The changing landscape of animation... Disney, Ghibli & Pixar

Studio Ghibli are a Japanese animation company that have enjoyed global success in the last few years with their films 'Spirited Away' and 'Howl's Moving Castle'.

The studio has been operating since the early 1980s and is widely recognised in Japan as a master of its art. Central figures such as directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have been in animation since the 1960s and are still the leading visionaries of Ghibli working with teams of skilled young animators (often obsessively and around the clock, as seen on the 'Making of Howl's Moving Castle' documentary).

A distribution deal with the once-seminal Disney studios has seen Ghibli reaching new audiences with its own magical style of storytelling. For me this has been something of a renaissance for popular animation. The excitement with which new Disney productions were met in their early-90s peak, with films such as Aladdin and The Lion King, is all but gone today; their lackluster films rolling into and out of cinemas without many blinking an eye. Into this void step Studio Ghibli, and a new reason to ge
t excited about going to the cinema again.

Parallels can be drawn here with California-based animation studio Pixar, who since 1995 have really dominated the animation world and like Ghibli, also have ties to the Disney empire. Pixar started life as a wing of Star Wars creator George Lucas’ Computer Division. With 'Toy Story' (1995) the studio found their feet and also a profitable production deal with Disney, which eventually turned sour due to disagreements between the two companies and Pixar's desire for increased independence. This eventually came to quite an astonishing resolution: recognising their own irrelevance and Pixar's innovation and success, in January 2006 Disney bought Pixar, but almost entirely on Pixar's own terms.

Founder of Pixar (as well as director of Toy Story) John Lasseter was installed as Chief Creative Officer of the Disney and Pixar animation studios and also given a post advising the team behind the famous Disney theme parks. The President of Pixar Ed Catmull became the joint President of the Disney and Pixar studios. It is something of a victory for Pixar, whose power and resources are massively increased, while retaining its own identity and control.

Wasting no time in asserting his new power, and perhaps setting a template for creative integrity over rampant commercialism for the coming years, John Lasseter marched over to the Disney studios on his first day on the new job and shut down production on Toy Story 3, which Disney had been pressing ahead on against Pixar's wishes and without their involvement. According to Animation Nation, "they said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film."

Disney needed Pixar more than Pixar needed Disney, but the two were already so bound up in each other that complete separation was perhaps unimaginable. In a fascinating example of the smaller fish for once eating the larger, Pixar has effectively taken over Disney, meaning they can continue to enjoy their mutually beneficial relationship, but now be the ones in charge. They may not own the rights to their characters and films independently, but Disney can no longer do what it likes with them. It is a recognition of its own failings and the things that have made studios like Pixar and Ghibli successful: innovation and integrity.

In another interesting turn of events, a mutual admiration and friendship between Pixar's John Lasseter and Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki has led to a working relationship between the studios, with Pixar assisting in the release of the English-language versions of Ghibli's films. The possibility of future collaborations between these two powerhouses - between East and West, between traditional and computer animation, between the otherworldly magic of Ghibli and the creativity of Pixar - is enough to make any animation fan wet.

It will be exciting to see what emerges from both sides of the Pacific in the coming years.

LINKS/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nausicaa > Ghibli fansite
Pixar > Wikipedia page
Comingsoon.net > 'Toy Story 3 Cancelled'  ¶ 1:52 PM