Nothing has changed,” Takahata said.Takahata designed the film to allow the audience to share the process of uncovering the truth behind the well-known story along with the production team. The heavenly abode on the moon is interpreted with historical verisimilitude as a Buddhist paradise devoid of the suffering and color and emotion and pleasure. The film is thus welcome for getting this great artist to do one more big job.This approach of having one talented animator and one talented background artist spearhead their respective sections in a very individualistic way goes back at least to Gauche the Cellist (1982), in which animator Toshitsugu Saida drew all of the key animation and artist Takamura Mukuo drew all of the background art.Although I found the movie somewhat less satisfying than previous Takahata outings, it is still a superbly beautiful film and I am eager to rewatch it again as soon as possible. Legend has it that this mountain was then named “Fuji” which means “immortality”. A co-founder of the legendary Studio Ghibli, Takahata has directed films such as Grave of the Fireflies, proving that "cartoons" can be every bit as powerful as live action cinema.With his final movie The Tale of the Princess Kaguya -- a beautiful adaptation of a thousand-year old Japanese fairy tale, where a bamboo cutter raises a mysterious girl he finds in a tree -- about to open in UK cinemas, WIRED.co.uk had the pleasure of speaking with Takahata on his earliest work in the anime industry, his evolving artistic influences, and Studio Ghibli's legacy.Isao Takahata: No, I had no idea. The current American animation films utilise 3D CG to aim in that direction.But I wonder about the representation of the world we know well, how to depict very ordinary daily landscapes, nature, and people.
But deep down, it's more of an enigma.I've been immersed in Group Tac's Manga Nihon Mukashibanashi for weeks now, so it was inevitable for me to compare the two. His past works have focused on lovable and strong female characters, including his 1970s Japanese TV series "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," based on the book by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.Takahata, who also wrote the screenplay for "Kaguya," does not draw himself.And so visually his works take many styles, from the doe-eyed portrayals typical of Japanese manga, in the 1988 "Grave of the Fireflies," a powerful anti-war tear-jerker, to the oil-painting inspired "Gauche the Cellist," a tasteful 1982 rendition of a classic by early 20th century poet-writer Kenji Miyazawa.Although "Kaguya" is seen as a long-shot in Oscar speculation, Takahata is flattered the work was nominated, as a team of people worked hard on it, he says.Unlike Hayao Miyazaki, another Ghibli star and the 2003 Oscar winner for "Spirited Away," who dislikes traveling, Takahata will attend the Academy Awards ceremony Oct. 22.Takahata confesses to an almost love-hate relationship with Miyazaki because their works are so different.
Studio Ghibli’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
This is the studio that released the whimsical cinematic lullaby “My Neighbour Totoro” on the same bill as “Grave of the Fireflies”, a devastating second-world-war drama that Roger Ebert called the most realistic animated film he’d ever seen, not because of how it looked, but how it felt.In the wake of the retirement of its visionary director, Hayao Miyazaki, last year, Studio Ghibli is taking an indefinite break from the production of new feature films, citing high production costs. It is about a girl born from a bamboo tree who grows up to become a beautiful princess. "And it presents a really interesting contrast to some of the films people are familiar with when they think of Ghibli.