Back in 2013, legendary Japanese animator and director Hayao Miyazaki announced he would be retiring; making no more feature-length films in order to concentrate on smaller projects. Well, it turns out you can’t keep a good Oscar-winning artist down, and Miyazaki says he’s now coming out of retirement to make one last movie.
According to reports from Kotaku and the Anime News Network, the news was dropped into a Japanese TV special broadcast over the weekend. Appropriately enough, it was titled Hayao Miyazaki: The Man Who Is Not Done. In it, Miyazaki revealed that he’d been dissatisfied with a recent 12-minute CG short film he’d been working on — Kemushi no Boro or Boro the Caterpillar — and instead wants to turn it into a full-length film. Although the special did not show Miyazaki getting a green light from studio bosses, he is seen starting work on animation for the project. We’ll have to wait for official confirmation, but, well, this is Miyazaki we're talking about — if he wants to make a film, presumably it’s going to get done.
Kemushi no Boro was originally being created for the Ghibli Museum, which opened in Tokyo in 2001 and showcases artifacts from Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded. The studio’s many films include Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle. We don’t know much about Kemushi no Boro, but Miyazaki has apparently been developing the story for some 20 years. During the special, Miyazaki said the film was the "story of a tiny, hairy caterpillar, so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers." He noted that he might be 80 years old by the time it's finished (he's 75 now), but with his ideal timetable, the film will be done before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Comments
Yes please!
By mickbenjamins on 11.14.16 7:46am
I could never be anything but glad about a new Miyazaki movie, but I just hope he is approaching this out of genuine interest and he’s not being pressured into returning. He’s more than earned a quiet retirement.
By McPaul on 11.14.16 8:05am
Since you seem to have missed this in the article:
By rahulp on 11.14.16 9:47am
Nice!
By Vlad Savov on 11.14.16 8:12am
I hope after this last film he will be wrong about the retirement again, and will at least one more film.
By UsernameAndPassword on 11.14.16 3:37pm
Can we clone him? There are so many more stories I want to see from him. coughVernorVinge’sRainbowsEnd
By bsanr on 11.14.16 9:20am
By Strand0410 on 11.14.16 9:54am
Anyone with any interest in animation knows this isnt surprising. He’s been saying he’s retiring after nearly every film since Spirited Away.
By GNTsquid on 11.14.16 1:03pm
And his failure to live up to his words has been a boon to us all. Long may he remain uncommitted to his retirement.
By Vlad Savov on 11.15.16 2:50am
Good news!
By Vgvince on 11.14.16 5:27pm
I think it’s hard, if not impossible, for an artist to retire unless they physically can’t do the job anymore. Even if you feel it’s your time or you get jaded, at some point you’re probably sitting at home, bored and ideas start flooding into you.
Especially ones that saw financial success. If you say you’ve been getting these ideas, someone will probably front you the required funding.
By sickVisionz on 11.15.16 4:25am