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Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Akira by Wagner Diesel

An American Werewolf in London by Huan Do

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly by Royalston

The Hulk by Patrick Brown

Inside Llewyn Davis by Neil Davies...

Many Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fans won’t know this, but the anime films created and produced by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki were internationally distributed on Home Entertainment mediums by Disney in many countries. This deal was made in August 1996 when the Walt Disney Company and Tokuma Shoten, the parent company of Studio Ghibli, formed a partnership.

Hayao Miyazaki | Credit: Oscars YouTube channel

According to the deal, Walt Disney Studios would be the sole international distributor for the animated films created by Studio Ghibli. These films were dubbed depending on the region and then released accordingly. Both Disney and Ghibli are the industry giants, and their collaboration was in fact one of the biggest deals in history.

However, the intriguing aspect of this collaboration is that popular actor and filmmaker Kevin Costner was a crucial part of it. In fact, he was the one who introduced Michael Ovitz, the then president of Disney,...

The master filmmaker behind films like Your Name, Weathering With You, and Garden of Words, Makoto Shinkai has once again caught the attention of the whole world with his latest movie, Suzume no Tojimari, released in 2022. The success of this film is enough proof that cemented Makoto Shinkai’s status as a modern anime legend.

Suzume from the Suzume no Tojimari film | Credits: Comix Wave Films

As a consequence of his popularity, Shinkai also receives comparisons to the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Although this might sound like a great honor, it actually is. Aside from his respect for Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai does not like being compared to him. Despite that, Shinkai unexpectedly paid homage to Miyazaki films in Suzume which only true Miyazaki fans would be able to notice.

Suzume Has a Wild Easter Egg, Connecting to One of The Most Popular Hayao Miyazaki Films Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service...

Howl’s Moving Castle is an evergreen tale of love gifted by Hayao Miyazaki, and the film is here to last for generations. The movie has many other themes embroidered into it, especially its anti-war standing.

The movie has complex characters, such as Howl, who is initially shown in a negative light. But as the story progresses, the character wins over the hearts of its audience. However, one particularly curious scene in the film has always confused fans, and it’s high time to solve it for you.

Howl is Greatly Misunderstood in the Beginning of Howl’s Moving Castle Howl finds Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle | Credits: Studio Ghibli

At the beginning of Howl’s Moving Castle, Howl is rumored to have a wicked personality. The rumor that was spread among the residents of Market Chipping was that Howl was in search of beautiful young women, whose hearts he would steal before devouring them.

Within the anime industry, Studio Ghibli has the most unique animation style that adds a realistic feeling to the story. For many years Ghibli’s animation blended perfectly with Hayao Miyazaki’s artistic approach and produced some of the greatest anime films of all time. It has remained consistent for most of the time, but there have been a few exceptions that fans might not have noticed.

My Neighbor Totoro | Credit: Studio Ghibli

One of those exceptions was seen when Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro came out in 1988. The film was animated by Studio Ghibli, and the key animation at the time was handled by Yoshinori Kanada, one of the most influential Japanese animators of all time. Kanada had worked on a lot of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli projects as the key animator.

Kanada had a special bond with Miyazaki, which led to the filmmaker making an exception for him.

Immersion is the latest buzzword dominating the theme park industry, the concept around which the biggest and most expensive theme park expansions of the past few years are built, from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, to Galaxy's Edge at Disney. It's what Disney tried to sell audiences with the "Star Wars" hotel — before it turned into a spectacular failure. The idea that you can step right into your favorite movie, see it brought to life in front of you, and keep the magic alive, rather than unveil the curtain and see these worlds and characters for the craftsmanship that they are is what going to theme parks is all about.

Except, it wasn't always about that. Instead, the very first ideas about what Disneyland and Universal Studios were meant to be are all but forgotten by the big parks. I'm talking about the idea of the...

When Disney partnered with Studio Ghibli in the 1990s to bring the beloved studio’s films to Western audiences, it seemed almost too perfect of a match. Ghibli’s beautiful storytelling, unique animation, and philosophical themes aligned perfectly with Disney’s reputation for high-quality family entertainment. They were the perfect studio for the English dub of Studio Ghibli films. This partnership, however, was not meant to be.

Kiki’s Delivery Service. [Credit: Studio Ghibli]

Disney’s handling of a very famous film caused friction that would be a lesson for every studio. Kiki’s Delivery Service had substantial changes, from the music to extra dialogue, that were not approved by Studio Ghibli. Steve Alpert revealed these changes to the executive and the producer was under severe fire for the changes. This instance wasn’t the only time Disney tried to make huge changes that would disrespect Miyazaki’s vision but Kiki’s Delivery...

