern Hollywood way, he focuses on the visual storyboards and then constructs the stories around the images he creates. Miyazaki’s focus on visual storytelling has allowed his imagination free reign.

References

[astayara]

Снегурочка Хильда из старого японского аниме «Принц Севера» (режиссёр Исао Такахата, 1968).

[bizarrobrain]

The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968) - Directed by Isao Takahata

[animedogoftheday]

Today’s anime dog of the day is:

The silver wolves from The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)

[holy-cucumber01]

Taiyou no Ouji: Horus no Daibouken

Genre : adventure, fantasy, drama

Аnime film : 82 min

[animation-appreciation-education]

animated gals - Hilda 太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険 / Taiyō no Ōji Horusu no Daibōken (The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun)

Jul. 21st, 1968 Japan Isao Takahata

filed under: Japan, 1960s, supernatural

[elizas-writing]

22. 25 Days of Ghibli: The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun

So I’ve finished up all the films released by Studio Ghibli, so what am I going to fill up the rest of these days with? Well, I’m going to explore a few other films made by the big names of Ghibli. And where else to start but the directorial debut of Isao Takahata, the first major work of Hayao Miyazaki, and what marked the beginning of a long partnership? Often known to Westerners as The Little Norse Prince, this is The Great Adventure of Horus: Prince of the Sun.

In the remote lands of Scandinavia, a young boy named Horus finds the Sword of the Sun which needs to be reforged with some new power. But just as that happens, his father suddenly dies with his final wish for his son to go out, find their old home and avenge it from the demon Grunwald. And Horus sets out to find a new place to call home and protect it from Grunwald’s evil clutches, but also has to face distrustful villagers and a mysterious girl who may want to kill him first.

I’ve never seen anime from any time before the 1980s, so it’s really nice to go back further and see something which made a big contribution to Japanese animation. This was the first time Japanese animation tried to break from the Disney formula and make something as much for adults as it was for kids, and for what it was in 1968, it’s pretty impressive animation. The GIF above is directly from the film’s opening where Horus is fighting off a pack of wolves, and god damn, that’s some fast-paced action to immediately pull you in. And it stays fast paced through the whole movie. There’s also some grand scenery and freaky imagery here and there, especially with Grunwald’s tricks and attacks.

Sadly though, it’s not without some dated animation which some modern anime fans could find distracting. The pacing is a little too fast at times, and some instances it just cuts to the next scene without a smooth transition. But there are a couple major action scenes which are just reduced to freeze frames, and it kinda takes you out of the intense action. I give them credit they tried to edit the frames with panning shots to establish what kind of tone they were going for, but it’s definitely not the same as smooth frame rate we saw in the opening. And it really sucks when you learn Takahata and Miyazaki had a ton of setbacks and needed to make cuts, and they worked their asses off for three years to perfect this movie even though most animated films from Toei were supposed to take 8-10 months to make. I hope it doesn’t distract too much because the stuff I mentioned before is still really damn fun to watch.

Horus is very much a typical shonen hero who has to go on a journey to find himself and has to prove himself to be accepted. While not as complex as some future Ghibli protagonists, he has a good heart to help others and is quite fearless to do whatever it takes to keep the village safe, but also learns that rallying people together is harder than it seems. There really isn’t too much to Grunwald besides a standard villain who fucks shit up, but he still has a powerful influence to manipulate his surroundings and have the villagers turn on each other and leave them vulnerable to attack.

This is where the film heightens the complexity of your typical fantasy adventure in focusing on the growing paranoia when it seems all hope is lost, and it becomes an “every man for himself” world instead of a harmonious community. For as much as it spends time on action, there’s also a ton of scenes of Horus interacting with the villagers and finding community for the first time in his life. It does everything it can to show how close everyone is before the betrayal and rejection kicks in when Grunwald messes around with them. It’s a little cheesy at times-- like the entire wedding scene--, but it’s enough development where you feel bad for Horus when they wrongfully turn on him. And it works great with the inclusion of Hilda who has such ambivalent feelings towards humanity. I can’t say too much without spoiling, but she’s also fun to follow, see what is going on in her head, and watch her slowly come around to trust others. I wish they developed her a little more, but again, this is still damn good given the constraints the filmmakers had.

While not as polished or complex as Takahata or Miyazaki’s later films, you can see the germ of an idea of what community means in hard times, and a team busting their asses to make something grand and epic. Even for all their limits, it’s still a milestone of Japanese animation to create something Westerners wouldn’t try. And it was just the beginning of some of the best animation to ever come from Japan.

