Hayao Miyazaki
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Luca (2021)
Directed by Enrico Casarosa
influenced by Porco Rosso (1992), Ponyo (2008), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997)
Themes Visuals
Casarosa has said that the Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki was a major influence on both the movie’s look and its themes: The sea-to-land-creature transformation the boys regularly undergo recalls the dimorphic nature of Ponyo ’s fish-girl heroine, while the name of the human village they frequent, Portorosso, evokes the title of the Studio Ghibli film Porco Rosso .
The beautiful and vibrant animation, once again inspired by the hand-drawn works of Miyazaki (the town Portorosso is even a direct reference to Ghibli flick Porco Rosso ), colourfully brings to life this wonderful region of Europe.
The film would rather evoke Guadagnino and Hayao Miyazaki, especially the latter’s Porco Rosso ; the 1992 movie is an obvious touch point.
Ercole’s last name is Visconti, one of countless movie allusions the filmmakers have tucked into the margins of the frame, most of which — the town’s sly nod to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Porco Rosso” aside — will prove catnip for lovers of Italian cinema in particular.
Once Luca and Alberto officially go to land, to the village of Portorosso – a cute nod to Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso – and we meet the character of Giulia (Emma Berman) and learn about a race held every year in the village, things start to fall in place and build narrative momentum.
Once committed to their plan, the best buds leave the water for the last time and try to make their way in the human village of Portorosso (a cheeky nod to Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso , whose influences are peppered throughout the film).
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Directed by John Musker
influenced Ponyo (2008), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Spirited Away (2001)
Characters Visuals Themes Music Plot
But, very much in the plus column -- and reportedly one of the chief reasons for its phenomenal success in Japan and Europe -- is its spunky heroine, who could be the most charmingly resourceful girl-child protagonist to grace an animated film since "The Little Mermaid."
It’s a lot like Miyazaki’s other films, but his style is completely different from animated features like DreamWorks’ Madagascar, Pixar’s Toy Story, or even Walt Disney’s run of features from The Little Mermaid to The Lion King.
Although it will draw thematic comparisons to "The Little Mermaid" and "Finding Nemo," it's unlike any other animated feature – excepting, of course, Miyazaki's own.
The Disney picture, "The Little Mermaid," is a musical, not unlike "The Sound of Music," and while it happens to be an undisputed classic, it also feels very old-fashioned in its shape and message.
In a story loosely inspired by "The Little Mermaid," five year-old Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) finds a very odd fish, with a face, near his house on the cliff by the sea.
Not surprisingly, Ponyo, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's classic The Little Mermaid , is a huge success in Miyazaki's native Japan.
Wolfwalkers (2020)
Directed by Tomm Moore
influenced by Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Visuals Themes Characters
Aside from the obvious parallels to the epic ecological war of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (there is even a shot of a stag that looks eerily similar to that of the first glimpse of the Spirit of the Forest) and the dreamy trip into a pastoral wonderland of My Neighbor Totoro , Moore and Ross cite The Tale of Princess Kaguya as a source of inspiration — and that latter film’s influence becomes clear in the sketch-like animation style, which feels as if some strange magic has been placed on a storybook that brought it to life.
A similar battle between man and nature has been explored wonderfully in animations such as Princess Mononoke (1997) and The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), and Cartoon Saloon handles weighty themes with just as much intelligence and perhaps even a greater degree of style.
As well as this, there is the inspiration from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke (1997), but instead of Wolfwalkers being an Irish version of this, Cartoon Saloon have created something unique.
An instance where Robyn stands fearless with her hair blowing in the wind as she defiantly demands her father refrain from committing an act of cruelty or one riding a massive wolf through the gates of town echoing Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke,” vibrate with unforgettable heroism.
Bill doesn’t seem all that passionate about liquifying the lupine population that have lived in the area for God knows how long — even if they travel in scary, gnashing packs that are closer in spirit to the sacred wildlife of “Princess Mononoke” than the talking creatures found in most Disney cartoons — but any resistance poses a direct risk to his spirited young daughter Robyn (a plucky and expressive Honor Kneafsey), a tow-headed tomboy who so closely resembles Saoirse Ronan that the “Little Women” star might deserve some royalties.
And as much as Moore’s focus is on Ireland’s history, his work also communicates with like-minded movies: Brave, Princess Mononoke, Ferngully, Avatar, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy—stories about environmental destruction, mankind’s dominion over Earth, and the swift, jarring learning experience of becoming the “other” you so wildly and unreasonably fear.
