The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth had such success with its Miyazaki at the Modern festival last year that it’s expanding on that territory with Story, Style, and Character: The Art of Japanese Animation. Over four weekends, the museum will show feature films not only by Hayao Miyazaki but also other great Japanese animators.
The master is represented here by his Oscar-nominated The Wind Rises and Ponyo, which was curiously absent from last year’s festival but is one of his greatest and kid-friendliest films. Miyazaki’s markedly different protégé Isao Takahata makes his presence known through his crushing World War II drama Grave of the Fireflies and his Oscar-nominated The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, which is heavily influenced by old Japanese paintings. The festival also includes Rintaro’s insane futuristic Metropolis in which an apocalyptic explosion is set to Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”
Arguably best of all are masterpieces by the sadly short-lived Satoshi Kon. His Millennium Actress is a dazzling metafictional meditation on history, memory, and the movies, while his Paprika is about the dream world invading the real world. The latter film heavily influenced Christopher Nolan’s Inception and has the cutest and perhaps the most frightening vision of the apocalypse you’ll ever see. If you think anime is all robots and half-naked girls, the riches on display here will show you different.
[box_info]Story, Style, and Character: The Art of Japanese Animation runs Aug 7-29 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St, FW. Tickets are $5-9. Call 817-738-9215.[/box_info]
