I always love these types of pieces. It's so fun to watch the back and forth impact of countries' art on each other. Influence bounces back and forth across cultures and time… It’s beautiful! I would have never suspected Miyazaki was so endeared to Mr. Bug but now it seems so obvious! I need to do a double feature of it and Cagliostro ASAP!
Ah, great to hear! Tracing those influences is a passion of ours -- it's always, always fascinating to study. We were surprised as well to come across Miyazaki's high praise for Mr. Bug, but the similarities are definitely hard to miss once you've seen what he said. In key ways, Cagliostro is what happens when you cross Mr. Bug with Grimault's Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. There's other stuff in it, too, but those two had an enormous impact!
This is one of my favourite sorts of aniobsessive article (who am I kidding, I like 'em all ;P ), one that adds an unexpected dimension to a thing I thought I knew pretty well well! I'd never heard of Mr Bug before this piece, and now I'm very curious to watch it and see what Miyazaki was on about. Great job finding those parallel shots between Mr Bug and Cagliostro, they really bring home the connection and I can only imagine how much scrubbing back and forth it must have taken...
Thanks a ton! Super glad you liked this one. There's no doubt that Mr. Bug is a very flawed film -- it's not for nothing that Miyazaki (alongside many others!) has criticized it for decades. But it has its strengths, which Miyazaki really drew from and refined. It surprisingly wasn't ultra-difficult to locate similar moments in the two films, just because Miyazaki pulled so, so much from Mr. Bug in Cagliostro. He took a lot from Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, too, but there's an argument that Mr. Bug was secretly the bigger influence here.
Beautiful juxtapositions - the clip of Hoppity scrambling up away from the flood is also very close to a lot of the action business in FB Conan with all those steep chutes, especially when the tunnels flood in Episode 22.
I'd agree that Miyazaki dropped out a lot of the funny stuff in Nausicaa, but he did bring it back again in Laputa and in many of his later films. Re Boy and the Heron, I think there's a great deal of cartoony "manga eiga" in the last act, once you get to the parakeets and the endless stairways. (IMO, that's one of the things that's so endearingly odd about Heron - how it starts as a darkly angry ghost story, and somehow ends up with "brain that budgie!" stuff.)
Mr Bug is often slack, but I did enjoy it, whereas I found the Fleischer Gulliver to be unwatchably boring.
Thanks very much! We were happy with how the images turned out in this one.
And there's definitely a case that he reintroduced manga eiga elements to his films right after Nausicaa. He himself used that term to describe Porco Rosso. In key ways, some of his post-Nausicaa projects turned into hybrids between the manga eiga approach and his new obsession: the complexity and depth of feeling he saw from arthouse animators like Norstein and Back. You absolutely find that mix in Totoro.
Those elements really wrestle with each other in The Boy and the Heron. Our read on the film, at least, is that a good deal of it is meta-commentary on Miyazaki's own career and the value of what he's made. The old man's fake world, full of cartoon characters, is paper-thin and irrational -- and way crueler and more corrupt than it sometimes appears. Even the cute, manga-eiga birds are secretly monsters. That whole world vanishes in the blink of an eye, but Mahito retains a tiny fragment of it. As we take it, this is Miyazaki's hope that his fantasies will have at least a small amount of meaning for people in the real world.
That's how we saw it, anyway! It's a film that's very open to interpretation. We're overdue for a rewatch -- will be interesting to see it a second time, knowing how it ends.
I was classic animation obsessed as a kid, and still am, but I was so disappointed by Gulliver's--unwatchably boring is right, I've only ever made it through all the way in several watches.
This just goes to show you how powerful art can really be, whether it’s good or bad. You never know how much of an inspiration it can be to someone, however so, and what the snow effect of that inspiration will ultimately be like.
I love the Boy and the Heron! It was the first Ghibli film I ever saw theatrically (the dub version), and I went to go see it with my Dad! A real wonderful memory, especially since it was close to Christmastime. I’ll have to watch it again sometime soon and look for the manga eiga/Mr. Bug influences in it!
