What Disney lacks...

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 1998)

The king of Japanese animation displays his (as of yet) most carefully crafted work. As in all his movies, the audience must be prepared to enter into a magical world, where the background scenes are beautifully painted in a realistic manner, but are imaginary and fantastic... To be taken to a mythical Japan where wolves have two tails, where forests are inhabited by head-ticking spirits, and where boars can be cursed with hatred, seems at first to be an exciting adventure. But we find that this world is all too real. At the center of this epic is a battle between man and nature. People kill animals and trees... as well as each other. Trees are burned for iron, iron is used for guns, and the guns are used for war. People die, animals die, and spirits die. But Miyazaki is a messenger of hope. He claims to want to show children not how the world is, but how it could be. His characters are neither evil nor good, and so they allow for change. Disney could learn from this. The magic of Disney lies in its abiltiy to tell happy tales of good people vs. evil people. The magic of Miyazaki lies in his philosophy. His love for craft, and his relentless passion for animation and story-telling allows him to produce movies that are original and breathtaking. The effort that he places in the creation of his art guarantees that his work is worth watching, at least once. And for that effort, we as an audience should put in the proper effort to try and understand what this director is getting at, as well as the effort of appreciating the animation itself. There are scenes in this movie that Disney cannot do (at least not yet) simply because of the technique. Miyazaki deserves a place with the masters. He has shown that animation is no child's play.