Shinkai

After watching the cast interview for 'the place promised in our early days', I have a better understanding of Shinkai's aesthetics. Not a whole new understanding revealed in torch light, but rather an reinforcement of the elements that are already evident in his movies.

He said he used to stare out of the railway train for hours and hours wanting to catch everything. There's always something new to see. So he was bound by a nostalgic childhood scenery that becomes an recurring motif. I guess there is indeed something wonderful and meditative about rusty railways nestled quietly in road grass, appearing blotchy and flickery under warm sunlight. The place isn't for trespassing, except when trains whoosh through with the old chunky chunky rhythm. The two parallel lines could lead you somewhere, might be better than where you stand. Most of all the air smells of a slightly baked summer.

Opposed to a preformed image I have of him, shy and taciturn, Shikai is actually rather outspoken and he talks in 1.5x average human speech pacing (make it 2.0x when he gets carried away). Still I look at him and couldn't help thinking, this's a sensitive guy who makes feminine, monologue movies where voice overs make up for the lack of actions or a solid story plot. Sometimes I wonder if this 'shortcoming', which forwards itself as a trademark rather than an outstanding defect, can be easily brushed aside. There's no limitation to the type of medium a director chooses to fulfill his artistic needs, but there seems to be too much abandon in the code of free expression. It's the same thing when I look at modern art. The spotlight is on 'the concept' while traditional craftsmanship, the solid skills easily slip unnoticed. Call it heavy make-up?

It would be better if Shinkai could do more than a bunch of nostalgic feelings and pretty screensavers.

Byousoku 5cm | 秒速5センチメートル

Info@Anime News Network

For fomality's sake, here's the introduction. Byousoku 5cm (or 5cm per second) is a chain of stories composed of 3 episodes telling a romance story of two childhood friends growing apart geographically because their parents are on constant move but they never stop seeking the shadow of each other. The ending is rather maudlin and sour.

If you're familiar with Makoto Shinkai(the director), his story-telling is very introverted and is based on a large amount of soliloquy pouring out melancholic thoughts for the loved one. Byousoku 5cm is what I take to be very personal and might work effectively for teenage audience who share an experience of tender love, but technically and stylistically, this production is a stand still compared to 'the place promised in our early days', his previous animation feature movie. Background design bears the trademark of soft warm light, classrooms, cherry blossoms, panorama views of grasslands swinging in the wind, all matching well with his romantic slash but none of it goes to his credit. You can't possibly pull the old tricks tirelessly without dulling my senses. Too much sentimentality can be a deadly weakness. At least I don't want to see the wine brewing and brewing till it turns vinegar.

The movie is best summed up in the ending song, some 7min long clip which succinctly concentrates the essence of all 3 episodes.

'I've been looking for you everywhere, in places where I know you don't exist. ' There's something heart wrenching about our foolishness in holding on to an ideal that remains an ideal. We so often refer to such relentlessness as 'youth', thinking it's untainted and beautiful.



Lyrics from Hunting the Elusive

One More Time, One More Chance
Writing: Masayoshi Yamazaki
Arrangement: Toshiyuki Mori
Transliteration and translation: daike
Translation support: Emma
Translation edit: icie

How much more do I have to lose, before my heart is forgiven?
How many more pains do I have to suffer, to meet you once again?
One more time, oh seasons, fade not
One more time, when we were messing around

Whenever we disagreed, I would always give in first
Your selfish nature made me love you even more
One more chance, the memories restrain my steps
One more chance, I cannot choose my next destination

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
On the opposite platform, in the windows along the lane
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If my wish were to come true, I would be at your side right away
There would be nothing I couldn’t do
I would put everything on the line and hold you tight

***

If I just wanted to avoid loneliness, anybody would have been enough.
Because the night looks like the stars will fall, I cannot lie to myself.
One more time, oh seasons, fade not.
One more time, when we were messing around

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
At a street crossing, in the midst of dreams
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If a miracle were to happen here, I would show you right away
The new morning, who I’ll be from now on
And the words I never said: “I love you.”

***

The memories of summer are revolving
The throbbing which suddenly disappeared

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
At dawn on the streets, at Sakuragi-cho
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If my wish were to come true, I would be at your side right away
There would be nothing I couldn’t do
I would put everything on the line and hold you tight

I’m always searching, for fragments of you to appear somewhere
At a traveller’s store, in the corner of newspaper,
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If a miracle were to happen here, I would show you right away
The new morning, who I’ll be from now on
And the words I never said: “I love you.”

I always end up looking for your smile, to appear somewhere
At the railroad crossing, waiting for the express to pass
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If our lives could be repeated, I would be at your side every time
I would want nothing else
Besides you, nothing else matters

Satoshi kon's Paprikia

Paprika Official Sony Picture Site



US. Theatrical Trailer


Paprika literally means a spice made from grounded red bell peppers (ref. wiki).

'You can't tell dream from reality' has been a signature motif of Satoshi's kon's films. Paprikia is a come-back of Paranoia Agent.

Skipping over synopsis and trivia, there's something else that interests me. I can surely smell Shinichiro Watanabe! But can it be he has anything to do with this film?? The old cast of cowboy bebop is back and I'm glad I can distinguish their voices without peeking at the credit. Dr. Chiba is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara (Faye) and Dr. Osanai is voiced by Koichi Yamadera (Spike). Take a close look at the character design of Dr. Chiba who looks like a female version of Jin (Samurai Champloo) =D The heavy appearance of parades and dolls, and extensive philosophical quotes draw you back to Ghost in the Shell. Deja vu?

The opening credit is absolutely enjoyable. You see Paprika dashing between dream and reality, blending into objects and appearing from thin air. Detective Konakawa's reoccurring dreams retold in slightly different twists and progressions is another notable highlight. His rendezvous at radioclub.jp bartenders who brought a final message from Paprika closed the film perfectly. After all, it's a Satoshi film which means it's another provocative approach to acute social problems and human emotions. Although I'm not sure with the term 'superflat', I think Satoshi's manipulation of animation to deal with consumerism culture is a forerunner of such motif.

And yes I'm very touched when the ghost of Chiba reveals her love for Tokita, a bear sized fat genius scientist who invented DC mini. Unconventional but sweet!

But again watching Paprika is a head spinning dream experience since psycho patients are talking gibberish and there're absolutely no rules in dream states. That's why animation's probably the best medium to express it!

All photos are taken from Paprika Sony official site. Credits go to the artists and sony picture classics. (This movie is rated R)


Konakawa's dream in which he was caged on a circus stage and a crowd bearing his face swarmed and screamed his name.