Really glad you liked the piece! We caught The Boy and the Heron when it hit theaters as well, and it's a memory we love.
Also: there's a ton of value, for sure, in watching flawed movies (or even outright bad ones) when you're trying to learn the craft. Many have said it before, but analyzing why something *doesn't* work develops your eye like crazy. If you don't understand what can go wrong, it's easy to miss when a film is right!
Happy to! Mr. Bug isn't as talked-about as some of Miyazaki's other influences, but it was an important one (especially early on), and it's fascinating to see how it seeped into his work.
What a great piece! It's not remotely surprising that Miyazaki was a fan of Mr. Bug (or Hoppity, as it was retitled in a reissue and on the VHS I grew up with.) Miyazaki always talked about being a fan of Fleischer animation, but I think this is much more apparent with something like Hoppity than say their classic B&W shorts.
I was a massive Fleischer fan as a kid--as well as a big Disney fan, and I have to say I was so disappointed when I saw Gulliver's Travels. Some striking sequences, but even as a kid with a particularly long attention span for old movies and cartoons, it was nearly impossible to sit through it in one sitting (I know it was a minor financial success.) Mr Bug, on the other hand, even with all the aspects that don't work, still just *works* as a film and is such a joy to watch--and of course taps into what Fleischer did best much more than Gulliver does. (Also, some fun songs by no less than Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser.)
It's definitely easier to spot the parallels between Miyazaki's work and Mr. Bug than, say, Betty Boop. What's odd is that (at least back in the day) he seems to have been an even bigger fan of Popeye! You catch glimpses in stuff like the strongmen of Castle in the Sky, admittedly -- but late Fleischer is the more unambiguous influence.
Gulliver is an interesting case. Miyazaki actually said that, as a kid, he preferred it to Disney's stuff. We really need to revisit it for ourselves and see how we feel about it now. Based on our reading, it seems to have gotten mixed reviews even at the time, and lots of criticism later. But the film was a milestone in its own way, proving that an American studio besides Disney could make a hit animated feature. A topic we may need to explore one day!
Right--and of course there's the influence of another late Fleischer property--Superman with the robot design that Miyazaki would use in his Lupin Part II episode and Laputa... But that's actually such an interesting point about the influence of their Popeye cartoons--and you're right, remnants of that do pop up (it's easy to forget too just how big Popeye was--I know at the peak of the Fleischer shorts his only rival among animation short subjects was Mickey.)
I probably owe Guilliver a rewatch myself. I think it has some wonderful sequences (starting with that amazing storm opening.) And considering that Paramount basically pressured the studio to do it, it's obvious a lot of thought went into it. But, while Disney somehow rather seamlessly knew how to mix the cartoony dwarves in Snow White with the more realistic other humans, the different styles of character designs in Gulliver's never mesh, and it really does feel drawn out. Still, it did make a profit, it was only the second major animated feature as you say, it led to a minor song hit (It's a Hap Hap Happy Day had some chart success by several singers) and was successful enough that it led to some spin off shorts, mostly featuring Gabby. Considering it was only the second major US animated feature, and WAS a success, it probably does deserve some sort of retrospective article--even in Fleischer books there isn't really much written about it.
Not sure about that one ourselves, but it's definitely easy to imagine. Nintendo has taken a lot of influence from animated films over the years. And Yoichi Kotabe, who saw and loved Mr. Bug in his youth, was one of the company's major artists. Would be interesting to learn if there really is a connection between the game and the film!
I always love these types of pieces. It's so fun to watch the back and forth impact of countries' art on each other. Influence bounces back and forth across cultures and time… It’s beautiful! I would have never suspected Miyazaki was so endeared to Mr. Bug but now it seems so obvious! I need to do a double feature of it and Cagliostro ASAP!
