Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Animation

Some people have called him the "Japanese Disney" and I think those people haven't really seen a Miyazaki-film. Even he thinks it's an insult and it is, because Miyazaki is probably the most original filmmaker out there, and to compare him to Disney is like comparing Stanley Kubrick to Steven Spielberg.

So, why is his movies so great. first of all, it's the characters. The characters are so fascinating and 3-dimensional that you can't take your eyes of them. In most of his films he has a female lead and they are always sympathetic and amazingly well-written. Although what I like the most are the villains. The villains are just great. They are so original, hilariously evil and they always have a good reason to be bad. Sonetimes they aren't even that bad, but the circumstances has made turned them into what they are. The best example is lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke. She burns down forests and kills animals so that she can expand her mining colony, but she does it for the love of her own people and even though she does horrible things you feel that she at leasts has some kind of a good thought behind it.














So, the characters are just outstanding, but what else makes his films so special. The animation is of course mind-blowing. Every single frame of his films looks like a piece of art and what makes it even better is Joe Hisaishis music to complete it. Hisaishi is probably my favourite composer of all time, the music ranges to sweet and soft, to epic and heavy.

Then of course it's the stories that keeps you going. Sometimes they're really simple stories, for example My Neighbour Totoro. The story is basically two sisters meets a forest creature and some stuff happens. Not really that complicated. Then you have for example Nausicaä, which is much more complex. The world has basically been destroyed by giant god-warriors. What's left are a few people living in different societies and a huge poisonus forrest filled with giant bugs that can go rampage at any time. Some people live in peace and some want to destroy the forrest and the bugs. So the people that wants to fight the bugs, and the people that wants to live in peace start to fight each other, while the heroine, Nausicaä tries to stop the fighting and both save the bugs and the people, while the bugs are rampaging. Yeah. Just a little more complex.













It's hard to choose a favourite amongst all of his great works, but if I had to choose, I would choose Princess Mononoke. It's the most exciting, most epic, most complex of all his works, so I choose it. But really, all of his films are masterpieces, they're just perfect. The only one I have some problems with is Porco Rosso. It's a little too cartoonish and the characters aren't as complex as in his other films. Still a pretty good movie though.
There's nothing more to say about him, other than I hope he lives a long life, so that he can give us more of these masterpieces.

Screw Disney! This is the real deal!