The Man Who Leapt Through Film: The Art of Mamoru Hosoda PDF
Preview The Man Who Leapt Through Film: The Art of Mamoru Hosoda
Ame frolics in the snow in these animation drawings from Wolf Children. CONTENTS Foreword by Don Hahn I Early Days II The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 時をかける少⼥ III Summer Wars サマーウォーズ IV Wolf Children おおかみこどもの⾬と雪 V The Boy and the Beast バケモノの⼦ VI Mirai 未来のミライ VII Belle ⻯とそばかすの姫 Acknowledgments Bibliography Swathed in a cloud of pink blossoms, Belle reflects during a song. FOREWORD Animation is a complicated web of technology, artistry, and storytelling that many have tried and few have mastered. It’s an elaborate illusion made from pencils, paint, and pixels that, at its best, allows us to escape reality. Mamoru Hosoda uses the art form in a different way. He dives into reality with characters who are vulnerable, who may live in unimaginable worlds, but who always feel grounded in the very human themes that often resonate in his work: consequence, responsibility, sacrifice, hope. Hosoda has carved out a personal style that bridges anime and sci-fi, yet he and his collaborators tell stories that are remarkably human, given his penchant for setting them in mind-bending worlds that threaten humanity. His work opens our eyes to the complex choices we face in a life that is overwhelmed by often inhumane forces. Like all good science fiction, his films are relevant and even predictive of our future on a planet that is changing incredibly fast. Any filmmaker can fall victim to his or her comfortable and predictable patterns, like a magician who does the same trick so often that the audience starts to see how it’s done. Hosoda’s work builds on his past, but reliably manages to make a fresh statement that always surprises me. He directs with a fearless mix of subtle introspection, grandiose spectacle, and a master storyteller’s disregard for time and space. As such he has built a reputation for expanding the animated art form, most recently by fostering unconventional collaborations with people like Irish filmmakers Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, visionary UK architect Eric Wong, and my friend, the brilliant designer Jin Kim. The audience may never fully appreciate the incredible artistry, technology, and just plain hard work that goes into Hosoda’s films, and maybe that’s how it should be. But after nine films, it’s time to take a closer look. Here, Charles Solomon takes us inside the filmmaker’s sanctum to reveal the intense art and craft that make us believe the unbelievable and discover new levels of our human condition through the work of this incredible artist. Don Hahn April 27, 2021 DON HAHN produced the classic Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. His next film, The Lion King, broke box-office records all over the world to become the top-grossing traditionally animated film of all time and a long-running blockbuster Broadway musical. Hahn also served as associate producer on the landmark motion picture Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His other films include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the 2006 short The Little Matchgirl (which earned Hahn his second Oscar nomination), Maleficent, and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. He directed the documentaries Waking Sleeping Beauty, Hand Held, The Gamble House, and Howard. Hahn is the author of The Alchemy of Animation, Brain Storm: Unleashing Your Creative Self, Before Ever After: The Lost Lectures of Walt Disney’s Animation Studio, and Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Disney’s Magical Mid-Century. He lives in Los Angeles.
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