Many people across of the world have watched cartoon movies produced by one of the most famous Japanese cartoonist, Hayao Mizayaki throughout their entire childhood and teenage years. Starting from July in 2018, the Ghibli studio, established by Miyazaki and his group, held its cartoon exhibition in Shanghai. Before this exhibition, the Ghibli studio never came to China. For the first time, the Ghibli studio decided to hold an exhibition for its Chinese fans and also for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of “Dragon Cat” in 1888.
The exhibition includes three parts. The most exciting part of these sections is the display of hundreds of design sketches of the classic works of Studio Ghibli. People are able to walk through the show from the initial step of making sketches for important scenes to later stage of testing the motions of the characters’ models. Observing this process, people will not only gain an in-depth understanding of the cartoon production process of Ghibli studio, but also a knowledge about the sequence in which all Ghibli animations are produced since the early 1974.
Moreover, the Ghibli exhibition allows its tourists to see the revisit the cartoon scenes in real life. For example, several classic scenes in these cartoons, such as the wooden cabin of the main characters of the cartoon movie “Dragon Cat”, are displayed in one to one ratio comparing to real life settings. In the wooden cabin, every furniture and decoration look exactly the same as the scene in the cartoon. The tourists are also allowed to take selfies inside the cabin, pretending to be the cartoon characters in the movies.
In Ghibli’s cartoon movies, there are often many flying scenes in which the heroes fly with self-made airplanes and other types of aerocrafts. This time, the viewers have the opportunity to experience the world of aircrafts on the 94th floor of the Shanghai World Center Building, with the background of the Shanghai city. In the middle of the exhibition hall, a gigantic wooden airship model is placed. When night comes, the model will move up and down, combining with the beautiful night scene of Shanghai outside the glass windows.
At the end of the exhibition, the tourists can walk through a “Dragon cat” theme Store, in which they can buy many exquisite small gifts produced by the Ghibli studio, such as illustration books, small toys and similar clothings worn by cartoon characters in Ghibli movies.
Overall, the Ghbili exhibition in Shanghai received unanimous praise from not only its Chinese fans, but also from the tourists in Shanghai. Ghibli fans in China look foreward to future exhibitions.
Featured Image- Ghibli Cartoon Exhibition in Shanghai Courtesy of Ghibli website
by Jaclyn Li