[thealmightyemprex]

10 Animated films I am considering watching for Not Made In the USA Month

Porco Rosso

A film by Hayo Miyazaki

Krabat the Sorcerers Apprentice

Film by Karel Zeman

Son of the White Mare

Looks very pretty

Shaun the Sheep the Movie

Looks cute

Wolfwalkers

Love Sean Bean and werewolves

The Rabbis Cat

Cat looks pretty

The Adventures of Mowgli

Oh god animation gorgeous !!!!

The Great ADventure of Horus Prince of the Sun

Early work by Isao Takahata

Prince Bayaya

A filom by Jiri Trnka that looks pretty

FReddie as FRO7

.....Its got Brian Blessed in it

Any other non American animated films people would like to reccomend ?

Should I watch one of these ?

@storytellergirl @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @the-blue-fairie @ariel-seagull-wings

[hazzibee]

A Master in Making

 Biography of Hayao Miyazaki

It is nice to reminisce about Saturday mornings watching Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, The Secret World of Arrietty, and many more with a cup of warm Milo on the side. The feeling of starting a new journey with every story brings nothing but peace, excitement, and satisfaction to our minds. Studio Ghibli has changed the childhoods of many people around the world with their magnificent and beautiful array of stories. Have you ever wondered how these colorful animations were made into reality and the man behind its curtains?

On January 5 1941, a master was born in the land of the rising sun, Japan. Hayao Miyazaki was the second son among his three siblings. His father is Katsuji Miyazaki, the owner of Miyazaki Airplane. The company manufactured airplane parts for World War II. Hayao described his relationship with his father as cold and distant. Yoshiko Miyazaki is his mother. She had a great influence on Miyazaki’s works, where women were portrayed as strong and independent like she was. She often questioned socially accepted norms and battled with her illness for nine years.

When he was a child, he felt like an outcast. He was told that he would not live past 20, because of his digestive problems. They later moved to Kanuma in 1945 due to the city-bombing. In 1947 he started school as an elementary student in Utsunomiya as an evacuee. This was also the year his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis and battled with it until 1955. After he finished third grade, they moved back to Tokyo, where he finished his primary education at Omiya Elementary School.

He continued his education at Omiya Junior High School. During this time, manga rose in popularity. He dreamt of becoming a manga artist. He could not draw faces, but he did excellently at drawing airplanes, tanks, etc. He destroyed his earlier works. For Hayao, they were a replica of another artist's style, hindering his growth as an artist. When he was a Senior High Schooler, he discovered his love for the film after seeing the first colored animated Japanese film “The Tale of the White Serpent”

In 1956, he entered Gakushuin University where he majored in Political Science and economics. Throughout his college days, he joined a club named “Children's literature research club”.It was the closest thing to comics. They read and discussed European books and comics. This influenced his early works that incorporated European settings. Finally, in 1963, he graduated from college.

In the same year, he landed a job at “Toei Animation” as an in-between artist. Three months later, he got involved in the labor union and led the fight against social injustice. When 1964 came, he became the chief secretary of Toei's labor union. In the same year, he dated his coworker, Akemi Ota, who became his wife in October of 1965.

He worked as the chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer on “The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun ” in 1965. His approach to animation was largely influenced as he worked with his mentor, Yasuo Ōtsuka during the production of this film. Another mentee was under Yasuo Ōtsuka’s wing, who is the director of the same film; Isao Takahata.

Mangas and countless adaptations were made during his career with Toei Animation until he left in August 1971. He was hired at A-Studio where he continued to work with Takahata until June 1973, when he moved to Zuiyō Eizō, which is now known as Nippon Animation (1975). After 5 years (1979), he left Nippon Animation for Telecom Animation Film, where he directed and trained its employees. 

Ideas were developed to adapt the comic “Rowlf ” written by Richard Corben. During this time he was interviewed by the editorial staff of Animage, where he showed his outlines and sketches and saw potential in Hayao’s work. The "Warring States Demon Castle” and the adaptation of the comic “Rowlf” were proposed but rejected. Despite that, they have come to an agreement for Hayao’s work to be published but not made into a film. It was titled “Nausicaa the valley of the wind” (Feb 1982-March 1994). He drew each chapter with a pencil, and printed it with monochrome ink for the magazine. He later resigned in 1982. 

