Guillermo Del Toro names the most influential animation director who shaped his childhood
Guillermo Del Toro has shared his love and admiration for Hayao Miyazaki, naming him as the most influential director in the medium.
The Japanese filmmaker is most well-known for his work with Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded. His projects with the studio include the beloved My Neighbor Totoro and the wildly successful Spirited Away.
As part of Time’s series on the most influential people of the year, Del Toro wrote about the influence of Miyazaki on him personally and on the entire realm of animation. Like many Miyazaki fans, the filmmaker first stumbled upon Miyazaki’s work as a child, but he only recognised his influence later on in his life.
“Encountering My Neighbor Totoro as an adult,” he remembered, “my mind snapped back to those earlier works, and I recognized how much this man had shaped my childhood.”
Del Toro went on to praise Miyazaki’s ability to combine emotion and beauty with realism, concluding that he is “the single most influential animation director in the history of the medium, and one of my top 10 favorite storytellers in any audiovisual medium.”
The filmmaker’s praise is well-earned. From Kiki’s Delivery Service to Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki is the mind behind a collection of the most gorgeous and globally loved animation films ever to be made. Due to his glittering CV, there are few other animators who could compete with his influence on the genre.
Almost four decades after he founded Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki is still delivering exciting works of animation. Last year, he shared The Boy and the Heron, which provided yet another dose of emotion and impossibly detailed visuals. Del Toro deemed it a “subtle masterpiece that exerts a gravitational pull.”
Meanwhile, Del Toro is working on his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic horror, Frankenstein. The film was originally set to star Andrew Garfield as the monster, but issues with scheduling led him to depart from the project.
Following his recent success in Saltburn and Priscilla, Jacob Elordi will now take on the part. He joins a particularly star-studded cast. Oscar Isaac is set to take on the role of Victor Frankenstein, while the supporting cast includes Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz and Lars Mikkelson.
Del Toro has brought countless monsters to life on-screen in the past, from the demonic Hellboy to the Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water, so he seems well-placed to take on the iconic tale.
Watch the trailer for Miyazaki’s latest film, The Boy and the Heron, below.
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