In the finale, a void appeared connecting dream and reality. The world was greatly disturbed.


Director Shima's subconscious world was invaded by a big parade. And look at that doll?! Doesn't it look similar to GITS the movie? I'm compelled to conclude Japan is a doll fetish nation...


more dolls and cyborgs


Paprika venturing into a deserted site


I love how Paprika's dressed up in spicy red with that classic oldie hairdo!


Dreams and butterflies ALWAYS go together. Talking about creativity people!!

我们这一家

Sherry介绍的一系列动画片叫“我们这一家”，超级搞笑的家庭笑话。那一家人姓“花”，花家有两个小孩，姐姐叫“橘子”，弟弟叫“柚子”。妈妈长得像恐龙，爸爸像狗熊。搞笑的不行，还蛮有生活哲理的。而且我觉得很多事情自己也都有相同经历，特别是剪头发，买衣服和备考那几集，哭笑不得。强烈推荐！！



Youtube上搜繁体的“我們這一家”，台湾配音，配的很可爱。

橘子的小睡时间（相信大家都有强烈共鸣）



================
动画资料存档 (原文 这里)



== 漫画==
《我们这一家》（あたしンち；ATASHIn'CHI）是日本一部以小家庭成员为中心，表现出日常生活中所发生大小事为题材的漫画与动画作品，原作者为Eiko Kera（けらえいこ）。

最初自1994年6月起，以多段四格漫画组成一回，每回共23格的形式，在《读卖新闻》的星期日版以全彩方式连载，直到2006年3月为止；作品受到不同年龄层读者的欢迎，并于1996年获得文艺春秋漫画奖，2002年获得手冢治虫文化奖。单行本自1995年开始由MEDIA FACTORY出版，目前出版至第12册（至2006年11月）。中文版由东立出版社发行，台湾、香港目前均出版至第12册（至2007年2月）。


== 动画与剧场版 ==
电视动画版于2002年4月开始在朝日电视台播放至今，每周六播出一集，目前已经播出208集（至2006年12月）；台湾的台视、东森综合台与中视，以及香港的无线电视儿童台与翡翠台（2006年12月起在《放学ICU》中播放）也先后播放过电视动画版。另外并由东映制作剧场版《映画 あたしンち》，于2003年12月在日本上映（不过由于票房不如预期，因此至今未有再次制作剧场版的计划），台湾预定于2007年2月9日上映。


== 情节简介 ==
花家，居住在东京近郊城镇，个性看似互异却又有著些许共通点的一家四口，就像是众多小家庭的缩影。不管是家庭当中的生活百态，与同学、友人…等周围人们的日常互动，或是个人的心情起伏以及对事物的各种感受…一个又一个贴近日常生活，平凡中趣味横生的大、小故事持续上演著…。


== 花家 ==
* 花妈（母　配音：日本→渡边久美子；台湾→王瑞芹；香港→雷碧娜）
九州人，标准的家庭主妇。个性相当拚命而固执，总是对一些鸡毛蒜皮小事极为在意，还会为此和橘子、柚子争论不休。坚持“能省则省”的原则，十分贪小便宜和讨厌浪费，不管是吃的、穿的还是用的都不例外。此外也经常将自己的行为合理化（特别是在被人发现自己言行不一时）；对于事物的情绪和动作反应有时也非常夸张。不过倒是经常表现出对爸爸特别在意或包容的心情。

* 花爸（父　配音：日本→绪方贤一；台湾→孙中台；香港→陈永信）
九州人，中年上班族。个性沉默寡言，我行我素，行事作风上有著传统的大男人风格。平日忙于上班与应酬，对于其他事情总是兴趣缺缺，不怎么关心。不过，对于妈妈的奇特或夸张行为，却经常抱持著看笑话的态度，当作娱乐看待，事情影响到自己的时候才会突然生气，而且变得没有耐性和暴躁。有不少怪癖，像是上厕所不关门、酒醉回家后随便打包家里的东西准备丢掉、喜欢把饭碗放在比饭碗小的东西（像是酱油瓶）上等等。

* 橘子（立花みかん（たちばな みかん）　配音：日本→折笠富美子；台湾→林美秀；香港→林元春）
高中二年级学生，由于个子比较矮小的缘故，曾被人误以为是初中二年级学生。个性大而化之又带有一点迷糊，有很多天马行空的梦想，也很喜欢自己一个人做白日梦。经常因为在一些小事上和妈妈意见相左而斗嘴，有时也会因为某些事情而被弟弟抱怨。因为喜欢泰迪熊，所以加入了学校里的“泰迪熊研究社”。

* 柚子（立花ユズヒコ（たちばな ゆずひこ）　配音：日本→阪口大助；台湾→雷碧文；香港→周文瑛）
橘子的弟弟，初中二年级学生。个性细腻、害羞而纯朴，有著深奥的内心世界而很少说话（没有说出来的“内心话”特别多），有著较他姊姊成熟的思想，不过也经常会被妈妈和姊姊有意或无意的行为、言语刺伤。看到妈妈和姊姊作出一些在他看来相当怪异的举动时，暗地里常会戏谑地说“没救了”，而相比起橘子，他是一个十分爱整洁的男孩。因为觉得同班同学石田百合的一些奇怪动作很好笑，所以对她有点好感。非常喜欢听音乐，也有一位喜欢的偶像，名叫丸野丸美。

== Links ==
MEDIA FACTORY我们这一家漫画单行本列表 （日文）
朝日电视台官方网站 （日文）
Shin-Ei动画官方网站 （日文）
Eiko Kera（けらえいこ）网站 （日文）
木棉花"我们这一家"介绍网站（正体中文 - 台湾）：第一季／第二季／剧场版
东森电视第一季介绍网站 （正体中文 - 台湾)
台视介绍网站 （正体中文 - 台湾）
中视介绍网站 （正体中文 - 台湾）
批踢踢BBS我们这一家讨论区 （正体中文 - 台湾）
香港Uwants讨论区我们这一家讨论区 （繁体中文 - 香港）

Over the Hedge - AWN review

Over the Hedge: Making The Leap From Newsprint To Pixels
Joe Strike chronicles the long journey Over the Hedge took to make the leap from comicstrips to the big screen.

May 19, 2006
By Joe Strike

---

DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge is unlike the competition: it manages to translate a property from another medium without destroying its spirit or alienating its creators. All images courtesy DreamWorks Animation SKG.

DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge, the latest star-powered CGI entry in 2006’s animated feature sweepstakes, opens this Friday on the heels of Fox’s Ice Age 2 and just ahead of Pixar’s Cars. Unlike the films bracketing it, Hedge is adapted from a pre-existing work — an 11-year old daily comicstrip featuring a cast of funny-animal characters observing and interacting with suburban sprawl and American consumerist culture.