Okja (2017)
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
influenced by My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001)
Plot Visuals Themes
The story, like its titular gigantic pig-hippo, is a hybrid, nodding to kid-creature teams from E.T. to My Neighbor Totoro, while also dabbling in both farcical and sincere ecodrama.
These are charming scenes, reminiscent of “Pete’s Dragon” (as she tosses real fruit to the animated creature) and “My Neighbor Totoro” (right down to the way Mija naps on the giant beast’s belly), featuring great visual effects work on the creature, designed to look adorably dog-like.
In a first act that is strongly reminiscent of Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, Bong charmingly portrays the loving bond between Mija and Okja as they cavort about the forest, pick persimmons, of which Okja is particularly fond, and take naps in the shade with Mija cozily stretched out atop Okja’s massive stomach.
In many ways the film comes on like a children’s story, with scenes of Mija and Okja in an idyllic forest capturing in live-action the same sense of wonder as Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “My Neighbor Totoro”), whom Bong has acknowledged as an influence, before the action takes increasingly ominous, darker turns.
It could be called either audacious or misjudged when the final act takes us to a factory farm for giant pigs, where the film startlingly turns into something between My Neighbor Totoro and Le Sang des Bêtes.
The first half is weird and tough; until you realised you have to read the film like a fable; it’s like a live-action version of Spirited Away where a tough, innocent child goes on a wondrous, painful journey.
A Letter to Momo (2012)
Directed by Hiroyuki Okiura
influenced by My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001)
Plot Themes Visuals
Though his previous work as a director was 1999's very different "Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade," Okiura and the key members of his creative team have connections to many classic anime, including "Ghost in the Shell," "Spirited Away" and "Paprika."
It's a vague mix of elements from My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away , with a sweet, lost girl and a few scary, but helpful monsters.
But Letter’s animators, whose credits include Spirited Away (another influence) and Paprika, demonstrate their skill at seamlessly integrating such fantastical elements into the mundane world.
The story recalls “Spirited Away” in its tale of a young girl in a new home who discovers an enchanted world that parents can’t share, but it founders when it tries to evoke Miyazaki’s otherworldly wonder and surreal imagery.
It’s not as fantastical as “ Spirited Away ” or many other films about children who encounter the supernatural upon being forced to deal with death, as Momo always stays front and center.
Even so, the animation medium is essential to its unique surreal touches — especially the stunning climactic sequence, which rivals even “Spirited Away” as Momo’s mother falls ill and the spirits must intervene to help save her life.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Directed by Victor Fleming
influenced Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Themes Plot
Melding bits of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz with Eastern-angled spookiness and an outré sensibility that borders on the indescribable, Spirited Away is fiercely original in every respect.
If the children's literature section of your neighborhood bookstore was shuffled up and animated, with painterly sophistication and a Grimm eye for the bizarre, The Phantom Tollbooth and The Wizard of Oz landing on top, the result might look like Spirited Away.
In the tradition of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," "Spirited Away" is about a girl who overcomes her fears when plopped into a strange world and takes control of her fate.
Once inside, however, she loses track of her parents and begins an adventure that echoes everything from "The Wizard of Oz" to "The Never-Ending Story" to "Alice in Wonderland."
The story echoes "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz" as it follows 10-year-old schoolgirl Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase) when she and her parents move to a new city.
Strange, beautifully-animated, moving film that’s like a combination of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz (alongside many other references) yet, at the same time, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
Yellow Submarine (1968)
Directed by George Dunning
influenced Ponyo (2008), Spirited Away (2001)
Themes Visuals
Creative beyond all reason or expectation, this effort from the revered Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is a phenomenal achievement, a gorgeous-looking piece of cinema that stirs memories of everything from Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz to Where the Wild Things Are and Yellow Submarine.
While underwater, she is under the watchful eye of her wizard father, Fujimoto (Liam Neeson), an oceanic impresario who sports striped suits and flowing hair and looks like something out of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine.
Miyazaki's vision of life under the sea is closer to the Pop Art of Yellow Submarine than to the photorealistic luminescence of Finding Nemo.
The early scenes recall Peter Max’s Yellow Submarine, with the father in a blue candy-striped jacket and flowing hair, a kind of undersea ringmaster.
While the story may be inspired by The Little Mermaid, the visuals look more like something out of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine with its extremely bright color palette and almost play doh-like way of movement (the scene of Ponyo chasing Sosuke while riding on a series of fish-shaped tidal waves might be the most stunningly fluid piece of animation Miyazaki and his team of animators have ever accomplished).
