Director Hayao Miyazaki makes his animated features primarily for Japanese audiences. Yet in his celebrated career as a filmmaker, he's become one of the most respected figures in animation in the world.
Miyazaki is one of the few directors working in feature animation with an immediately recognizable visual style. His swooping aerial shots suggest a child's dream of soaring through the air; he contrasts these visual and emotional flights with moments of quiet intimacy that heighten the reality of his fantasies.
"I don't know of any artist more admired and respected within the animation industry than Miyazaki, as both a storyteller and a filmmaker," said Hendel Butoy, who directed two sequences of Disney's upcoming "Fantasia 2000." "After screenings of his work, I always hear animators saying, 'Why can't we make a film like that?' "
And Eric Goldberg, who animated the Genie in "Aladdin" and co-directed "Pocahontas," commented, "Miyazaki is a master filmmaker, completely in control of all the elements that make an animated film great. That he does so with such visual grace, economy and passion for the joys and fears of childhood is constantly astonishing." Yet as Miramax prepares to release the English-language version of Miyazaki's best-known work, "Princess Mononoke," Friday in Los Angeles, the director said he's frankly puzzled by the acclaim for his work.
"I'm completely baffled by the popularity of my work in America," Miyazaki said with a shrug during a recent interview in Los Angeles. "I think it must prove that for all our superficial differences, we humans have a great deal in common."
Although he speaks through an interpreter, he comes across as a genial, unpretentious man with a mischievous sense of humor. His statements are punctuated with sighs and laughs that require no translation.
The phenomenal ride of "Mononoke" in Japan--it grossed more than $150 million, won best picture at the 1998 Japanese film awards and drew record ratings when it aired on Japanese television earlier this year--perplexes Miyazaki, who noted: "I'm more bewildered by its success than anyone else."
Born in Tokyo in 1941, Miyazaki became interested in animation after seeing early Japanese and Russian animation features. After studying political science and economics, Miyazaki turned his back on a conventional business career to become a manga (comic book) artist and animator.