Hayao was encouraged to work on Film Adaptation, which he initially refused, but then he changed his mind on the condition that he can direct. He chose “Nausicaa the valley of the wind”.He had difficulties with the screenplay as the manga only had 16 chapters. The mercury poisoning in Minamata bay inspired Hayao for the film to portray strong female characters that fight for the environment. It was released to the public on March 11, 1984, where it grossed ¥1.48 billion at the box office.

In June 1985, along with 3 other people, Hayao Mizaki founded “Studio Ghibli”. From 1986 to 1989, he directed 3 out of 4 films that the studio published at this time, including ” Laputa: Castle in the sky” (1986), ” My Neighbor Totoro” (April 1988), “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (July 1989). His works during this time were largely influenced by European settings.

Not until the 1990’s the Japanese elements slowly incorporated in his work because of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990.‌ Studio Ghibli signed an agreement with Disney to distribute its films internationally in 1996. The following year, his film “Princess Mononoke” (1967), slowly gained popularity globally. In 2001, when he released “Spirited Away”, he won the Academy Award for the “best-animated feature”. In 2006, the international media Time magazine voted him one of the “Asian Heroes” of the past 60 years because of his contribution to the animated film industry. 

In 2013, the “Wind rises” was released as well as the announcement of his retirement was released to the public. When he was 74 years old, he received the Academy’s Honorary Award (2014). By this time the public had accepted the retirement of the master, but he announced in 2016 that he was directing another animated film titled “How Do You Live?”.It was revealed that the 17 mins of the film had only been made and wouldn't be released before 2022.

Amazingly, a master like him can’t stop creating. He said in an interview that he doesn’t watch his movies more than twice as he notices its flaws and regrets not striving for perfection. He believed that we should always seek for improvements and become the better version of ourselves. Even though he tried to retire many times, he couldn't help but create. As a young child, he witnessed the horrors of war. It became his motivation and his will to live, to put a smile on peoples faces with the colorful touch of emotions through his work. Creation that will shape future generations to come.

[canmom]

Animation Night 41 - Isao Takahata!

Hey friends of the ‘Thursday’ persuasion. Apologies for the terribly late start today. (All these little disclaimers will be deleted when I finally migrate these posts to my website of course.)

Tonight! It’s back to the anime auteur tour; in this case, the big Studio Ghibli guy who is not named Hayao Miyazaki. That is to say: Isao Takahata! Sadly, while we still (for now) have Miyazaki, Takahata passed away in 2018, but he left some pretty incredible films.

Unlike many animators we’ve encountered over the course of these nights, Takahata made his way into the industry not from art school, but through a literature degree. He was drawn to film, and especially the potential of animation, and managed to land a job at Toei Animation, assisting with direction of their first TV shows such as Wolf Boy Ken (the studio having previously only made films). Toei is one of the oldest anime studios still to exist, although as ever, a studio is just a shell around the various people moving in and out of its doors. And who were those people?

At Toei, Takahata ran into a couple of people who would end up having a profound influence on his life. One was his mentor, Yasuo Ōtsuka; the other was of course ⭐Hayao⭐Miyazaki⭐, with whom Takahata would work for the rest of his life, co-founding Studio Ghibli, etc. etc. With Ōtsuka’s support, Takahata directed a technically innovative film called The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (localised abroad as The Little Norse Prince) in 1968. The film made a major impact on the industry with its developments in cel animation (I would like to find out exactly what!), but not so much at the box office...

...which might have a lot to do with Takahata and Miyazaki’s attempts to unionise the workforce at Toei, leading the studio heads to give the film a limited theatrical run as an act of sabotage. (If true, it would be kind of cutting off their nose to spite their face there, but it’s a fun little conspiracy theory at any rate.)

Now, Japanese animation in the 60s looks very different from what we’re used to today, but even back then we can see signs of Takahata’s meticulously detailed style. Alongside directors like Kon, he’s known for bringing a kind of ‘realism’ to animation in terms of cinematography and drawing styles, as well as for being among the first to try pulling the subject matter of animation towards dramas aimed at adults - paving the way for people like Oshii down the line.

Given the difficulties over Horus, Takahata faced demotion at Toei, and he and Miyazaki jumped ship. They failed to get the rights for Pippi Longstocking, and instead the pair returned to work with Ōtsuka, who had moved to TMS Entertainment (another venerable studio) on one of the first Lupin III TV series. (fun fact about anime history: it’s Lupin all the way down!) and Panda! Go Panda!.

