Happy Birthday Hayao Miyazaki

A very happy and healthful 70th birthday to Hayao Miyazaki, the best living animator in the world, a pioneer, and dare I say, the godfather to whom Pixar looks up to with reverence. Up (2009) in particular felt heavily Miyazaki-flavored.

I have never been a fan of anime, but in Miyazaki's case, I imbibe his movies like souffles. I admit I have not yet seen major movies of his yet, like Kiki's Delivery Service or My Neighbor Totoro (#3 on my Netflix queue, I swear!). But I really loved his last effort in 2009, the underseen Ponyo. It had two spectacular Miyazaki moments - the opening sequence when the wizard is making underwater magic, and the detail of the flora and fauna take your breath away - and the sequence when Ponyo is running on the waves. The year 2009 being a particularly sentimental one for movies, I was already vulnerable at time watching it, and both sequences brought tears to my eyes.

Well, he's...a genius. What else? His movies are genius. They have everything I love in movies.. They're layered with bursts of unrestrained joy and sequences of exquisite craftsmanship, but NEVER, never, never, never, does Miyazaki ever abandon storytelling and depth for visual spectacle. The emotions shown are always just as sophisticated as the visuals; unlike Tim Burton, Miyazaki has yet to resign himself to merely cheap graphic design in lieu of *actual* creativity, even if he is seventy freaking years old. And even if he is seventy, his movies still retain a child-like sense of wonder that is well, wondrous to behold. Through the dismal themes of greed and loneliness and environmental destruction, his movies are ultimately life-affirming (in every movie he's made, there is at least one scene of flying through the air, whether via floating "castle", fish, bird, beast, contraption, or magic).

I have to thank Christian Bale, my former cinematic flame, for introducing me to this maestro, since he did an English dubbing for "Howl's Moving Castle", and I was determined to see everything on Bale's filmography at the time (not to mention I thought Bale's wizard was really, really sexy and thought he and Emily Mortimer's Sophie made a hot couple)

His movies will continue to be cherished by children and adults alike, either in the form of his own movies or through the works of the countless artists and storytellers he's inspired, particularly in Pixar. Happy Birthday.