Ah, great to hear! Tracing those influences is a passion of ours -- it's always, always fascinating to study. We were surprised as well to come across Miyazaki's high praise for Mr. Bug, but the similarities are definitely hard to miss once you've seen what he said. In key ways, Cagliostro is what happens when you cross Mr. Bug with Grimault's Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep. There's other stuff in it, too, but those two had an enormous impact!
Great story of evolution of an artist. Always open to change and yet able to see and work toward flashes of brilliance and recognizing it in others.
So happy you enjoyed! Thanks very much for the kind words.
This is one of my favourite sorts of aniobsessive article (who am I kidding, I like 'em all ;P ), one that adds an unexpected dimension to a thing I thought I knew pretty well well! I'd never heard of Mr Bug before this piece, and now I'm very curious to watch it and see what Miyazaki was on about. Great job finding those parallel shots between Mr Bug and Cagliostro, they really bring home the connection and I can only imagine how much scrubbing back and forth it must have taken...
Thanks a ton! Super glad you liked this one. There's no doubt that Mr. Bug is a very flawed film -- it's not for nothing that Miyazaki (alongside many others!) has criticized it for decades. But it has its strengths, which Miyazaki really drew from and refined. It surprisingly wasn't ultra-difficult to locate similar moments in the two films, just because Miyazaki pulled so, so much from Mr. Bug in Cagliostro. He took a lot from Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, too, but there's an argument that Mr. Bug was secretly the bigger influence here.
Beautiful juxtapositions - the clip of Hoppity scrambling up away from the flood is also very close to a lot of the action business in FB Conan with all those steep chutes, especially when the tunnels flood in Episode 22.
I'd agree that Miyazaki dropped out a lot of the funny stuff in Nausicaa, but he did bring it back again in Laputa and in many of his later films. Re Boy and the Heron, I think there's a great deal of cartoony "manga eiga" in the last act, once you get to the parakeets and the endless stairways. (IMO, that's one of the things that's so endearingly odd about Heron - how it starts as a darkly angry ghost story, and somehow ends up with "brain that budgie!" stuff.)
Mr Bug is often slack, but I did enjoy it, whereas I found the Fleischer Gulliver to be unwatchably boring.
Thanks very much! We were happy with how the images turned out in this one.
And there's definitely a case that he reintroduced manga eiga elements to his films right after Nausicaa. He himself used that term to describe Porco Rosso. In key ways, some of his post-Nausicaa projects turned into hybrids between the manga eiga approach and his new obsession: the complexity and depth of feeling he saw from arthouse animators like Norstein and Back. You absolutely find that mix in Totoro.
Those elements really wrestle with each other in The Boy and the Heron. Our read on the film, at least, is that a good deal of it is meta-commentary on Miyazaki's own career and the value of what he's made. The old man's fake world, full of cartoon characters, is paper-thin and irrational -- and way crueler and more corrupt than it sometimes appears. Even the cute, manga-eiga birds are secretly monsters. That whole world vanishes in the blink of an eye, but Mahito retains a tiny fragment of it. As we take it, this is Miyazaki's hope that his fantasies will have at least a small amount of meaning for people in the real world.
That's how we saw it, anyway! It's a film that's very open to interpretation. We're overdue for a rewatch -- will be interesting to see it a second time, knowing how it ends.
I was classic animation obsessed as a kid, and still am, but I was so disappointed by Gulliver's--unwatchably boring is right, I've only ever made it through all the way in several watches.
This, was an amazing read. Definitely going to check out more of fleischers work
Thanks so much -- glad you enjoyed the piece!
This just goes to show you how powerful art can really be, whether it’s good or bad. You never know how much of an inspiration it can be to someone, however so, and what the snow effect of that inspiration will ultimately be like.
I love the Boy and the Heron! It was the first Ghibli film I ever saw theatrically (the dub version), and I went to go see it with my Dad! A real wonderful memory, especially since it was close to Christmastime. I’ll have to watch it again sometime soon and look for the manga eiga/Mr. Bug influences in it!