Netflix has picked up streaming rights to Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies, which will be available from September 16 in over 190 countries, excluding Japan.

Grave of the Fireflies joins Netflix’s current library of 22 Studio Ghibli films, which are available globally, excluding the U.S. and Japan.

Ghibli titles available on the streamer include Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso, among others.

The streamer also added other Japanese animated films like Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume and Takehiko Inoue’s The First Slam Dunk earlier this year.

Based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s Naoki Prize-winning short story, Grave of the Fireflies is set in Kobe near the end of World War Two and depicts the tragic fate of war orphan siblings and the horrors of this period.

Grave of the Fireflies first premiered in 1988 and was directed by the late Isao Takahata,...

Mika and the Witch’s Mountain takes its cues from a beloved Studio Ghibli classic. The 1989 film Kiki’s Delivery Service tells the coming-of-age story of a young witch starting her mandatory year of solitary training. On the eve of her 13th birthday, Kiki boards her broomstick to begin this rite of passage.

Though eager, she’s clumsy at first, bumbling crashes as she learns to command her broom. The movie charmingly follows Kiki establishing independence through her work with a local bakery, delivering bread by air while gaining confidence in her powers.

This new video game transports players to a world that similarly blends magic and mundane tasks. You take control of Mika, an apprentice studying under a feared witch named Olagari. Hoping to prove herself, Mika travels to the mountain peak where Olagari instructs other witches. But a harsh introduction awaits: Olagari sends Mika tumbling from the cliffs.

With her broom busted,...

‘Alien: Romulus’ is right around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to check out ‘Lily C.A.T.,’ an anime body horror classic that’s a gory tribute to ‘Alien’ and ‘The Thing’.

“Confine them? We’re on a ship. We’re practically confined ourselves.”

Ridley Scott’s Alien is an iconic horror/science fiction hybrid that’s had its ups and downs as a film franchise, but remains an essential genre film 45 years later. Alien is such a tried and true property with limitless potential that it’s kind of remarkable that there hasn’t been an Alien animated series or in-universe anime that’s in the vein of The Animatrix that translates this iconic sci-fi horror property into animated madness where it can really let loose and not be confined by live-action’s limitations. An unreleased Alien vs. Predator anime is the closest thing that audiences have gotten to this,...

The great Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, whose 1988 masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro is back in UK and Irish cinemas, embraces the universe yet never shies away from life’s grittier elements

Is Japanese film-maker Hayao Miyazaki “the greatest family entertainer of our time”? That was the conclusion I reached about the writer-director behind such animated wonders as Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) when reviewing Miyazaki’s 2008 charmer Ponyo in this paper. A few years later, while compiling a list of the 25 best films for children – a list that ranged from Chaplin’s 1921 classic The Kid to Nora Twomey’s 2017 beauty The Breadwinner – I wrote that “it’s hard to decide which of Hayao Miyazaki’s matchless animations to include in this list”.

Born in Tokyo in 1941, Miyazaki joined Toei Animation in 1963 and co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, creating a stream of world-beating animations, any one...

Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron” will make its U.S. streaming debut on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max in September.

The Studio Ghibli film will be available starting Friday, Sept. 6, exclusively on Max in the U.S. The hand-drawn, semi-autobiographical animated movie from Miyazaki is the first feature film in 10 years that he both wrote and directed. “The Boy and the Heron” joins the rest of the Studio Ghibli library on Max as part of the streamer’s exclusive multiyear U.S. deal extension announced earlier this year.

Outside the U.S. and Japan, “The Boy and the Heron” will be available on Netflix under a renewal inked this spring for the entire Studio Ghibli film catalog. Netflix has not yet set a premiere date for “The Boy and the Heron.”

“The Boy and the Heron” English-language version features the voices of Christian Bale, Dave Bautista,...

Rotten Tomatoes does not measure the quality of a movie, no matter what your favorite YouTuber says. What it does measure is the percentage of critics who think a movie is at least decent. The higher the Rotten Tomatoes score, the firmer the consensus is that a movie is at least "good," rather than, say, an exact quality score of the title.

Still, even if it doesn't exactly measure quality, a Rotten Tomatoes score is quite useful to get an idea of whether a movie has a wide appeal or if it's polarizing (meaning different people have vastly different opinions on the title). When it comes to anime, even if the genre is becoming more and more accessible, more mainstream, and more accepted, there are only four anime movies with a 100% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

What's curious is how different, yet very similar, the titles are. That's because,...

