It was unsettling to me to see Disney pimp Studio Ghibli on the Spirited Away DVD… and not just for the obvious condescension. Modern American culture worships Japan. In Japan, everything is fragile and near to breaking. So precious. So beautiful! So small and humble, these Japanese! Nothing like the loud obnoxious Americans! Tinkle twinkle crystal, not boom boom with a brute gun!
So the story goes that America is corrupt and Disney, while doing their best to counter that corruption with good clean family fun with MORALS to hand out to the innocent children otherwise doomed to a life of empty decadence, is for all their best intentions soiled by *contact* with this awful America. Enter the Savior, Wonder Japan with their Wonderful Studio Ghibli! So bright, so cheerful, so rich in loving detail! Go go Studio Ghibli!
As I examine some of Studio Ghibli's work, however, I'm amazed by the similarity in stories and themes between them and Disney… almost as if they are sharing the same playbook. Humans as corrupt, animals as pure and innocent (and with lessons to aid human innocence), amnesia as a means of renewal, self-righteousness, naiveity, the arrogance of the outsider. This makes total sense since Japan and America share the same base modern culture, but why then does Disney promote Studio Ghibli if they are merely a Japanese version of Disney? Is Disney THAT self-centered?
Studio Ghibli: The Disney of the Far East! All hail Studio Ghibli!
We're in Our World Now 
May 28, 2008 at 12:18 am |
Walt Disney and Hayao Miyazaki, I should have known…
June 25, 2008 at 2:56 pm |
The parallels you make between Disney and Ghibli are not very impressive. The myth of the innocent animal, like the myth of the innocent savage, turns up again and again outside of Disney and Ghibli.
Recall too that in Pinochio a fox named Gideon and his sidekick Foulfellow the cat are villains and the fate of the wicked is to become an animal. a jackass. Shere Kahn in Jungle Tales is hardly an innocent animal. The jackals in Lion King are the main villains. Neither Disney or Ghibli indicates that all humans are corrupt or that all animals are virtuous. Of couse, Disney dealt with a story like Bambi, one expected to find the anti-human sentiments in the original story to appear.
“So the story goes” raises the question of where this story comes from. It sounds to me like what might be implied in a lot of pro-Disney writing, but it is balanced by dismissive anti-Disney writing. Remember, “Mickey Mouse” is a common term meaning “cheap” and “second-rate”. The watered-down Disneyfied versions of classic tales that the Disney studios have produced don’t support your “story”. Or were you being ironic?
Why does Disney support Ghibli? Why not?
Increasingly the Disney conglomeration works with many other studios on joint products.
And there is at least an enormous amount of respect for the talents associated with Ghibli, especially the talent of Hayao Miyazaki. Most animators know this is very good stuff. If there is also money to be made off it, from a business point of view, why not get in on it? So now Disney makes money off its own films, and also makes money off any success by a major competitor. Yes, Disney is that self-centered.
But see http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/disney/ :
“Disney can not cut even one second from the films, according to the contract. Ghibli has officially stated that “With Disney’s commitment to maintain the quality of the original titles, there will be no changes to music and sequences in foreign language versions.” According to Mr. Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli, other companies such as Fox and Time-Warner contacted Tokuma, but Disney was the only company willing to agree to this condition, and that was the main reason why Tokuma chose Disney as a partner.”
“Miyazaki stated that he didn’t like the movies by Toho or Toei either (they are the Japanese movie companies which have been distributing the Ghibli films). He distinguishes between film production and film distribution. He also stated that he had agreed to the deal mainly to help Tokuma, which had backed him when he was starting out.”
And Ghibli on the whole has not been merely a Japanese version of Disney. Miyazaki’s own concerns and talents have focused on his own particular artistic visions and his way of putting forth his visions are very un-Disney. His focus is narrower than Disney’s but more visionary.
I can’t think of a single Disney film that I could imagine coming out of Ghibli, or a single Ghibli film that I can imagine coming out of the Disney studio.
In general there is a lack of class in much Disney output, a lack of soul and heart. I feel that also applies in general to Japanese animation, with its fixation on giant robots. But Sturgeon’s law says that 90% of everything is crap. So this should be expected, and it should be expected that American Disney crap and Japanese anime crap should be crap of a different kind, but still crap. Any American Disney excellence should be of a different kind then Japanese Ghibli excellence, and both of a different kind from animated films like “Watership Down” or Nick Park’s clay animation films, or Robert Zemiki’s CGI animation.
If the Disney studios and Ghibli do draw from a common playbook, then that playbook is very broad in its motifs and styles. But I shudder to imagine what a Disney (or Pixar) adaptation of the Earthsea stories would have been like, compared to Ghibli’s Tales of Earthsea.
February 19, 2010 at 2:34 pm |
I agree with jacob. I came across this statement by you because I’m researching Disney/Ghibli for a paper and have found extreme differences in the studios’ work as well as the content of their stories. Ghibli’s productions are, by far, a greater quality than Disney. Disney is a horribly watered-down rip-off when it comes to many of their animated films. Sure, they’re a forerunner in animation, but Pixar turns out much better films, and Ghibli definitely does. if you’d like some insight into the sociological comparison’s between the two studio’s films, i suggest to look up Kristine Hoff Kraemer’s article “Miyazaki, Disney and Feminism.” I’m still a fan of Disney movies because i grew up with them and can’t stray from them now, but as i’ve grown older i can see the low-quality story reproductions Disney spits out.
