Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter, Author, and Animator. He has earned international acclamations and is getting compared to the American Walt Disney for animation and Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg is an American producer, director >> Read More... and Orson Welles for direction. Hayao has a long career of five decades and has established a Studio Ghibli; an animation and film production studio. Hayao was born on 5 January 1941 in Bunkyo, Tokyo. His father was the director of the Miyazaki Airplane, which manufactured the A6M Zero fighter plane’s rudder.

He studied at Utsunomiya Elementary School, Eifuku Elementary School, and graduated from Omiya Junior High School. After studying at Toyotama High School, he went to Gakushuin University and studied Political Science. In October 1965, Hayao married his colleague, Akemi Ota and had two sons Goro and Keisuke. Miyazaki won an Oscar Award for his film Spirited Woman Away but did not attend the ceremony as a protest against America for bombing Iraq. Hayao’s films contain some themes like the predicament of maintaining pacifist nature and trying to depict human relationship with technology and nature.

His films like The Castle of Cagilostro and Castle in The Sky showcased traditional villains. The Castle of Cagilostro became the breakthrough film for Hayao, he directed the film in 1979. After that, he moved to TMS Entertainment Subsidiary Telecom Animation Films. His next venture Nausicaa of the valley of the Wind, which was released in 1984 revolved around the theme of technology and ecology and human relationship. It was a science fiction film, it involved a depiction of fascism, fascination for aircraft and technology, feminism, and moral characterizations.

It included a mixture of all his dreams and cultural ethics altogether with the boom of science fiction in it. Hayao made several films like Laputa: In the Castle Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service and then he started his ambitious project titled Princess Mononoke. This animated movie had voices of Yoji Matsuda, Akihiro Miwo, Yuko Tanaka, and it depicted the harsh conditions and circumstances of animal spirits with human invading their habitats.