Max has shared a curated list of films available to stream on the service in Summer 2024. Max is home to Warner Bros. Pictures films, classics and new favorites from A24, the Studio Ghibli library, and award-winning films spanning multiple genres.

The platform is showcasing its vast film library with curated summer watch lists of blockbusters, horror, family-friendly films, and more.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Dune: Part Two, the groundbreaking sequel to Dune, is now available to stream on the platform along with recent hits like Wonka and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which also has an American Sign Language (Asl) version of the film available to stream.

Viewers can also find summer favorites like Mamma Mia!, Meg 2: The Trench, A Night at the Roxbury, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Dune: Part Two

Horror fans can look to Max for their summer scares and favorite films from franchises,...

In the world of anime, Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli unarguably holds an incredibly strong presence, having expanded its portfolio among the likes of fan-favorite projects like The Boy and the Heron and Howl’s Moving Castle. That said, what if this respective studio worked on taming animated projects for the Stranger Things and Harry Potter franchises?

A still from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. | Credit: Toho Co., Ltd.

Obviously, that sounds like a sweet sight to behold for all those anime fans out there. And, as it turns out, it just might be a pretty cool thing to witness. This comes after a fan account for the studio shared a series of concept art for J. K. Rowling’s tremendously beloved saga, followed by the fan artist sharing her own animated perspective on The Duffer Brothers’ iconic horror saga.

Fan Artist’s Anime Perspective of Stranger Things is Giving Studio...

Track by Track sees artists guide readers through each song on their newest release. Today, rising indie rockers Sour Widows break down their dazzling debut album, Revival of a Friend.

Listening to Sour Widows’ debut album, Revival of a Friend, it’s immediately apparent just how cathartic the songs are for the band. Mournful melodies, building dynamics, and guitar licks that somehow communicate extremely specific emotions combine for a listen that, even without context, carries the feeling of the sun finally peaking out from behind miles and miles of clouds.

But then, of course, there is the context, the lived experiences of songwriters Susanna Thomson and Maia Sinaiko that informed the work.

“When we started playing together again that fall after being on hiatus for several months because of my mom’s illness, I was feeling easily overwhelmed by most things, and playing and writing were very difficult,” Thomson tells Consequence.

Before Kiki's Delivery Service became the Studio Ghibli movie we all know and love, it was a children's fantasy novel by Eiko Kadono. To celebrate the arrival of three limited-time menu items, McDonald's Japan is partnering up with the children's classic for a new animated commercial. Kiki, Jiji, and the charming world around them return to advertise the fast food chain's European Burgers—a trio of sandwiches inspired by flavors from across European countries. On the menu for a limited time are German Potato and Beef (a beef patty with German potato filling and mustard sauce), Peperon Juicy Hot Chicken (a chicken patty with red pepper breading and garlic mayo), and Bouillabaisse-Style Shrimp (a breaded shrimp patty with bouillabaisse sauce and aioli). Art of Kiki and Jiji will also appear on the packaging for the limited-edition burgers. Related: WcDonald's Becomes Real with First Anime Short by Studio Pierrot You'll also...

An adorable black cat with luminous amber eyes fends for itself in “Flow,” snatching a fish from a pack of distracted mutts and dashing off with its loot while the dogs chase just a few seconds behind. Visionary animator Gints Zilbalodis’ virtual camera swoops after the cat, revealing a crisp, computer-generated world where humans are oddly absent, but their influence can be acutely felt.

Perhaps that explains what happens next, as a near-biblical flood of water — which may well be the result of human-made climate change, though Zilbalodis never specifies — brings a herd of wild animals stampeding in its direction. The cat’s ears flatten, and it crouches low to the ground, much like the Lion King did in that film’s iconic wildebeest scene, as a giant wave comes thundering after the deer. Seconds later, the forest is underwater, and the cat is desperately trying to stay afloat.

This...

Born from the ashes of a then-defunct Studio Ghibli (which has itself enjoyed something of a phoenix saga over the last few years), Studio Ponoc was founded in the hopes of keeping a certain tradition alive — of preserving the kingdom of dreams and madness in the face of a world that had turned its back on hand-drawn animation, and lost faith in the magic that masters like Hayao Miyazaki has been able to create with it. Ponoc debuted with 2017’s “Mary and the Witch’s Flower,” an undercooked but gorgeously rendered fable that replicated the look of Ghibli classics like “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Castle in the Sky,” but failed to capture the breezy sense of wonder that allowed those masterpieces to breathe real life into every frame. As a movie, it was disappointing. As a proof-of-concept, however, it was an optimistic promise of what the future might hold once Miyazaki...