The film succeeds in a rare-for-Hollywood balancing act — translating a property from another medium without destroying its spirit or alienating its creators — perhaps because they were heavily involved from the film’s conception. And while the strip’s critters have made the leap from newsprint to pixels, Hedge the movie is a different animal from Hedge the strip — a number of different animals, as a matter of fact.

Over the Hedge was born in 1995, the brainchild of writer/cartoonist Michael Fry and children’s book illustrator T Lewis. The pair had worked together on King Features’ Mickey Mouse comicstrip and tried to launch The Secret Life of Pigs, a strip of their own. “We thought it was destined for cosmic greatness,” Lewis recounts, “two pigs on a farm secretly observing humanity. We were told ‘it’s a great idea, but nobody likes pigs.’ Then Babe came out.”

Fry and Lewis tried again. They replaced the pigs with a trio of suburban animals — suave raccoon RJ, worrywart turtle Verne and manic squirrel Hammy. Instead of a barn, the critters lived on the outskirts of a suburban development rich in wasteful consumption and human absurdity. The retooled strip was snapped up by United Features Syndicate and today runs in some 250 newspapers, but back in ’95 it caught the eye of animation producer/writer Jim Cox. Cox, whose credits go back to Oliver & Company and include story development on Beauty and the Beast (and now co-producer of the Over the Hedge movie) contacted the pair via the e-mail address wedged between the strip’s panels.

A partnership was quickly born. Cox, Fry and Lewis put a pitch together and made the studio rounds. According to Lewis, “Fox, Henson and DreamWorks were the most interested. A bidding war actually broke out, we were really rooting for DreamWorks — look at the personalities involved, c'mon. Fox ultimately won, the power of sheer money won. It was only a year or two after DreamWorks formed and they were not able to throw the money around that Fox was back then.”

The project wound up on Fox’s shelf and stayed there — much to the frustration of Tim Johnson, its ultimate co-director. “I was aware of it, I knew it was sitting there. It was making me crazy. Even eight years ago when I was making Antz, I knew Over the Hedge was there and just the seed of a fantastic film. I loved the characters and the opportunity to comment on suburban living. When Fox let the option expire in 2001 we grabbed it at DreamWorks and put it in development right away.”

Michael Fry (left) and T Lewis are the creators of the comic strip Over the Hedge, and also served as creative consultants for the film.

Rumor has it that when Fox optioned Hedge, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted, “those people will never make that movie, and when they don’t, I will.” Lewis attributes Fox’s failure to make the film to the fact that “Hollywood is wiggly — everything is always changing. We had a champion who brought us into Fox, Jon Jashni [most recently exec producer of the Poseidon remake]. Then he got shuffled somewhere. In a big studio system like Fox, as opposed to a boutique operation like DreamWorks, when you lose your champion, you pretty much get lost.

“We were at Fox when there was a lot of wringing of hands — ‘What’s going to happen to family films, what’s going to happen to animation?’ They were trying to break in with Anastasia and we were sort of this odd little duck. It was actually pitched back then as a Babe-like thing, where we were going to have live-action and then the animals would be computer generated, kind of like Garfield. When we came on board at DreamWorks for a month or two we were thinking Hedge was going to be a 2D movie. At one point they were talking about claymation because they had this contract with Aardman. Ultimately those were just ‘run it up the flagpole’ ideas.”

The original Fox story pitch (which Lewis describes as a series of set pieces “more or less strung together”) was refined into a “how it all began” tale, recounting RJ’s first meeting with Verne and the ‘blended family’ of animals he looks after — the excitable Hammy, a porcupine couple and their kids, a father and daughter opossum pair and a lady skunk with serious self-image issues. Other than Hammy, it’s an extended family that doesn’t exist in the comicstrip, whipped up for the purposes of the film’s feature-length narrative.

“The new characters are fine with us,” says Lewis. “We totally understand this was a story beyond the comicstrip and you had to add stuff. When we pitched the script early on we had this clan of animals — wasn’t exactly as it is now, but we had come up with more animals too, realizing the story more or less dictated it.”

Over the Hedge’s journey to the big screen took a circuitous route. Fry, Lewis and Jim Cox sold the pitch to Fox after a bidding war but it was quickly put on the shelf. DreamWorks, an original bidder, snapped it up years later.

Co-director Karey Kirkpatrick shares Johnson’s enthusiasm and respect for the original comicstrip. “Tim and I are both huge fans of the strip and what it has to say. Its point of view on society is what attracted DreamWorks to the project. We would constantly run stuff by [Fry and Lewis] to make sure we were in the right ballpark tonally and ‘Hey, do you have any jokes we’re missing?’” For her part, production designer Kathy Altieri praises the comicstrip duo too, “They were great, they worked with us a lot on potential ideas. They were really gracious about sharing our [version of Hedge] with theirs and finding the place in between where the match was perfect.”

According to Fry, writer of the Hedge comic, the filmmakers “mined the strip” for individual gags, working them into the script at appropriate moments. “They really got the sense of the characters and their spirit — I’m really pleased.”

Verne however underwent a not insignificant accommodation to the demands of the film’s narrative, one that met with Fry and his partner’s full approval.

“In the movie, it’s necessary for the characters to be rather innocent and naïve and for Verne to be their leader,” Fry explains, “whereas in the strip Verne is a leader, but more in his own mind. There’s a certain tension there between him and everyone else. Verne is the smartest turtle in the room and unfortunately no one appreciates that. They kind of, sort of ironed that out a little bit in the movie.” Lewis is even more unsparing of Verne, “He’s a lot more dysfunctional in the strip — he’s a mess. He’d love to be the leader of the group, he might think that he is from time to time and may for a moment be, but he’s lot more a boiling kettle of disdain and despair.”

Kirkpatrick credits Fry and Lewis for “keeping on us to make sure [the movie version of] Verne was smart and funny. What tends to happen in development is the character carrying the movie’s emotional core can be a one-note whiner if you’re not careful and all he’s doing is saying ‘let’s not go over there.’ They were really great about pushing us to not fall into that.”

Everyone involved with Over the Hedge credits the relationship between RJ and Verne as the heart of the film and the quality that set Hedge apart from any number of other talking animal strips on the comics page. “Verne and RJ are best friends in the strip; they’re such a great odd couple,” Johnson says. “Someone who’s always worried about tomorrow and someone who’s always ‘seize the day,’ the ultimate party animal. I loved that because all of us have that battle — do we do the smart thing and think about the future, or do we sit around and play videogames and eat nachos all day?” Kirkpatrick compares the pair to “Felix and Oscar, Lucy and Ethel… the man-child vs. the nudge… the id vs. the superego.”

