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If you’re stuck at home with kids during the coronavirus pandemic looking for something to do, it might be a good opportunity to watch some of Japan’s classic animated movies.
Or better yet, draw the characters.
Toshio Suzuki, a Japanese animation producer, proposes just that. The former president of Studio Ghibli of Japan uploaded a video tutorial explaining how to draw one of the company’s most beloved characters: Totoro from the 1988 movie “My Neighbor Totoro.”
Suzuki says the most important part of Totoro’s drawing, who is also Studio Ghibli’s mascot, is to nail his round, wide-open eyes.
The tutorial was originally intended for children locked up in Nagoya, Japan, where Suzuki originates from. It was featured on a city website that has also posted video messages from celebrities and athletes linked to Nagoya. But the Suzuki tutorial has reached Studio Ghibli fans everywhere.
“This is something you can do at home. Everyone, please draw,” he said.
“My neighbor Totoro”, a fantasy film, focuses on two sisters who move to a country house with their father while they wait for their sick mother to recover in a hospital. That’s where they meet Totoro, a large, tender flying spirit that looks like a cross between an inflated cat, a rabbit, and an owl.
Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli became the anime heavyweight champion in Japan and the rest of the world, and most of its success is credited by co-founder and animator Hayao Miyazaki. In the 1990s, the Walt Disney company signed an agreement with Studio Ghibli to present the films to a western audience. Studio Ghibli has created more than 20 acclaimed films that follow themes of nature, friendship, and what some might describe as feminine power or feminism.
Miyazaki, famous for hand-drawing his animations, dominated the box office and achieved worldwide success among anime fans and children. His film “Spirited Away” about a lost young woman remains the highest grossing film of all time in Japan since its release in 2001. It won an Academy Award in 2003. The Mitaka Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, which features works of art Miyazaki, remains closed due to COVID-19.
But the studio is still looking for ways to keep fans safely entertained at home. He has created free downloadable movie backgrounds for the Zoom video conferencing app and a set of vinyl collections for the soundtrack for the 1997 movie “Princess Monoke,” which will be released on July 24.
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