During an advance preview of the second part of the ‘How Do You Live? Exhibition’ at the Ghibli Museum on May 24, 2024, Goro Miyazaki revealed that Hayao Miyazaki is working on a new project that could become his next film.

According to Goro Miyazaki, his father began creating panorama boxes based on his past works as a way to pass the time. However, Goro felt that constantly revisiting past works could become monotonous for Hayao Miyazaki.

Encouraging him to pursue new projects, Goro suggested, “Why don’t you create something for your next film?”

“And that’s what he’s working on now,” Goro revealed. “Whether it will actually become his next film, I don’t know, but it’s a nostalgic action-adventure story, and I’m looking forward to it.“

Note: The original Japanese phrase used by Goro Miyazaki is 冒険活劇風 (bouken katsugeki-fu) which translates to – “in the style of an adventure movie/film”. However,...

Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki is 83; because of this and his own past flirtations with retirement, some morbid critics are a bit too eager to look at how each new Miyazaki film would serve as his career capstone.

I'm going to keep such thoughts to a minimum, but Miyazaki's latest film, 2023's "The Boy and the Heron", couldn't have been made by anyone but a man aware he's aging. Set in Japan during World War II, the movie centers on young Mahito, who must reckon with the loss of his mother as he falls into a Lewis Carroll-style fantasy world held together by its elderly creator.

"The Boy and the Heron" won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars earlier this year (which it totally deserved). If you haven't seen it yet, don't fret. U.S. distributor GKids has announced the home media release date for the film — including a Blu-ray release date.

After "The Hobbit" trilogy got a mixed reception (despite being a commercial success) and "The Rings of Power" improved upon the feature films and even turned war from a cool source of thrills into the horror Tolkien described, the "Lord of the Rings" franchise is going back on the big screen where it belongs.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been threatening new live-action "Lord of the Rings" movies in his quest to just mine every piece of intellectual property the studio owns, but in the meantime, we are getting a brand new story set in Tolkien's legendarium, and there are many reasons to be excited about it. "The War of the Rohirrim" is a brand-new story set in Middle-earth, and it's one of our most anticipated movies of the year. But what exactly is this movie? Here's your guide to everything we know about "The War of the Rohirrim,...

Netlflix has secured the global streaming rights for Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning movie, The Boy And The Heron, as a part of renewed deal with Goodfellas and Gkids to release Studio Ghibli films on the platform. This agreement excludes the United States and Japan regions.

The premiere date for the film will be announced later this year.

In addition to The Boy And The Heron, the deal ensures continued access to 22 other Studio Ghibli classics, including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Arrietty, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro and The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya.

While Netflix has acquired the streaming rights for The Boy And The Heron outside the U.S. and Japan, viewers in the U.S. can still look forward to enjoying the film as HBO Max recently secured the streaming rights for the region.

The Boy And The Heron (called How Do You Live), released in...

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest Japanese animators and mangakas of all time. His latest animated film, The Boy and the Heron, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film this year.

Since the Oscar win, the film has seen an increase in demand, but it was not available to stream anywhere. This is about to change very soon, thanks to a deal between Netflix and Studio Ghibli. While this news will bring joy to anime lovers all over the world, it is bad news for viewers in the US and Japan.

Miyazaki’s film is set to stream on Netflix soon (Source: The Boy and the Heron)

Netflix gets the streaming rights for Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron

Netflix holds the streaming rights to Studio Ghibli Films, which was co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki. And now, the streaming giant is...

Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning animated movie, The Boy and the Heron, will stream in a majority of the globe on Netflix. A premiere date will be announced. Netflix’s rights exclude Japan and the U.S. Max has the pic stateside.

It’s part of a new deal between Netflix, Goodfellas and Gkids, the latter extending their global catalog of streaming rights (ex-us and Japan) for pics from Oscar-winning Japanese studio Studio Ghibli.

As part of the new pact, an additional 22 films – including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Arrietty, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, among others – will continue to stream on Netflix around the world.

Those in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America will be able to stream these titles in 28 languages and dubbed in up to 20 languages.

The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s first feature film in 10 years.

Miyazaki Hayao’s “The Boy and the Heron,” which recently won the Oscar for best animated feature film, will head to global streaming giant Netflix later this year, excluding the U.S. and Japan.

