Boro the Caterpillar (Japanese: 毛虫のボロ, Hepburn: Kemushi no Boro) is a 2018 Japanese animated short film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki made for the Ghibli Museum. It premiered at the museum on March 21, 2018.
Kemushi no Boro | |
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Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
Produced by | Toshio Suzuki |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Atsushi Okui |
Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Ghibli Museum |
Release date |
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Running time | 14 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
The short film is shown only in the Ghibli Museum and in Ghibli Park. The story is about a recently hatched caterpillar named Boro as he takes his first steps into the world.
The origin of Boro the Caterpillar stemmed from sketches that Miyazaki had made in 1995.[1] Miyazaki first brought up Boro as a potential idea for a movie, but Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, concerned about the difficulty of making a feature-length film with no human characters, proposed creating Princess Mononoke instead.[2]
Following the release of The Wind Rises in 2013, Miyazaki announced his retirement.[3] However, sensing that Miyazaki still wanted to work on projects, Suzuki asked the retired director if he would be interested in creating a short film using his Boro the Caterpillar idea.[2] In 2015, Miyazaki decided to come out of retirement to work on a roughly ten-minute short film meant to be screened exclusively at the Ghibli Museum.[4] Miyazaki described the plot of Boro the Caterpillar as being about "a story of a tiny, hairy caterpillar, so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers".[5]
While Miyazaki had previously incorporated computer-generated images into earlier, hand-drawn films like Spirited Away, Boro the Caterpillar was Miyazaki's[6] first work to incorporate a CG animated main character.[4] Suzuki had suggested Miyazaki work using CGI, as he thought that "the challenge of a new technique might get [Miyazaki] fired up again". Miyazaki himself stated that "I have ideas I may not be able to draw by hand, and [CGI] may be a way to do it—that’s my hope. It’s a new technology". Given the choice by Suzuki, Miyazaki opted to go with a team of Japanese CGI animators instead of working with Pixar under John Lasseter, as the former would be able to speak Japanese.[2] On September 21, 2015, CG animator Yuhei Sakuragi announced that he would be helping Miyazaki complete Boro the Caterpillar.[1] The production of the film was partially documented in the NHK-produced documentary Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki released in 2016.
Japanese television host and comedian Tamori provided all voices and sound effects for Boro the Caterpillar.[7][8] The piano song at the end of the short film was performed by longtime Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi.[9]
Toshio Suzuki initially stated that Boro the Caterpillar was due for a July 2017 release.[10] It eventually premiered at the Ghibli Museum on March 21, 2018.[11]