Directors Tim Johnson (left) and Karey Kirkpatrick share an enthusiasm and respect for the original comic strip. They constantly ran stuff by Fry and Lewis and mined the strip for individual gags.

For Kirkpatrick (whose scripting credits include Chicken Run and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), the film was both a screenwriting job and his first directing assignment. “DreamWorks had approached me to write Over the Hedge months before, but I was busy with other scripts. They came to me six months later: ‘How about directing it?’ When I came on, two writers were already on board, Lorne Cameron and David Hoselton who were doing a fine job. I was actually a little tired of writing, my first thought was ‘this will be great, there’s no typing.’

“Len Blum was the first writer who tackled translating it from the comicstrip. Lorne and David came on and gave the film its current structure. When they were done with their contracted stuff they moved on. I was the typist, it was on my résumé so I assumed writing responsibilities.”

Kirkpatrick recalls that it was Katzenberg himself who asked him to co-direct Hedge, a challenge he was eager to take on. “After Chicken Run he’s been trying to get me to direct, he had no doubts. I was at all the Chicken Run recording sessions; I worked closely with some of those actors through Nick [Park] and Pete [Lord]. It really wasn’t that big a leap. Jeffrey saw me at meetings, working with storyboard artists. A lot of it is ‘how good a collaborator are you, how good are you at communicating your thoughts, how strong is your vision?

“Tim was already on the movie. We knew each other; we’d been consulting on each other’s projects. We’d been circling and wanted to work together. This was great for me because Tim had already directed a couple of movies; any rookie mistakes that I might make, he was there to fill in that void.

DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg brokered the directorial marriage between Johnson and Kirkpatrick and the pair found their skills and experience were complementary.

“In some directing teams you handle this and he handles that side of it, but for me and Tim it was a straight partnership/collaboration. We were both at 98% of the meetings. On occasion when you get into the heat of it you’ve got 350 people on crew and the day is broken into 15-minute increments. Sometimes you literally need to be two places at once and that’s when two directors come in handy. In those cases if there was something that required more tech expertise than I have, and Tim comes from a computer animation background, I’d say ‘you should take that one.’”

Johnson’s CGI background reaches back some 18 years into the dawn of the digital age when he joined the staff of Pacific Data Images, one of the very first computer animation shops and the company that would eventually become PDI/DreamWorks. (“That PDI badge means something, at least in our world, so they kept that name, which is great.”) While production of Hedge was based in DreamWorks’ Glendale studio, a satellite crew operating out of the original Silicon Valley PDI facility pitched in with additional animation, effects and lighting support. “We share everything, it’s really amazing,” Johnson enthuses. “We’ve all got the same software and the distance disappears once you get the video conferencing going. We had animation dailies and all the team would be sitting with us in a screening room and there’d be bunch of people in northern California synched up on a huge screen at their facility so we’re all watching the same thing.”

From Lewis’ perspective, the synergy between directing partners was to the film’s benefit. “Tim has a good story sense, but Kerry has a great writing background. When he came on and partnered with Tim the picture really started taking off. They really had a good chemistry, never losing sight of that sense of fun you need to bring to a project like this.”

After redesigning the strip’s 2D characters for CGI, Kathy Altieri’s next job was the film’s environment, recreating the world from the perspective of the film’s foot-high stars. “We were trying to create a world that felt like it was in our backyard. Every one of us has gone out, gotten down on our belly and crawled around with a camera so we can feel what we felt in the movie.” Meanwhile, Johnson and Kirkpatrick were wrestling with the film’s story and structure, and the evolution of RJ’s character from self-centered con artist to someone who cares about others. A turning point in the film comes when RJ is about to take off with a red wagon-load of goodies he’s tricked Verne’s family into helping him gather.

Johnson and Kirkpatrick wrestled with the film’s story and structure, and the evolution of RJ’s character (front) from self-centered con artist to someone who cares about others.

“We always sort of likened to RJ to Harold Hill in The Music Man, that he was a bit of a traveling grifter,” Kirkpatrick explains. “We always thought there’d be a scene called RJ Gets a Home, where the other animals would give him the thing he’d never had, a place to come back to. What we liked about it structurally was when they tell him, ‘RJ come here we want to show you something,’ had he said, ‘You guys go on’ and hopped in the wagon and left, he would have been home free. The fact that he let his guard down and was emotionally hooked further complicated things.

“What never worked about it, it used to be too maudlin — until we twisted it. Just as it’s getting a little sappy, that’s when we yanked the carpet out from his happiness.” The carpet-yanking consists of a barrage of TV soundbites on the subject of betrayal that triggers RJ’s dormant conscience while the camera stays on the raccoon’s guilt-ridden face. “We always knew conceptually we wanted something like that. I think it was David Soren, one of our storyboard artists who came up with TV idea, and I think I added the Dr. Phil punchline.”

A trio of high-energy slapstick set pieces punctuate the film — Verne’s traumatic initial foray into the suburban development ‘over the hedge,’ Verne and RJ’s encounter with a slobbering, extremely playful dog that ends in a kerosene-powered rocket flight and an apocalyptic battle aboard a runaway truck. While the first sequence was part of the film from its earliest days, the second originally featured a ferocious dog who swallowed Verne in one bite. “Then it was up to RJ to perform a canine Heimlich,” recalls Johnson. “That scene was in the film for a surprisingly long time, before we conceived a friendlier dog and funnier chase about 20 months ago. The truck battle entered the picture after several third act experiments; we only settled on that scene a year ago. The script was not written around any of them — they were all created to serve the overall story.”

Like all contemporary animated features, Over the Hedge’s voice cast is a mixture of high-profile stars and accomplished character actors, led by Bruce Willis as RJ. Johnson says “having Bruce voice the character meant you could have a con man, but there’s something he brings to it that keeps RJ sympathetic and lets you go on the ride with him. RJ was based on the character in the comicstrip, but when we approached Bruce we said we missed David Addison from Moonlighting. He said, ‘I kind of miss him too, I’ve been busy saving the world for the last 12 pictures.’”

Over the Hedge’s voice cast is led by Bruce Willis as RJ. The directors urged the actor to channel David Addison from Moonlighting to create the sympathetic con man character.

