Pan-dane to tamago-hime

Mr.Dough and the Egg Princess is a 12 minute short made for the Studio Ghibli museum. It draws inspiration from european fairy-tales (Baba Yaga, Humpty-Dumpty, Cinderella, grinding bones to make bread, etc.) as well as visually referencing several 15th-16th century flemish paintings including Bruegel's 'The Harvesters'.

It weaves these together to create an amusing romp following the eponymous Egg Princess' escape from Baba Yaga with a medieval harvest for a backdrop. Miyazaki's films often feature pastoral settings and Bruegel's painting and an apparent interest in bread production seems to have been the jumping off point for his imagination here.

The pacing is well balanced, and the story is easy to follow even while being wordless (no subtitles for the kiddos or cringe-worthy dubbing). It is zany without being frenetic as so many modern kids shows/films are and the 'Folia' theme is seamlessly paired to the animation making the short reminiscent of (and favourably compared to) something out of Disney's Fantasia (1940).

It is among my son's favourites and a worthwhile watch. Hopefully one day the museum shorts will be collected and given a wider release.

From what I can tell, you have to go to the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo to see most of the famed Studio Ghibli shorts, though there are a few here and there that exist on the internet. Still, the quality would be better in person, and while Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess was probably free of dialogue and sound effects, I don't know for sure. My experience could've been incomplete in some subtle or noticeable way.

But I still got swept up in that style of animation that only Hayao Miyazaki can conjure up, and though I've seen better non-feature-film projects from him, this one just really drove home how much I take him for granted. You look at a character and how they move, and it's just - they're just Moyazaki creations. Instantly, you just know.

That's a gift. Drawing anything in a way that's even a bit not nonsensical is hell. To have a style that's completely your own; Miyazaki could draw any creature or object in his style and you'd look at it and see that it was his. And then some idiot would cough and, between drags of his knuckles along the floor, he'd blabber on about how close AI systems are to replicating the style of great artists. How we're going to have Abbey Road 2 by The Beeptells this December, disregarding the idea to Let It Be entirely. Well, the AI programs are not ready, and if they were, I don't care. Stop making things work, and stop making them try to work. Everyone, leave the AI alone, and it can't get more powerful. I don't care how funny your AI-related jokes at the expense of your friend might be. We need more unity, folks.

Anyway, Miyazaki would hate AI, so he'd have my back. He'd probably also hate me because he's kind of grumpy but I'd be "one of the not awful ones," and him thinking that of me would make my decade.

Where was I...

Track down this short if you can find it! Pretty colors. Crazy character designs. Gets kind of wholesome. I think there's some religious allegory in here, too (the body of bread - a Catholicism staple - being used rather literally).

Good stuff. Weird stuff. Weirdly good stuff.

7/10.