January 31, 2006 "Howl" Nominated for Oscar
"Howl's Moving Castle" has been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar along with "Corpse Bride" and "Wallace and Gromit".
Thanks to Brian Ruh for the news.
January 25, 2006 "Only Yesterday" and "Pom Poko" to air Thursday on Turner Classic Movies
The final installment of the Miyazaki Festival on Turner Classic Movies will be this Thursday evening with the broadcast of two of Isao Takahata's films, "Only Yesterday" and "Pom Poko." "Only Yesterday" will air at 8pm and 12:30am (Eastern) with both showings in Japanese with English subtitles. "Pom Poko" will air at 10:15pm (dubbed) and again at 2:45am (subbed). "Only Yesterday" is being shown both times with subtitles because Disney has not dubbed it. According to our interview with Cindy and Don Hewitt Disney has no current plans to release "Only Yesterday" to home video in the US, so this may be your only chance to catch it. On the other hand, the fact that Disney is allowing it to be broadcast on TCM at all is a hopeful sign that they may yet release it here someday. The TCM website for the films is here.
One of the Miyazaki ML members wrote to TCM asking about future broadcasts of the Ghibli films and received a reply stating that TCM would be showing repeats of these films through the end of May. Currently the February and March schedules are on-line and the only listing on those is for the dub of "Spirited Away" to be shown on Saturday March 28 at 2pm (Eastern).
Thanks to William Raymer for the information on future showings.
January 23, 2006 "Tales from Earthsea" Trailer
According to Goro Miyazaki's January 23 blog (translated) a 3 minute trailer of Tales from Earthsea will be released on February 24.
The trailer was edited by Itagaki Keiichi who has edited the trailers for previous Studio Ghibli films.
Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.
January 23, 2006 "Spirited Away" to air on Cartoon Network
TV Guide Online is listing that Cartoon Network will be showing "Spirited Away" on Friday February 3 from 7 to 10pm (Eastern Time). No word about whether it will be shown widescreen (like it was on Turner Classic Movies) or fullscreen, but it will most certainly have commercial breaks. (source: Animeondvd.com forums)
January 18, 2006 New dubs of "Totoro" and "Whisper of the Heart" premiere Thursday on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies' next installment of Miyazaki films runs Thursday January 19th with the US premieres of the new English dubs of "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Whisper of the Heart." The new dub of "Totoro" will be broadcast from 8pm to 9:30 (Eastern) followed by the dub of "Porco Russo" from 9:30pm to 11:15. The new dub of "Whisper" will be broadcast from 11:15pm to 1:15am. (The subbed versions of all three films will then be broadcast in the same order at 1:15am, 2:45, and 4:30.) Like last week, these film will also be broadcast on TCM Canada.
Although Disney has permitted preview showings of all the other home video dubs at film festivals before, this is the first time they have allowed a commercial television broadcast before the home video release. (Both "Totoro" and "Whisper" will be released on home video in the US on March 7th along with "Howl's Moving Castle.") The information about the whole festival and further information about each film is here on the TCM website.
January 17, 2006 News from Japan
Lawson "Ghibli Museum Monthly Report" reports new two panorama boxes which Miyazaki drew.
http://www.lawson.co.jp/lawson_plus/ghibli/m_report.html
Top: Oni no Meshiya (Ogre's Restaurant) new version
Next: Kagami no Kuni (Country of Mirror)
Next: Yuri Norstein's panorama box
There are seven panorama boxes in the museum.
"Oni no Meshiya" developed into the new museum short film "Yado Sagashi".
"Muzugumo Monmon" developed from panorama box too.
Various characters hide in this panorama box.
Miyazaki interview (in Japanese)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/entertainment/ghibli/cnt_interview_20060117.htm
He gave this interview at the museum.
He is drawing a picture of "The day I bought a star" on a globe.
This globe is exhibited in the museum.
