Good morning 🐣

“Animation is not a genre, but a medium that at its best observes and amplifies the nuances of our humanity so that we can see ourselves and ourselves be seen.”

That quote is from Phil Lord’s and Christopher Miller’s opinion piece, “Hollywood Should Elevate, Not Diminish Animation,” recently published in Variety.

Lord and Miller are a filmmaking duo known for making really good movies out of ridiculous concepts (“21 Jump Street” for example). They’ve also done a lot of work in animation, directing both “The LEGO Movie” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” while producing “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (which won Best Animated Feature at the 2019 Oscars) and “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” (nominated!).

They explain:

This year’s winning film, “Encanto,” had a sophisticated theme of how family trauma is passed on generationally that many adults with and without children connected to on a deeply personal level. “Flee,” a heart-wrenching animated documentary about an Afghan refugee, isn’t kids’ stuff, and neither are past nominees “I Lost My Body,” “Waltz With Bashir,” “Persepolis” and on and on. As best animated short winner Alberto Mielgo reminded the audience on Sunday, “Animation is cinema.” A sentiment that bears repeating.

They go on to talk about how Hollywood undermines animation and animators, but offer solutions to fix the problem and bring greater awareness.

Now watch this 👀

If you want to see an absolute animation powerhouse, look no further than Hayao Miyazaki and the company that he co-founded, Studio Ghibli. One of their crowning achievements is “Spirited Away” (now playing on HBO Max), a film that has imagination bursting at the seams.

Now over twenty years old and still the only hand-drawn film to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars (yes, you read that right), “Spirited Away” follows a young girl named Chihiro as she journeys into the spirit realm, working at a bathhouse of the gods while trying to save her parents (who were turned into pigs) and return to the human world.

There is a melancholy to the film. It deals with the themes of greed and obsession versus love and sacrifice. Chihiro is on the cusp of adulthood and discovering who she really is… and then she loses her family, her name, her memories. Yet there is also so much wonder and beauty as she goes on her journey.

I thought of revisiting this film because of a live stage adaptation that recently played in Japan. Toby Olié, puppetry designer and director, shared some images from the production on his Twitter and Web site. Here’s a still from the film:

And here it is recreated on stage:

It also just so happens that Lord and Miller referenced the film in their aforementioned opinion piece. Good timing, guys!

The creature designs alone in this film are astounding. You’ve got:

• frog men,
• spider men with extendable arms,
• giant blobs,
• giant babies,
• witches with giant heads,
• heads with no bodies that just bounce around,
• ghosts with cool, creepy masks,
• dragons, animated objects, and so much more!

It must have been a blast to recreate these as puppets on stage.

“I swiped a dumpling for you.” — Like in all good fairy tales, food plays an important role: it turns Chihiro’s parents into pigs; it acclimates her to the spirit world so she doesn’t physically disappear; it saves people from infection, greed, and death. The animators put so much care into the food. It truly feels like a fully realized world.

Then there are the little moments I adore:

• a frog chef leans out the window for a quick smoke break,
• a chair squats down lower for a witch to sit upon, and
• after throwing up, a spirit quietly says, “Excuse me.”

In the Journal of Religion and Film, Miyazaki states:

In my grandparents’ time, it was believed that spirits existed everywhere — in trees, rivers, insects, wells, anything. My generation does not believe this, but I like the idea that we should all treasure everything because spirits might exist there, and we should treasure everything because there is a kind of life to everything.

I mean just look at these:

The sweetest little soot balls.

Needless to say, this won’t be the last time I recommend a Miyazaki movie.

Let me know what you think of it.

Until next time! 👋