Leonor Guadalupe Torres Alarcón

Hayao Miyazaki almost bankrupted Ghibli

In 1997, French animator David Encinas had an experience any anime fan would dream of: working directly with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata at Studio Ghibli during the production of "Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime)." In a chat with Vulture, Encinas recounted details about those intense, exciting, and somewhat chaotic days inside Japan's most famous studio.


Encinas, who already had experience on major productions like Disney's "Goofy the Movie," was one of the first Westerners to join Ghibli, and although he now teaches animation at the Gobelins school in Paris, he hasn't forgotten what he experienced there. "Exercises with bouncing balls, drawing hands all day..." he recalls. "In less than three months, I learned more than in all my years at Gobelins and Disney," he said without a second thought.




During that time, he saw Hayao Miyazaki in action up close, directing what would become one of the studio's most ambitious films. "Princess Mononoke" was not only enormous in terms of story and animation, but it also put Studio Ghibli's financial stability at risk. The budget started at 2 billion yen, but eventually rose to around 2.4 billion, and that's not even considering the fact that the team worked nonstop for months to get the film out on time.

Still, Miyazaki didn't back down. According to Encinas, the director even said he didn't care if the film bankrupted Studio Ghibli. And yes, the team knew it too: "If 'Princess Mononoke' didn't work, Studio Ghibli would have closed," Encinas said. Fortunately, everything turned out well, and more than well. The film grossed more than 19 billion yen in Japan (about $160 million at the time) and became the highest-grossing Japanese film in history up to that point. Years later, Studio Ghibli would break its own record with "Spirited Away," which also earned them their first Oscar.



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