Over 10% of Miyazaki's Ponyo on a Cliff have already been completed and filmed. Over 11%, in fact - if you're feeling detail oriented. You may need a translator to help you with that production diary, however.
I yesterday watched around 8% of Ratatouille and it felt like a really big, healthy serving. I'm still trying to find a direct download url for the clip so we can all save it instead of just stream it.
Allocine are hosting a rather nice big clip from Goro Miyazaki's Tales From Earthsea - but only in French and without any kind of subtitles. If you simply want to check out the animation, design, shot composition or sequencing then this will suffice.
Ponyo on a Cliff, or Gake no ue no Ponyo, is the name of Hayao Miyazaki's next film. Surprising news, but at least all of the rumours we'd heard before can spawn no more - we've got the facts now, straight from the Ponyo's mouth.
As we already knew, the film is to be realised entirely in a style evocative of watercolour painting. As it has now been revealed that much of the action takes place at sea, however, this style is going to prove rather challenging for the team of background animators. It will, however, end up looking entirely gorgeous.
The plot of the film revolves around a goldfish princess, the titular Ponyo, and her desire to become human again. Her ally in the quest is a young boy, reportedly modelled on a younger version of Miyazaki's son Goro - director of the latest Ghibli feature, Tales from Earthsea.
Toho made their initial announcement of the film's name and subject matter on the NNN news bulletin, noting that the film's 'key words' would be 'mother', 'father' and 'a cliff'. Chew that over for a while, why don't you.
Ponyo on a Cliff will be released in Japan during the summer of 2008, clean up at festivals worldwide in the following months, then reach overseas markets in 2009.
It has reportedly now been confirmed that the next Ghibli film is Miyazaki's adaption of the Chinese children's novella I Lost my Little Boy, the cover of which you can see above. As far as I can tell, not being able to read the book, the story revolves around a young chap dying from heart disease - but isn't at all downbeat... well, not for most of the page count, anyway.
The oddest thing about the project is that the book is very obviously inspired by Miyazaki's previous films, and, I'm told, even makes mention of Totoro as though he actually exists right at the very top of the first page.
So, to recap: a Chinese author wrote a children's story about dying from heart disease, set it in the same universe as a number of popular Japanese anime (many of which didn't share a universe in the first place) and now, the studio and director responsible for those anime and adapting the book into their next film.
That's the sort of stuff that makes Quentin Tarantino fall over all giddy with excitement.
[EDIT: While you're here, checking this very-heavily-linked-to-story out, please take a scroll down the main page or throw a few terms into the search box. There are several good stories that haven't been picked up on much yet - including the first still from the next Coen Brothers film, an extensive set of Spider-Man 3 spoilers, details of Subtle Knife scenes already being shot and much, much, much more]
