Pixar’s chief creative officer, John Lasseter, is an ardent fan of the work of the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, who was profiled by Margaret Talbot in 2005. Lasseter told Talbot that when animators at Pixar get stuck on a project, they go into a screening room and watch a Miyazaki film. Though Miyazki has rejected the computerized path favored by Pixar, he shares with Pixar’s animators an intense focus on the tiniest specifics of his movies. Talbot describes a documentary film in which Miyazaki gives instruction to the young staff working on “Spirited Away”:
“The dragon is supposed to fall from down the air vent, but, being a dragon, it doesn’t land on the ground,” Miyazaki says. “It attaches itself to the wall, like a gecko. And then—ow!—it falls—thud!—it should fall like a serpent. Have you ever seen a snake fall out of a tree?” He explains that it “doesn’t slither, but holds its position.” He looks around at the animators, most of whom appear to be in their twenties and early thirties. They are taking notes, looking grave: nobody has seen a snake fall out of a tree. Miyazaki goes on to describe how the dragon—a protean creature named Haku, who sometimes takes this form—struggles when he is pinned down. “This will be tricky,” Miyazaki says, smiling. “If you want to get an idea, go to an eel restaurant and see how an eel is gutted.” The director wriggles around in his seat, imitating the action of a recalcitrant eel. “Have you ever seen an eel resisting?” Miyazaki asks.Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk#ixzz1LtPwbaSe“No, actually,” admits a young man with hipster glasses, an orange sweatshirt, and an indoor pallor.
Miyazaki groans. “Japanese culture is doomed!” he says.