While acknowledging that name-brand actors are crucial in giving an animated feature visibility among higher profile “event” movies, Kirkpatrick admits that he keeps certain performers in mind from the get-go. “Who am I thinking of when I write this character? Coming up with an opossum who dies big — Shatner! Or you think Albert Finney — that’s what I want, Shakespearean. You kind of think of that voice while you’re writing it, and you wonder if he’ll do it. Then you call Shatner and he says yes!

“We have a powerful head of the studio in Jeffrey who can get anybody on the phone and get them to agree to be in one of his movies — but he won’t do it unless the voice is interesting separate from the face. There are some stars out there that we’ve listened to that just aren’t good voices. When you’re not seeing their face and just picturing the character, sometimes that voice just doesn’t work.

“We never do star for star’s sake. For instance, there was early inclination with the Verminator (the orange-suited exterminator pictured prominently in the film’s advertising) to do some stunt casting with a really big name. But I was working with Thomas Haden Church on Charlotte’s Web. He’s a big name to me, he was Oscar-nominated but he’s not on the Tom Cruise level. But when I heard his voice I said, ‘you guys have to hear this.’ He’s great, he’s perfect and he made that character. Or you take someone like Garry Shandling. No one’s used him, but he has a strong, distinctive voice and a phenomenal sense of humor. If we can tap into that we’ve got something really special.”

For his part, Fry offers special praise for Steve Carell’s voicing of the high-strung squirrel Hammy. “Steve is really incredible, he gave a great voice performance. The most impressive acting from him is the moment he says, ‘I’m not stupid.’ He says it once as Hammy and it just pulls your heart. Then he walks away and says it in his own voice. In that moment it gives you a little bit of the depth of the character — somewhere inside there’s this Steve Carell lurking about who’s really wounded.”

Steve Carell continues his break-out year with the voicing of high-strung squirrel Hammy (left). The comic’s creator Michael Fry was impressed by the depth of emotion in his performance.

Johnson denies that any of the characters in the film were deliberately drawn to resemble their voice actors, but suggests the impression may result from “the way we recognize motion in people. We videotape the actors recording their lines and some of the animators like to look at the tapes for how they’re going to do their motion. I think it’s amazing and a tribute to the animator’s art that even though none of the characters were designed to look like the actors, in a way they all do a little bit. I think Eugene Levy was captured very well by the animators and ended up looking just like him, although if you looked at the freeze frames [of his character Lou the porcupine] I don’t think Eugene would be very flattered.”

Johnson looks at his voice actors as collaborators. “They’re not just reading lines. They’re actually helping us design and discover the character. We mold and change and adapt the story, rework scenes around what we discover. It’s so important to match the performance to what the actors bring — it’s really like workshopping a play or a Broadway show, but in slow motion.”

That slow motion sped up near the end of the production cycle, with new dialog added as recently as the end of March. “We made a ton of changes,” Johnson recounts. “It’s amazing how you can fly in new lines of dialog. Garry saw the picture and wrote something like 12 new lines, things like, ‘I’d thought we’d be dead by step two, so this is going great!’ You can’t show him the whole film because you don’t have it, and when you finally have it it’s almost too late so you scramble to get these great ideas in.”

One of the most interesting things about Over the Hedge though, is what’s missing. In a film swimming with fast food and merchandise, there isn’t a single instance of product placement, and hardly any self-conscious pop-culture references. Johnson admits that the film “is making comment, not always flattering, about the world of consumer products. I don’t know if any company would’ve wanted to get involved with us. The other thing we realized the parody was part of the fun.

Like the best of Pixar’s films, Over the Hedge has the feel of a classic animated feature. Its directors hope the film to make animation whole family entertainment like live-action used to be before it became stratified.

“One of the first scenes to really come together was that Trail Guide Girl cookie heist. We had a little competition among the staff of who could come up with the funniest name for cookies. We ended up with Love Handles, Smackeroons, Neener-Neeners, great names. Kerry and I got really excited and remembered those old Wacky Packages stickers. We thought that’s where we’re going to go with this thing, we don’t want real products. The way to make a comment and hold up a funhouse mirror to this consumer culture is to make up all the names we want. It goes by so quick too. One of the things I want to put on the DVD is all the work that Kathy [Altieri]’s department put into the product design.

“The only product that’s in the movie? The THX logo [seen briefly on a TV set]. Do you know we had to pay for it? We had the joke and we asked Lucasfilm if we could use it. They said ‘yes, but’ and we said, ‘wow.’ It didn’t cost that much, though.”

Like the best of Pixar’s films, Over the Hedge has the feel of a classic animated feature, one where we eavesdrop on the animal world to see our own through different eyes. Unlike Disney’s overly literal The Wild, Hedge is replete with cartoon exaggeration — characters squash, stretch and speed so fast they distort time and space; they survive the worst sort of physical misadventures with only their dignity injured; and one classic cartoon image that hasn’t been seen a while, a turtle who wears his shell like a removable suit of clothes.

Johnson and Kirkpatrick look at Over the Hedge and other animated features as continuing a tradition that’s lost ground in Hollywood in recent years. As Johnson puts it, “Hopefully we’re taking animation to where I think live-action films used to be — whole family entertainment. Live-action films get so stratified — teen-slasher, superhero movie, big-budget special effects films — I feel animated films are now the general entertainment films you don’t see in live-action.” For his part, Kirkpatrick finds himself “upset a little bit when somebody says ‘I wouldn’t go see this, animation isn’t really my thing’ and it gets relegated to something just for kids. Some of the smartest, best archetypal storytelling out there in the movies is being done in animation, movies like The Incredibles and Toy Story and Shrek, they’re as good as any movie that comes out all year long.”

Regardless of what happens to Over the Hedge’s critter cast when they enter the multiplexes of the human world, their comicstrip counterparts will continue to go their own way. “We talked with DreamWorks about folding some of the movie characters into the strip,” Lewis admits. “We both very independently, very stridently thought no. The movie and the strip ought to be two parallel distinct things. The power the strip brings to this is that it has its own integrity; it’s its own separate thing. You start merging the two, it’ll look like the strip’s just shilling for the movie.”

Regardless of what happens to Over the Hedge’s critter cast in the cinema world, the comic strip will not add any of the movie characters. Lewis wants to avoid the appearance of the strip shilling for the movie.

Lewis’ art for the strip has evolved since its 1995 debut, due both to his desire to keep the strip’s look fresh, and the addition of computer toning to his arsenal of tools. When asked, he admits the characters’ big screen redesign has also influenced their look on the printed page. “Around 2000 when I started working on the movie a little bit [contributing concept art for new characters] the strip’s animals became more naturalistic.” (One character Lewis particularly regrets not making it to the big screen is an owl that would have been voiced by Gene Wilder.) “When I started doing those characters for them it jostled the illustrator in me because I come from that background. Ernest Shepherd, Winnie the Pooh’s illustrator, he’s like my hero, Tenniel, that late 19th, early 20th century is my style.

