The teaser for Ghibli’s ‘The Borrowers’ sneaks in!

Nathan Bartlebaugh — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:39:36 +0000

Last year it was announced that Studio Ghibli, the animation studio headed up by Japanese maestro Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Ponyo) was in the process of adapting Mary Norton’s classic The Borrowers .

At the time we were left with only vague sketches and a few designs and our own childhood memories of the book.What kind of film would Ghibli create from them?

Based on what I’ve seen here, the team headed up by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi are working in a very similar vein to many of Miyazaki’s own films, capturing the beauty of a hidden world existing at the edge of our own.

This also won’t be the first time Ghibli has adapted an ostensibly Western story into the Japanese anime form. Miyazaki’s 2005 feature ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ was based off a young adult fantasy novel by Dianne Wynn Jones and one of its strengths was the way in which it blended an Asian aesthetic with a more European sensibility. The next year Ghibli also released ‘Tales from Earthsea’ based on the fantasy/science-fiction worlds of author Ursula K. Leguin.

Part of that cultural melding and collaboration is present in the teaser, which also takes a peek into the creation of the movie’s theme song, performed by celtic harpist and singer, Cecile Corbel. The sound achieved is a perfect blend of J-pop energy and a richer, more haunting tone that suits the imagery well.

To say I’m looking forward to this one is an understatement. Bring on The Borrowers!

Aliens vs. Ninjas

Carly — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:15:25 +0000

In the last couple of years, the debate over whether ninjas or pirates would win in a battle has become increasingly heated.

Well, Hollywood’s not quite ready to settle this matter for us, but they are going to give us a different ninja battle to satisfy us for a bit.

Straight from Japan, a hotbed for low-budget, fairly absurd action films, comes a match-up for the ages, Aliens Versus Ninjas.

The film is being brought to the screen by writer-director Seiji Chiba and action director Yuji Shimomura, and will tell the tale of a band of ninjas who go into the forest to identify a fireball they saw fall from the sky. Upon approaching the fireball, they discover beastly aliens who immediately eat several of the ninjas.

Demonstrating true honor, the surviving ninjas vow to avenge the deaths of their comrades, only to discover that all of their weapons are useless against the alien invaders.

Aliens Versus Ninjas is said to be rife with blood, action, and ninjas–basically everything one can hope for from this type of movie.

» japan

The teaser for Ghibli’s ‘The Borrowers’ sneaks in!

Aliens vs. Ninjas