Isao Takahata death: Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder dies aged 82
Director of the 2014 Oscar-nominated The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
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Your support makes all the difference.Legendary animator Isao Takahata – co-founder of Studio Ghibli, the widely celebrated company behind Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and many more – has died aged 82.
According to a statement from the studio, the filmmaker died in a Tokyo hospital. Reports state he was suffering from lung cancer.
Takahata was best known for directing the animated war film Grave of the Fireflies, as well as the 2014 Oscar-nominated The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, his last film.
Born in 1935, Takahata first met Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki at the Toei Company, the duo – along with Yōichi Kotabe – leaving to adaptat Pippi Longstocking (something that never came to be as Astrid Lindgren rejected the idea).
After years of working for various other animation companies, Studio Ghibli was formed in 1985, Takahata acting as producer on their first movie, Castle in the Sky.
Takahata next directed Grave of the Fireflies, a movie heralded by critic Roger Ebert as “an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation.
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