The next big break for the duo came when they were approached by a company called Zuiyo to create a series Heidi: Girl of the Alps, at the studio’s new subsidiary Nippon Animation.

Heidi ended up huge, in significant part due to the absurd amount of effort put into it by the standards of TV animation, Takahata working furiously to turn his research trips to the Alps into accurate onscreen representations - an experience that was highly formative for Hayao Miyazaki, who was so frustrated by the tight deadlines and necessary cut corners of TV animation that he became determined to go into film. It also started to pin down the now widely standardised pipeline of anime production, among the first productions to introduce the a ‘layout’/’first key’ stage in the process of planning a shot which led to our modern system of flashy key animators...

Well, all this paid off - while I don’t have the stats to hand right now, I believe I read that Heidi was able to easily go toe to toe with Gundam at its height. Takahata continued to work in TV for the rest of the 70s, with notable works including Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan (an early instance of the post-apocalyptic green settings he’d make his name with) and an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (keeping up the theme of childrens’ literature!) And during this period, he worked with other notable animators like Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino.

But of course, the really big break was working with Miyazaki on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 - the film that launched Studio Ghibli. And despite the quite significant influence he had early on, it is his Ghibli films which best represent Takahata’s legacy.

Takahata’s first film at Ghibli was the absolutely devastating war movie Grave of the Fireflies, about two children suffering the horrors of late-WWII Japan. We won’t be watching that tonight, if only because I wanna be fortified in the right mental space. Covering such subjects in animation wasn’t completely novel - we previously watched Madhouse’s Barefoot Gen, which also tells the story of children living through the war - but Takahata handled it with an unusual level of subtlety and care, a startling contrast to Miyazaki’s playful My Neighbour Totoro which released alongside it (back to back at the original showing!)

His next film, Only Yesterday, pushed things in an even more unusual direction for animation at the time - an entirely non-fantastical drama about the a woman reminiscing on her life, and the dreams of her childhood self, while escaping to the countryside. The film is notable for pushing to an extreme degree of realism; like Satoshi Kon, it would use the clarity of animation to create a certain effect that would be difficult in live action, but here the focus is less on the line between real and not-real or clever editing, more just like... a very very polished animated film? idk I’ve not seen it.

So, Takahata’s the serious one, Miyazaki’s the fanciful one? Not at all: Takahata’s next film, Pom Poko (1994) [full title: 平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ Heisei-era Tanuki War Ponpoko] jumped to the other end, a pointed comedy in which tanuki (complete with the giant balls described in mythology) intervene against environmentally destructive development. (I am not sure of the course of Takahata’s ideological development at this time - if Miyazaki broke with his early crude Marxism and became increasingly preoccupied with the environment, only to become rather blackpilled in old age and prioritise making films for his kids, I have less idea of Takahata’s development, but this suggests he definitely shared at least a few of Miyazaki’s concerns right?)

From every glimpse I’ve seen of it, Pom Poko is a fascinatingly lush film, drawing heavily on the history of Japanese art (you may recognise this skeleton for example from a famous ukiyo-e print) and I’m really excited to watch it at last.

Pom Poko seemed to satisfy Takahata’s interest in traditional, cel-shaded animation, and his next few films started experimenting stylistically. My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999) was a family comedy which leapt right to the end of the stylisation continuum, taking after four-panel manga strips. It’s a series of structured vignettes with ironic titles like ‘patriarchal supremacy restored’, but ultimately I haven’t watched it bc it sounded a bit tediously wholesome :p

For a decade after that, Takahata didn’t really direct much, beyond a brief appearance in the poetry themed collaboration project Winter Days. His next big film, though, would be a big one: a beautifully stylised rendition of the mythological The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter, a story he’d long considered since his days at Toei. So he went for a gorgeous watercolour effect - a style I’ve almost never seen anything approach, except perhaps the Te Wei ink wash-styled films we saw on donghua night. The funding for such a lavish project came from Seiichiro Ujiie, chairman of Nippon TV, who was apparently such a fan of Takahata that he donated five billion yen and pleaded the Ghibli producer to let Takahata make another film... only to die before it was finished. Oof.

