"After seeing a brief demo of a grotesque zombie-esque creature, Miyazaki pauses and says that it reminds him of a friend of his with a disability so severe he can’t even high five. “Thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find [it] interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
He's disgusted by the creature, not the computer based technique. While he's on record as disapproving of CGI, Earwig and the Witch, directed by his son, used CGI so his disapproval isn't absolute.
I don't really (honestly) understand this critique.
What's wrong in being honest?
Goro works are inferior to his father's works on many levels.
He's no amateur, that's for sure, but he's no master either.
Among the best Japanese animation artists, he's probably average.
He's no Takahata, Oshii, Otomo, Anno, Watanabe, Hosoda by a long shot.
Hayao worst rated works on Rotten Tomatoes are "The cat returns" and "The wind rises" and I completely agree on that, with a rating of 88%.
Goro worst is "Earwig and the Witch" that I have not watched with a 28%, "Tales From Earthsea" that I've seen and did not like much with 38% and the best is "From Up on Poppy Hill" with 87%, which was good, but not "Spirited Away", "Princess Mononoke" or "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" good.
And Nausicaa itself is not as good as a movie as the manga, that is an order of magnitude better!
I mean if you showed me that saying that in a couple thousand generations it will beat a team of animators or Mocap performers at a walk cycle, I'd tell you to get lost and roll the dice on my animators. Miyazaki has no mercy.
He also called his son's first film crap, again I'd be less blunt about it but I have to agree. I saw Earwig and the Witch. Holy crap its bad.
Earwig and the Witch was a really fun movie to watch back when the Gamestop short squeeze was in the news. It's a film about overcoming cruelty and injustice through a hacker mindset, rather than resolving conflict through cathartic resistance. Goro in an interview said:
> "Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Tomino, are, in a manner of speaking, the first generation of those who experienced the war, who saw a radical change in values. Their opposition to authority and violence began from a certain kind of resistance, and they came together to make something, to start building something new. I think it's a kind of revolutionary mindset. But it's not possible for those of us who were born amid the period of economic development to possess that. The answer I've come to now, which made me think while making movies, is found in Earwig."
> "There's dubious stuff going on across the world, and there's no rosy future waiting after an upheaval. And this state of affairs will probably continue," Goro says. "If people rose up democratically against violence, would stable peace eventuate? It's a very difficult situation. I get the feeling that an ending with catharsis isn't something you should portray without careful consideration. At the same time, we need some kind of fantasy to live mentally enriched. We realized the time has come to decide on where to put emphasis."
fwiw, Earwig and the Witch, while produced by Studio Ghibli, was not a Hayao Miyazaki film (it was directed by his son) and was critically panned. Definitely one to skip.
My favorites were probably "Grave of the Fireflies" (warning: it's heavy and devastating), "Pom Poko" (very funny), "From Up on Poppy Hill", "Arrietty" to name a few. The fantasy-centered films are good, but my personal taste tends to lean towards the slice-of-life/coming-of-age films so that's why those were some of my favorites.
The only truly "bad" movie of the bunch is their latest from 2020: "Earwig and the Witch". It's computer generated instead of hand-drawn but it looks like a computer generated film from the early '90s. Just ugly and uninspired. And the story was not good. It had promise but did absolutely nothing with it. Very disappointing film. Thankfully, it looks like their next release (summer 2023) will be back to the hand-drawn style.
On one hand, it is one of the few studios whose name is a quality stamp in and by itself. But unlike Disney and Pixar it doesn't seem like they've managed to foster or acquire talent to continue the studio.
Who is left to continue the legacy?
- Hayao Miyazaki is 80, and likely won't be able to make more movies after this one.
- Isao Takahata (Only yesterday, Yamadas and Kaguya Hime) has passed away.
- Yoshifumi Kondo (whisper of the heart) was set to be a new generation for Ghibli, but tragically died in the late 90s.
- Hiromasa Yonebayashi (When Marnie was there, Arietty) left and started his own Studio.
And then there is Goro Miyazaki, who I think is being overly harshly criticized. I didn't enjoy Earthsea, but its not like other directors don't have misses in their early career[1]. I haven't seen Ronja, but I've heard good things about it and Up on Poppy Hill is as great as any Ghibli film. Earwig and the Witch doesn't look all that great, but it is a strait-to-tv movie being released in cinema. But even so, that isn't a strong contender for continuing Ghibli.
So what is left? Is the studio gonna die out?
[1] I went to see a Makoto Shinkai (Your Name) movie festival, and some of his early work was less than impressive.
Hacker Cinema
8 comments on Hacker News
The article you link to directly quotes him:
"After seeing a brief demo of a grotesque zombie-esque creature, Miyazaki pauses and says that it reminds him of a friend of his with a disability so severe he can’t even high five. “Thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find [it] interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
He's disgusted by the creature, not the computer based technique. While he's on record as disapproving of CGI, Earwig and the Witch, directed by his son, used CGI so his disapproval isn't absolute.
