Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Gendo Senki

I'm enthralled with the production and family disagreements with Studio Ghibli's new film Gendo Senki or Tales from Earthsea. The film is based Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" series. I've looked up summaries of the books (I will read them soon :p) and the movie will focus on "The Farthest Shore." It will have bits and pieces from the other books.
The most interesting part about this movie is that it is directed and storyboarded by Miyazaki's son Goro. Hayao Miyazaki is against his son's directorial debut and they haven't talked since production. At the beginning, I thought it was because he had no previous animation experience (he's actually an architect), but after reading Goro's blog http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/earthsea/blog/ you begin to realize how much he loved the books and how he is careful at every step of the process. He has the whole Ghibli staff helping him. My goodness look at that image...simply beautiful.
Pages 39-41 of his blog reveals his relationship with his father. Goro practically didn't have a father. With animation production consuming Miyazaki, he barely spent time with his family. Goro watched his father's films to discover more about him. This is a problem that happens to a lot of people involved in the industry. I often thought of the sacrifices I will make to pursue my dream and whether it's worth it?
I have full faith that this movie will be a masterpiece. It will definitely be a better adaptation of a book than Howl's Moving Castle. The animation is reminiscent of Nausicaa. I think the movie would have less spectacular action scenes and focus on the teaching and relationships of the characters. The first trailer is available on-line. http://www.catsuka.com/news_detail.php?id=1140663861 Click on the link and keep refreshing until it downloads.

1 comment:

E.A. said...

Incredible post! Talk about retrieving little-known information. This info is as little-known as it gets.

Never lose your passion for animation, Melon! People (including Bill Plympton) find ways to keep doing what they love—right from the comfort of their plush leather chair in their home office. Think about the day traders who sit before their computer all day and crunch (and drop) numbers. Once they step outside that perimeter of activity, they join their daughter or their son’s world, and they fulfill their obligations to their family.

In Miyazaki’s heyday (and by that, I mean towards the beginning of his lengthy career) they didn’t have computers and cell phones equipped with digital cameras. In Miyazaki’s heyday, they worked fast but with the lowest of budgets (in United States Dollars, of course). I don’t doubt that Miyazaki would have spent more time with his family if he had half the modern conveniences that we enjoy now available to him then. But that’s just my opinion—take it for what it’s worth.

All the same, this is fascinating stuff. I posted a line abt. Goro’s animation effort on the scroll at enochallen.com, which I fail to update from day to day. This is miraculous. Between Jeff’s drop on the goings-on at Toonami and your piece here, you guys are fast becoming animation insiderz!