Nowadays, computer technology is commonly used in cartoon films. However, all the characters are brought to life just by hand in Hayao Miyazaki (宫崎骏)'s magical world, who is known as Japan's Walt Disney. ①
This month, the 72-year-old man said he would end his life as an animator (动画设计师) and start to be a volunteer in a local museum. The Japanese animator has made 11 films over the past forty years, including Princess Mononoke (《幽灵公主》), My Neighbor Totoro (《龙猫》), the Oscar-winning Spirited Away(《千与千寻》), and his latest work, The Wind Rises (《起风了》), which tells the life story of a man who made Japanese World War II fighter planes.
② In Miyazaki's stories, wizards (巫师) are turned into beasts (野兽); young girls are changed overnight into 90-year-old women; greedy (贪婪的) parents are changed into pigs, which seem to be quite mysterious.
People believe the reason for Miyazaki's great success is that all his works are made by hand. ③I n an interview with CNN, he named himself as an "extinct species (稀有的物种)" in the 21st century. A recent documentary on the making of The Wind Rises showed people a disappointed Miyazaki throwing a pile (叠) of drawings into the dustbin. He said that he didn't stop drawing until he found the one that met his standards. ④ Maybe that is why Even John Lasseter – head of a famous US computer animation company — once called Miyazaki "one of the greatest filmmakers of our time".