Twenty years ago, I met Hayao Miyazaki for the first time. Princess Mononoke was his first film to receive a major US release, and my editors at the LA Times let me do a profile of him. We met at a hotel in West Hollywood; we sat at a garden table where he was free […]

Imagine an animated feature with no explosions. No fart gags. No giant robots pummeling each other. No wacky talking animals. Instead, we have a movie anchored in the real world, a slice-of-life story of high school students practicing their musical instruments, all the while wrestling with issues of self esteem. The biggest threat? Losing a […]

Sunrise Inc. has announced plans to produce a new animated sci-fi feature film entitled Orbital Era. The film will be directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, one of the most celebrated and influential Japanese creators in the world. The joint announcement by Director Katsuhiro Otomo, Makoto Asanuma (president of Sunrise Inc.) and Yasumasa Tsuchiya (producer at Sunrise […]

GKIDS announced today it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the animated feature Promare. GKIDS will release the film theatrically in both Japanese and an all new English language version starting in September. This marks the first feature film from Studio TRIGGER, founded by former studio Gainax animator and director Hiroyuki Imaishi, whose […]

GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced it has acquired North American distribution rights for the animated feature Weathering With You, the new film from director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura, whose previous film Your Name set box office records in Japan and around the world ($360 […]

In America, animation is rarely used for action or adventure films. Because it’s still largely regarded as children’s entertainment here, studios are usually reluctant to tell stories where the danger is real and the hero can be killed. In contrast, Masahiro Ando’s Sword of the Stranger (2007) is an action-filled samurai adventure that echoes the […]