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Miyazaki eyes US animation success
Source: Agencies |
August 13, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DIRECTOR Hayao Miyazaki is considered a master of animation in his native Japan, and when Disney releases his latest movie "Ponyo" tomorrow the studio hopes to score with an entirely different audience - mainstream US movie fans.
Disney has tried before with other Miyazaki films in the United States and Canada, but has found little success.
In 2003, his "Spirited Away" earned a best animated film Oscar, but only US$10 million at US and Canadian box offices. In 2005, his "Howl's Moving Castle" made only US$4.7 million in ticket sales.
Elsewhere around the world, "Spirited Away" hauled in US$265 million and "Howl's Moving Castle" drew US$230 million.
For "Ponyo," Disney went Hollywood with a Miyazaki film by enlisting star names like Tina Fey, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett to provide the voices in a bid to bolster the movie's appeal.
Moreover, the studio's chief creative office and Pixar whiz, John Lasseter, who is considered a master of computer animation having directed "Toy Story," "Cars" and other movies, signed up to produce an English-language version.
Miyazaki, 68, has been called "the Walt Disney of Japan," but he insists that the tag is unwarranted because the late Walt Disney was a "business person" and he himself is "just a director."
In "Ponyo," which was produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, a fish named Ponyo wants to become a little girl, and she befriends a boy named Sosuke in a Japanese coastal town.
Boy and fish fall in love, but when Ponyo magically becomes a human girl, her transformation triggers powerful forces that threaten to upset the world's natural balance.
Disney has tried before with other Miyazaki films in the United States and Canada, but has found little success.
In 2003, his "Spirited Away" earned a best animated film Oscar, but only US$10 million at US and Canadian box offices. In 2005, his "Howl's Moving Castle" made only US$4.7 million in ticket sales.
Elsewhere around the world, "Spirited Away" hauled in US$265 million and "Howl's Moving Castle" drew US$230 million.
For "Ponyo," Disney went Hollywood with a Miyazaki film by enlisting star names like Tina Fey, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett to provide the voices in a bid to bolster the movie's appeal.
Moreover, the studio's chief creative office and Pixar whiz, John Lasseter, who is considered a master of computer animation having directed "Toy Story," "Cars" and other movies, signed up to produce an English-language version.
Miyazaki, 68, has been called "the Walt Disney of Japan," but he insists that the tag is unwarranted because the late Walt Disney was a "business person" and he himself is "just a director."
In "Ponyo," which was produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, a fish named Ponyo wants to become a little girl, and she befriends a boy named Sosuke in a Japanese coastal town.
Boy and fish fall in love, but when Ponyo magically becomes a human girl, her transformation triggers powerful forces that threaten to upset the world's natural balance.
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