Studio Ghibli and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Slashfilm has run a story about the involvement of Studio Ghibli in the 80’s American film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
Based on a comic strip by Winsor McCay and with a screenplay by legendary artist Moebius (Jean Giraud), the animation was a co-production between Japan and the US but the film had a very troubled development with many companies falling out with each other and leaving the film. One of those companies was Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki trying to get the project off the ground in 1984 with an elaborate test video seen below. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as Studio Ghibli departed from the production with Miyazaki decribing the process as “the worst experience of his professional career”. Fortunately for the rest of the world he went on to make the classic Kiki’s Delivery Service but the test footage makes one wonder what might have been. The video shows elaborate footage of the pitch Studio Ghibli came up with. You can see by comparing the pitch with Studio Ghilbi’s work their clear influence can be seen.
My thanks for this very interesting news item goes out to Raz112!