The hand-drawn, critically acclaimed fantasy adventure film is part of a renewed worldwide catalog deal between Netflix and the Japanese producer Studio Ghibli, sales agent Goodfellas and independent distributor GKids. No release date was disclosed.

It was recently confirmed that “The Boy and the Heron” will go into theatrical release in mainland China from April 3 and that it will also enjoy theatrical rereleases in the U.S. and Japan.

Netflix, Studio Ghibli and Goodfellas predecessor Wild Bunch International struck a multiyear deal in February 2020. The Netflix agreement excludes the U.S. — where Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max holds streaming rights on Studio Ghibli films — and Studio Ghibli’s home market of Japan. In the U.S.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning film “The Boy and the Heron” is still in demand — and soon it will be on-demand via various streaming services.

“The Boy and the Heron” will be available to stream on Netflix everywhere in the world except the U.S. and Japan due to an extended worldwide catalog rights deal between distributors Goodfellas and Gkids and Japanese studio Studio Ghibli, the streaming king revealed on Thursday. Along with the “Boy and the Heron,” an additional 22 Studio Ghibli films will be available on Netflix, including: “Spirited Away,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and “My Neighbor Totoro.”

For American audiences, “The Boy and the Heron” will land on Warner Bros. Discovery streamer Max as part of a multi-year agreement with Gkids to extend the exclusive U.S. film streaming rights for Studio Ghibli. The streamer has been the U.S. home to the Studio Ghibli catalogue since 2020, marking the...

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru Ka) will stream on Netflix around the world outside the U.S. and Japan as part of a deal unveiled Tuesday.

Netflix will also nab an additional 22 Studio Ghibli films as it extends its agreement with the revered animation studio founded by Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki. In the U.S., Max recently landed the streaming rights to the anime master’s semi-autobiographical fantasy film to become the exclusive streaming home for the films of Studio Ghibli.

Gkids, which handles North American distribution for Studio Ghibli, and Max signed a multi-year extension of their deal to keep the studio’s library on the Warner Bros. Discovery platform. To secure its own worldwide deal, Netflix extended its pact with Goodfellas and Gkids to release Studio Ghibli films outside the U.S. and Japan.

Netflix will set a premiere...

Netflix will become the worldwide streaming home excluding the US and Japan for GKids and Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning feature animation The Boy And The Heron.

The streaming platform will announce the debut date for Hayao Miyazaki’s best animated feature Academy Award winner at a later date.

The fantasy about a grieving boy who enters a magical realm marks animation legend Miyazaki’s first feature in a decade after an illustrious career that has created Howl’s’ Moving Castle, Princess Monokone, and Spirited Away, among others.

Netflix, Goodfellas and GKids have extended the streaming rights for the Studio Ghibli...

Max and Studio Ghibli have extended their exclusive US streaming deal which will see Oscar winner The Boy And The Heron head to the platform later this year.

The streamer has been home to the Studio Ghibli catalogue since 2020, when the films were available to stream for the first time.

A debut date for Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature winner – which marked theatrical distributor GKids’ first win in 13 nominations – will be announced later this year.

The Boy And The Heron premiered at TIFF last September and went on to win multiple critics group awards and the Golden Globe.

The story...

Max will continue to be the studio’s exclusive streaming home in the United States with tiles including “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away,” and more.

Thanks in no small part to the prevalence of streaming media, anime has become an increasingly important part of the American entertainment landscape in recent years. When Warner Bros. Discovery launched the HBO Max streaming service in 2020, the iconic films of Studio Ghibili were included in the catalog. On Tuesday, Wbd announced that it had extended its deal with the Japanese studio and that the recent Oscar-winning film “The Boy and the Heron” will stream on HBO Max’s successive streaming service Max.

HBO Max became the first streaming service to carry Studio Ghibli titles when it launched in 2020. This new multi-year extension will keep the iconic Japanese studio’s films on Max in the United States. Recent Oscar winner “The Boy and the Heron...

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” which just won the Oscar for animated feature film, is streaming to Max in the U.S.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced a multiyear agreement with independent distributor GKids to extend Max’s exclusive U.S. streaming rights for films from Studio Ghibli, Japan’s legendary animation house. The streamer has been the U.S. home to Studio Ghibli’s catalog since 2020, when the service originally launched as HBO Max.

Under the deal renewal, Max will be the future home of “The Boy and the Heron”; the streaming premiere date on Max will be announced later this year. The hand-drawn, semi-autobiographical film — Miyazaki’s first feature film in 10 years — was produced by Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki and features a musical score from Miyazaki’s longtime collaborator Joe Hisaishi.

