April 19th: WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2014)
NOTE: This film will be projected in the high-definition Blu-ray format.
An introverted young girl is sent away to a small town to rest over the summer, and befriends a strange girl from a seemingly abandoned mansion.
The films of Studio Ghibli have primarily been directed by one of its co-founders, Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, with Miyazaki usually contributing to the script and/or designs on projects that neither helmed. In 2010, during one of his retirements, Miyazaki offered the directing job of the film Arietty to one of his proteges, key animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi (only 37 at the time). After its success, Miayazki returned to direct The Wind Rises but then decided to retire again.
Like Howl's Moving Castle and Arietty, Ghibli turned to an English language children's book for story material, in this case When Marnie Was There by British author Joan G. Robinson. Rather than writing the script himself, Miyazaki offered the title to the studio as a suggestion, and Yonebayashi took charge of the project, co-writing the adaptation with Keiko Niwa (Arietty, From Up On Poppy Hill) and former Ghibli character designer Masahi Ando, returning to the company after 10 years.
The setting for the film was changed, substituting Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido for Norfolk, England as it is in the book. Yonebayashi travelled to Hokkaido to research the location, drawing inspiration from the wetlands common in the region, particularly the marshes that feature heavily in the story. For the mansion where much of the action takes place in and around, a physical scale model was built to better capture the effect of light on it as well as smaller details of its architecture and decoration.
Because of the main character Anna's downbeat and reserved nature, Yonebayashi found it a challenge to make the animation visually dynamic, and Ando's solution was to add more detail to the eyes than would normally be found with Ghibli characters, both with lines and color. Another notable difference is the palette used for the sky, more muted and marbled than Ghibli's usual bright blue with bright white clouds.
The musical score was composed by Takatsugu Muramatsu, who up until this point had only worked on live action films. He wrote and recorded the score using two different brands of pianos to capture the different timbres and tones of the emotions he was attempting to portray.
The film was released to box office success in Japan, with a modest run in the United States, where it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. For the English language dub, the cast was headed by Hailie Steinfeld (True Grit) and Kiernan Shipka (TV's Mad Men), joined by Oscar winners Kathy Bates, Geena Davis, and Ellen Burstyn as well as John C. Reilly and singer/actress Vanessa Williams.
Running time is approx. 100 minutes.
The films of Studio Ghibli have primarily been directed by one of its co-founders, Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, with Miyazaki usually contributing to the script and/or designs on projects that neither helmed. In 2010, during one of his retirements, Miyazaki offered the directing job of the film Arietty to one of his proteges, key animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi (only 37 at the time). After its success, Miayazki returned to direct The Wind Rises but then decided to retire again.
Like Howl's Moving Castle and Arietty, Ghibli turned to an English language children's book for story material, in this case When Marnie Was There by British author Joan G. Robinson. Rather than writing the script himself, Miyazaki offered the title to the studio as a suggestion, and Yonebayashi took charge of the project, co-writing the adaptation with Keiko Niwa (Arietty, From Up On Poppy Hill) and former Ghibli character designer Masahi Ando, returning to the company after 10 years.
The setting for the film was changed, substituting Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido for Norfolk, England as it is in the book. Yonebayashi travelled to Hokkaido to research the location, drawing inspiration from the wetlands common in the region, particularly the marshes that feature heavily in the story. For the mansion where much of the action takes place in and around, a physical scale model was built to better capture the effect of light on it as well as smaller details of its architecture and decoration.
Because of the main character Anna's downbeat and reserved nature, Yonebayashi found it a challenge to make the animation visually dynamic, and Ando's solution was to add more detail to the eyes than would normally be found with Ghibli characters, both with lines and color. Another notable difference is the palette used for the sky, more muted and marbled than Ghibli's usual bright blue with bright white clouds.
The musical score was composed by Takatsugu Muramatsu, who up until this point had only worked on live action films. He wrote and recorded the score using two different brands of pianos to capture the different timbres and tones of the emotions he was attempting to portray.
The film was released to box office success in Japan, with a modest run in the United States, where it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. For the English language dub, the cast was headed by Hailie Steinfeld (True Grit) and Kiernan Shipka (TV's Mad Men), joined by Oscar winners Kathy Bates, Geena Davis, and Ellen Burstyn as well as John C. Reilly and singer/actress Vanessa Williams.
Running time is approx. 100 minutes.
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