Legendary Japanese animator, director, writer and manga-ka Hayao Miyazaki has announced that he is putting his sixth attempt at retirement aside in order to take on his first wholly CG-animated project. The globally acclaimed filmmaker had been retired since 2013, following his final feature film The Wind Rises.
Miyazaki-san’s new venture, Kemushi no Boro (“Boro the Caterpillar”) will be a roughly 10-minute short created to screen exclusively at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. The director describes the film as “a story of a tiny, hairy caterpillar, so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers.” He first noted his concept for the story nearly two decades ago, before Princess Mononoke was released. Producer Toshio Suzuki has said Boro will take about three years to produce.
Previous exclusive shorts for the museum (nine to date) include the My Neighbor Totoro semi-sequel Mei and the Kittenbus, and a story similar to Boro‘s vibe: Monmon the Water Spider.
I should’ve known. This man won’t stop animating until he dies.
Well, I like to think of it as dealing with retirement on his own terms!
Did he say he was coming out of retirement specifically? As far as I understood, I thought he’d announced previously that he was retiring from feature-length animation but would still animate smaller projects “until the day I die?”
That’s how I remember things being left before too. Hayao was retiring from the rigors of feature length films and switching to animation shorts to screen at the Ghibli Museum. This is a non story.
exactly!!
He said he will still making short films to Ghibli Museum 🙂
His friend was right. Don’t believe him when he says he’s retiring.
Some people know that their work is so important and they love it so much that they can’t quit “until death do us pat.” Godspeed, Miyazaki-san!
Last time Miyazaki retired we wound up getting Spirited Away and 4 more masterpieces so let’s hope he keep retiring.
He said he will still making short films to Ghibli Museum
Miyazaki is the reason I ended my career as a nurse to pursue animation. I wish he would make a sequel to one of his hit films