The extension with GKids also will keep nearly two dozen Studio Ghibli films — including “My Neighbor Totoro,...

Howl's Moving Castle.I returned to the films of Hayao Miyazaki last year because the kids I nanny in Brooklyn—A, eight, and J, six—happened upon Studio Ghibli Fest while they were away over the summer in Upstate New York, visiting their grandparents in a town where they had spent the early pandemic. Of the two, J’s infatuation with Miyazki is least surprising: his interests include black holes, rare crystals, and mushrooms, especially the poisonous varieties. Through his eyes, I rediscovered Miyazaki, rewatching once-familiar films with a new attunement to their strangeness. In the process I was reminded of first meeting J, when he was four years old and still reeling from his family’s relocation from a house Upstate to their apartment in Brooklyn. He was particularly incensed about having to wear shoes, which I imagine crystallized the totality of the transformation: in that passage from grass to concrete,...

The official jury for the New York International Children’s Film Festival (Nyicff) has been unveiled, with “Passages” director Ira Sachs, “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer, “Into the Spider-Verse” producer Peter Ramsey, and actress Uma Thurman among the A-listers presiding over the 2024 festival.

IndieWire exclusively reveals the full jury lineup, as well as the jurors’ personal favorite films from growing up. The 2024 installment of Nyicff boasts Cannes-premiered animated film “Chicken for Linda!” and buzzy Neon release “Robot Dreams” among its program, as well as anime film “The Concierge” and sequel “Dounia – The Great White North.” The Oscar-qualifying festival will take place March 2 through 17. See the full lineup here.

The full jury committee includes Ilana Glazer, Uma Thurman, Sony Pictures Animation head of story Guillermo Martinez, Matthew Modine, “Doc McStuffins” creator Chris Nee, “Migration” director Benjamin Renner, filmmaker Ira Sachs, Phillipa Soo, head of artistic recruiting at Titmouse Animation Ellen Su,...

Viz Media revealed its slate of new releases and acquisitions that will launch starting in Fall of this year, with the biggest acquisition in the new Eiichiro Oda one-shot Wanted! Eiichiro Oda Before One Piece , which features all of the legendary creator's early work prior to his best-known work. The full slate is featured below. Kaiju No. 8: Exclusive on the Third Division (Light Novel) by Naoya Matsumoto and Keiji Ando Description: Get an exclusive sneak peek into the lives of kaiju-fighting heroes Kafka, Reno, Kikoru, and Hoshina, in a new light novel! Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite (Manga) by Julietta Suzuki Description: Modern vampire Hina sets out from Romania to live out her otaku dreams in Japan! Her new neighbor, Kyuta, looks just like her anime crush. Can she convince him to be friends? Trillion Game (Manga) by Riichiro Inagaki and Ryoichi Ikegami Description: Haru and Gaku become...

After Hayao Miyazaki took three years to finish the initial storyboard for “The Boy and the Heron”, it became obvious that he needed help. With diminished stamina and failing eyesight, the legendary anime auteur was no longer able to control everything. So he invited Takeshi Honda (“Neon Genesis Evangelion”), the supervising animator on his hybrid CG/2D short “Boro the Caterpillar,” to join his upcoming feature.

Honda was flattered and told Miyazaki that he would think about it because he was already committed to “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time,” the franchise film finale. “But at that time, Miyazaki san said, ‘I don’t have time — there is no one in the Miyazaki family who is over 80 years old.’ I thought it was a big deal,” Honda told IndieWire over Zoom through an interpreter.

Honda couldn’t refuse Miyazaki (now 82) and proceeded to spend the next seven years on a journey of a lifetime,...

More than 40 years into his storied career as a director, Hayao Miyazaki has himself a number-one hit at the box office in North America. The filmmaker's widely acclaimed return to the director's chair, "The Boy and the Heron," was finally released in the U.S. over the weekend and, thanks to a unique set of circumstances, the film took the top spot on the charts. In the process, it set several records and said much about the state of moviegoing in the pandemic era.

Studio Ghibli's "The Boy and the Heron," which is being distributed by Gkids in the States, debuted at number one with a $12.9 million haul, per The Numbers. It has also earned $84 million internationally to date, giving it a $97 million running global total. It was, admittedly, a very quiet weekend with no major Hollywood releases hitting screens. That gave Miyazaki's latest an unexpected chance to take the spotlight.

English dubs for anime are a contentious thing. For many otakus, subbing out Japanese original audio for an English translation is defilement. Yet as anime has become more mainstream in America, the quality of dubs has shot up as well, and it's honestly not hard to find good ones these days (the English version of "Cowboy Bebop" is rightfully legendary).

Some of those quality dubs have been done for the films of anime's greatest genius: Hayao Miyazaki, founder of Studio Ghibli. When you're handling the work of a master, the incentive to do it right is all the more present. Not every single Ghibli picture is a Miyazaki joint, to be clear, but the director and studio remain pretty synonymous.

First, some history of Ghibli's English dubs. Miyazaki's earlier works in the 1980s and early '90s were mostly dubbed by the now-defunct Streamline Pictures. After Disney brokered a licensing...

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” looks to soar atop domestic charts this weekend after earning about $5.4 million across Friday and various preview screenings. Playing in 2,205 theaters, the GKids release has the benefit of Imax and other premium large format auditoriums to boost those numbers.

It’s another modest win for theaters in a marketplace that may not ever recover to pre-covid levels. “The Boy and the Heron” is the latest in a series of more successful targeted event releases with smaller marketing spends. See last weekend’s openings of “Godzilla Minus One,” staying in third place for its sophomore outing, or even “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” which topped charts in its debut. Then there’s previous animated features from established anime like last year’s “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” ($38 million domestic) or the first “Demon Slayer” ($49 million domestic). Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli generally don’t dabble in IP; but,...

Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros., Netflix, Jaap Buittendijk/Warner Bros., Atsushi Nishijima (Neon), Kevin Winter (Getty Images), Graphic: The A.V. Club, Karl Gustafson, The A.V. Club, Image: GKIDSPoor Things review: Emma Stone comes to life in a feminist masterpieceEmma StonePhoto: Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures

Director Yorgos Lanthimos...

Studio Ghibli, a scrappy Japanese animation studio that was founded in the ‘80s, would go on to become an industry powerhouse that surpasses Disney’s sense of fantasy, Pixar’s emotional catharsis, and the unabashed against-the-grain individualism of DreamWorks Animation. Hayao Miyazaki’s name is often synonymous with Studio Ghibli, the animation studio that he founded with fellow director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. Every Studio Ghibli film is special, but Hayao Miyazaki is an anime auteur whose cinematic offerings become pop culture events that redefine animation and storytelling.

Hayao Miyazaki is a renowned voice in traditional hand-drawn animation whose movies have record-breaking budgets and take over a decade to complete. And every time, they’re worth it. Miyazaki’s feature films may seem like playful escapism to outsiders, but recurring elements and themes define the quintessential Miyazaki experience. Miyazaki’s anime oeuvre may come across as intimidating and impenetrable to newcomers.

Makoto Shinkai has been called the new Hayao Miyazaki from the moment he arrived on the scene -- and not entirely without reason. The filmmaker has made some of the most successful anime movies of all time, employing stunning visuals that bring tear-jerking stories to life. Like Miyazaki, Shinkai blends traditional Japanese folklore with modern stories to tell fantastical yet intimate coming-of-age stories.

Shinkai's latest, "Suzume," is a movie he's been slowly building his whole career up to. This serves as the end of his unofficial natural disaster trilogy that started with "Your Name," this time directly tackling the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in the plot. In "Suzume," we follow the titular character, a young woman living in a small town in Japan who is tasked with closing a series of magical turns across the country before it falls into another disaster. Along the way, Suzume and her companion (who...

Hayao Miyazaki just won't stop. The animation maestro has retired then unretired so many times it is just silly now, with his latest movie "The Boy and the Heron" being released in Japan with no trailers and being billed as his last goodbye — until it was revealed he was already throwing around ideas for his next project. "He's thinking about this next project every day, and I can't stop him -- in fact, I've given up," studio co-founder and long-time producer Toshio Suzuki recently said in an interview with French outlet Liberation.

But while the idea of more Miyazaki is exciting, what's somewhat troubling is the future Studio Ghibli is headed toward. After all, this is the greatest animation studio in the world, responsible for all-time classics like "Kiki's Delivery Service" (which ended up on our list of 100 best movies ever) and "Princess Kaguya," and which gifted us Totoro and tanuki testicle transformations.

Max users now have a new way to find their favorite Halloween-themed titles, from hardcore horror to holiday-themed baking shows.

Halloween is officially more than a month away, but to its most devoted followers the holiday doesn’t have a season. For these people, Halloween is not just a holiday, it’s a state of mind. Max has a brand new content hub for Halloween lovers to devour, and more casual observers of the holiday will love it every bit as much.

