How is his approach to animation production different from the one of Miyazaki?
I can only talk about my own experience, of course… In extreme simplification, you can say that Takahata’s work is mainly founded on intellect, on rationality. Miyazaki, on the contrary, relies on a sensuality, a sensibility which is not intellectual. Besides, Takahata can not draw: so, when he speaks to his collaborators, he does not explain his ideas with drawings, but with words. That may bring problems to animators, as it is difficult to catch the vision of a director trough mere words. However, also in Miyazaki’s case there may be difficulties: sometimes it is really hard to fix on paper what he imagines. Therefore, every time the animators fail in rendering his ideas, he personally makes corrections. When Miyazaki explains his projects, he often uses drawings or implicit meanings. In fact, when the correction of a single drawing is concerned, he gives more importance to the overall feeling than to the mere movement: he makes corrections where he sees a lack of expressiveness. I