“That change was inspired by my work with the folks at the studio. There’s such high quality of work you’re surrounded with there. When you know your stuff is being looked at by these guys — and a lot of them would get our strips e-mailed to them every day by the syndicate — I’d say to myself ‘I’ve really got to be on my game here.’”

If Over the Hedge the movie achieves the success its creators are hoping for, will there be a sequel in the works? It’s a question one hardly needs to ask of DreamWorks, considering Shrek 3 is due out next May and a fourth Shrek is already in the works. However the studio may have already tipped its hand early on in the movie — when RJ shows Verne and company a map of the suburban development that’s sprung up around them, an arrow reading ‘FUTURE DEVELOPMENT’ is pointing to their small, unspoiled patch of green. Stay tuned for future developments…

Joe Strike lives in New York City and writes for and about animation. He has recently completed a children’s novel.

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.

spirited away

I rewatched spirited away, for the 7th/8th (lost count) time! Somehow I feel myself deeper into the emotional developments of the characters than ever.

Miyazaki was planning to retire from his director job but after meeting a daughter of his friend, supposedly a naive and rather spoilt young girl(the early version of Chihiro), he decided to make a come back and there you have Spirited Away. Warnings to Japan's future hopes (maybe not Japan alone): In this world in order to survive, you have to pay off with your own labour.

It is heart warming and encouraging to see Chihiro grow up from a timid, lazy girl to an assertive, sympathetic and courageous heroine. There're also current problems addressed: pollution(as portrayed by the dirty and stinking guest who turns out to be a river god) and infinite greediness of the grownups as opposed to an innocent child such as Chihiro who wants nothing more to rescue her friend.

Everytime I see the shimmering sea under moonlight, I just can't help feeling an unreachable and undescribable remoteness of longing buried deep within a dream. That's also partially affected by Joe Hisaishi's perfect scores. You hear the undulating high notes mimicking the restlessness of the sea and an underlying steady flow of low keys whispering an unfathomable sureness that's embedded within the vastness and magnitude of the space in front of you. As the train slides gracefully past the lonely sunlit island, I fixed my eyes on the house, the low hanging tangerine clouds, and for the first time ever I was sadly conscious of the idealness and impossibility. It has almost become a sanctury to me, somewhere I seek refuge, somewhere I breathe in the colours, soak in blissful solitude and be able to think of nothing but the precious tranquility. And I know it's there in my dream. That time I saw ice sculpted sunflowers floating in the sky. A feeling that left me utterly stunned and beside myself.

detective aoneko

What sparked Modoru Motoni to work on 'Detective Aoneko'? Rich and romantic aristocrat with uncontrollable libido? Doing detectives when he's in the mood, and for the rest of the time getting excitied about underpants or having fanciful dreams we won't go into. One day Motoni sensei looked out the window and saw the concrete buildings. City life, grey iron and steel. It might be a midsummer night's dream she managed to hypnotize herself into. Anyhow she imagined the cold concrete turning into a sea of grassy green. With spirally creepers that feel their way into another space far back in time, when there was something called leisure, when gentlemen took off their hats as they bow and politely kissed the lady's lace-gloved hand.

the last client

This's gonna be a werid post.
Yaoi or adult oriented boy love manga is most of time kind of crappy n highly commercialized. And i came across this yaoi manga titled 'the last client', written n drawn by takashima kazusa. [geez i can never remember her name]


Chris Valentine [the hitman]


Aya
Real name Asahi

The episode scans I read weren't complete and i have no idea if takashima continued with the story since the 6th chapter. Plotwise, well, it's already way above average. The storyboards r good, so are the character designs.
It slowly dawns on me that there're lots of mangaka who draw in roughly the same style. It isn't original in any sense. Like the way takashima draws the hair in confident black streaks with lots of highlights, and the way she expresses the tendons, muscles and the male body anatomy looks just right. I used to think nakajo [author of 'hanakimi'] is kind of unique in style but after seeing all kinds of works (those not in the main stream), i slowly get the idea that they're all the same. Sometimes it's kind of hard to tell whether it's by the hands of a female mangaka or not coz the lines r kind of handled with lots of strength n certainty. Maybe it's just my own false assumption.

howling!

Howling!!!!!!!!!! Miyazaki-san, what have you done??!

Ms. Diana Wynne Jones gave a world renowned craftsman her precious jewels,
a damond, a lapis lazulli and a ruby, together with gold, silver, pearl and natural stones
and asked him to make a necklace that charms.

He started morphing them into the shapes of his dream, not hers, not ours.
Ruby's his favourite gem. It's fire and blood, war and tears.
What's the good of diamond, or lapis lazulli.
So he chipped diamond into thousand pieces and studded them around the ruby.
and Lapis lazulli looked just lovely square or round.
The chain wasn't a concern.
String the pearls and make a loop.
The gold n silver is no use.

Wide eyed critics waited with abaited breath, watching the curtain rise and the star slowly looming. Inside the glass was the promised necklace of the world, with the undisputable name Tiffany. Ooops i'm sorry i think it's Ghibli.

Silence.

One brave soul raised a finger.
' i think the lace is broken.'
Nervous giggles,
but the pearls were strewn.

The host felt the gound shake but stomped hard so it stayed. 'It's just a small mistake'.
Tiny! Trivious!
So we, got up from our seats and helped to string the broken chain.
But the pearls all looked the same.
white, white, white, white, white
and plain
'guess it doesn't matter' a forgiving voice says
'but where's lapis lazulli?'
'Can't you see it's hidden behind the ruby?'
embarassed, he says 'great geat...'

So the bidding started. Bids came in flushes, one wave after another.
and the jewellers left with contentment
and WE,
bewilderment

Miyazaki-san, what have u done?
_________________________________

It's hard to imagine there could be a deeper depression when u reassure yourself you've already cautiously descended to the absolute bottom of an abyss. Lying prostrate on the ground whatever flies past would be above me. Even if it's just an old fly that hovers one inch above my face. and i was dead WRONG!

