My Neighbor Totoro
is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. It stars the voices of Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Hitoshi Takagi, and focuses on two young sisters and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The film explores themes such as animism, Shinto symbology, environmentalism and the joys of rural living. ''My Neighbor Totoro'' received worldwide critical acclaim, and grossed over worldwide at the box office; the film also grossed significantly more from home video sales and merchandise. ''My Neighbor Totoro'' received numerous awards, including the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, the Mainichi Film Award, and Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film in 1988. It also received the Special Award at the Blue Ribbon Awards in the same year. The film is considered as one of the top animation films, ranking 41st in ''Empire'' magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. Born in Tokyo City, Miyazaki expressed interest in manga and animation from an early age. He joined Toei Animation in 1963, working as an inbetween artist and key animator on films like ''Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon'' (1965), ''Puss in Boots (1969 film), Puss in Boots'' (1969), and ''Animal Treasure Island'' (1971), before moving to Shin-Ei Animation, A-Pro in 1971, where he co-directed ''Lupin the Third Part I'' (1971–1972) alongside Isao Takahata. After moving to Zuiyo, Zuiyō Eizō (later Nippon Animation) in 1973, Miyazaki worked as an animator on ''World Masterpiece Theater'' and directed the television series ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Animage
is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine published by Tokuma Shoten since July 1978. Notable works serialized in the magazine include Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...'s manga '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' (1982—1994) and Saeko Himuro's novel '' Ocean Waves'' (1990–1992). History ''Animage'' was established in 1978 as the first magazine devoted to animation and comics aimed at a general public and not professionals. In 2007 the magazine started its online edition. Anime Grand Prix The Anime Grand Prix is the annual prize decided by the readers' votes to the anime of the year. The Anime Grand Prix started in 1979, and the first prize was announced at the issue 1980 January, generally announced at the next year's June issue e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spinning Top
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be rotation, spun on its vertical Axis of rotation, axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually precession, wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy, and finally tip over and roll on its side. Tops exist in many variations and materials, chiefly wood, metal, and plastic, often with a metal tip. They may be set in motion by twirling a handle with the fingers, by pulling a rope coiled around the body, or through a built-in auger (spiral plunger). Such toys have been used since Classical antiquity, antiquity in solitary or competitive games, where each player tries to keep one's top spinning for as long as possible or achieve some other goal. Some tops have faceted bodies with symbols or inscriptions, and are used like dice to inject randomness ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Catbus
is a fictional character in the Studio Ghibli film ''My Neighbor Totoro'', directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is a large, grinning, twelve-legged cat with a large bushy tail and a hollow body that serves as a bus, with windows and seats covered with fur. In the original Japanese version of ''My Neighbor Totoro'', Catbus is voiced by Naoki Tatsuta, and it was voiced by Frank Welker and Carl Macek in the English-language versions. Legacy Catbus has gained popular reception since the release of ''My Neighbor Totoro''. It has been described as "one of the most iconic characters from Studio Ghibli" as well as "almost as recognizable as Totoro himself". It has inspired merchandise such as clothing, toys, and a vehicle at Ghibli Park in Nagakute. Additionally, Catbus's baby, Kittenbus, stars in a sequel to ''My Neighbor Totoro'' titled ''Mei and the Kittenbus''. See also * List of fictional cats * List of fictional cats in film * List of fictional buses The following is a list of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Three Billy Goats Gruff
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff" () is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their '' Norske Folkeeventyr'', first published between 1841 and 1844. It has an Aarne-Thompson type of 122E. The first version of the story in English appeared in George Webbe Dasent's translation of some of the ''Norske Folkeeventyr'', published as ''Popular Tales from the Norse'' in 1859. The heroes of the tale are three male goats who need to outsmart a ravenous troll to cross the bridge to their feeding ground. Characters The story introduces three billy goats (male goats), sometimes identified as a youngster, father and grandfather, but more often described as brothers. In other adaptations, there is a baby or child goat, mama goat and papa goat. "Gruff" was used as their family name in the earliest English translation by Dasent and this has been perpetuated; but this has been pointed out as a mistranslation of the Norwegian name which was here employ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings. In later Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them. In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are sometimes associated with particular landmarks (sometimes said to have been formed by a troll having been exposed to sunlight). Trolls are depicted in a variety of media in modern popular culture. Etymology The Old Norse nouns ''troll'' and ''trǫll'' (variously meaning "fiend, demon, werewolf, jötunn") and Middle High ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cinnamomum Camphora