Miyazaki pulls you into a world of pure imagination that seems, by turns, inspired by images from Maurice Sendak, Winsor McCay and the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.”
Petite Maman (2021)
Directed by Céline Sciamma
influenced by My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001)
Themes
The film's press notes cite Miyazaki as a major inspiration, with the “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away” vibes growing especially pronounced over the course of a story that blurs the soft borders between real and invented worlds.
Perhaps weirdly, I was reminded most of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated classic My Neighbor Totoro, which is a film given to far more extravagant make-believe (flying creatures, a cat that’s also a bus, and the like). But it is also deeply interested in telling a story about children from their eye level, even if weightier concerns are in the background. In Totoro, the main characters’ mother is convalescing from illness.
Production notes cite Hayao Miyazaki as a guiding influence, and, indeed, the film’s delicate marriage of whimsy and wistfulness has perhaps no greater touchstone than My Neighbor Totoro. Sciamma is likewise interested in these moments where innocence abuts experience and youth’s solipsism suffers the first of its many small deaths.
Nelly’s adventures with the young Marion, lacking in dramatic urgency but instructive to children and adults alike, have already garnered copious comparisons to Hayao Miyazaki’s more sedate films like My Neighbor Totoro. And like Miyazaki’s work, what initially seems a straightforward fable about learning to grow up and enter the world becomes just as passionately a paean to remaining young and retaining the best aspects of childhood.
At times the movie feels like a live-action version of Hayao Miyazaki's anime fantasies like Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro: full of childlike wonderment, but also very matter-of-fact in its approach to magic.
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
Directed by Isao Takahata
influenced by Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
For years Miyazaki has been the international face of Ghibli, with such critical and commercial hits as Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and The Wind Rises (2013).
The director Isao Takahata, who co-founded with Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) the storied Studio Ghibli brand, is no slouch with a pen.
The film is directed by Isao Takahata, a longtime collaborator with Hayao Miyazaki who brought us such masterworks as Princess Mononoke , Spirited Away , and Howl's Moving Castle .
It's actually no surprise that the tradition-revering Academy would favour this delicate, handcrafted work, which showcases the exemplary draughtsmanship of its director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies), a co-founder of Studio Ghibli alongside the more renowned Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, The Wind Rises).
Hayao Miyazaki was responsible for the studio’s international breakthrough in 2001 with Spirited Away, a fantasy so indelibly cuckoo that it makes Alice in Wonderland look like Cathy Come Home.
The oldest of Japanese folk stories (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) gets an elegant and enchanting screen adaptation in this meticulous animation by Isao Takahata, the 78-year-old co-founder with Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) of Studio Ghibli.
Mortal Engines (2018)
Directed by Christian Rivers
influenced by Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Visuals Plot
Based on novels by Philip Reeve, the film’s version of a post-apocalyptic future posits the reign of “traction cities,” metropolises mounted on wheels à la Howl’s Moving Castle.
Well, aside from the endless borrowings from oh, “Star Wars” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” and tech that can seem like props left over from “John Carter” of Mars.
Granted, it is hard to imagine an expert director managing to make something out of this hodgepodge of elements yanked wholesale from other and usually better sources (including ''The Hunger Games,'' ''Mad Max,'' ''Howl's Moving Castle,'' ''Star Wars'' and, inexplicably, ''Lost Horizon'' to name just a few) and populated by one-note characters brought barely to life by actors who struggle to hit even those single notes--the most memorable thing about ostensible heroes Thaddeus and Hester is the fact that they look like slightly off-brand versions of Eddie Redmayne and Elle Fanning.
Influenced by Steampunk, Japanese animation (especially Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle ), 20th Century military technology and so many better movies, this contraption lumbers and thuds almost as much as the plot.
Howl’s Moving Castle competing in The Cannonball Run.
When Marnie Was There (2014)
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
influenced by Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997), The Wind Rises (2013), Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Visuals Themes
While the anime art style and visual storytelling that endeared Ghibli to millions is still present, and arguably its strongest yet in terms of consistency, When Marnie Was There is a minor entry compared to the likes of Spirited Away, or even last year’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
Essentially the Japanese Disney (but arguably more elegant in its storytelling and artistry), Studio Ghibli produced the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, among many others.
Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away”) is the biggest and most prolific member of the studio, who are shuttering, though maybe not for eternity.
Ever since its creation 30 years ago, Studio Ghibli has been making magic out of the moving image, so much so that it’s not a stretch to claim that today—due to the foundation laid by directors Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) and Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies)—it’s become one of the most beloved animation studios in the world.