Kaguya tells the story of a girl who descends from heaven and is discovered as a child by a bamboo cutter, living a simple life in the countryside before being discovered and taken to the Heian period court. The art, fittingly, is based on the contemporary yamato-e style, with round faces, minimalist lines and elaborate court dress on full display. All this manages to fill the myth with a lot of character and emotion... and tragically I only ever got to see half this film due to circumstances, so I am dead excited to finally watch it with friends.

That brings us to Takahata’s final film - although not as director; the Dutch-Japanese collaboration The Red Turtle which we watched a few months back.

So, tonight! I’m going to show a little of Takahata’s work throughout that very storied career - not much because even if we had the full time available, there is just too much. Tonight we’re seeing Horus and Pom Poko - I wanted to slot Kaguya but the tube are congested and I’m not sure there’s time! T_T

I’m not sure I yet feel ready to draw out the overall arc or themes of his career or any such thing, but I know all of these films are absolutely beautiful, often moving, and generally distinctive in the history of anime etc. etc., so I do hope you’ll want to come watch w me ^^

Animation Night 40 will be starting almost immediately at 9:20pm UK time at twitch.tv/canmom - see you there........

[coppercookie]

Every animated movie index part 1

Hey imma try to watch every animated movie in order and write a little bit on each one. This will include TV and direct to video ones but it has to be at least 40 minutes long and has to have animation for 50% of the movie. I won't include live action movies with cgi or live action puppet movies (I love Jim Henson but I have to draw the line somewhere so I don't lose my sanity.) Whatever ones I can't find a copy of will be skipped.

The adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The tale of the fox (1930)

The new gulliver (1935)

Academy award review of Walt Disney cartoons (1937)

Snow White and the seven dwarves (1937)

Gulliver's travels (1939)

Top 5 animated movies pre 1940

Pinocchio (1940)

Fantasia (1940)

Princess iron fan (1941)

The reluctant dragon (1941)

Dumbo (1941)

Hoppity goes to town (1941)

Bambi (1942)

Saludos amigos (1942)

Victory through air power (1943)

The three caballeros (1944)

Momotaro's divine sea warriors (1945)

The lost letter (1945)

Make mine music (1946)

Song of the South (1946)

The humpbacked horse (1947)

Fun and fancy free (1947)

Melody time (1948)

The adventures of ichabad and Mr.toad (1949)

The emperor's nightingale (1949)

Top 10 animated movies of the 40s

Cinderella (1950)

Johnny the giant killer (1950)

Alice in wonderland (1951)

The night before Christmas (1951)

Prince Bayaya (1951)

The king and Mr. Mockingbird (1952)

The scarlet flower (1952)

The snow maiden (1952)

Peter Pan (1953)

Hansel and Gretel an opera fantasy (1954)

Animal farm (1954)

Tsarevna the frog (1954)

The enchanted boy (1955)

The great soldier schweik (1955)

Lady and the Tramp (1955)

The twelve months (1956)

Hemo the magnificent (1957)

The snow queen (1957)

Panda and the magic serpent (1958)

Beloved beauty (1958)

Sleeping beauty (1959)

A 1001 Arabian nights (1959)

A midsummer's night dream (1959)

The adventures of Buratino (1959)

Magic boy (1959)

Top 10 animated movies of the 50s

Alakazam the great (1960)

It was I who drew the little man (1960)

One hundred and one dalmatians (1961)

Chipolino (1961)

The key (1961)

Gay Purr-ee (1962)

The wild Swans (1962)

Arabian Nights; Adventures of Sinbad (1962)

The bath (1962)

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)

The sword in the stone (1963)

Doggie March (1963)

The little Prince and the eight-headed dragon (1963)

Hey there, it's Yogi Bear! (1964)

The incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

Havoc in heaven (1964)

Of stars and men (1964)

Lefty (1964)

Return to oz (1964)

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (1964)

The man from Button Willow (1965)

Pinocchio in outer space (1965)

Willy McBean and his magic machine (1965)

West and soda (1965)

Gulliver travels beyond the moon (1965)

Alice in wonderland or what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? (1966)

Alice in wonderland in Paris (1966)

The daydreamer (1966)

Cyborg 009 (1966)

Ballad of Smokey the bear (1966)

The man called Flintstone (1966)

Go there don't know where (1966)

Band of ninja (1967)

Ruddigore (1967)

Asterix the Gaul (1967)

A story of Hong Gil-Dong (1967)

The wacky world of mother goose (1967)

Hopi and Chadol bawi (1967)

Mad monster party? (1967)

