Guillermo Del Toro Professes His Love of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki

Guillermo Del Toro has become an icon in the pop culture world for good reason. Creating the likes of Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Pacific Rim, and Nightmare Alley, the director has stated in the past that his admiration for the medium of animation is boundless. At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Del Toro took the opportunity to lay on some serious praise for both Studio Ghibli and the legendary director who helped forge the production house, Hayao Miyazaki. 

For some time, Studio Ghibli's latest movie, The Boy And The Heron, had been billed as the final movie for the legendary director. Considering Hayao is in his 80s, it certainly seemed as though How Do You Live would make for Miyazaki's last film. In recent days, however, Studio Ghibli Vice President Junichi Nishioka revealed that Miyazaki's proposed retirement might not be confirmed after all. Stating that Hayao has returned to the office and is already sharing new ideas for movies, The Boy And The Heron certainly doesn't seem as though it will be the director's grand finale at this point. Hayao Miyazaki has spent decades working in the craft of animation, and it should come as no surprise to hear that Del Toro has nothing but kind words regarding his work. 

Ghibli Del Toro

In a new interview for this year's Toronto Film Festival, Guillermo Del Toro praises Miyazaki's exquisite technical abilities, while also praising the animator's emotional storybeats that he leaves on the screen. Claiming that Miyazaki's films are fearless, Del Toro also made note of how Hayao's movies will often operate outside of the traditional story structure of the West. While Del Toro has never collaborated with Miyazaki, his love of animation would make him a worthy partner on any project.

While Del Toro has stated that he might swear off live-action projects, the prolific director has a re-imagining of Frankenstein in the works at Netflix, which will star the likes of Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, and Andrew Garfield. Del Toro will act as writer and director for the upcoming monster movie, while producer J. Miles Dale shared words about the upcoming project and its cast, "It's a pretty good cast. We've had pretty good casts the last couple films. The last one was insane, frankly. I mean, that's a pinch-me cast. And so was The Shape of Water cast. That's another dream cast. I think there are a lot of actors that really want to work with Guillermo, and so that makes things a little bit easier. So, it should be fun. Nothing's easy, and that one's not going to be easy — it's a big movie with a ship stuck in the ice and a ton of other things — but we've got a little bit of lead time on it, and we're excited to get going."