Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation powerhouse famed around the world for Hayo Miyazaki’s movies such as Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and the upcoming Ponyo have announced their next film. However their new movie won’t be a Miyazaki flick, as after a 10-year break, Isao Takahata, director of the excellent My Neghbors The Yamadas, is helming Taketori Monogatari, which translates as The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutters.
It’s one of Japan’s oldest folk tales and is as well known over there as Cinderella and Snow white are over here. Basically a little girl from the moon is found in a stalk of bamboo and adopted by a bamboo cutter and his wife. When she grows, she sets challenges for the handsome princes who seek to marry her, all of which seem impossible. She then begins a romance with the Emperor, but it may be cut short when beings from the moon want to take her home.
Although Ghibli’s non-Miyazaki movies haven’t quite matched the output of the master, Bamboo Cutters certainly fits their style and could be a fabulous film. Interestingly, the report on AsianMoviePulse that announced Ghibli’s next film alaso says that Miyazaki himself is in talks with Ghibli staff to make two new films over the next three years. Seeing as he was supposed to have retired before taking over directing duties on Howl’s Moving Castle, it seems the filmmaker is having difficulty leaving animation behind.