Jeremy Mark Robinson
SPIRITED AWAY: HAYAO MIYAZAKI: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE This book focusses on Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away, winner of the Best Animated Movie Oscar. Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is without a doubt a masterpiece of cinema, and one of Hayao Miyazaki’s great works. It is one of the most spectacular films of colour you will ever see. It’s the movie that brought Miyazaki to a global audience, even more perhaps than Princess Mononoke (though by the time of Spirited Away, Miyazaki was a household name in Japan). Born on January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, Hayao Miyazaki is known as the ’Japanese Disney’, a filmmaker as revered - and as popular - as Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg. Miyazaki, in short, is a true phenomenon in contemporary animation and in world cinema. Hayao Miyazaki’s movies include Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle In the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro. Hayao Miyazaki may be the most talented fantasy filmmaker of his generation: not even the finest filmmakers of Hollywood can rival his films when it comes to creating fantasy worlds, and fantastical characters and events. Miyazaki has millions of fans around the world, not least among fellow animators and filmmakers, for whom he is a genius. What Hayao Miyazaki’s films do is to bring you completely into a fantasy world that is instantly recognizable and familiar. It’s as if these fantasy realms have always existed - very much like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth or Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea (both influences on Miyazaki). The visionary and magical elements are fused with the domestic and familial and social elements , so that it seems completely ordinary and believable that, say, flying machines soar overhead which have flapping wings like an insect, or that little white creatures pop up out of trees and make strange clicking noises. This new study of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away includes chapters on Miyazaki’s influences • his contemporaries and colleagues • his characters • his movies’ relation to Western animation (including the Walt Disney Company) • and his themes and motifs. The book also explores Japanese animation, its production and style, some classics of anime, and digital animation. Includes quotes by Miyazaki; and resources. Fully illustrated. With filmography, bibliography and notes. ISBN 9781861713476. www.crmoon.comAUTHOR’S NOTE: I hope this book offers readers some new insights into Spirited Away and the movies of the incredible filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, so they can go back and enjoy the movie all over again. The book also includes technical info on animation, a chapter on the animation industry in Japan, and comparisons between Miyazaki’s films and those in the West, including Walt Disney’s work.