A far cry from the fanciful set-pieces of Spirited Away, this tale still flirts with the fantastical – even the Gothic – with its story of a troubled adolescent becoming obsessed with an abandoned mansion and the similarly aged girl who lives there; a girl who may be a spirit from decades past.
No, it’s not as big or elaborate or fantasticated as Hayao Miyazaki’s best known films like Spirited Away (2001) or Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).
It still boggles my mind that nearly all the studio’s directors venerate the work of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki (there are a horde of masked coconut beasties in this film which are clear homages to the kodama of Princess Mononoke), yet can’t find time in their own films to simply appreciate silence or stillness for a minute or so.
Maui hollers as they go into battle against a tribe of malevolent coconuts (just go with it; it’s an homage to Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke) — but in Moana’s case that’s clearly not true.
The delightfully pert Emily Mortimer is the young Sophie, and Jean Simmons is her older incarnation—and Simmons is inspired vocal casting because her voice might quaver but her inflections are still those of the young Estella in Great Expectations.
It's great to hear Jean Simmons again, a gorgeous young woman back in the 1940s in David Lean's Great Expectations, Michael Powell's Black Narcissus and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Directed by Isao Takahata
influenced The Wind Rises (2013), Spirited Away (2001)
Themes
Hayao Miyazaki is a great filmmaker and after the success of Spirited Away, I hope he gets the credit he is due as a maker of animated films, and as a director.
Had it not been for Grave of the Fireflies, this single scene would have been the most grim and beautifully depressing thing to ever come out of the Studio–and it’s certainly the most grim and depressing to ever come out of Miyazaki.
As is, it's something more akin to Studio Ghibli's own Grave of the Fireflies in its humanizing of a man whose dreams were corrupted into something terrible.
Seriously, as feeling more conscious of its overlooked dark side, now I wonder whether my viewing of this film could have been improved by a double feature show with other Japanese animation " Grave of the Fireflies " (1988).
Yet just as with Isao Takahata’s “Grave of the Fireflies,” about two children surviving amid the terrors of World War II, it would be hard to argue that the subject of Mr. Miyazaki’s film was cavalierly seized upon.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Directed by Rupert Sanders
influenced by Princess Mononoke (1997)
Characters Visuals Plot
Making considerably less sense is an interlude where Snow White goes into a magical, fairy-filled garden and encounters a spirit god directly lifted from Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" (a great, many-antlered deity).
That entire sequence feels like it's pulled directly out of " Princess Mononoke ."
This bizarre and seemingly pointless scene, which felt like it was straight out of Princess Mononoke, is immediately followed by yet another attack, of which we had already seen plenty of by that point.
The movie itself feels cobbled together from left over bits and pieces from Ladyhawke, Conan the Destroyer, Princess Mononoke (believe it or not) and, most importantly, Tangled.
Snow White and the Huntsman is a movie specifically designed for Stephenie Meyer's audience of lonesome illiterates, hoping they'll rip their sweaty bug-eyes away from Fifty Shades of Grey long enough to feast on a circa-1995 feminist fairytale update (watch it on a double-feature with Drew Barrymore's Ever After), complete with a Fabio-tastic hero and an inexplicable Princess Mononoke interlude.
Also, for fans of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Bob is likely to remind them of Jiji, another black cat who is a wonderful companion to his human friend.
Star Wars (1977)
Directed by George Lucas
influenced Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997)
Themes Visuals
There are enough bizarre creatures here to make the Star Wars cantina look boring.
It’s like putting the Jedi-knight pop mysticism of Star Wars next to the Wudan spirituality of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .
And perhaps only the Cantina in Star Wars can match this film's bathhouse as a sight for soaring eyes unable to believe the sheer number of unusual creatures sauntering through the place.
It’s the “Star Wars” of animated features, a haunting, beautiful film that holds your attention despite its length and its complex plot, which is rooted in Japanese folk tales and animist mythology.
The sickly sweet tone reminds me of Luchino Visconti's pageant of fascist "beauty," The Damned (1969), as well as his adaptation of Mann's Death in Venice (1971).
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)
Directed by Masami Hata
influenced The Wind Rises (2013)
Miyazaki has often been referred to as “Japan’s Walt Disney,” but that somewhat flip comparison falls flat in the face of Miyazaki’s body of work, which more often takes its cues from the early 20th century cartoonist Winsor McCay’s whimsical and rollicking Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland strip and Japanese mythology.
The sickly sweet tone reminds me of Luchino Visconti's pageant of fascist "beauty," The Damned (1969), as well as his adaptation of Mann's Death in Venice (1971).