Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises Challenges Coddled Oscar Voters

You know, it’s more than a little annoying that anyone is nervous about Miyazaki’s last animated film, The Wind Rises. We’re lucky to be living through the Miyazaki era at all; no animated film made in the US or elsewhere can touch the kinds of masterpieces made by Miyazaki. Either the Academy voters need to remember that they do have a pair, a collective pair, dangling between their collective legs or they have to grow a pair, stat. Or maybe it’s time to stop treating voters like children who need protecting from the big, bad world and remind ourselves that they are adults. Brooks Barnes’ piece in the New York Times about the careful handling and potential fear about Miyazaki’s movie is disturbing:

Because of the smoking and other difficult imagery — animated bombs, a tuberculosis epidemic — Disney will release “The Wind Rises” at arm’s length. A dubbed version of the movie, set for limited release in the United States and Canada on Feb. 21, will be distributed on Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label. Mr. Miyazaki’s previous three movies, including “Spirited Away” (2002), which won the Oscar for best animated film, were released in North America under the flagship Disney logo.

Dave Hollis, Disney’s distribution chief, said in a statement that the studio is “honored” to bring Mr. Miyazaki’s latest film to domestic audiences. Disney has had a distribution relationship with Studio Ghibli for 16 years. By easing this darker picture into the Oscar race, Disney is hoping to secure a best animated film nomination (in January) that it can use as a marketing hook with audiences. Mr. Miyazaki’s work tends to struggle in North America, even with celebrities providing the English dubbing.

Indeed, just getting seen — by ticket buyers and voters alike — could be the biggest challenge for “The Wind Rises,” awards strategists say. Critics have praised the film’s nuanced handling of Japanese history and raved about its rural vistas and delicate pastel color palette. But some film buffs who have seen the movie at festivals in Venice, Toronto, New York and Telluride, Colo., have winced at its length: 126 minutes. There is a long sequence about rivets.

Did I miss the part where voters all got psychological makeovers via the hospital staff in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? In a sane world, there would be much respect and reverence for this tremendous genius, the likes of which the global film industry has never seen.