The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness follows a single deadline. Studio Ghibli is finishing two feature films at once, The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Directed by Mami Sunada and released in 2013, the documentary simply tails the people carrying that pressure: Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and producer Toshio Suzuki.

  Sunada's cameras stay close, catching the daily routines inside the studio rather than staging anything for effect. What emerges is not only a portrait of two productions racing toward release. It is a study of the men steering them, their disagreements, and their private opinions on the world outside the studio. Long, ordinary working days surface old memories unprompted, and the cameras do not look away.

  By its final scenes, the documentary leaves one open question: what happens to Studio Ghibli once Miyazaki decides to step away.

• 2. Storyboards And Casting

  ›

  Hideaki Anno gets picked, on camera, to voice Jiro Horikoshi in The Wind Rises. The documentary treats that casting choice as a scene worth lingering on, not a footnote.

  Alongside it, the cameras track Miyazaki through an extensive stretch of storyboard work, pages sketched, then inked, then painted entirely by his own hand. Suzuki moves between both productions, coordinating a shared schedule that Sunada's cameras never let the audience forget. That same stack of hand-painted storyboards frames the quieter scenes to come, when Miyazaki turns from his films toward the news of the day.

• 3. Opinions And Old Wounds

  ›

  Fukushima Daiichi comes up directly in Miyazaki's own commentary, part of a running record of opinions the film catches on camera. The same footage records his opinions on Zero planes.

  Real friction between Miyazaki and Isao Takahata surfaces in that same footage, tension the documentary does not smooth over. Elsewhere, in the middle of an ordinary working day, Miyazaki recalls memories of his father, unprompted.

  Sunada's edit treats Miyazaki, Takahata, and Suzuki as inseparable from Studio Ghibli's success, crediting their combined work rather than any single figure. The film's last mention is of Miyazaki's own announcement of retirement, though the documentary frames the claim as still open to doubt.

• 4. Screens Around The World

  ›

  The documentary premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival on the 1st of November 2014. In March 2015, the documentary was added to the Netflix streaming service.

  In Japan, Walt Disney Studios Japan issued the film on Blu-ray on the 21st of May 2014, under the label Ghibli ga Ippai Collection SPECIAL. In the United States, Cinedigm and GKIDS brought the documentary to DVD on the 27th of January 2015.

  Those releases put the film in front of festival, streaming, and home video audiences on both sides of the Pacific, right as reviews began to appear.

• 5. What Critics Saw

  ›

  Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 92% approval rating for the documentary, based on 24 reviews, with an average score of 7.2 out of 10. The aggregator's critics consensus called the film 'a captivating treat for Studio Ghibli fans.' It added that the documentary 'may prove nearly as entertaining and enlightening for the unconverted.'

  Sam Byford of The Verge called the film 'essential viewing for any Studio Ghibli fan.' David Ehrlich of The A.V. Club described an 'emotional wallop that's almost on par with anything found in one of Miyazaki's or Takahata's films.' He called it 'a delicate depiction of the artistic spirit.'

  Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the documentary three out of four stars. He wrote that Sunada 'captures something poetic about art and creativity that could speak to anyone, animation fan or otherwise.'

  Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that the 'atmosphere inside Studio Ghibli may suggest a zen-like idyll, but animation is a painstaking, and sometimes painful, process.' He added that Sunada 'makes us appreciate the magic all the more.' That line is the note critics left the film on, praise for turning ordinary studio routines into something audiences wanted to watch until the very end.