Even with more than 20 minutes, an interview with Hayao Miyazaki is short. Every question has to be filtered through a translator to him, then every answer in Japanese translated back to us. That’s triple the time for a third of the talking. But, how else could an American interview the legendary anime director?
Crave Online: What did you want to be careful of in adapting the film for English language? what changes might have had to be made and how can he get the same effect with an English translation?
Hayao Miyazaki: I entrusted the English version to my trusted friends, so I didn’t worry about it at all, and I just stayed in Japan not worried about it.
Crave Online: In Japan, you don’t do much press, but here, you’ve come to Comic-Con and you’re doing all these press events, what has made you change your mind?
Hayao Miyazaki: It was John Lasseter’s pressure that made me do it.
Crave Online: After actually receiving standing ovations at Comic-Con and having all the heartfelt really warm feelings shown towards you of the audiences and all these events that you’ve been participating in, how do you feel now, having come to the U.S.?
Hayao Miyazaki: I’m sorry, but I don’t really like these sorts of events. I think that the people who gather at such events, are the ones who really like my films, so I appreciate that.
Crave Online: All your films are so detailed and layered and there are so many elements to the stories, do you sit down and write out things beforehand? Does that just come to you as you’re doing your sketches? How do all the various minutiae of the world do you set your films in?
Hayao Miyazaki: I do all my work by storyboard, so as I draw the storyboard, the world gets more and more complex, and as a result, my North, South, East, West directions kind of shift and go off base, but it seems like my staff as well as the audience, doesn’t quite realize that this has happened. Don’t tell them about it.
Crave Online: What are some of your influences, who have you been influenced by or what has influenced you in your career?
Hayao Miyazaki: I’ve received influence from many, many people, so I can’t give all their names, and I forget their names, unfortunately so I can’t really tell you. Sometimes I test myself saying if I get a death sentence if I don’t make this movie, would I still make this movie?
Crave Online: After using computer technology on a couple of films, what about Ponyo made you want to return to completely hand drawn animation?
Hayao Miyazaki: Actually, at Studio Ghibli, we dissolved the computer graphics section, before we started production on Ponyo. So we had decided at that point to stick to hand drawn animation. And then the difference between computer generated and hand drawn, just as John Lasseter and I are different, I think I can leave the computer animation to him, and I can stick to the hand drawn animation.
Crave Online: You had Lasster work on the English version of Ponyo. What is your common ground with him?
Hayao Miyazaki: Watching John Lasseters films, I think I can understand better than anyone that what he’s doing, is going straight ahead with his vision and working really hard to get that vision into film form. And I feel that my understanding this of him is my friendship towards him.
Crave Online: Would you ever want to do a 3D animated film?
Hayao Miyazaki: I don’t think we would make 3D film, at least while the producer, my producer, Toshio Suzuki and I are alive.
Crave Online: Will your son make another movie?
Hayao Miyazaki: My son is now involved in child rearing. That’s a very important process. It’s a difficult question, but I don’t see myself creating a director’s dynasty, so unless he can crawl up to being a director on his own it’s up to him. But the first hurdle right now is raising his children.
