Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo Gets 800 Theatres
Walt Disney Company Distributes Studio Ghibli Film in North America
Aug 13, 2009
Although Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is considered by many to be anime's greatest living director, his films have never done well in North American theatres. His 2001 movie, Spirited Away, earned $265 million in Japan, but only $10 million on this side of the Pacific, despite winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
But Disney Animation's chief creative officer John Lasseter hopes to change all that with Miyazaki's latest film, Ponyo (Gake no ue no Ponyo in Japan). Instead of the bare handful of arthouse theatres Miyazaki films traditionally get in North America, Lasseter is placing Ponyo in over 800 theatres.
"I've wanted Disney to distribute all of his films," Lasseter told Reuters (via the Hollywood Reporter). "I want everybody to see all his films, because they're so inventive and fantastic."
Walt Disney Company Distributes Hayao Miyazaki's Film Ponyo in North America
Ponyo tells the story of a magical goldfish that wants to become human, and the relationship she strikes up with a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke, reportedly based on Miyazaki's estranged son Goro. When Ponyo achieves her goal, she unwittingly unleashes natural forces that threaten to rip the world apart.
Lasseter (who directed the first two Toy Story films and Cars) assembled a horde of Hollywood stars to voice the English dub. Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon and Tina Fey join star siblings Noah Lindsey Cyrus (younger sister of you-know-who) and Frankie Jonas, who voice Ponyo and Sosuke respectively.
Ponyo shares some story elements with Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, and Miyazaki readily admits to borrowing from that classic tale.
"I moved the location of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid to the Japan of today and cut off the Catholic colour," admitted Miyazaki to Ghibliworld in March of 2008.
Despite tinkering with CGI for 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki stayed with traditional cel animation for Ponyo.
"The world might be going toward high tech, but I would like to have Studio Ghibli to be like a wooden boat that journeys with sails," he told The New York Daily News through a translator.
John Lasseter has no problems with that. Despite spearheading the move towards CGI, the Pixar co-founder still believes there is a place for hand-drawn cel animation. In addition to championing Miyazaki's films, he's encouraging Disney Animation to return to cel with this year's The Princess and the Frog.
"I've never, ever agreed that audiences are tired of watching hand-drawn animation, that they only want to watch computer animation," Lasseter said. "Because it's not the medium that makes a movie entertaining, it's what you do with it."
Ponyo opens on August 14th. Due to Disney's embargo on reviews before the release date, look for my review on that date.
 |
