At the Mic
My initial question for Animation World Magazine was unexpectedly stonewalled. Q: "It's been announced off and on that Studio Ghibli and you will be making a film from the British juvenile novel Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I understand that this is your next project. I was wondering how you discovered this novel. Did you read the novel on your own and decide this would be a good picture, or did someone suggest it to you?" Suzuki answered, "Actually, the next project has not yet been formally announced in Japan so unfortunately I can't answer any questions about the next project." (Considering that Japanese bookshops are advertising the Japanese edition of Howl's Moving Castle as, "Read the novel that will be Studio Ghibli's next feature," I am not sure of the distinction between a formal and an informal announcement.) Miyazaki added as an exaggerated aside which drew laughs, "You know, I'm going to be doing it as usual. The real reason he doesn't want to talk about it is because he's not sure I can handle it." (Ghibli's formal announcements only say that the studio has been temporarily closed following the release of its Summer 2002 feature, The Cat Returns. It will reopen in February 2003 to begin production of its next feature, planned for a Summer 2004 release.)

My second question was, "There has been one new Studio Ghibli film released in Japan since Spirited Away, just a couple of months ago [July 19th]: The Cat Returns, I believe is the official English translation of the title, Neko no Ongaeshi; directed by Hiroyuki Morita. This is the first film from Studio Ghibli directed by someone besides yourself and Isao Takahata, and unfortunately the only one film by Yoshifumi Kondo. [Kondo died shortly after directing Whisper of the Heart.] Are you grooming more directors, and are there any plans to release The Cat Returns in the U.S.?" Suzuki replied, "For starters, yes, if there's young talent we're more than happy — we're delighted, in fact, to embrace it and nurture it. And thankfully, The Cat Returns did quite well at the Japanese box office. We're in discussions about — we're considering a possible U.S. release."

On John Lasseter and Pixar
All questions about how Miyazaki had prepared Spirited Away for its American release were waved away with a repeated variation of the comment that he didn't have anything to do with it; he didn't care whether it was released in the U.S. or not; the American release was entirely due to his good friend John Lasseter. "You know, our presence here today, your being able to see the film today, all of this and the North American release, I owe to the unflagging dedication and determination of my dear friend John Lasseter who bulldozed his way through every obstacle to make this release happen." On what he thought of the Lasseter-directed English dub, "I haven't seen it. This is not just about this film, this is not limited to Spirited Away. I never watch my movies after I watch it with my staff after it's done, at the end. So I'm not discriminating against Spirited Away. The fact of the matter is that I so deeply trust John Lasseter that I don't need to watch the film."

The cast, such as Daveigh Chase who performed the voice of Chihiro, took the time to listen to the original Japanese-language version of Spirited Away for inspiration and authenticity. © 2002 Nibariki. TGNDDTM. All rights reserved.

Miyazaki's and Lasseter's joking comments about each other have made it clear that Lasseter's relationship to Spirited Away is much closer than that of a prestigious American animation creator brought in as executive producer on a straight work-for-hire basis. In fact, Lasseter's reputation as the major creative developer of the Pixar CGI studio, and director of the CGI hits Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2, seems to be partially responsible for the mistaken assumption that Spirited Away contains lots of CGI. Lasseter met Miyazaki in 1981 (Miyazaki: "I actually met John Lasseter twenty years ago when I came to Los Angeles to work on a job. I didn't encounter him through my work. He was off in a small studio, I think he had been dispatched by Disney to go, and he was working alone trying to develop 3D animation. Unlike the John Lasseter of today he was a very slender young man ..."), and their personal friendship broadened to Lasseter's adopting Miyazaki as a sensei, his tutor, as Miyazaki's features appeared in Japan while Lasseter was building Pixar. Lasseter became involved with Spirited Away right from its start.

In a telephone interview from his Pixar office in July, Lasseter told me, "We have a really close creative connection at Pixar with Studio Ghibli. We often look at the Japanese laser disks of Miyazaki's movies to be inspired.

"I visited Studio Ghibli in March of 2000 when I was in Japan for the release of Toy Story 2. I had my two sons with me. They were just beginning production on Spirited Away. It looked fantastically exciting. Ghibli is a fairly small studio, and Miyazaki does not have a separate office. He works in the same studio with the other artists, at a desk in a corner. [...]

"There was a camera crew on hand to film the director of Toy Story 2 visiting the director of Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki sent them away. He drove me and my sons, and Suzuki to a nearby re-created traditional village in a large park. When old buildings have to be removed for new construction, they try to preserve them by moving them here instead of just tearing them down. Miyazaki led us down this street to a bathhouse, and he described to us the tradition of the village bathhouse as a communal center in old Japan. This was to be one of the main points in Spirited Away."