HAYAO MIYAZAKI Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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HAYAO MIYAZAKI

Name: Hayao Miyazaki                                                                       
Born: 5 January 1941 Tokyo, Japan                                                         
                                                                                           
Hayao Miyazaki (born January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, Japan) is                                   
the prominent director of many popular animated feature films. He is also the co-founder   
of Studio Ghibli, an animation studio and production company.                             
                                                                                           
He remained largely unknown to the West, outside of animation communities, until           
Miramax released his 1997 Princess Mononoke. By that time, his films had already           
enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan and East Asia. For                   
instance, Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan.           
Currently his later film, Spirited Away, has that distinction as well as being             
the first anime film to win an Academy Award.                                             
                                                                                           
Miyazaki's films often incorporate common themes, such as humanity's                       
relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a                 
pacifist ethic. The protagonists of his films are often strong, independent               
girls or young women; the villains, when present, are often morally ambiguous             
characters with redeeming qualities.                                                       
                                                                                           
Miyazaki's films have generally been financially successful, and this success             
has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney. However, Miyazaki             
does not see himself as a person building an animation empire, but as an                   
animator fortunate enough to have been able to make films with complete creative           
control. In 2006, Time Magazine voted Miyazaki one of the most influential                 
Asians of the past 60 years.                                                               
                                                                                           
Anime directed by Miyazaki that have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award have           
been Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984, Castle in the Sky in 1986, My           
Neighbor Totoro in 1988, and Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989.