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Hayao Miyazaki does not like AI-generated animation.

The post This Digital Artist Wishes He Had Never Shown His Work To Hayao Miyazaki appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The three-night limited release also includes the North American debut of the 25-minute Ghibli short "Ghiblies: Episode 2."

The post ‘Spirited Away’ Is Returning to Theaters For Its 15th Anniversary appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Can't keep a good man down!

The post Hayao Miyazaki Fails At Retirement Again—Plans to Make Another Feature Film appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Ghibli's first international co-production is directed by "Father and Daughter" director Michael Dudok de Wit.

The post Studio Ghibli’s ‘The Red Turtle’ Will Premiere At Cannes appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Takahata claims he's "too busy at work" to become a member of the organization that hands out the Oscars.

The post Isao Takahata Rejects the Academy’s Invitation To Become A Member appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Japan's influential and inspiring animation genius celebrates a milestone birthday today.

The post Happy 75th Birthday, Hayao Miyazaki! appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Ranging from the technical to the quirky to the essential, these holiday electives make great presents for animation pros and fans.

The post Cartoon Brew’s Last-Minute Animation Gift Guide appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Yonebayashi's second feature "When Marnie Was There" arrives on Blu-ray next week.

Isaoo Takahata's 1991 efort is the only Studio Ghibli film never to have receive a North American release.

Studio Ghibli's most memorable characters come to life in the digital environments of this tribute short.

The films of the legendary Japanese filmmaker will be screened in Switzerland over the next couple months.

The films of the legendary Japanese filmmaker will be screened in Switzerland over the next couple months.

Forget dressing up as anime characters, fans are dressing up as anime creators.

"There’s nothing inherently wrong or right about a method, whether it be pencil drawings or 3-D CG," Miyazaki says.

The famed Japanese studio released its latest work today.

Your guide to the best Internet animation available via streaming and video-on-demand.

Just when you thought you had enough of 2014 year-end lists, it’s now 2015 and time to begin everyone’s “halfway through the decade” retrospective lists.

The folks at Fandor are the first out of the gate, as they asked 290 film critics (and assorted other movie lovers) what they thought the best films of 2010-2014 were.

The 26 films below veer more towards the art house end of the spectrum, but there’s some great representation for filmmakers like The Coen Bros, Terrence Malick, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, etc…

The Best Films of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)
1. The Tree of Life (103 votes)
2. Certified Copy (91 votes)
3. The Master (76 votes)
4. Margaret (68 votes)
5. Holy Motors (66 votes)
6. A Separation (64 votes)
7. Under the Skin (61 votes)
8. Inside Llewyn Davis (59 votes)
9. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (45 votes)
10. Boyhood (44 votes)
11. Goodbye to Language (41 votes)
12. The Social Network (40 votes)
13. Moonrise Kingdom (36 votes)
14. Her (33 votes)
(tie) Leviathan (2012)
16. Mysteries of Lisbon (32 votes)
17. The Act of Killing (28 votes)
(tie) The Turin Horse
19. Before Midnight (27 votes)
(tie) Melancholia
(tie) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
22. Frances Ha (25 votes)
(tie) The Wolf of Wall Street
24. The Immigrant (24 votes)
(tie) Spring Breakers
Tabu

As far as comic-based (or related) films go: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World came in at #36, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises made it in at #44, Blue is the Warmest Color is #56, The Dark Knight Rises wound up at #141 along with Snowpiercer. Kick-Ass, We Are The Best and X-Men: Days of Future Past also received one vote each, landing them at #248.

I’m surprised to see there wasn’t any support for The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, especially given the recent WGA nod for the latter. I’m sure 5 more years, and further perspective, will alter much of this list dramatically. Regardless, there’s a lot of stunning cinema here, and it’s a great list for anyone looking to check out something new, or a film they might have missed over the past few years.

And here’s a nice video compilation of the top 26:

"I do think that animation can have a language of its own, rather than simply mimicking live action."

Back in September 2013, Hayao Miyazaki shocked the world when he announced that he was retiring from making feature-length films. It turns out that the Oscar-winning animated filmmaker (pictured, via) has other creative projects he wants to focus on.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Miyazaki talked about the manga comic he’s currently drawing. The story follows “samurai in the 16th century, wearing full armor, battling it out with each other.”

