The Legacy of Hayao Miyazaki: Animator and Filmmaker

Japan may be most famous for its anime cartoons but one man has risen above the mundane rendition of the tired reusable anime style and storyline, Hayao Miyazaki. His film career started in 1984 with the classic animated film Nausicca and the Valley of the Wind and has continued till this day with his most recent film Howl's Moving castle. Miyazaki's films are animated, that much is true, but they are anything buy cartoons, but rather visual masterpieces!

Miyazaki attempts to bring an air of realism in his films and delivers on all fronts. While watching one of his characters you almost forget that he or she is only a fictional representation of someone's mind, you see his characters as real individuals. The dialog and stories used are phenomenal and the plots are deep. If you have ever seen a Miyazaki film in the past then you know his style and technique are unmistakable.

Stories are inspired by actual events in both Miyazaki's life and in the world as a whole. His first feature length film, Nausicca and the Valley of the Wind had some major themes that we see in most of his films. Ecology, strong female characters, flight and morally ambiguous characters all play a role in his films. Miyazaki has always had a fascination with flight and so this influence is shown prominently with his movies, from the floating castle Laputa, and the airships of Castle in the Sky, to the wild flights by broomstick in Kiki's delivery Service.

The following are all films by the acclaimed director.

Nausicca and the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Kiki's Delevery Service (1989)
Poco Rosso (1992)
Princess Mononoki (1997)
Spirited Away (2001)
Howl's Moving Castle (2005)

Many of Miyazaki's films have received various awards and honors. The film Princess Mononoki was Japan's highest grossing film of all time, until Titanic hit box offices, making the film Japan's 2nd highest grossing movie in history. Miyazaki retired after directing Princess Mononoki, but returned to the animated world with the 2001 release of Spirited Away, and we are all glad he did.

Spirited Away was based in part on the daughter of a friend Miyazaki knew and visited over the course of his brief retirement. The film broke all previous existing opening box office records. In total the animated feature grossed over $300 million dollars and was viewed by more then 23 million people. This single film went above and beyond its call and won the 2002 academy award for best animated feature film. This was the first time in history an Oscar was awarded to a Japanese production, proving Miyazaki's worth in the film industry.

In 2005 Miyazaki earned the lifetime achievement award at the Venice film festival. Here he announced his final production called I Lost My Little Boy based on a popular Chinese children's book. We will all miss Hayao Miyazaki's films and all of their prophetic story and character design, however his legacy lives on. His son Goro Miyazaki has taken on the same life of his father becoming a great animator/director. We can look forward to this young mans career as time passes by. Miyazaki has brought so much to the genera of animation, and crossed boarders with his films. They are enjoyed by families across the globe, both adult and children find his stories fun and interesting, when your watching a Miyazaki film you know that your in for a real cinematic treat.