The Berlin International Film Festival "Golden Bear for Best Film" bestowed in February 2002 on Miyazaki Hayao's feature-length animated film Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) may well be one of the greatest milestones in the history of animated films. This was the first Grand Prix prize awarded to an animated film at any of the world's three leading film festivals - the Venice, Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, which indicates that animation has come into its own as a genre whose quality rivals live action narrative films. In short, animation has been recognized as a full-fledged art, and the Berlin Film Festival deserves praise for this groundbreaking decision.
In the United States, as throughout the rest of the world, animation has long been seen as a Disney creation and therefore a medium exclusively for children. It is Japanese animation - or anime, as it is known in Japan - that, having turned this practical wisdom on its head, is now an effectual presence in foreign markets and is poised to become a considerable threat to Disney.
At one time, anime was considered children's entertainment in Japan as well. The throngs of university students crowding into theaters to see Uchusenkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato) at the end of the 1970s, however, created a sensational new trend, and the film's extraordinary success brought an end to an age in which Japanese adults were embarrassed to be caught watching animated films.
Although the long history of animation in Japan encompasses the extensive collection of anime produced before World War II, the majority of these works were short films made for children. In 1945, at the end of World War II, Seo Mitsuyo released his feature-length animated film Momotaro - Umi no Shimpei (Momotaro - Divine Troops of the Ocean). Sponsored by the Department of the Navy, the film features a young Momotaro, the hero of a well-known Japanese fairy tale, leading a troop of animal soldiers to liberate a southern island from invading demons. Taken in the context of the war during which it was created, Momotaro and his troops obviously symbolize the Japanese army, while the demons represent the British and Dutch armies. Even so, the energetic musical scenes featuring the animal characters reveal the unmistakable influence of animation coming from Disney at that time.
The present golden age of anime began at the end of the 1950s when Toei Corp., one of the five major movie companies in Japan,..
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