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Ghost in the Shell (1995)
In post-war Japan, rebuilding quickly meant embracing new technologies. Every decade brought more advancements and a deeper integration of burgeoning computer power. The high-tech future, always a part of Japanese popular imagination, became a source for hope, international competition, and national pride for a people still under the thumb of Western powers. In the 1980s Japan experience a…
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The Boy and the Beast
American animated films tend to be formulaic slapstick. Of course this is Disney’s fault, but it’s also because we consider cartoons to be “for children,” therefore they must be easy to grasp and funny and sentimental. I would argue American animation labors under the same existential curse most adolescent entertainment does: sarcasm and narcissism disguised as a…
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When Marnie Was There
In 2014 the world got a little less interesting with the retirement of one of the greatest directors of the moving picture. Animation’s greatest auteur, Hayao Miyazaki, announced he was stepping down from his visionary and meticulous work at Studio Ghibli. With its final production, 2016 Oscar-nominated When Marnie Was There, Ghibli hit the pause…
