Watch: Toshio Suzuki Discusses Hand-Drawn Animation & Miyazaki
by Alex Billington
February 9, 2024
Source: YouTube
“The exchanges between Mahito and the heron… they really reflected my usual sort of conversations with Miyazaki.” GKids has released a promo featurette video for Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. It features Studio Ghibli co-founder / producer Toshio Suzuki answering a few interview questions and discussing life with Hayao Miyazaki, working with Studio Ghibli, his thoughts on hand-drawn animation’s relevance nowadays, and everything else. Miyazaki’s new film The Boy and the Heron has been playing in theaters since December and is nominated for Best Animated Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards. “A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, [and] in tribute to friendship.” With an original score by Joe Hisaishi, heard in the background of this video. I wish I could spend a whole hour or more chatting with Suzuki, there’s so much more I want to ask and hear his thoughts on! Whether you’ve seen The Boy and the Heron already or not, this is a nice 5 minutes spent with Suzuki talking about the glory of animation and Ghibli films. View below.
Here’s the interview with Toshio Suzuki promoting The Boy and the Heron, from GKids’ YouTube:
And here’s another longer interview from Gold Derby with Toshio Suzuki to enjoy – found on YouTube:
You can rewatch the teaser for Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron right here or the official US trailer here.
Via TIFF: “During WWII, young Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and must move immediately to the countryside, where his father (Takuya Kimura) works for a family making planes for Japan’s military, as Miyazaki’s own father did. Isolated, he begins exploring the mysterious landscapes & encounters a grey heron, persistent in its presence. The boy happens upon an abandoned tower. Curious, he enters. From there, The Boy and the Heron expands into a wondrous, often-startling phantasmagoria.” The Boy and the Heron, also How Do You Live? or 君たちはどう生きるか in Japanese, is both written and directed by beloved Japanese animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, director of the films Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and The Wind Rises previously. Inspired by the story written by Genzaburô Yoshino. The film first opened in Japan in July earlier this summer. It also premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival in Canada. GKids debuts Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron in US theaters nationwide starting December 8th, 2023.
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