turner classic movies and animé

this just in, from nathaniel:

Professor Kirby,
I remember you talking about Spirited Away in class earlier in the semester and wanted to point out this article to you:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=7677
As an avid anime fan, I think this is great news. Not only will many people be able to see these films if they haven't already, but it could mean a boost for the general population's perception of legitimacy toward the animation medium. What do you think about this development?

well, i think it's great. TCM has a lot of oomph in the TV world, and whatever it acquires will see frequent airing. and miyazaki is, simply put, a genius. one of the great film-makers alive today. i believe that the first and third places on japan's list of top-grossing films -- *ever* -- are held by his SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE [#2 is, i fear, our very own TITANIC].

watching SPIRITED AWAY is truly a wondrous experience. when i saw it, i felt that the genre of cinema had actually advanced. there were times when i looked at the animation and just had to nudge myself to remember that it was, in fact, *animation* and not photography. and it's not because it's 'trompe l'oeil' realism; it transcends that entirely, somehow. chalk it up to miyazaki's particular magic.

but we're not just talking about technical mastery here. he also has a sense of the *tale*, of what it takes in terms of plot and character to make a truly superb film. i submit to you that SPIRITED AWAY is an instantiaion of the monomyth -- though, as in THE WIZARD OF OZ, the monomyth hero is a young girl.

in any case, nathaniel is spot-on about the genre of anime' receiving a big boost -- both from the very work of miyazaki, and from TCM's wholeheartedly embracing these films from studio ghibli. it will be interesting to see how many more americans know of them in a year's time.