Sunday March 23, 2003
I was trying to decipher headlines in the Asahi Shimbun when I recognised the characters for "Spirited Away" which had just won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Congratulations, Miyazaki Hayao-san, and your team at Studio Ghibli.
Gaijinworld asks, "The Oscars--Who Gives a !@#$"? Well, I do. No I don't believe that award shows are the sole result of a critical appraisal--obviously politics and popularity have a lot to do with who wins. But I do think they are valuable as the marketing tools they are intended to be. (I'm pretty sure that the first Japanese film I ever saw was "Kagemusha" (1980), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Without that award, it probably never would have played in little, old Austin Texas.)
Buena Vista/Disney is the sole distributor of Miyazaki films in America. They did a remarkable job of releasing "Princess Mononoke" here both in the theaters and DVD (although the bilingual DVD resulted only after intense lobbying from the fan base). "Princess Mononoke" was critically acclaimed, but the American box office disappointed Buena Vista/Disney. So, even though "Spirited Away" is the number one box office hit of all time in Japan (toppling "Titanic"--yeah!), it had only a small release in America. I saw no TV ads for it (compared with the countless ones for the other nominees "Ice Age," "Lilo and Stitch," "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," and "Treasure Planet.")
I'm hoping that the Academy Award for "Spirited Away" will encourage Buena Vista/Disney to distribute more Japanese films, and to put more "ooomph" in their marketing. More than that, if it heightens the awareness for foreign films in the American audience, if more parents choose it over lame sequels of Disney most mediocre films (102 Dalmations, the Jungle Book 2, Winnie the Pooh--Piglets Big Adventure), then I say, "Hooray for the Academy Awards!"
Elsewhere
John Delacour
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
March 23, 2003
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
March 23, 2003
Comments
optimist in me agrees with you that disney should put more ooomph in their marketing for spirited away now. but here politics will play part again, and disney's inhouse production animations (however lame they may be) will probably still get most of the promotional budget. shame.
Comment by: twist. Posted March 26, 2003 09:28 PM.
Wow. I was more right than I could have hoped. Disney announced yesterday that it's going to rerelease Spirited Away this Friday. Rumors on Slashdot say the rerelease is set for 800 theaters...almost four times as many theaters as the first run.
Comment by: M. Posted March 26, 2003 10:09 PM.
Mark Bernstein, who designed Tinderbox software, a hypertext engineer, has an interesting review at here.
Comment by: Ken Loo. Posted March 27, 2003 01:06 AM.
I'm also very very glad to see that This film has received recognition outside of Japan. Truly one of the great achievments of JApanese cinema. Disney blows compared to Ghiblis stuff.
Comment by: tim. Posted March 28, 2003 01:07 AM.
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