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NEWS: Anime Again Shut Out of Annie Nominations

The Cat Returns was actually originally supposed to be a short promotional film for a theme park. For reasons I don't recall, Ghibli decided to turn it into a fully fledged movie but Miyazaki's involvement was fairly minimal, to say the least, and I don't think it supports your argument very well.

I'd certainly agree that there are recurring themes in Miyazaki's films in particular and in Ghibli films in general. I think what's upsetting people is that you seemed to be saying that "recurring themes" = "all the same" which is obviously erroneous.


What people do take exception to, however, is somebody making brash statements about a subject they obviously don't know too much about. They don't necessarily expect you to agree with them but they do expect you to know what films a famous director directed before you attempt to summarise his career...

For the record, Miyazaki was Executive Producer.

and created the Project Concept for The Cat Returns.

Now... as for exactly how involved he was in his role of Executive Producer is not known to me. But the fact remains that his name is on the film's credits.

Now, what seems to me is that if someone points out something about a film(s) that doesn't necessarily work in their favor, people start throwing fits about it.

And that's where the partiality issue comes in. People who don't take the time to look at something from an impartial perspective can't possibly fairly defend or condemn a film's integrity.

Now, if you want to nitpick about my choice of words, then jeez... what's the point? "recurring"... as far as I know, it's something that occurs or appears again or repeatedly. (Look it up in the dictionary, if you like )"Again".... "repeatedly"... hmm... I rest my case.

You're saying the words (or, rather, repeating HMMcKamikaze's words as if they were your own), but you don't know what they mean. Yes, it was his "project concept" - but only in that the two main cat characters in The Cat Returns (Muto and the Baron) were based on characters from Miyazaki's earlier film, Whisper Of The Heart in which one of them was a statue and the other was just a regular (non-speaking) cat. That's all that credit means.

Ghibli were asked to make a short about cats for an amusement park. They chose to use as characters two cats that had appeared in a previous Ghibli movie. The short was subsequently dropped and then re-launched as a feature length film.
Miyazaki didn't having anything to do with developing the plot for The Cat Returns - that would be Aoi Hiiragi who also wrote the accompanying manga. Nor did Miyazaki write the screenplay - that would be Reiko Yoshida.

Right, you admit that you don't know but you're going to base your argument on it anyway rather than accept you made an error. That's just obtuse. And hundreds of people's names appear in the film's credits - very few of them had any creative control over anything.

Any discussion on the merits of art (in any medium) is partial. Because artistic value is subjective. And you can hardly set yourself up as being the cool-headed, logical party in this debate when you evidently have a pretty limited grasp of the subject.

I am well aware of the meaning of the word "recurring" (I strongly suspect that my vocabulary is rather wider than yours...). The point I made - the one you are attempting to evade - is that a recurring motif does not equate to intellectual or artistic redundancy.

I never said that it was redundant... perhaps your "subjectivity" is taking you a little bit too far. Simply because something is repeated, it does not mean it's a bad thing. I have been saying that ALL along. You can check all the previous post I've made about this topic, and notice that if not in all of them, in most of them I've clearly expressed my liking and enjoyment for Ghibli films. I am not belittling their work, nor have I ever said that it was redundant (that words simply gives a negative conotation). It would be nice to see Ghibli Studios making films under different themes, but if they limit themselves to the usual themes for which they have become known for, and/or because that is simply their style, and/or because those themes are what matters to them, then so be it. I won't condemn them for it. I will simply continue watching their films. Even if I've made this observation, I will still watch their films with "redundant" themes, as you concluded was my standing on this topic.

Uh,I just don't get the point of the Annie. The Oscars already gives out awards for American Animation right. So,If the Annies aren't going consistenly give nominations to anime or other animation that don't hail from the US. Then what is the point of it's existence.

It may sound like I may be repeating Kamikaze's words, as you like to say, and in essence, I am saying the same thing, but I also happened to look at Hayao Miyazaki's career history and that is what it said--thus I'm not only repeating what I heard.

Additionally, I added another detail which had not been mentioned until now.

The fact remains that he is the founder Ghibli Studios along with Takahata and Suzuki. Ghibli Studios is not exactly a Dysney-sized company, where projects easily come and go; Miyazaki has been known to be intimately involved with many Ghibli projects.

But in this case, you're wrong. Yes, The Cat Returns began as a project given to Ghibli by a Japanese theme park; it was supposed to be a 20-minutes long feature starring cats. Miyazaki wanted three key things to feature in the short-these were the Baron, Muta and a mysterious antique shop (now, if that isn't involvement, then I wonder what is?). (These things were shown in the film Whisper of the Heart, but I'm sure you already know that, since you love to ride on that high horse of yours).

Yes, artistic value is subjective, but there are certain aspects in the art from any given artist which are used more than once, thus becoming obvious, as is very much the case with Ghibli films.

I simply made an observation of how many Ghibli films follow the same pattern when themes are concerned. What I have been saying all along--and I'll say it again, since people still don't seem to get it--is that certain themes are repeated in many of his films, such as aviation, the female heroine with strong will, and environmental issues.

I never said that it was redundant... perhaps your "subjectivity" is taking you a little bit too far. Simply because something is repeated, it does not mean it's a bad thing. I have been saying that ALL along. You can check all the previous post I've made about this topic