Miyazaki wants to take a stab at creating this story because he felt “very dissatisfied with the way that era was depicted in fiction and film, so I wanted to draw something that would reflect the way I thought that era should look.” What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Golden Globes, awarded annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., has revised its rules for the animated feature category. The winner of the category has gone on to win the Oscar in six of the last seven years.

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is putting a special emphasis on animation this year, and has announced that Disney's "Big Hero 6" will be the opening night film of their 27th edition.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the stodgy group of film industry workers who hand out the Oscars, has revealed a list of the 271 people it has invited to become members of its organization this year.

Disney revealed release plans today for Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises at the Toronto International Film Festival. Here are the dates:

The film is slated for limited release in North American theaters on Feb. 21, 2014, and expanded release on Feb. 28, 2014, under the Touchstone Pictures banner. The Wind Rises will also open for Academy Award qualification engagements in New York and Los Angeles Nov. 8-14, 2013, showcasing the original film in Japanese with English subtitles.

It would be safe to assume that the consumer theatrical release will be dubbed in English, even though the Oscar-qualification screenings will be English-subtitled, as pointed out in the press announcement.

Indonesian animator Pinot created a series of Vines to commemorate the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki. You’ve got to hand it to him: he understands the value of every frame and how to get the most out of his six seconds. Pinot explained his love of Miyazaki’s work in an article on Mashable:

My father is a comic illustrator and animator. He followed Walt Disney’s technique and style — always with 24 frames-per-second and all moving objects, even for faces and mouths. ‘In animation, every object has soul. So we move everything except the background,’ he would tell me. He never liked Japanese anime style with its stiff objects and fewer frames per second.

Then, Hayao Miyazaki changed everything. Miyazaki proved that animation with fewer frames could also tell great stories. Best of all, Miyazaki brought a new type of childhood fantasy — not the usual tale of Prince Charming. His stories deliver messages of ecological problems, nature-life reality and strong, high-functioning families. As parents of three kids, I am happy to have Miyazaki’s movies fuel their creativity — a great balance for the fare of Disney princesses.

One of my favorite quote[s] from Miyazaki: ‘Hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation.’ Most people claim they cannot draw, but I’m sure [they] have doodled on a napkin paper. People don’t realize when their hand holds a pen and dances on paper to create swirly lines, they’re creating animation.

How does Pinot do it? Don’t worry, there’s a behind-the-scenes Vine, too:

Earlier today in Tokyo, Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki held a press conference attended by over 600 journalists to formally announce his retirement. He acknowledged that he has said he would quit before: “I’ve mentioned that I would retire many times in the past, so a lot of you must be thinking ‘Oh, not again.’ But this time I am quite serious.”

Miyazaki explained his reasons for why he no longer wants to direct animated features:

I’m not sure you all know exactly what an animation director does. And even if you say ‘animation director’ everyone has their own way of working. I started as an animator, so I have to draw. If I don’t draw, I can’t express myself.

So what happens is, I have to take my glasses off and draw like this. I would have to do that forever. No matter how physically fit and healthy you are, it’s a fact that year after year the amount of time you’re able to concentrate on that decreases. I have experienced this personally, so I know. So, for example I leave my desk 30 minutes earlier compared to during Ponyo. Next I guess it’ll be one hour earlier than that.

Those physical issues that occur with age, there’s nothing you can do about them, and hating them doesn’t make a difference. There’s the opinion that i should just do things a different way, but if I could do that I would have already done a long time ago, so I can’t. Therefore, all I can do is persist in doing things on my terms, and I made the call that feature films would be impossible.

Miyazaki is leaving feature animation on a high note. His new film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) is Japan’s top-grossing film of 2013. At the conference, Miyazaki said that he will continue going into the studio “as long as I can drive and commute back and forth between my home and the studio.” He expects to work for at least another ten years on projects of his choosing, but refused to divulge what those might be, other than hinting that he would become more involved with organizing exhibitions at the Ghibli Museum.

In a self-effacing moment, one of many during the conference, he related what happened when he told his wife that he was retiring:

So, this is the way the conversation about my retirement with my wife went—I said, “Please keep making my bento,” and she said, “Hmph…at your age it’s unheard of to have someone still making your lunch everyday.” So I said, “I am terribly sorry, but I’ll still leave it to you.” I don’t know if I said it that politely.