We are really looking forward to the release of Director Saschka Unseld’s short, The Blue Umbrella (with all the behind-the-scenes videos and photos it’s hard not to be intrigued). Today, we happened to find a comparison between The Blue Umbrella and Hayao Miyazaki‘s film My Neighbor Totoro, which has excited us even more about this beautiful short.
In My Neighbor Totoro, there is a scene where the two main characters are waiting at a bus stop in the pouring rain under a RED umbrella and when Totoro (screenshot below) appears next to them, the girls notice that Totoro does not have an umbrella. After realizing this, they hand him a BLUE umbrella – which delights Totoro.
You can notice the comparison between The Blue Umbrella and My Neighbor Totoro below.
This could be a coincidence but it could also be a beautiful tribute to a world-renowned artist. Hayao Miyazaki has been an inspiration for many artists including Pixarians. John Lasseter has called the works of Miyazaki “the most inspirational films”. This has us wondering if Unseld was inspired by this touching scene in My Neighbor Totoro?
I have recently noticed another similarity between a Pixar and Miyazaki film. If you notice in Kiki's Delivery Service, it is mentioned that crows were once servants to witches. This was probably used in the film Brave, seeing how a witch has a pet crow. That was just a cool little thing I noticed. 🙂
Wow – that could be another really cool connection! Thank you for sharing that with us! 🙂 We'll have to check that one out for sure! – T.J.
Almost everyone is fond of ghibi with no reason .Perhaps for his childish ,perhanps for his love for comics .And one of my friend has bought a series of toys from toyswill.com of ghibi's products……..