Review of The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013) by Aaron C — 02 Nov 2015

I'm a fan of their animation work and overall, the story and the characters. Princess Mononoke was the first movie I've seen from Studio Ghibli. Back then I never knew who directed/created or what company that was involved in making Princess Mononoke until, if I can remember correctly, Spirited Away.

I realized that Studio Ghibli is a well respected animation company that creates wonderful stories and lovable characters. When I watched Princess Mononoke, it was one of the best Anime films I have ever seen.

It became an instant favorite as one of my personal all-time favorites, in terms of all things Anime. I've seen other films from Studio Ghibli but it always lead me back to Princess Mononoke as my personal favorite.

I guess there's that one Studio Ghibli movie that everyone would never forget the experience of an authentic animated feature film. Especially from Studio Ghibli. I decided to watch this documentary film on Netflix.

Apart from my still interest in the culture of Japan and much less any interest recently for Anime, however Mr. Hayao Miyazaki's perspective in things both in real life and in creating an animation feature have opened my eyes once more that Anime is something, not from hard work, but the passion of creating something for people to feel emotional at the most pinnacle scenes.

Especially when the characters are so well developed. Every Studio Ghibli movie that I've watched has so far been like that. This documentary shows the progress of Mr. Hayao Miyazaki and the crew in progress of creating The Wind Rises.

You may think that creating an animated feature film may be the simplest work but it's actually quite a huge effort on everyone's end. Witnessing the progression of The Wind Rises and Mr. Hayao Miyazaki's perspective in things including his day-to-day life, it puts you in a different view of how Studio Ghibli works.

While his odd humor and undoubtedly attitude towards things makes people feel somehow rather abundant, imo, nothing seem to hinder their work on The Wind Rises. The documentary also features the history of Studio Ghibli and the Hayao Miyazaki's career into manga and then stepping to creating something that we will know in the future, that is Studio Ghibli.

If you are a fan of Studio Ghibli and especially the work of Mr. Hayao Miyazaki, I strongly recommend you watch this documentary film. Even if you like one or two movies from Studio Ghibli, it doesn't hurt to take a side trip to a whole new perspective in the process of witnessing an animation film being created.

Either way, it's a nice film in its own. Even if you haven't seen a Studio Ghibli film, probably after watching this documentary, you will feel like watching one of them.