2 hour movie and he failed to tell anything!! Well, I shouldn't be so harsh. The only message he did tell is 'anti-war'. ' Let's end this stupid war right now' Sulimen says.
That must be the line that won the standing ovation when it was shown in Vienna film fest.
anti war, calling out to the whole world.
but i'm sorry i thought i was watching 'Howl's moving castle'?? Is that a typo or am I too old to read? That i'm suprised i stumbled upon 'no war please' documentary.
Howling!!
Miyazaki said 'I wanted to make my own film. In the end even my team couldn't understand where I'm heading. '
Exactly! Out of nowhere, no foreshadowing, no nothing, Howl's in love Sophie. Before that, Sophie's sophie. Howl's howl. They dun care abt each other. They come back home at different hours not knowing what the other is doing. Like typical japanese men n their wives.

and when u see those blobs of greyish floating mass appearing on screen, making sticky revolting sound. you say 'NOT AGAIN PLEASE'. once is ORIGINAL. twice is REMINISCENT. three times is 'Are you nuts? Has your imagination run dry?'. First used in Princess Mononke depicting that cursed god. Second time in Spirtied away on the ghost called 'no face' and endless no. of other ghosts so to speak. and here again on the rubber man, the police, the back alley ghosts!!

I don't care if i dump in any spoilers. coz there're NO spoilers! with or without them the movie's still the same.



and what happened to the background music. The scene in the trailer where Howl sped dwon the stairs pulling on his hair ends obviously screaming for no reason like a spoilt baby! absolutely no background music!! 30 seconds silence. and Kitamura's voice sounded a bit funny.
so they did read the novel. When Howl's upset, he deliberately covers himself up in green slime. So they made him a green slimy. And why the hell would Sophie cry just because he slimed??? She's supposed to be outrageous coz Howl's acting like a baby!! And too little description on Howl's vanity! He's suppposed to date pretty girls, spend ages in bathroom, and extremely picky about glooming! Where's all that important stuff that shapes a character?

Alrite, let's just discard everything and say, Howl's moving castle has nothing to do with the novel. just borrowed the title. If i were the director, i would cut off 1/3 of the movie and replace them with solid stories.
Wasted scene no. 1
Howl frying eggs n bacon. He fried 6 eggs. Camera zoomed in on 4, every one of them, from the craking sound of the shell to the sizzling heat. Yes, we're charmed he could cook!! my ass, why do you have to show 4 instead of 2.

Wasted scene no. 2
Walking. To walk is to change locations. Disney would show separate camera shots, a flash that links up two places, but Ghibli, they do a great job on 'introductory course to walking'. ' sigh, back hurts, take a seat, 4 steps forward, 2 more steps, 1 step back, a break, continue with the journey, wind blows, stops, looks back, keep moving.'
my dear dear dear god.

N MANY MANY MANY MANY MORE wasted scenes. i'm too tired to list

and stories that r essential but aren't there!
- that Howl loves spiders coz he's just like them. tirelessly spinning a web. and a small disaster, a gust of wind, brush of a broom, easily breaks it. but he just starts all over again.

- that Howl's smart n tricky. He goes out dating girls everyday but in truth he's deep shit in an investigation on witch of the waste

-that Howl's a slithere outer. He's a coward. He avoids troubles. He runs away from them. You can't just make Howl lying on his bed half dead, mumbling ' I'm a coward'. That's not the way a story's told!! Actions man!! Depiction!! Like you can't just say 'I'm a liar' so tt everybody's satisfied you're a liar and that's the end of the story. It's all so withering n dry!

-Sophie, poor poor Sophie. You cry when you're supposed to throw tantrums. You display your emotions so openly while you're supposed to be jealous, bitter n silent. i'm just soooo speechless.

sighs, so the main characters are all wasted. but suprisingly the side dishes are amazingly entertaining.
calcifer 'i am calci -fer'. [flame spurts out laterally with the uttering of 'fer']
Michael cutie boy

The dog
The scarecrow

what the movie's succeeded is...
that Howl's handsome , althou not so interesting
that his seiyu is Kitamura, althou not doing perfect job
that it's about peace n love, althou told a little matter of factly
that the colours are still brilliant, althou it has nothing to do with Miyazaki
that Howl turning into giant bird is interesting, althou we've seen that in Spirited Away
that music by joe hisaishi never fails, althou most of them aren't used in the right places
that the movie still sells high on the logo 'Miyazaki & Ghibli', althou the movie is totally not descriptive

insert fanart one from unknown source
[Howl & Michael]

ps. in the original novel, Michael[howl's student] is a teen boy, and miyazaki dawfed him into a baby...

Sighs, there's always something wrong with the story telling. Gives me the unscratched itch. Is miyazaki too old to do it? Well, i'm quite certain this movie won't win the Oscar, althou it mihgt get some special mention in 3D techniques, for the intricate model of the castle. Possible fight among 'the Inredibles'[Pixar], Steamboy, Innocence ghost in the shell[Mamoru Oshii].

I only wish their next piece of work will improve on story telling. Miyazaki's done a good argumentative essay this time. But we want a story.

cowboy bebop - the real folk blues

Cowboy Bebop
the real folk blues



Once upon a time, in New York City in 1941... at this club open to all comers to play, night after night, at a club named "Minston's Play House" in Harlem, they play jazz sessions competing with each other. Young jazz men with a new sense are gathering. At last they created a new genre itself. They are sick and tired of the conventional fixed style jazz. They're eager to play jazz more freely as they wish then... in 2071 in the universe... The bounty hunters, who are gathering in the spaceship "BEBOP", will play freely without fear of risky things. They must create new dreams and films by breaking traditional styles. The work, which becomes a new genre itself, will be called... COWBOY BEBOP


cowboy bebop is fantastic! didn't know the animation TV sereis is so damn good. every single episode was produced with supreme artisitc standard n dying engaging storylines. and the music!!!!! how your heart swells in a mist of blue smoke. Folk bar dressed in dimmed light, wines lined up on wooden shelf, cherries on glass. and thru the unsure fleeting shadows, a lady with coloured featheres draped along her shoulders, lazily humming a melody from long long time ago. Rose petals carelessly tossed out into the night's chill, a leather shoe walked past stirring a puddle pool, image of grey sky breaking into ripples of fantasia. ash shedded from cigarrette butt, a spark that danced in the dark.
see ya space cowboy.



what's your cowboy bebop theme song?
my theme song from cowboy bebop is - adieu

Cowboy Bebop Links
[Official Sites]
Offical Japanese Website
Cowboy Bebop the Movie-Knocing on Heaven's Door
Sony Pic Website
French Website

[FANtastic Sites]
the jazz messengers
the real folk blues
the blue crow
[-absolutely beautiful!best CB site ever! in italian btw...]
the big big truck
Faye Valentine Net
lost in memory
[-photographs that give CB feelings]

whisper of heart - to stand by your dreams

i miss this film.

