is a 2001 Japanese animated

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, shown only in the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The film has a running time of 16 minutes. It is drawn in a different, simpler style compared to other Studio Ghibli films and uses bright pastel colors. ''Kujiratori'' tells the story of school children pretending they are building a boat. As imagination replaces reality, they find themselves on the ocean, hunting for a

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

. A big, gentle whale appears, accompanies them back to land and plays with them. Then the fantasy ends and the children are back in their class room. The film was shown at the 2002 New York International Children's Film Festival. It won the Ōfuji Noburō Award at the 2001 Mainichi Film Awards.

References

External links

''Kujiratori''
on the Ghibli Museum's website. * * 2001 anime films Anime short films Animated films about whales Films directed by Hayao Miyazaki 2000s Japanese-language films Studio Ghibli animated films 2001 animated short films Films scored by Yuji Nomi {{anime-film-stub