According to the January 16 production diary, 129 of 1,235 (10.45%) cuts of "Tales from Earthsea" were completed by last Friday.
According to Goro's diary on January 10, NHK TV program "Professional" crew comes to the studio every day, and are covering Toshio Suzuki's work. According to Goro, making of Gedo may also be introduced in this program.
The broadcast date of this program will be announced later.
http://www.ghibli.jp/ged_02/20director/000234.html
"Professional" website.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/professional/index.html
Kominica release an elaborate Totoro/Mei/Satsuki figure set next month.
Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news
January 12, 2006 Miyazaki Interview about Museum Shorts and "Tales from Earthsea"
The Daily Yomiuri Online has coverage (in English) of a recent roundtable interview with Miyazaki. He talks about the three newest Studio Ghibli Museum films and has the following comments about his role in the production of Tales of Earthsea:
I won't say anything [about the movie], lend a hand or even look it over. I'm not involved in any way. I'm keeping myself to myself in my studio as whenever we see each other we quickly start to feel tension.
The relationship between a parent and a child isn't easy or simple. And I myself have my own standards to evaluate other people as professionals--whoever they may be.
But I'd never say, "Give up!" even if I didn't like something he was doing. I've never said anything like that to him.
January 11, 2006 "Nausicaa" and "Castle in the Sky" showing Thursday on Turner Classic Movies
The North American cable channel Turner Classic Movies will continue their Miyazaki Festival this Thursday evening with the showing of "Nausicaa" and "Castle in the Sky." The dubbed versions will be broadcast at 8 and 10pm (Eastern Time) followed by the subtitled versions at 12:15 and 2:15am. John Lasseter and Ben Mankiewicz (TCM's Animation host) do a short introduction to each film in this series. The website for the film series is here and TCM is running a contest giving away Ghibli DVDs and books here.
These and the rest of the films will be broadcast on TCM Canada. TCM confirmed last week that it was a problem in getting the Canadian broadcast rights that prevented them from showing "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" on TCM Canada.
January 9, 2006 Reminder: FilmFour Studio Ghibli Season
The UK-based TV channel FilmFour is broadcasting 11 works from Miyazaki and Takahata. Full listing with showtimes.
Thanks to Joss Widdowson and Neodemi for the news.
January 5, 2006 Miyazaki's 65th Birthday
Today (January 5) is Miyazaki's sixty-fifth birthday.
Happy Birthday, Sensei!
May you have many more years and many more films!
from Team Ghiblink
January 5, 2006 Miyazaki featured on BBC4 special
Starting on Wednesday January 10 the British film critic Jonathan Ross will host a three-part series on BBC4 about Asian Cinema entitled Asian Invasion. The first part will focus on Japanese film, both live-action and anime. Miyazaki's work will be featured along with the work of Mamoru Oshii and Katsuhiro Otomo.
The website for this episode is here.
January 3, 2006 "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" Showing Thursday on Turner Classic Movies
This is a reminder about the beginning of the Miyazaki Festival on the North American cable channel Turner Classic Movies. The dub of "Spirited Away" will be shown at 8 pm (Eastern time) on Thursday January 5 followed by the dub of "Princess Mononoke" at 10:15 pm. The subtitled versions will be shown afterwards at 1 am and 3:15 am respectively. They will be broadcast in widescreen format and without commercial interruptions. The website at Turner Classic Movies about the Miyazaki Festival is at
http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/thismonth/article/?cid=114160
and contains lengthy articles about each of the movies along with film clips.
TCM is also holding a contest with the winner receiving 3 DVDs, 5 books, and 5 graphic novels.
Update: While the Canadian schedule doesn't list "Spirited Away" and "Mononoke Hime" the other films are listed later in the month.
Thanks to Ryan Luttio for the news.
January 3, 2006 "Earthsea" Interview with Producer Toshio Suzuki
Ghibli World has links to the first large interview with Tales from Earthsea Producer Toshio Suzuki.
One interesting note is that initial production started in October 2003.