In Praise Of Studio Ghibli

Dan Etherington traces the story of the company behind some of the most extraordinary animation ever made, Japan's Studio Ghibli, creators of Ponyo, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away

Pixar's John Lasseter calls Hayao Miyazaki "the greatest animation director living today." Yet it took over 20 years for Miyazaki to gain recognition outside Japan, where the films he made with the production company he co-founded, Studio Ghibli, have broken box office records and are treasured cultural landmarks.The products of Studio Ghibli in general, and its most prolific member in particular, are among the finest animated features ever, with an appeal beyond that of many cartoons. Films such as Miyazaki's Castle In The Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and his colleague Isao Takahata's Pom Poko and Grave Of The Fireflies boast wonderfully realised worlds, elaborate structures (such as flying cities), detailed domestic settings and complex natural worlds populated by bizarre creatures, spirits and sprites. They also feature compelling, sophisticated stories with wide appeal. Many of Miyazaki's pictures focus on strong, independent young women.Ghibli was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki and Takahata, who had met in the 1960s while working for Toei Animation. As well as their love for animation, the pair were united by their politics, with Miyazaki becoming the labour union chief secretary at Toei, and Takahata vice-chairman. In creative terms, Miyazaki worked on the older, more established animator's film The Little Norse Prince, which Takahata began work on in 1965. It would take three years to complete before becoming both a commercial flop and a cult film which revolutionised the traditions of Japanese animation.


In 1971, Miyazaki and Takahata left Toei, and, moving through companies A-Pro and Zuiyo, continued to hone their skills and gather collaborators, men like Yoshifumi Kondo. Takahata produced versions of classic Western tales such as 'Heidi' and 'Anne Of Green Gables', and Miyazaki got his first directing gigs on TV before he landed a feature, 1979's madcap adventure The Castle Of Cagliostro.Miyazaki also worked in manga: his ongoing project was the tale of a young girl called Nausicaä, a heroine in a post-apocalyptic future. This was published in the magazine 'Animage', under the editorship of Toshio Suzuki, who would eventually become one of the core Ghibli producers.


The publishers of 'Animage', Tokuma Shoten, decided to back an anime adaptation, which was released in 1984. It was sufficiently successful to found an animation studio. That studio was Ghibli, named after an Italian 1930s plane, itself named after a desert wind. (Miyazaki's family had a plane parts business).During 1984, Miyazaki visited Britain and spent time in the Rhonda among the striking miners. His experiences would influence the first Ghibli feature, 1986's Castle In The Sky. Where Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind had featured an exotic, terrible future, Castle took place in an early industrial society where nature and technology coexisted and legends were told of a lost, airborne civilisation. Despite Miyazaki playing down his politics in later years, his films, and those of Takahata, frequently deal with the relationship between man and nature, often realised with reference to the folklore and beliefs of Japan, where spirits abound.As its title suggests, sprites make up much of the cast of Spirited Away, the 2001 Studio Ghibli film that won an Oscar, the Berlin Golden Bear and myriad other awards, and would finally give Miyazaki the recognition he deserved. It was a long slog, though. Miyazaki and Takahata had shied away from dealings with the West after their experiences on Nausicaä. Indeed, the film had been so mishandled and abused in the US that it would take a decade before Ghibli would negotiate a distribution deal outside Asia, signing with Disney in 1996.Disney gained video distribution rights for all the films by Miyazaki and Takahata, as well as theatrical rights for 1997's Princess Mononoke. The latter proved problematic, however. Given Miyazaki's experiences on Nausicaä he was emphatic about the Americans not messing with the film beyond an English dub. He even sent Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein a samurai sword and a note saying 'No cuts!' The Disney subsidiary was handling the belated release - effectively it was relegated to the arthouse circuit. Despite comparatively meagre takings in the US, a cult following grew. And key among the Ghibli fans was John Lasseter.The Pixar impresario would oversee the US-English dub of Spirited Away, which, like Mononoke, had broken records in Japan, with admissions amounting to a fifth of the country's population. Like all of Miyazaki's films, it was an eloquent, elaborate coming-of-age tale featuring a girl who becomes involved with the denizens of a magical "Other" world.Since the huge commercial success of Spirited Away, the other films of Studio Ghibli (which went independent in 2005) have become more available, while Miyazaki, despite seeming to retire on a couple of occasions, came back to direct another feature, Howl's Moving Castle, after its original director dropped out.Miyazaki had intended to hand over the reigns of Ghibli to more youthful directors. Neither he nor Takahata were getting any younger, and the former, who had a working policy of checking all the artwork of his animators, doubted he could sustain the output. Alongside Miyazaki's incredible array of masterpieces and those of Takahata, the studio has also released works from other directors. Key among these was 1995's Whisper Of The Heart, which was directed by Kondo. Miyazaki saw the younger man as his successor but tragically he died in 1998 aged just 47.Although Miyazaki formally quit Ghibli in January 1998, he "formally returned" as shocho ("head of the office") in January 1999. Little by little he's changed his working practices, even starting to accept the use of computers in the production process.Despite the older Miyazaki playing down politics - "Just because I make films about the environment doesn't mean I'm contributing something to society" - films like Princess Mononoke speak with a quiet, poetic assertiveness about the delicate balance between man and nature, as does Takahata's Pom Poko, a singular tale of shape-shifting raccoon dogs fighting urbanisation.There's never been a studio like Ghibli, which is the world's most successful animation house outside the US. This is despite it being, in the words of Suzuki, "a small company", one where even the founders have punch-cards. As well as the incredible skill and dedication of the founders, the company is unique in that it produces commercially successful films that are frequently profound and ethical. No other production companies can consistently boast the same virtues - of steeping their work in social significance while making the most marvellous entertainment. Yep, John Lasseter was probably right - but even more so, Miyazaki can even be considered one of the greatest filmmakers living today.