Hayao Miyazaki, who turns 80 years old today, has announced his retirement on more than one occasion, but like so many great artists โ from Steven Soderbergh to Cher โ he canโt help himself from practicing his gift. At the time of this writing, Miyazaki is deep at work on the movie โHow Do You Live?โ at Studio Ghibli, the independent animation company he co-founded with fellow animation legend Isao Takahata, who died in 2018.
When HBO Max launched last year, one of the platformโs most exciting offerings was the (near) complete catalog of Studio Ghibli films โ which include several of Japanโs top-grossing movies, among them โPrincess Mononoke,โ โHowlโs Moving Castleโ and Oscar winner โSpirited Awayโ โ available for the first time via streaming in the U.S.
Last May, Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki spoke with Variety, explaining that the studio, which had let most of its talented animators go after the completion of โWhen Marnie Was Hereโ in 2014, was up and running again.
โStudio Ghibli had always been the studio that would create films for Hayao Miyazaki, so when he retired, it made sense that we stopped and shut down the studio,โ Suzuki said. โHowever, as you know, Hayao Miyazaki came back. He said he wanted to do another film, so we had to get our employees back. What we decided was that this time, with his new hand-drawn animation film, we are going to approach it with smaller numbers of animators over a longer-term period.โ
Whereas Ghibli films typically employ around 200 animators, Miyazakiโs latest project calls for just 60, who will work at a slower pace in order for the legendary director to achieve his vision. In the meantime, Studio Ghibli produced another feature, the computer-generated made-for-TV special โEarwig and the Witch,โ overseen by Miyazakiโs son Goro (who also helmed the features โTales from Earthseaโ and โFrom Up on Poppy Hillโ). Nearly 50 animators worked on that film, though Ghibli hired them from all over the world โ America, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and France.
According to Suzuki, he and Miyazaki have discussed the idea that another director might carry on the companyโs legacy in the future. โItโs a secret,โ Suzuki said. โMiyazaki came back, and heโs working on this film, but heโs already thinking of the next project, but weโre not saying whoโs going to direct that film.โ