Once again, thanks for the engrossing read!
Really glad you liked the piece! We caught The Boy and the Heron when it hit theaters as well, and it's a memory we love.
Also: there's a ton of value, for sure, in watching flawed movies (or even outright bad ones) when you're trying to learn the craft. Many have said it before, but analyzing why something *doesn't* work develops your eye like crazy. If you don't understand what can go wrong, it's easy to miss when a film is right!
So fun to watch this movie through Miyazaki's eyes! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Happy to! Mr. Bug isn't as talked-about as some of Miyazaki's other influences, but it was an important one (especially early on), and it's fascinating to see how it seeped into his work.
Love the way you guys structured this one!
Ah, thank you for that! The structure this time was a bit of an experiment -- glad to hear it worked out!
What a great piece! It's not remotely surprising that Miyazaki was a fan of Mr. Bug (or Hoppity, as it was retitled in a reissue and on the VHS I grew up with.) Miyazaki always talked about being a fan of Fleischer animation, but I think this is much more apparent with something like Hoppity than say their classic B&W shorts.
I was a massive Fleischer fan as a kid--as well as a big Disney fan, and I have to say I was so disappointed when I saw Gulliver's Travels. Some striking sequences, but even as a kid with a particularly long attention span for old movies and cartoons, it was nearly impossible to sit through it in one sitting (I know it was a minor financial success.) Mr Bug, on the other hand, even with all the aspects that don't work, still just *works* as a film and is such a joy to watch--and of course taps into what Fleischer did best much more than Gulliver does. (Also, some fun songs by no less than Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser.)
Thanks a ton -- so glad you enjoyed this issue!
It's definitely easier to spot the parallels between Miyazaki's work and Mr. Bug than, say, Betty Boop. What's odd is that (at least back in the day) he seems to have been an even bigger fan of Popeye! You catch glimpses in stuff like the strongmen of Castle in the Sky, admittedly -- but late Fleischer is the more unambiguous influence.
Gulliver is an interesting case. Miyazaki actually said that, as a kid, he preferred it to Disney's stuff. We really need to revisit it for ourselves and see how we feel about it now. Based on our reading, it seems to have gotten mixed reviews even at the time, and lots of criticism later. But the film was a milestone in its own way, proving that an American studio besides Disney could make a hit animated feature. A topic we may need to explore one day!
Right--and of course there's the influence of another late Fleischer property--Superman with the robot design that Miyazaki would use in his Lupin Part II episode and Laputa... But that's actually such an interesting point about the influence of their Popeye cartoons--and you're right, remnants of that do pop up (it's easy to forget too just how big Popeye was--I know at the peak of the Fleischer shorts his only rival among animation short subjects was Mickey.)
I probably owe Guilliver a rewatch myself. I think it has some wonderful sequences (starting with that amazing storm opening.) And considering that Paramount basically pressured the studio to do it, it's obvious a lot of thought went into it. But, while Disney somehow rather seamlessly knew how to mix the cartoony dwarves in Snow White with the more realistic other humans, the different styles of character designs in Gulliver's never mesh, and it really does feel drawn out. Still, it did make a profit, it was only the second major animated feature as you say, it led to a minor song hit (It's a Hap Hap Happy Day had some chart success by several singers) and was successful enough that it led to some spin off shorts, mostly featuring Gabby. Considering it was only the second major US animated feature, and WAS a success, it probably does deserve some sort of retrospective article--even in Fleischer books there isn't really much written about it.
Bit of a tangent but now I'm wondering if any of the developers of the Pikmin games were inspired by Mr. Bug.
Not sure about that one ourselves, but it's definitely easy to imagine. Nintendo has taken a lot of influence from animated films over the years. And Yoichi Kotabe, who saw and loved Mr. Bug in his youth, was one of the company's major artists. Would be interesting to learn if there really is a connection between the game and the film!