Today is a sad day indeed...
One of my all-time favorite animated films directors and animator,
Isao Takahata, has passed away.
Isao
Takahata was one of the co-founders of one of the best animation
studios out there, Studio Ghibli. And as a director he was directly
responsible for so many great influential films, such as Grave of the
Fireflies.
He passed away today at the age of 82.
He began his career in animation back in
1959 when he joined Toei Animation. It was at Toei that he met legend Hayao Miyazaki, with
whom he worked with for many years before founding Studio Ghibli.
At Studio Ghibli he has worked on many films, his credits include directing but also producing and writing their many films.
Most
of his films are classics of mine, specially his groundbreaking film
Grave of the Fireflies, but also Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, My Neighbors
the Yamadas, and more recently The Tale of Princess Kaguya (which was
nominated for an Academy Award, but didn’t end up winning it against
Big Hero 6...).
More
recently there were talks of him working on one last feature film, but
also a lot of health issues this past year, due to his heart
condition....
Today is a sad day indeed... Please rewatch one of his classics this week, in his memory.
Source: Courtesy from
kotaku.com.