For example:
If you ever research Greek Mythology you’ll find that the story of Hercules is NOTHING like the Disney film. Hercules is the bastard son of a mortal woman Zues impregnated. Hera (his mother in the film) detested him and after Hercules had two sons with Megara, Hera manipulated Hercules into killing his family and he wandered the world afterward, carrying his guilt. yeah….waaaaaay different.
there are all sorts of plot holes and sexual undertones in Disney. in Pocahontas, John Smith is continually physical with pocahontas, manipulating her through sexual physicality. also, Disney films are violent. Sure, San from Princess Mononoke is violent, but that is a more adult film. But Gaston from Beauty and the Beast is a horrible character through and through. The shallow, masculine character who is quick to manipulation, hatred and violence. He is even fully prepared to murder the beast out of sheer jealousy, wanting Belle only as a trophy wife. Why is our society allowing young children to watch and be influenced by these things?? in retrospect, the themes and morals (or lackthereof) put Disney to shame. And “Go Ghibli/Disney”…are you kidding? Sure Disney bought the rights to the films but they didn’t even care enough to market the films like they would their own films, or even half that (Aside from what i saw of the distribution of Ponyo this past summer.) Disney, after getting little response from Mononoke, was considering not even dubbing Spirited Away, but John Lasseter of Pixar, and a good friend of Miyazaki’s had to PERSUADE Disney to reproduce the film. John even worked on the reproduction! They hardly seem to care about these films the way they should. Even at comi-con 2009, it was John Lasseter on the Disney panel with Miyazaki. True he works alonside disney too but really?
Disney should put more effort and thought into the conceptual quality of their films….end of story.
September 13, 2010 at 1:19 pm |
Thanks for this doing a report on my favorite artist for art appreciation. Miyazaki Sensei happens to be my one and only favorite!
September 27, 2011 at 9:54 pm |
33rd degree Freemason J. Edgar Hoover, who has a room dedicated to him in the Supreme Mother Temple of the World in D.C., attempted for 4 years to recruit Kansas Freemason, Walt Disney into the F.B.I. He felt Disney would do a fine job instilling masonic beliefs into the minds of children. Hoover finally succeeded and Walt Disney’s world began. You must understand that every ride in Disney World is sponsored by a military industrial corporation. Exxon has a dinosaur ride and RCA owns Space Mountain. RCA, by the way was founded by Freemason, David Sarnoff. As you exit the roller-coaster you get to witness automatons living the life of your future. The “They” know, they’re the ones creating it. It shows you children learning from television and parents running on the treadmill indoors, until the last thing you see is yourself being watched by invisible cameras. They are controlling your dream.
Most of the bloodlines of the elite are kept hidden, such as Hitler’s connections with the Rothchilds, Bush’s connection to Crowley and Walt Disney, the Dark Prince. “Uncle” Walt was a bastard child that grew up in an abusing home. Much like Hitler’s mother and the Rothchilds, Walt’s probable mother, Isabelle, was brought to work at the Disney home as a maid in 1905. Disney became an FBI asset through 33rd degree Freemason, J. Edgar Hoover. Disneyland and Disney World have both been reported as being used in what Springmeier calls “Princess Programing” to create high level sex slaves.
The main topic at the studio by the staff during different time periods was Walt’s bizarre behavior– he would not be available until late afternoon, when he would emerge from the studio’s subterranean maze of tunnels, where supposedly he was “chatting with the maintenance engineers” everyday.
Now, what are the odds that three ex-Mouseketeers have made so many high profile symbolic gestures? Behind Disney’s good front, seems to lie hard porn, snuff films, white slavery, Illuminati mind-control, and the seduction of several generations into witchcraft. This puts a whole new spin on the essence behind Pinocchio.
August 28, 2012 at 10:34 am |
I was really upset when I first saw Disney’s logo on Ghibli film. Ghibli has succeeded on everything Disney seems to fail.
In character design; writing good-hearted characters that are able to admit they’re erring, and eager to fix up things they’ve messed up. Characters you don’t have to hold your ears after listening voice acting fifteen minutes. Supporting characters that aren’t there only for jokes or to fight. Main characters that have no need to affect on or change supporting characters. Characters caring for others around them. Characters being determined but still ready to accept failing. Characters that can live content when they know nobody has worries around them.
Ghibli successes on writing storyline: thrilling storylines without violence. Moral teaching storylines without underlining, by a way that even adult can learn something (and often teaches things adults most need to learn). Storylines with no essential ‘final battle’; storylines allowing watchers to relax rather than stress all the time.
Thirdly, Ghibli has really adorable ability to design milieus and settings. I can’t give single Disney movie where I could honestly say I had admired milieu and really wished I was there, but there’s dozens of movies with milieu like that in Studio Ghibli’s record.
So there was three main reasons why I was shocked to see Disney “buying” Ghibli. This all looks too much like Disney got afraid of too good opponent, and then buying that opponent to itself rather than to be ready to improve their own repertoire (and seeing how poorly Disney have advertised Ghibli films makes me think even more this way). And, knowing Disney, we are soon in point where’s ‘no resource’ to spend enough time and creativity on Ghibli films (read: writing good storylines takes too much time, if there’s a way to make money faster with poor storytelling and lack of passion). Soon we see same Ghibli storyline on countless clone-Ghibli-films, clone characters on them, as we have used to see those clone-Disney-films. In that day, I know I’ve lost another great film studio.
August 21, 2018 at 1:40 pm |
great thanks