whisper of heart, often mistaken to be a miyazaki film, which is actually not. Hayao Miyazaki wasn't the director on this. His collegue Kondo, who tragically passed away some years ago, was in charge of the film. It's my fav. If not to mention 'princess mononoke'.

there're some horrible translations on the western markets which read 'strain you ear', and rubbish like that. The story was adapted from a Japanese shoujo manga with exactly the same name. The original japanese title means 'if you listen closely, you'll hear the whisper of heart'. You don't just hear rain drops tapping on your window panes, or wind brushing through leaves. Your heart listens and hears the whisper of another. Dreamers that are brave enough to stand by their dreams. Everytime I rewatch it, I feel something fresher, as if all the dust is washed away by a summer afternoon shower.

storyline:
Shizuku(our female protagonist here) is a book worm. she reads like 10 books per week and she even goes to bug the libarian during school hols just to let them open up the library for her to get more books. on screen, there is shizuku, flipping over a page, eyes scanning, the same hand that flipped the page now reached out to a bag of potato chips, 2 seconds in pausing. you can tell she's reading. and all of a sudden her eyes welled up with tears. some touching storyline she just read? She's a pretty good writer too, from reading all these books you can tell she's got some talent n passion for it. She embarks on an lyrics translation project and they're going to sing their new version of 'country road', orignally by John Denver, on some ceremony. (graduation? year's ending?) The first version she came up with was hilarious, the chorus becomes 'concrete road, blah blah Tokyo, my home'. And one day she forgets her book on the bench. when she returns to fetch it, there's a boy sitting on the bench reading her book. Nothing really strange here, except that... well, when they're parting, the boy says 'hey, you know what, you really should change the lyrics' (coz the lyrics translation sheet is stuck between the book pages and boy read it)and shizuku is so pissed by the comment she storms all the way home and even tries to vent out her anger by impersonating the way the boy says the stinging line. 'you know what? you really should change the lyrics'- shizuku, saying this with lips twisted to one side, and bang!! she slams close the refrigerator door.

meanwhile, shizuku is puzzled by the name 'amasawa seiji', which appears on many many libary cards, of books that are rarely borrowed. well, you can bet that there couldn't possibly be a bigger book worm than shizuku, but maybe you're wrong. 'he read this book earlier than i do' shizuku thinks. as if an unannonunced competition, shizuku decides to borrow more and more books to read, especially those that have never been signed out before just so that her name will appear first on the book card.

the name 'amasawa seiji', that keeps appearing on libary cards


Shizuku, pissed by Seiji's rude comments on her lyrics, vented her anger by impersonating Seiji saying 'You know what? You should probably dump those lyrics'
notice how deformed her mouth is... and later on, she slammed the fridge door.
poor fridge...



one day shizuku (out of curiosity and a spurge of 'happy' hormone I think), follows a cat and comes to a magical crafts shop-'the earth shop'. 'It's like a story right out of a book' she says. A friendly old artisan owns the shop and he shows shizuku an interesting clock. When you wind it, a wooden door opens and inside the seven dawves are moving by intricate clockwork, some hammering away and some dragging a wood log. Tick, tock. The big hand strikes twelve. A melodious tone plays and a prince appears on the 'seven'. shortly, a beautiful princess appears on the 'twelve'. The prince looks at the princess yearningly, but when the second hand runs one round, it's time for the princess to go. Sadly they part.
'It's probably made by an artisan with unrequited love', the owner of the shops says.

shizuku decides to visit the lovely earth shop again next time. but she isn't so lucky though. it's closed. while she's hovering around checking Baron(a cat figurine in the shop) is sold, guess whom she meets, the boy who says 'you'd better dump your lyrics'. and guess what's going on. The boy lives there. His grandpa runs the earth shop.

and all along, this boy is amasawa seiji. amasawa seji who says 'you'd better dump your lyrics', amasawa seiji who first notices shizuku in a libary and later secretly competes with her to see who gets to read a book first, and amasawa seiji who has the big dream of being a violin maker.

i shall not give anymore spoilers.

my fav pieces from the film- country road, seiji started playing the violin and shizuku was forced to sing, later on Seiji's grandpa and some musican friends joined them, small ensemble! It was so warm n joyful. I can never forget it.

transcribed quotes, slightly adapted from Nausicca net.
Link: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mimi/script_mimi_en.txt

Downstairs
Seiji: Oh... All done?[ shizuku was looking at Baron, the cat figurine upstairs]
Shizuku: Y-yeah, thanks. Say, that... Are you by any chance making a violin?
Seiji: Eh? Yeah.
Shizuku: May I see?
Seiji: Mmm.
Seiji: It goes together this way.
Shizuku: Did you make this all yourself? By hand?
Seiji: Of course I did.
Shizuku: I can't believe it!
Seiji: The shape of the violin was set 300 years ago. Since then, the skill of the craftsman has determined how good the sound is.
Shizuku: Did you make all these too? [there're lots of violins hung from the celing top]
Seiji: You've gotta be kidding... There's a violin-making class that meets here too, you know.
Shizuku: But one of them is yours, right?
Seiji: Mmm.
Shizuku: Come on, which one.
Seiji: That one!
Shizuku: Ohhhh... This one? It's amazing, that you can make them so well. It's just like magic.
Seiji: You know, you can toss off embarassing things like that pretty often.
Shizuku: Oh? What's wrong with that? It's how I really feel.
Seiji: Anyone can make one like this. They're still no good at all.
Shizuku: Hey, I bet you play the violin.
Seiji: Well, kinda.Shizuku: Please let me hear! Even just a little.
Seiji: Hey now...
Shizuku: Please Please Pleeeease!
Seiji: Fine! But in return, you sing!
Shizuku: Huh? I-I can't! I'm tone deaf!
Seiji: That oughta be just about right.[He tunes up]
Seiji: Sing, will ya? It's the one you know.

'country road' starts to play, shizuku's uplifting voice fills up the whole room.

in which seiji plays the violin and shizuku sings 'country road', in her own lyrics




some production notes
There's one flying scene(3D) in the movie(in shizuku's fantasy world), which is done by Miyazaki. It's a highly technically challenging part as there're tens of layers stacked on top of each other. The images come from original art work by the japanese artist inoue, a fantasy genre based artist. His website http://iblard.com/english/

the violin palying scene took hundreds of reshots in oder to synchronise the finger movements and the background music.

guess who wrote shizuku's lyrics for 'country road'? miyazaki des. HAHAHAHA

fan pages
1. from Naussica
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/mimi/

2. from pathea
http://www.pathea.com [under ghibli studio section]

3. from wingsee
http://www.wingsee.com/ghibli/whisper/