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[Nov. 5th, 2007|05:48 pm] |
New Hayao Miyazaki film!
anime master's next movie comes out summer of 2008
© Dominic von Riedemann
Mar 20, 2007
early poster for Ponyo on a Cliff, from ICv2
Stop the presses: Studio Ghibli has announced the name of Hayao Miyazaki's next flick. And guess who the model for the lead character is?
(Source: www.nausicaa.net)
Studio Ghibli has announced the title and plot for anime legend Hayao Miyazaki's next movie. It will be called Ponyo on a Cliff (Gake no ue no Ponyo in Japan) and it's due in theatres in the summer of 2008.
Here's an early draft of the plot: the movie revolves around the story of Sosuke, a 5-year-old boy, and his Princess Goldfish named Ponyo, who wishes to become human.
Earlier reports had claimed that the 66-year-old director would adapt the Chinese children's story I Lost My Little Boy for his next film. However, Studio Ghibli has stated that Ponyo on a Cliff is based on an original story by Hayao.
Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki said, "Almost 70 to 80% of the film takes stage on sea. It will be a director’s challenge on how they will express the sea and its waves with freehand drawing."
Hayao began working on the film in October of 2006, creating hundreds of watercolours based on location scouts around the Kobe area of Japan. This means that Hayao will take 20 months to produce the movie, the longest he has ever spent on a single project. Ponyo on a Cliff will be produced using traditional cel animation technique.
There are conflicting reports about who will serve as the model for Sosuke: Nausicaa.net claims it's his son Goro, when he was five years old, but Ghibli World claims it's actually Goro's son (Hayao's grandson) who is the basis for the character.
Certainly Hayao's relationship with his son Goro is very much on his mind. Goro and Hayao had a much-publicized feud last year when Goro decided to make his directorial debut with Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki in Japan). Hayao publicly stated that Goro wasn't ready to direct his first project, leading to the rift. Many observers, including Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii, believed that Hayao's comments were based on fears that Goro would supplant him as Ghibli's premiere anime director.
Although Gedo Senki was hammered by critics (some of whom gave it Japan's equivalent of the Golden Razzie Award), the flick smashed box office records for a Japanese film, and was the 3rd most successful movie of 2006. Given Gedo Senki's unexpected success, it's very likely Goro will direct another movie.
Some reports have claimed that Ponyo on a Cliff may be Hayao's cinematic apology to Goro: some have stated that the anime legend's notorious workaholic habits may have kept him from spending enough time with his son when he was growing up. Certainly some scenes in Gedo Senki (such as where a prince stabs his father to death) may have resonated a lot with the elder Miyazaki.
Reports on Nausicaa.net have claimed that one of the major themes of Ponyo on a Cliff is the closeness between a parent and child. |
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