Hayao Miyazaki: Here's how his new project is different from his previous movies
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
Acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki is reportedly directing a short film that will use computers for animation.
Miyazaki directed such animated films as 鈥淭he Wind Rises,鈥� 鈥淧onyo,鈥� 鈥淧rincess Mononoke,鈥� and 鈥淢y Neighbor Totoro.鈥� His film 鈥淪pirited Away鈥� won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and his films 鈥淗owl鈥檚 Moving Castle鈥� and 鈥淲ind鈥� were nominated for the prize.聽
Now he will be using computer animation for a new short film that will focus on a hairy caterpillar. The movie will be the first by the director to be completely computer-generated and will play at Japan鈥檚 Ghibli Museum.聽
鈥淲e just started working on it," Miyazaki . "This time, our longtime staff will meet the new staff from the world of computer graphics.鈥澛�
Miyazaki is the co-founder of Japan鈥檚 Studio Ghibli, through which movies like 鈥淲ind鈥� and 鈥淧onyo鈥� were produced. The company was also behind the film 鈥淭he Tale of Princess Kaguya,鈥� which was released in the US in 2014 and was directed by Isao Takahata.
There is very little hand-drawn animation currently being done in the animated movie world right now. Disney CEO Bob Iger in 2013 that the studio wasn鈥檛 working on any hand-drawn films at the time and that there were no hand-drawn feature movies planned. 鈥淲e're not necessarily ruling out the possibility [of] a feature but there isn't any in development at the company at the moment,鈥� Iger said. Meanwhile, phenomenally successful animation company Pixar, which is owned by Disney, has used only CGI animation since its debut 1995 film 鈥淭oy Story,鈥� which was the first entirely computer-animated feature movie to be released.聽
However, Miyazaki鈥檚 experiment with digital animation doesn鈥檛 mean hand-drawn animation is gone for good. Disney鈥檚 animated short film 鈥淧aperman鈥� took the Best Animated Short Oscar in 2013 and while the film did use computer animation, it also mixed in hand-drawn images. Critics "the best thing Disney has done in years" and "a perfect short film." The success of 鈥淧aperman鈥� may have bought hand-drawn animation more time.