''Camphora officinarum'' is a species of evergreen tree indigenous to warm temperate to subtropical regions of East Asia, including countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. It is known by various names, most notably the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel. Description ''Camphora officinarum'' grows up to tall. In Japan, where the tree is called ''kusunoki'', five camphor trees are known with a trunk circumference above , with the largest individual, , reaching . The leaves have a glossy, waxy appearance and smell of camphor when crushed. In spring, it produces bright green foliage with masses of very small white fragrant flowers from which its common namesake "smells good tree" in Chinese was given. It produces clusters of black, berry-like fruit around in diameter. Its pale bark is very rough and fissured vertically. Distribution and habitat The species is native to China south of the Yangtze River, Taiwan, southern Japan, Korea, India, an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Susuwatari
Susuwatari (, ; "wandering soot"), also called Makkuro kurosuke (; "makkuro" meaning "pitch black", "kuro" meaning "black" and "-suke" being a common ending for male names), is the name of a fictitious sprite that was devised by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, known from the famous anime-productions ''My Neighbor Totoro'' (1988) and ''Spirited Away'' (2001) where, in the former, they are identified as "black soots" in early subtitles, as "soot sprites" or "dust bunnies" in the Streamline Pictures English dub, and as "soot gremlins" in the Walt Disney Studios English dubbed version. In the RSC’s stage version of “My Neighbour Totoro”, they are called “soot sprites” and there is a solo sprite named Geoff. Description Susuwatari are described and shown as golf ball-sized, pitch-black and fuzzy-haired beings with two large eyes and long, thin limbs. They move by hovering around, but they can extend stick-like limbs from their bodies to do certain tasks, and can lift ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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House Spirits
A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity typically a goddess often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia. The second type of household deity is not one singular deity but a type or species of animistic, which usually has lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the lares of ancient Roman religion, the gashin of Korean shamanism, and cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish brownie and Slavic domovoy. Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films Of All Time
The ''Sight & Sound'' Greatest Films of All Time 2012 was a worldwide opinion poll conducted by ''Sight & Sound'' and published in the magazine's September 2012 issue. ''Sight & Sound'', published by the British Film Institute, has conducted a poll of the greatest films every 10 years since 1952. Criteria For this poll, ''Sight & Sound'' listened to decades of criticism about the lack of diversity of its poll participants and made a huge effort to invite a much wider variety of critics and filmmakers from around the world to participate, taking into account gender, ethnicity, race, geographical region, socioeconomic status, and other kinds of underrepresentation. A new rule was imposed for this ballot: related films that are considered part of a larger whole (e.g. ''The Godfather'' and ''The Godfather Part II'', Krzysztof Kieślowski's '' Three Colors trilogy'' and ''Dekalog'', or Satyajit Ray's ''The Apu Trilogy'') were to be treated as separate films for voting purposes. Crit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. History and content ''Sight and Sound'' was first published in Spring 1932 as "A quarterly review of modern aids to learning published under the auspices of the British Institute of Adult Education". In 1934, management of the magazine was handed to the nascent British Film Institute (BFI), which still publishes the magazine today. ''Sight and Sound'' was published quarterly for most of its history until the early 1990s, apart from a brief run as a monthly publication in the early 1950s, but in 1991 it merged with another BFI publication, the ''Monthly Film Bulletin'', and started to appear monthly. In 1949, Gavin Lambert, co-founder of film journal ''Sequence'', was hired as the editor, and also brought with him ''Sequence'' editor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Empire (magazine)
''Empire'' is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Media Group. The first issue was published in May 1989. History David Hepworth of Emap, the publisher of British music magazines '' Q'' and '' Smash Hits'', proposed the idea of launching a film magazine similar to ''Q''. They recruited ''Smash Hits'' editor Barry McIlheney to edit the new magazine, with Hepworth as Editorial Director. Hepworth drafted a one-page proposal outlining the magazine's objectives, including a commitment to reviewing and rating every film released in UK cinema. The proposal also stated, "''Empire'' believes that movies can sometimes be art, but they should always be fun." The first edition (June/July 1989) was published in May 1989, featuring Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder on the cover for the film '' Great Balls of Fire!''. The magazine achieved its initial sales target of 50,000 copies. Film reviews were given a star rating between 1 and 5, with no half-stars. McIlheney served as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |