What: The Penny Stamps Speaker Series Presents Miwa Matreyek’s Dreaming With Your Shadow, a piece that blends animation with a live stage performance. If the image above doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.
When: October 6th at 5:10 PM
Where: Michigan Theater
Price: FREE. This is one of the many wonderful opportunities you can and should take advantage of at U of M!
Looking for thought-provoking animation that goes beyond Bob’s Burgers and Adult Swim? The Sundance Animated Shorts program is a “diverse compendium of eight short films culled from past festival lineups” (Jeanette Catsoulis of nytimes.com). The films vary in style, ranging from handmade drawing and painting to puppetry. But don’t assume that animation is substance-less juvenility. Many of the films explore heavy topics, such as death, bodily and psychological decline, as well as apocalyptic themes. It is sure to be a conversation starter and an eye dazzler of a night.
What: Sundance Animated Short Films
When: Two nights only – Sunday, February 1 at 4:30 and Tuesday, February 3 at 7
Where: Michigan Theater
How Much?: $12.80
And while you wait, watch the Sundance Animated Shorts trailer for a preview!
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and released in 1992, ‘Porco Rosso’ follows an Italian WWI flying ace now acting as a bounty hunter targeting “air pirates.” A Strange curse transforms him into an anthropomorphic pig. Magic, action, love and intrigue drive this youthful and entertaining plot.
What: Grave of the Fireflies (film)
Where: State Theater
When: Wednesday 5 November, 7pm
How Much: $8 students, $10 general admissions
Released by Studio Ghibli in 1988, ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ is based on a semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. Written and directed by Isao Takahata.
Set in the Japanese city of Kobe, this film follows two siblings, Seita and Setsuko, as they struggle through the last months of the Second World War.
Released in Japan in 1989, ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ was written, produced and directed by Hayao Miyazaki as an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono. The film was brought to the US in 1997 by The Walt Disney Corporation.
The story follows Kiki, a young witch, who goes to town with her black cat, Jiji, to make a living on her mandatory year away from her family to train. Kiki makes friends with the villagers as she delivers packages around town. A young by named Tombo follows her around. He is an inventor of flying machines and admires her flying abilities.
Kiki has a crisis of identity as she momentarily loses an the ability to fly and has a harder time understanding her feline companion. Kiki regains self confidence after she saves Tombo and others from an airship accident. She remains in the town and resumes her delivery service in contentment.
The film is very much about coming of age, moving away from home and the familiar to grow from a child into a young adult.
There are noticeable differences in plot between the Japanese and American versions of this film. In the American version, Kiki reunites with Jiji which does not occur in the original Japanese. Cultural references are also changed to become more timeless and thus more relatable over time.
‘Nausicaä of Valley of the Wind’ begins after the apocalyptic Seven Days of Fire war, in which human’s have basically destroyed the world. All that remains are a few small kingdoms and the ‘Toxic Jungle’ inhabited by gigantic mutant insects, where everything is deadly to humans.
Princess Nausicaä has managed to enter the toxic jungle and relate to it in a familiar and friendly way, learning from it and searching for a cure for the humans and the plight of the world.
The Tolmekian Kingdom seeks to destroy the toxic jungle with the weapon that began the Seven Days of Fire in the first place. Nausicaä works to prevent the use of this destructive weapon and discovers the symbiotic relationship between the toxic jungle and human civilization, as it exists. The plants of the jungle serve to purify the toxic water, tainted by centuries of human contamination and the war.
Nausicaä saves the jungle and her kingdom in the valley of the wind and befriends the monstrous insects from the toxic jungle.
————
‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ was never one of my favorite Hayao Miyazaki films. However, his focus on a young female character as the savior of the planet is in keeping with many themes reverberating through Miyazaki’s films.
Released in 1984, ‘Nausicaä’ has themes of environmental preservation, the negative effects of human civilization on the planet and the dangers of nuclear warfare.
The box office success of this film lead to the establishment of Japanese anime company Studio Ghibli by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, the latter two were producer of many Miyazaki films.
