Disney Starts Last Miyazaki Film With a Limited Release

Live in Los Angeles or New York, or are willing to fly, drive, or walk there? If you are, you’re in luck, as Disney is giving animation-maestro Hayao Miyazaki’s latest (and quite possibly last) picture, The Wind Rises, a limited release starting this Friday, November 8th through November 14th (to qualify for an Academy Award) in LA and New York, before giving it a slightly wider release February 14, 2014 and a much wider release Feb. 28, 2014.

Aside from being Miyazaki’s possible last film (he has promised/threatened to retire in the past), The Wind Rises makes some other noteworthy marks in his thirty-four year career as a film director. It’s  his first biographical film (with some artistic liberties taken of course). The plot centered on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the inventor of the fighter plane Mitsubishi A5M. It may also be Miyazki’s most controversial film; some  have attacked the film for celebrating war (the A5M’s successor, A6M Zero was used by Japan in World War II) while others have gone the opposite direction and called it anti-Japanese – although, these criticisms tend to come from politicians; many film critics have given the film positive reception.

With the oncoming wide release next February, you may be wondering why bother to find a theater showing The Wind Rises now? For one thing, only during its limited release will the film will be shown in  Japanese with English subtitles. Anyone who prefers to see a foreign film in its native language would do well to track down a showing before it receives and English language dub.

There’s no word yet on the English cast, but if Disney handles it the same way they have other films produced by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli expect to hear some big name Hollywood stars – Billy Bob Thornton was featured in Princess Mononoke; Matt Damon and Tina Fey were in Ponyo – alongside some of Disney’s stable of child-stars – David Henrie of The Wizards of Waverly Place fame can be heard in Arrietty; the younger siblings of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas brothers starred in Ponyo.