I don't really (honestly) understand this critique.
What's wrong in being honest?
Goro works are inferior to his father's works on many levels.
He's no amateur, that's for sure, but he's no master either.
Among the best Japanese animation artists, he's probably average.
He's no Takahata, Oshii, Otomo, Anno, Watanabe, Hosoda by a long shot.
Hayao worst rated works on Rotten Tomatoes are "The cat returns" and "The wind rises" and I completely agree on that, with a rating of 88%.
Goro worst is "Earwig and the Witch" that I have not watched with a 28%, "Tales From Earthsea" that I've seen and did not like much with 38% and the best is "From Up on Poppy Hill" with 87%, which was good, but not "Spirited Away", "Princess Mononoke" or "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" good.
And Nausicaa itself is not as good as a movie as the manga, that is an order of magnitude better!
I mean if you showed me that saying that in a couple thousand generations it will beat a team of animators or Mocap performers at a walk cycle, I'd tell you to get lost and roll the dice on my animators. Miyazaki has no mercy.
He also called his son's first film crap, again I'd be less blunt about it but I have to agree. I saw Earwig and the Witch. Holy crap its bad.
Earwig and the Witch was a really fun movie to watch back when the Gamestop short squeeze was in the news. It's a film about overcoming cruelty and injustice through a hacker mindset, rather than resolving conflict through cathartic resistance. Goro in an interview said:
> "Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshiyuki Tomino, are, in a manner of speaking, the first generation of those who experienced the war, who saw a radical change in values. Their opposition to authority and violence began from a certain kind of resistance, and they came together to make something, to start building something new. I think it's a kind of revolutionary mindset. But it's not possible for those of us who were born amid the period of economic development to possess that. The answer I've come to now, which made me think while making movies, is found in Earwig."
> "There's dubious stuff going on across the world, and there's no rosy future waiting after an upheaval. And this state of affairs will probably continue," Goro says. "If people rose up democratically against violence, would stable peace eventuate? It's a very difficult situation. I get the feeling that an ending with catharsis isn't something you should portray without careful consideration. At the same time, we need some kind of fantasy to live mentally enriched. We realized the time has come to decide on where to put emphasis."
fwiw, Earwig and the Witch, while produced by Studio Ghibli, was not a Hayao Miyazaki film (it was directed by his son) and was critically panned. Definitely one to skip.
My favorites were probably "Grave of the Fireflies" (warning: it's heavy and devastating), "Pom Poko" (very funny), "From Up on Poppy Hill", "Arrietty" to name a few. The fantasy-centered films are good, but my personal taste tends to lean towards the slice-of-life/coming-of-age films so that's why those were some of my favorites.
The only truly "bad" movie of the bunch is their latest from 2020: "Earwig and the Witch". It's computer generated instead of hand-drawn but it looks like a computer generated film from the early '90s. Just ugly and uninspired. And the story was not good. It had promise but did absolutely nothing with it. Very disappointing film. Thankfully, it looks like their next release (summer 2023) will be back to the hand-drawn style.
He has 4 works to his name, and I have a bit of a difficulty to attach them to your timeline.
- Tales from Earthsea
- Ronja, the Robber's Daughter, (3D animated, made to look like drawings)
- From Up on Poppy Hill (which I'd excuse anyone from mistaking for a Hayao movie)
- Earwig and the Witch (3D, made to look like cgi)
So what is left for Ghibli?
On one hand, it is one of the few studios whose name is a quality stamp in and by itself. But unlike Disney and Pixar it doesn't seem like they've managed to foster or acquire talent to continue the studio.
Who is left to continue the legacy?
- Hayao Miyazaki is 80, and likely won't be able to make more movies after this one.
- Isao Takahata (Only yesterday, Yamadas and Kaguya Hime) has passed away.
- Yoshifumi Kondo (whisper of the heart) was set to be a new generation for Ghibli, but tragically died in the late 90s.
- Hiromasa Yonebayashi (When Marnie was there, Arietty) left and started his own Studio.
And then there is Goro Miyazaki, who I think is being overly harshly criticized. I didn't enjoy Earthsea, but its not like other directors don't have misses in their early career[1]. I haven't seen Ronja, but I've heard good things about it and Up on Poppy Hill is as great as any Ghibli film. Earwig and the Witch doesn't look all that great, but it is a strait-to-tv movie being released in cinema. But even so, that isn't a strong contender for continuing Ghibli.
So what is left? Is the studio gonna die out?
[1] I went to see a Makoto Shinkai (Your Name) movie festival, and some of his early work was less than impressive.