Cable network Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will kick of the new year with a the films of Japanese animation guru Hayao Miyazaki, director of the Oscar-winning Spirited Away and last year’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Each Thursday, Pixar’s John Lasseter, who directed the English—language version of Spirited Away, will introduce English dubs of classic Miyazaki features, followed by encore presentations with the original Japanese-language tracks.
The festival kicks off at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 5, Miyazaki’s 65th birthday, with 2002 Best Animated Feature Oscar winner Spirited Away, followed by 1997’s Princess Mononoke. January 12 will see the airing of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Castle in the Sky (1986), while the following week serves up My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Porco Rosso (1992) and director by Yoshifumo Kondo’s Whisper of the Heart (1995). The tribute concludes on Jan 26 with Only Yesterday (1991) and Pom Poko, a pair of films directed by Isao Takahata and produced by Miyazaki.
The featured movies represent a string of critical and box office successes Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli have produced. Their latest release, Howl’s Moving Castle, had its world premiere at the 61st Venice Film Festival in September of 2004 and went on to become an huge hit in Japan before being released in the U.S. this past summer. The pic, which Miyazaki claims will be his last effort as writer/director, may also earn him another Oscar when the Academy chooses the year’s best animated feature.