Jack and the witch (1967)

The Jungle book (1967)

Cricket on the hearth (1967)

The world of Hans Christian Anderson (1968)

Asterix and Cleopatra (1968)

Yellow submarine (1968)

Horus, Prince of the sun (1968)

Part 2

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Where Some of Anime's Most Successful Directors Got Their Start

  Hello everyone, and welcome to Why It Works. If you hadn’t noticed, Crunchyroll’s picked up some pretty tantalizing acquisitions over the last few weeks, including a film I’ve been meaning to watch for years: the Urusei Yatsura tie-in film, Beautiful Dreamer. In the film, the rom-com shenanigans of Lum and Ataru are transposed into an ambitious dream narrative where the nature of reality itself comes into question. Beautiful Dreamer’s deviation from its source material’s tone sparked controversy at the time of its release, but these days, it’s considered a classic of anime cinema — as well as one of the great works of its director, Mamoru Oshii. Yes, that Mamoru Oshii.

    Though Oshii would eventually become renowned for directing films like Angel’s Egg and Ghost in the Shell, he didn’t simply emerge on the scene fully formed, as an auteur filmmaker with a full team behind him. Like all artists in anime, Oshii worked his way up, directing the first two seasons of the Urusei Yatsura anime before moving on to his film career. 

  Anime in general is kind of quirky that way. As a medium that’s largely aimed at young audiences, and which requires great capital and human resources to create any sort of larger product, anime’s “legendary film directors” rarely start off directing legendary films. Instead, they generally work their way up through the TV production pipeline, frequently attached to projects that seem wildly out of character, but which nonetheless demonstrate and cultivate their signature talents. Today I’d like to highlight just a few other legendary artists’ origin points and scratch at just how those roots informed their later works!

    First off, if we’re talking about legendary anime film directors, then we can’t really avoid discussing Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki has gained worldwide acclaim for his feature films, which tend to blend traditional adventure narratives with a focus on the beauty of the world around us. Even though Miyazaki would only begin directing original films with Nausicaa, all of the seeds of his later work were planted decades earlier, when he collaborated with his mentor Yasuo Otsuka and future Ghibli partner Isao Takahata on the 1968 film Horus, Prince of the Sun.

  Having established this early partnership with Takahata, Miyazaki went on to direct a group of television series that collectively embody the appeal of his later work: the madcap action of Lupin III, the coming-of-age drama and technological wonder of Future Boy Conan, and the magisterial naturalism of the World Masterpiece Theater productions. By the time Miyazaki began directing his own films — still working within the Lupin III universe, via The Castle of Cagliostro — all of the components that would define his output were honed to a fine point, and he’d already been collaborating with Takahata for 15 years. Given that history, it’s no surprise that Miyazaki’s very first films are still considered classics today.

    Mamoru Hosoda, the acclaimed director of Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and other terrific films, was actually inspired to work in animation when he first saw The Castle of Cagliostro. Hosoda would make multiple attempts to collaborate with Miyazaki and was even briefly set to direct Ghibli’s adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle, but his journey up the anime ladder ultimately took him in a different direction. Hosoda was picked up by Toei Animation, where he’d eventually direct two Digimon Adventure films. After directing Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, he’d return to that same concept of collaborative battle in a virtual space for his later Summer Wars — and then again, for this summer’s upcoming Belle. Plus, it was actually his work on the phenomenal children’s anime Ojamajo Doremi that caught the eye of Madhouse producers, leading him onto his distinguished film career.

  While Hosoda seems to be inspired by the narratives of his early franchise work, other directors bear their early influences in their visual style. So it goes for Masaaki Yuasa, whose mutating, impressionistic canvasses feel reminiscent of his early work, animating shows like Chibi Maruko-chan and Crayon Shin-chan. Children’s anime frequently allow for a more freeform, imaginative approach to character modeling, as children are generally less demanding of aesthetic consistency in their work. This situation creates a unique opportunity for a director like Yuasa, who seems to love exploring the limits of representational animation, as well as how drama can be conveyed through purely visual means. Through more recent works like Kaiba and Kick-Heart, Yuasa returns to the mutability and playfulness of form he was able to exercise through children’s animation.

