Exhibition STUDIO GHIBLI LAYOUT DESIGNS, Understanding the secrets of Takahata and Miyazaki animation
2014-10-04 - 2015-03-01 | Musée des arts ludiques – Quai d’Austerlitz, Quai d'austerlitz, Paris, France
From 4th October 2014 until 1st March 2015, Art Ludique-Le Musée reveals 1,300 drawings from the famous Japanese studio.

My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Laputa: Castle In The Sky, Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, My Neigbours the Yamadas, Spirited Away, Ponyo, The Wind Rises, The Tale of Princess Kaguya… so many movies of which the beauty of the drawings and animation, as well as the quality of the screenplay are recognised and admired throughout the world.
To comprehend the creative genius of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, the authors of these masterpieces, to discover the secrets of their animation and share the emotion of their art, this exceptional exhibition will present nearly thirty years of drawings from Studio Ghibli, with 1,300 original layouts produced by the studio.
For the first time in Europe, visitors will be able to admire these drawings as the genesis of studio productions and as the precursors of what one can discover on the big screen, essentially all the graphic material that serves as the fundamental artistic base for any animation film.
Isao Takahata considers layout the key component in producing an animated film. Layouts define for each scene, what will its atmosphere be, its background, its point of view, or even the position, the attitude and the expression of each character.
This exhibition presents these magnificent drawings as tribute to the remarkable drawing skills of those behind them. For Hayao Miyazaki, “Animation is an illusion, and the audience is curious to see how it will dazzle them”.
What secrets will this plunge into the heart of the drawings of Takahata and Miyazaki reveal? Isao Takahata answers, “It depends on the imagination of each viewer”.
After the prestigious exhibitions «Pixar, 25 years of Animation» and «The Art of the Marvel Super Heroes», this new exhibition by Art Ludique-Le Musée, «Studio Ghibli Layout Designs: Understanding the secrets of Takahata and Miyazaki animation» is a wonderful opportunity to shine the spotlight on the creators of universes that have marked our collective imagination and to let visitors discover the major artistic dimension behind these films that make us all dream.