Max is calling its new hub the “House of Halloween.” It’s one of the featured, rotating content tiles in the carousel at the top of the Max homepage, and it offers specially curated collections of shows and movies from the Warner Bros. Discovery vault that subscribers can start streaming immediately.

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Max embraces the Halloween season in a massive way by putting horror for all ages front and center with a “House of Halloween” interactive spotlight page, and it’s now live. It’s a choose your own adventure, Halloween style this spooky season.

The streaming platform aims to be the premier destination for Halloween. The “House of Halloween” spotlight page separates content into various scare levels, featuring categories such as Sweet Treat, which highlights titles like Coraline, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and “Halloween Cookie Challenge,” Scary, But Not Scary-Scary, which includes HBO’s “The Last of Us,” “True Blood,” and “Lovecraft Country,” and Haunt Your Dreams, showcasing some of Max’s most chilling content, with a lineup of horror films including Annabelle, It, Evil Dead Rise, The Nun, and The Exorcist, which turns 50 this year.

Look for the second season of the HBO Original horror series “30 Coins...

Studio Ghibli, the iconic Japanese cartoon firm behind Miyazaki Hayao’s recent “The Boy and the Heron,” is selling a controlling stake to Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television (Ntv). The companies said that Studio Ghibli will become a “subsidiary.”

Nippon Television is to buy shares in Studio Ghibli and become its largest shareholder with 42.3% of voting rights. Executives from Ntv are expected to join Studio Ghibli’s management, the pair said on Thursday. Terms of the deal, including its valuation and timetable, were not disclosed.

“At Studio Ghibli, director Miyazaki Hayao is now 82 years old, and producer Suzuki Toshio is also 75 years old, and the issue of succession has been a problem for a long time,” Studio Ghibli said in a statement. “Miyazaki Goro, the eldest son of founder Miyazaki Hayao and an animation film director himself, has been mentioned several times as the successor to Studio Ghibli. However, Miyazaki Goro himself firmly declined,...

It’s been 10 years since animation master Hayao Miyazaki made a film and 12 years since Gkids took over North American distribution for the studio he co-founded and helped make iconic. But though “The Boy and the Heron” — which opened to raves out of TIFF on Thursday — is likely the last Miyazaki film Gkids will have the privilege of releasing, it’s also the distributor’s first.

“The Wind Rises” in 2013 was still released domestically by Disney and Touchstone (it made $5.2 million). And though the distributor’s annual Ghibli Fest has grown year over year in “spreading the gospel” of Ghibli and Miyazaki, as the distributor’s president Dave Jesteadt puts it, having a new film from the man himself is a different challenge entirely.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel tremendous pressure. That’s also joined by a feeling of tremendous honor,” Jesteadt told IndieWire.

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Gkids releases the film in theaters on Friday, December 8.

How does someone follow one of the greatest and most profoundly summative farewells the movies have ever seen? By definition, they don’t. They retire, or they die. Or they retire and then they die. In some rare cases, it even seems like they die because they retired.

And then there’s 82-year-old filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, always in a category of his own, who’s formally or informally quit the business no fewer than seven times of the course of his illustrious career, most recently after the 2013 release of his magnum opus “The Wind Rises.” A fictionalized biopic about aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose most visionary designs were built with forced Korean labor and deployed at the wasteful mercy of Japan’s World War II campaign,...

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of animation. Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that he founded with Toshio Suzuki and Isao Takahata, has produced such classics as “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and “Princess Mononoke.”

Miyazaki has contended for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars three times: in 2003 for “Spirited Away,” in 2006 for “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and in 2014 for “The Wind Rises.” He won for “Spirited Away,” beating out “Ice Age,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” and “Treasure Planet.” Meanwhile, “Howl’s Moving Castle” lost to “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “The Wind Rises” lost to “Frozen.” Miyazaki was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015, too, alongside Jean-Claude Carrière and Maureen O’Hara.

And Miyazaki may well be back on the Oscars stage more this year for “The Boy and the Heron.” The story follows a teenage boy who enters a...

(Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.)

The purpose of this column has always been to highlight anime that newcomers could jump into without prior knowledge of the medium, shows that hopefully act as a gateway to a medium full of incredible possibilities. Recently, I've been trying to avoid brand-new shows, and instead focus on shining a light on older classics and relatively more modern but still underseen anime — basically, shows that you don't hear about trending on social media.

That being said, a brand new show comes along sometimes and surpasses anticipations and expectations to deliver a viewing experience so unique and thrilling I am left with no choice but to immediately write about it in the hopes that everyone catches up before the season ends. That is the case with this month's anime: "Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead.