(Source: Ask Men)
(Yes, I have a weird sense of humour but I could not look at this story without laughing)
Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Brad Pitt and . . . Hayao Miyazaki?
The Canadian website AskMen.com profiled Hayao as part of their series on the top 49 men in the world. It rated the 65-year-old anime director in terms of Personality & Talent, Woman Magnetism (Akemi Ota, Hayao's wife of 40 years, would be highly amused at that one), Accomplishments & Fame, Personal Style and the all-important Coolness factor.
Hayao's overall score? A solid 77%. His 40-year marriage won him only a 70 rating (although AskMen admitted that "he must be doing something right"), counterbalanced by his 85 in Personality & Talent. Surprisingly, he only got an 80 in Accomplishments & Fame, despite the countless awards and tributes from such people as Disney/Pixar's John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars.
"At Pixar, when we have a problem and we can't seem to solve it," Lasseter says, "we often take a laser disc of one of Mr. Miyazaki's films and look at a scene in our screening room for a shot of inspiration. Toy Story owes a huge debt of gratitude to the films of Mr. Miyazaki."
AskMen does make a few errors: firstly, they screw up by calling him "The Japanese Walt Disney" (boo!). Hayao absolutely hates that title, and I don't blame him.
Second, in their fawning biography, AskMen says that "he's the guy who essentially introduced anime to North Americans," as if a little flick called Akira had nothing to do with it.
The site also missed the fact that Hayao announced yet another retirement after Howl's Moving Castle, but reconsidered after son Goro's first flick Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)spent six weeks at #1 on the Japanese box office chart, holding off such flicks as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Oh yeah, the bio also glossed over Goro's achievements, only saying "The couple has two kids, one of whom has begun following in the footsteps of his dad."
However, I do agree with their assessment that Hayao's films has significantly raised anime's profile outside of Japan. Roger Ebert called Princess Mononoke "one of the best films of 1999," and Spirited Away won the Best Animated Film award at the 2002 Oscars. And yeah, I think his flicks are pretty frickin' cool.
So, if you want a few snickers, click over here. According to Studio Ghibli sources, Hayao is now working on another, as yet untitled, movie.
