Howl’s Moving Castle: Miyazaki’s next film which is based on a novel by the British fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones. Will be released in 2004.
The Incredibles and Cars. The next two films from Pixar to be released in 2004 and 2005 respectively. I am especially looking forward to Cars because it’s Lasseter’s first film since Toy Story 2.
Millenium Actress: This is already out in Japan. The director is Satoshi Kon who also directed Perfect Blue (which I haven’t seen). I heard about this film from [url=http://www.animejump.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?go=video/millenniumactress]this[/rule] A+ review in AnimeJump. It’s about the life of an old Japanese actresss told in flashback.
Steam Boy: A science-fiction story set in Victorian Britain. The director is Katsuhiro Otomo: the screen-writer of Metropolis and Akira. Will be released in 2003 (not sure about the date)
I’m also eager to see the full-length Wallace and Grommit movie, but I’d be surprised if it’s better than the one-two combination of Pixar and Brad Bird.
Man, I came in here to mention Howl’s Moving Castle and there it was in the OP. I love DWJ–so few people could do one of her books justice, but Miyazaki may be one of them. I hope so, anyways. I’ve heard he’s made a LOT of changes to the actual plot, but hopefully he will preserve the wonderful feel of her books.
I know I’ll probably be the only one for this but I’m looking forward to (and really crossing my fingers for) Home on the Range. Just put it right between Lilo and Kuzco. Maybe a little more to the Kuzco side.
*please be good, please be good, please be good, please be good, *
So are Pixar’s. No offense to Nick Park and the other Aardman guys, because their movies are outstanding on every level. But it’s not as if Pixar has a machine where they can just press the “make movie” button and have it run on its own. As with claymation, they have to painstakingly build models, dress them, light the scenes, set up keyframes, etc. Really, the only thing simplified by the computer are animating in-between frames, and going through the processing/daily stages.
I, too, am looking forward to Howl’s Moving Castle, but I’m worried by the fact that the designers seem to have misinterpreted “castle turrets” as “gun turrets.” Have you seen the prototype of the castle?
I’m not looking forward to any particular movie. I’m lookng forward to the first full-length Poser hentai. Even more to that, I’m looking forward to the day when the hentai makers get their hands on Final Fantasy level animation software because it finally gets cheap and cost effective to use.
I’m thinking the Poser movie could happen any day now. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was already out there but I didn’t know about it. I don’t know about the Final Fantasy stuff. When that happens, wow!
“Actually, I wish Miyazaki got enough recognition around here to cause long lines.”
While I don’t think it will be a monster hit there is a good chance that Howl’s Moving Caslte could be the breakthrough film for Miyazaki in the US. Spirited Away , thought it didn’t make that much money, generated a lot of buzz especially with the Oscar win. The DVD release has hopefully created more Miyazaki fans. Plus there are some Diana Wynne Jones fans as well who will want to see the film. And the setting of the film will be more familiar to American audiences compared to Spirited Away or Mononoke. If Disney markets the film properly I think it could be a very solid commercial success.
Cyberpundit you mean, “if Disney doesn’t screw Miyazaki’s film over in favor of one of its lameass in-house movies like they did Spirited Away,” don’t you?
Actually, amongst others mentioned here, I’m actually looking forward to Madagascar by Dreamworks. As much as I think Sharkslayer looks to be utter bollocks, this one actually looks funky.
btw, as much as I found Shrek entertaining, it was based on very modern comedy, and I feel this will date it terribly in a very short time, whereas the Pixar movies are based on much wider ideas and may never date themselves (apart from perhaps technologically).
And it turns out that Satoshi Kon has made yet another film called Tokyo Godfathers. It’s about three homeless people in Tokyo who find and have to take care of an abandoned baby. It sounds pretty good. Here is a review: http://www.fpsmagazine.com/review/tokyogodf.shtml
I haven't seen any of his films yet but clearly Kon is one of the most exciting directors out there. He is pushing the boundaries of what animation can tackle like Takahata did with Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday.
