The Power of Sound: Why a Hayao Miyazaki Film Feels Alive

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web.

When it comes to bringing animation to life, the way a film “looks” is only part of the equation. There is no better example of this principle than the work of animator and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. His films just feel different, and you can sense this when you’re watching one of them: there’s a depth, a contagious empathy, a persistent sense of adventure. That unmistakable “Miyazaki feel” has a liveliness to it, a vibrancy that brings together all the disparate elements we know and love about him as a filmmaker.

“Hayao Miyazaki – How Animation Comes to Life,” a video essay from kaptainkristian, explains how sound design defines Miyazaki’s worlds and makes them come alive. Each of Miyazaki’s films has a unique sound identity, from the violent cacophony of Princess Mononoke to the arid howls of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Sound design is never an afterthought or a requirement. It’s a crucial part of building a world and telling a story.

The video essay also helpfully illustrates how localization can rob foreign viewers of the texture of Miyazaki’s soundscapes, the depth that makes these worlds feel vast, crunchy, dimensional, and alive. There’s a tendency in Western animation to jettison sound design in favor of wall-to-wall scores that shun silence and mask lifeless backgrounds. In contrast, the work of Miyazaki (which includes the work of an army of unsung sound engineers, foley artists, and background painters) honors the storytelling potential of sound.

You can watch “Hayao Miyazaki – How Animation Comes to Life” here:

Who made this?

Kaptainkristian is a YouTube-based video essay channel that peddles in visual love letters to filmmakers, musicians, and syndicated cartoons. The account is run by Kristian T. Williams, whom you can follow on Twitter here. You can subscribe to kaptainkristian, and check out their back catalog on YouTube here.

More Videos Like This

• The Royal Ocean Film Society (a favorite of this column) on Hayao Miyazaki’s Airships.
• Asher Isbrucker’s essay on the immersive realism of Miyazaki’s worldbuilding feels like a pitch-perfect companion piece to kaptainkristian’s essay.
• How Ghibli films use fantasy to cope with trauma.
• Kaptainkristian on how the Fleischer brothers pushed the limits of animation to create the definitive Superman.
• An annotated montage from Zach Prewitt on how Miyazaki animates his love of flying machines.
• Not a video essay, but a terrifically fun diversion nonetheless: Every Studio Ghibli Film Reviewed in 10 Words or Less!