LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hayao Miyazaki: Films
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In 2002, a Miyazaki movie that deserved a massive big-screen release was distributed to U.S. art houses. Featuring a renewed thematic subtlety and a new character design, the modern fantasy Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001; The Spiriting-Away of Sen and Chihiro) tells what happens when Chihiro and her parents become lost and investigate an abandoned theme park. A boy in archaic Japanese clothes briefly appears to warn Chihiro, "Leave before it gets dark." But, seduced by a supernatural feast, Chihiro's parents have made literal pigs of themselves; and ghosts are filling the darkening streets. On her quest to free her parents, Chihiro loses her name to the grandmotherly evil witch Yubaba and becomes a tub-scrubbing slave in a "bath house where eight million gods can rest their weary bones." A 2003 Hugo Award finalist, Spirited Away has already received the other award it deserves, the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film (in competition with Ice Age, Lilo and Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Treasure Planet).
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In July 2004, Miyazaki completed production on Howl's Moving Castle, a film adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy novel. Miyazaki came out of retirement following the sudden departure of original director Mamoru Hosoda[4]. The film premiered at the 2004 Venice International Film Festival and won the Golden Osella award for animation technology. On November 20, 2004, Howl's Moving Castle opened to general audiences in Japan where it earned ¥1.4 billion in its first two days. The English language version was later released in the US by Walt Disney.
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Miyazaki was born in Akebono-cho, Tokyo. He attended Toyotama High School where he was inspired by the film Hakujaden, a feature-length anime film. He went on to attend Gakushin University graduating with degrees in political science and economics. Following his graduation, he took a job at Toei Animation as an artist. His participation in a labor dispute led to his position as secretary of Toei's labor union. In 1965, Miyazaki married animator Akemi Ota and they had two sons, Goro, who grew up to be an animator, and Keisuke, a wood artist.
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It is well known that Japanese animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki is currently hard at work on his latest film, one that once again is speculated to likely be the final project of his lengthy and hugely acclaimed career. What hasn't been announced is what the film actually is. According to Brendon at Film Ick that particular cat may be out of the bag with wiord surfacing there that Miyazaki's current project is an adaptation of Chinese children's novella I Lost My Little Boy - the story of a boy dying of heart disease. This was rumored as a possible project for Miyazaki all the way back in 2005 but when things went quiet on that front it was widely assumed that the project had been abandoned.
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Miyazaki then wrote the screenplay, drew the complete story board (as he usually did), and directed Princess Mononoke. He was criticized in the Japanese press for under-taking something that presumably no animated motion picture could accomplish: the telling of a grand epic on a massive scale. When released in Japan in 1997, Princess Mononoke was a smash hit, surpassing the success of E.T. and setting a record in grossing over $150 million. The film was a major achievement by an artist and leader at the height of his powers—but in the making of the film Miyazaki may have already been losing his eyesight; he used computer animation extensively in the movie's production, even though he very much preferred each cel to be hand-drawn. Princess Mononoke was the first of Miyazaki's movies to attract a large American audience.
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Miyazaki has drawn several manga, starting in 1969 with Nagakutsu wo Haita Neko (Puss in Boots). His major work in this printed format is the manga version of the epic tale Nausicaä, on which he worked from 1982 to 1994 and which has sold more than 10 million copies in Japan. He originally didn't want to do Nausicaä as a manga but was forced to after Toshio Suzuki couldn't get funding for a film not based on a manga. Other works include Sabaku no Tami (砂漠の民 People of the Desert), Shuna no Tabi (シュナの旅 The Journey of Shuna), Zassou nōto (雑想ノート The Notebook of Various Images), and Hikoutei Jidai (飛行艇時代 The Age of the Flying Boat, the basis of his animated film Porco Rosso).
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