The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

This hour and a half documentary focuses on the two men who created Ghibli studios; Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. They have directed some of the most popular anime movies of our day. Spirited Away, My Friend Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies are just a few of their hit films. This documentary depict the daily life of Miyzaki and Takahata at Ghbili studios. It is a slow paced film that give you a glimpse into the life and flow of the studio.
Some of my observations is that I really liked how Miyazaki talked about storyboards and how they have a life of their own. He doesn't know the end of the story until he finishes his storyboards. It's interesting to see the pile of storyboards that are discarded off to the side. This will be good to show my students, that it's ok if things don't work out that we draw.
I would like to show parts of this documentary to my drawing students when doing the animation unit to talk about animation careers. It's nice to see the studios and the daily grind of animation. I would only show certain parts, because it is slow paced and I think they might lose focus. I would start showing the film about 8 minutes into the film. I can't wait to make them do "radio calisthenics" and I know they are going to love the studio cat.