The Man Who Leapt Through Film: The Art of Mamoru Hosoda

900 Pages·2022·11.02 MB·English

by  Charles Solomon , Don Hahn

Ame frolics in the snow in these animation drawings from Wolf Children.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Don Hahn
I

Early Days
II

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
時をかける少⼥
III

Summer Wars
サマーウォーズ
IV

Wolf Children
おおかみこどもの⾬と雪
V

The Boy and the Beast
バケモノの⼦
VI

Mirai
未来のミライ
VII

Belle
⻯とそばかすの姫
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Swathed in a cloud of pink blossoms, Belle reflects during a song.
FOREWORD
Animation is a complicated web of technology, artistry, and storytelling that
many have tried and few have mastered. It’s an elaborate illusion made
from pencils, paint, and pixels that, at its best, allows us to escape reality.
Mamoru Hosoda uses the art form in a different way. He dives into reality
with characters who are vulnerable, who may live in unimaginable worlds,
but who always feel grounded in the very human themes that often resonate
in his work: consequence, responsibility, sacrifice, hope.
Hosoda has carved out a personal style that bridges anime and sci-fi, yet
he and his collaborators tell stories that are remarkably human, given his
penchant for setting them in mind-bending worlds that threaten humanity.
His work opens our eyes to the complex choices we face in a life that is
overwhelmed by often inhumane forces. Like all good science fiction, his
films are relevant and even predictive of our future on a planet that is
changing incredibly fast.
Any filmmaker can fall victim to his or her comfortable and predictable
patterns, like a magician who does the same trick so often that the audience
starts to see how it’s done. Hosoda’s work builds on his past, but reliably
manages to make a fresh statement that always surprises me. He directs
with a fearless mix of subtle introspection, grandiose spectacle, and a
master storyteller’s disregard for time and space. As such he has built a
reputation for expanding the animated art form, most recently by fostering
unconventional collaborations with people like Irish filmmakers Tomm
Moore and Ross Stewart, visionary UK architect Eric Wong, and my friend,
the brilliant designer Jin Kim.
The audience may never fully appreciate the incredible artistry,
technology, and just plain hard work that goes into Hosoda’s films, and
maybe that’s how it should be. But after nine films, it’s time to take a closer
look. Here, Charles Solomon takes us inside the filmmaker’s sanctum to
reveal the intense art and craft that make us believe the unbelievable and
discover new levels of our human condition through the work of this
incredible artist.
Don Hahn
April 27, 2021
DON HAHN produced the classic Beauty and the Beast, the first animated
film to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences. His next film, The Lion King, broke box-office
records all over the world to become the top-grossing traditionally animated
film of all time and a long-running blockbuster Broadway musical. Hahn
also served as associate producer on the landmark motion picture Who
Framed Roger Rabbit. His other films include The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the 2006 short The Little Matchgirl
(which earned Hahn his second Oscar nomination), Maleficent, and Tim
Burton’s Frankenweenie. He directed the documentaries Waking Sleeping
Beauty, Hand Held, The Gamble House, and Howard. Hahn is the author of
The Alchemy of Animation, Brain Storm: Unleashing Your Creative Self,
Before Ever After: The Lost Lectures of Walt Disney’s Animation Studio,
and Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Disney’s Magical Mid-Century. He lives in Los
Angeles.