BREAKING NEWS: Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli Announces the Opening of The Studio Ghibli Theme Park Near Nagoya in 2022 !

Fans of Hayao Miyazaki legendary Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio will be overjoyed to learn that today April 25 was announced the Studio Ghibli theme park, scheduled to open in Nagoya, Japan, in 2022! The fantasy world of Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki will come to life as a theme park, set to open in central Japan in 2022, the regional government said Wednesday.

Hayao Miyazaki is the cofounder of Studio Ghibli, Japan’s premier animation studio, and is renowned internationally with huge followings in Japan and abroad for his Award winning animated films including “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away”, beloved by millions of fans around the world. “Spirited Away” won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003 — the first Japanese film to win one.




Studio Ghibli has released concept-arts for the park - that you can see above and below- which will be built by 2022 on a 200-hectare plot of land on which the 2005 World’s Fair was held near Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture. The park construction cost and other details were yet to be decided, an Aichi official said.

The theme park will feature rides and forest trails based on the master animator’s popular fantasy films, including “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Howl’s Moving Castle,”. The park will also be dotted with the European-themed brick towers that appear frequently in Miyazaki’s works, as well as giant installations of spider- and boar-shaped spirits in imaginary landscapes that evoke Japan’s mythical and idyllic past. The focus will be on bringing Studio Ghibli to life in a way that allows parkgoers to also enjoy nature.

The main gate should remind park goers of 19th-century structures out of Howl’s Moving Castle ( image on top ) as well as a recreation of Whisper of the Heart’s antique shop. Below, The Big Ghibli Warehouse, which is filled with all sorts of Ghibli themed play areas as well as exhibition areas and small cinemas. Apparently this are will be under a dome like Tokyo Disneyland World Bazaar.


The theme park will feature rides and forest trails based on Hayao Miyazaki films.



Princess Mononoke village will be recreated.


Above, Witch Valley, will feature attractions based on Miyazaki's Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service.


Dondoko Forest will be Totoro themed. The area is already home to the house from My Neighbor Totoro, built for the 2005 World’s Fair.

This is extremely exciting news and Disney and more will follow the project and will let you know!

Pictures: copyright Studio Ghibli

News From Hayao Miyazaki Press Conference About His Retirement From Animated Movies

As you've read a few days ago Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki has announced that The Wind Rises will be his last movie. As expected a press conference happened this morning in Japan - picture below - and D&M have more explanations about his decision.

First, it was in fact Koji Hoshino, the director of production who announced it at Venise Film Festival as Miyazaki couldn't attend the event. But unfortunately this changes nothing as Miyazaki confirmed during the press conference that "this time it's true, i said it to the producer".

But, Miyazaki also said "I would like to work 10 more years but i think that doing long animated movies is not my work anymore".  Although Miyazaki said many times in the past that he was going to stop, mainly because of the huge work that request an animated movie, this time seems to be the good one even if he wants to continue to work freely during the next ten years: "I'm going to be free. That said, as long as i will be able to take my car to go working at Studio Ghibli, i will go, and what i want to do i will do it" without giving more details.

"Kaze Tachinu - The Wind Rises - took me five years to achieve.  If i was thinking doing a new movie it will take me six or seven years to do it. I will be soon 73 and and it means that i will be 80 at the end" added Miyazaki who consider that he has to dedicate these years of his life to something different.

So, here is the truth from the master's mouth. May be we will have the luck to see short animated movies from Miyazaki but don't count seeing a new long animated movie after the release of The Wind Rises, which will be distributed by Disney as Disney confirmed recently, without giving any specific dates.

Top picture : copyright Missinglink71

Hayao Miyazaki's new animated movie " Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea " is a wonder !

"Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" is the title of Hayao Miyazaki - the genius Japanese animated movie director - last movie. It was released last year in Japan where Miyazaki is almost a god, and as usual the movie had a tremendous success. "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" will be released in the U.S in August, but it was released this week in France! In two words - well, three, actually - it's a wonder, and let me tell you why.

"Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" is somehow inspired by the story of the Little Mermaid. Yes, that's right, the same story that inspired Disney's classic animated. But Miyazaki transform all of it in a Japanese tale, so i think we can say that the Little Mermaid inspiration is not that obvious. Which is not the problem, as Miyazaki's tale is wonderful.



Please note that from now on, as i am going to tell you more about the story, there will be some spoilers. If you want to avoid them, just look at the pictures and the trailer at the end of the article.

"Ponyo" is a 2D animated movie, just like in the good old days of animation. The very beginning of the movie is a gorgeous scene showing life under sea.




"Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" tells the story of a 5 years old boy - called Suzuke - living with his mother on a house located at the top of a cliff. One morning, as he goes down on the beach to play with his little boat...



...he find - stuck in a bottle - a fish, half fish-half human who will be called "Ponyo", who also have magical gifts.



Ponyo - in fact a girl - is the daughter of Fujimoto - a kind of "sorcerer" living in the deep ocean who left the world of humans, disgusted by how humans keep destroying the sea's ecological system.



Her mother is a kind of Goddess of the sea.



Ponyo also have dozens of "little" sisters...



...all excited to see Ponyo's transgression of the undersea world rules.



Suzuke, the young boy, will try to keep Ponyo, feeding her - she loves ham! or playing with her...





Suzuke's mother watch all this closely...



...but Fujimoto the sorcerer will try to get Ponyo back undersea...

This is only the first twenty minutes of the movie, and from that point lot of great scenes awaits you, like a stunning typhoon-tsunami sequence, an animation wonder, and many other scenes that transform the movie in a waking dream, sublimated by the gorgeous score of Joe Hisaishi, Miyazaki's regular composer.



The whole movie is full of poetry and at first sight it seems to be an animated film for young children. But as always with Miyazaki it's more complicated than that. The ecological message is obvious and grown-ups will be amazed by the inside beauty of the movie, precisely coming from its incredible childhood's purity.

In a recent interview, Miyazaki explained why Suzuke, the young boy, is 5 years old: "It's a personal theory, i think that at 5 years old a young child is still at the border between human and god. When a baby is born he's godlike and then become ordinary, mortal, but individual..."




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Hayao Miyazaki, now 68 years old, keep saying that Ponyo is his last movie, let's hope not. How could we live without a new Miyazaki's masterpiece?



All pictures and french trailer video: copyright Studio Ghibli