Harvey Weinstein is notorious for a number of reasons. Obviously, being a convicted rapist brings its own infamy, but before he was brought up on charges of sexual assault and the poster boy for the #MeToo movement, the Hollywood studio mogul was perhaps better known for being a completely difficult business partner and creative collaborator. And you may not find a better explanation of this than what apparently happened between Weinstein and acclaimed animated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki over edits to “Princess Mononoke.”

Back in the late-‘90s, Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films was set to be the distributor of Miyazaki’s latest work, “Princess Mononoke.” However, the studio head saw the 135-minute film and thought it was entirely too long, requesting that it get cut down to 90 minutes.

Continue reading Studio Ghibli Exec Says Harvey Weinstein Threatened His Career Over Cuts To ‘Princess Mononoke’ at The Playlist.

Our smorgasbord of 1990s nostalgia, two weeks of Top 10 lists for every year in the decade, is beginning to reach its end, but we pick up today with 1997. It was the year of the start of the second Clinton term, the first cloned animal with Dolly the sheep, the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet (and the resulting suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult), the murder of Gianni Versace, and the election of Tony Blair in the UK.

Continue reading The 10 Best Films Of 1997 at The Playlist.

Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay Details Hayao Miyazaki's Decades-Long Journey To Bring 'Princess Mononoke' To Life

Continue reading Watch: 9-Minute Video Essay Details Hayao Miyazaki’s Decades-Long Journey To Bring ‘Princess Mononoke’ To Life at The Playlist.

When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in August, “The Wind Rises,” which hits theaters this week, was accompanied by the announcement that it would be the last feature film from director Hayao Miyazaki. It may be that that turns out to be premature—the filmmaker has said as much several times before—but if this truly is his last film, it’ll prove to be a monumental loss to cinema.

Continue reading Ranked: The Best Films Of Hayao Miyazaki at The Playlist.

For anyone who says that traditional animation is dead, I point them to Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master responsible for such works as 1984’s “Laputa: Castle in the Sky,” 1998’s “Princess Mononoke” and 2002’s masterpiece “Spirited Away.” Miyazaki is one of the few remaining holdouts who stubbornly refuses to rely on CGI, and his films are all the better for it.

Continue reading Review: ‘Ponyo’; A Wonderous, Big Hearted Fantasy From Japanese Master Hayao Miyazaki at The Playlist.