    Finally, if you know me, you probably know who I’m going to end this with. It almost feels like cheating to mention her, but it’s undoubtedly true that Naoko Yamada’s evolution across the two seasons of K-On! is one of our clearest recent artistic evolutions. As the consistent gags of the first season give way to an indescribably rich sense of place in the second, you can see a great director taking wing and establishing the style that would inform some of the best anime films of recent years. It is inspiring to see an artist at the height of their powers, but it can be fulfilling in a very different way to catalog their journey to that state — to see the works that moved them and sculpted their talents, and realize that even for the greatest artists, the process of achieving that excellence is a long journey. For anime’s great creators, their early works offer both inspiration and education — for them as creators, and for us as lovers of their art.

  Who is your own favorite film director, or who do you think will be next to ascend to the cosmos? Let us know in the comments!

      Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Nick Creamer

[zzariyo]

since I’ve been essentially bed-bound, I kinda started fixating on Hayao Miyazaki and his works and delving into the books I have of his that I’ve been neglecting. And taking into consideration his history in animating, the thought of him having to watch how anime changed into what it is now and how freaky the industry became is pretty fucking sad. And I keep thinking about all of this so much that I can't focus on anything else so I'm writing something nobody asked for to get it off my chest.

Tale of the White Serpent (1958) was the first anime feature film in color and was one of the main reasons why Miyazaki wanted to be an animator. He went to the theater to watch it several times as a teen

The first animation project he took part in was fucking Wolf Boy Ken (1963) And the first animated film that he took a large part in was The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968) (Directed by Isao Takahata, Co-founder of Studio Ghibli and director of Princess Kaguya by the by). Still when anime was relatively fresh. So he was in the industry super early on. Not at the very beginning of course but pretty fucking close

From there he worked as an in-between animator, then key animator, then storyboarder, then co-director with Takahata as the years went on and the anime industry developed until becoming a director himself and fully realizing his ideas into his own films...Nausicaa being the first one that was all his.

So imagine falling in love with this in the 50s

Then working on this in the 60s

Following your dreams of being a director in the 70s all the way through 2010s...

JUST FOR THIS TO FUCKING HAPPEN TO THE INDUSTRY-

-and so here is where my rant i wrote in a flurry yesterday ended because when I went to get some stupid anime gif of gropping or something to begin talking about how part of the industry changed for the worst cuz of otakus, I started to look too intently at those. Then I gradually looked at...other things. And then I got a little....hm.

and so here I realized that I'm not as above the otakus that miyazaki hates as I thought I was and that I'm an even bigger hypocrite than I was going to state I am. And I am so so sorry..... I am sorry I couldnt be better for you........

[thecinematicshots]

The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968) Director: Isao Takahata

[nitrateglow]

Favorite opening titles/sequences?

Oh damn, there are so many. In general, I think the best movie openings set up the tone of the story to come and the cleverest ones subtly hint at the movie’s themes. Daniel Thomas MacInnes put it best:

While many movies treat a title and credit sequence as an afterthought, or perhaps a necessary distraction from the film, a good filmmaker knows how to integrate it into the film, so that it has a dramatic power. By placing a sequence of events on-screen while the credits roll, you are placing an emphasis on them. You are highlighting them, focusing attenion upon them. This can prove highly effective for the story you want to tell, and it's underlying themes.

Here are some openings from my favorite movies which I believe possess such dramatic power.

The Red Shoes

On one hand, this opening is very much of the old-style title sequence: a simple set of cards listing the major players in the production. However, the music and use of colored illustrations in these images set the tone for the movie to come so well, something beautiful and emotional. You get the sense that you’re being beckoned into a fairy tale world, much like the classic Disney films which begin with a live-action book opening, introducing the characters and their universe as illustrations. The Red Shoes toes the line between realism and fantasy, especially in its most famous ballet sequences, so this is such a perfect way to open the movie.

A Christmas Carol 1951

Once again, this is nothing flashy, but the music is EVERYTHING, setting the tone well. We’re introduced to this version of the Dickens classic, not with some sweet jingle bell harmony, but with a loud, sinister brass section that sounds like it belongs in a horror movie. Then, just as suddenly, we hear “Hark the Herald, Angels Sing” in a jubilant register… and then right before the movie starts, the music jumps back to the malevolent motif. It’s such a great way of getting the audience in the right frame of mind, reminding us this is both a ghost story and a tale of Christmas redemption.

Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence opens with darkness, then the sound of the hero’s birth— his mother’s dying groans, his own weeping and screaming—over a train barreling through a tunnel. Accompanying this is the film’s (in)famous second-person narration, with the gravel-voiced, street-wise, and sardonic Lionel Stander illustrating the protagonist’s anger and cynicism right away (“You were born with the hate and anger built in!”). Then light breaks through and we realize the camera is on the front of a train just coming into the light. It’s a brilliant opening, setting up the story’s noir vibe and evoking a strange sense of determinism in how it suggests Frankie Bono’s tragic end was destined from the beginning of his life… much like a train on the tracks.

Wait Until Dark

Both the pre-credits scene and the titles sequence are brilliant. The first image of the film is itself disconcerting: an expanse of red cloth, suddenly cut open with a knife before we even learn we’re looking at a doll—and already, the film is setting up its sense of imminent brutality, coupled with the dissonant dread evoked by Henry Mancini’s wonderful score and the editing itself. The interaction between Lisa and old Louis is also a subtle way of setting up the deceptive games the characters play out, with Louis wishing Lisa luck one minute, then calling up the psychopathic Roat to rat her out as she drives away with the intent on betraying her partners-in-crime. The airport scenes continue establishing the themes of dread, betrayal, and mystery, especially with Mancini’s creepy music making us aware Lisa’s drug trafficking enterprise will not end well, long before even she is aware of that.

Horus Prince of the Sun

Best cold opening ever. Horus is a movie that deserves to be listed with the great, history-changing films of the late 1960s: it is every bit as rebellious as something like The Graduate, only it had a greater restriction to overcome: the idea that animation is all kids’ stuff destined to imprisonment within the Disney mold. Rather than opening with the titles or a cute storybook, Horus starts with a barren landscape. And then we see a boy running for his life from a pack of snarling wolves that are not anthropomorphized or made cute in any conceivable fashion. The opening consists largely of our hero Horus fighting these wolves in a violent, harsh fashion, telling the audience right away this won’t be your usual kiddie musical. No music accompanies the images at all, granting the sequence a sense of gritty realism one would expect from a crime drama of the period, not a fantasy film.

A Clockwork Orange

I have always found the opening titles of A Clockwork Orange so striking, even before we get to Alex staring us down in chilling close-up. The way the titles are just set against plain colors that alternate between the cuts—they suggest the flipping of switches on a machine or computer (foreshadowing Alex’s “cure” perhaps?). Wendy Carlos’s electronic score further establishes such a mental connection: the sound is inhuman and sinister, planting dread in your guttiwuts before Alex even appears. And when he does, is that not just one of the best introductions to a character ever? That smirk alone says so much—Alex is evil incarnate, but there’s a boyishness which makes it compelling.

The Castle of Cagliostro

I’ve often gone over why I love this movie’s opening (I even made a post about the pre-credits sequence: https://nitrateglow.tumblr.com/post/184327179573/the-castle-of-cagliostro-scene-analysis-the), but I’ll say it again: the pre-credits scene sets up Cagliostro’s playful side, with Lupin and Jigen defying physics in Looney Tunes fashion as they rob a casino, and the titles sequence establishes the film’s more introspective, melancholy qualities, with a gentle love ballad accompanying the thieves’ journey to Cagliostro. I adore this movie so much because it balances all of these elements with elegance, putting real soul into what is essentially a fun caper adventure.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Nausicaa’s cold opening reminds me a lot of Horus’s in that it throws the audience right into a desolate, dangerous world. Yupa finds a village where all the inhabitants have died from the polluted landscape, and the images are somber and despairing. We learn right away this is a world where death can take you at any moment and where human survival is becoming less likely. And yet, right after this scene, we cut to the credits, a series of tapestry images depicting a messiah rushing in a renewed world, accompanied by Joe Hisaishi’s gorgeous main theme, which can only be described as cautious, tragic optimism incarnate. Nausicaa is a movie which ultimately ends on such a note, though it does not shy away from despair and feelings of hopelessness, making it a rich emotional experience—and this is all forecasted from the film’s opening.

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

today's unhinged mini film festival:

the last ~40 min or so of The Sting (1973), dir. George Roy Hill, that I didn't get a chance to finish rewatching last night

(The Great Adventure of) Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968), dir. Isao Takahata

The Snow Queen (1957), dir. Lev Atamanov

La règle du jeu (1939), dir. Jean Renoir

The last ~20 min or so of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013), dir. Isao Takahata, a gorgeous movie that took me weeks to finish for no reason

Only Yesterday (1991), dir. Isao Takahata

boy HOWDY i am powering through my watchlist today