Quote of the Day by Hayao Miyazaki: "It’s a dangerous way to make an animated film, and I wish it could be different… we never know where the story will go, but we just keep working on the film as it develops" - Israel News Beep

Source: Tom Mes, Midnight Eye, interview with Hayao Miyazaki, January 2002.

We never know where the story will go, but we just keep working on the film as it develops. It’s a dangerous way to make an animated film, and I would like it to be different, but unfortunately, that’s the way I work

Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki has made some of the most beautifully constructed animated films of the 80s and, well, ever put on screen, so you’d probably expect him to have every detail mapped out before the first frame is drawn. Apparently not.

In a 2002 interview with Midnight Eye, Miyazaki explained that he often starts making a film without having the whole story worked out. Instead, the story develops as he draws the storyboards, with production beginning while those storyboards are still taking shape. I’ve rejigged the quote around in this article’s header, but he says, “We never know where the story will go,” and adds, “but we just keep working on the film as it develops.”

That’s a surprisingly reassuring thing to hear from someone whose films can feel so meticulously planned and executed. From the best anime films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke to my favourite, My Neighbour Totoro, these are the sort of films where you can spend hours picking apart the details and wondering how Miyazaki could possibly have known exactly where everything was going. It turns out, he didn’t, and that’s refreshing to hear for anyone who’s sat down and stared at a blank canvas wondering where to begin, or even where it’s going.

Storyboards for an anime film

Hayao Miyazaki would begin drawing and painting storyboards before knowing where the film is heading. (Image credit: Getty Images / Zhe Ji )

Miyazaki actually describes this way of working as “dangerous”, and admits he’d prefer it to be different, but it’s how he makes films. The story grows alongside the drawings, rather than the drawings simply being used to execute a finished script.