Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a brilliant animator. He’s responsible for films such as Sprited Away and Princess Mononoke. He rarely gives interviews, but there’s a good one in today’s Guardian. Miyazaki comes across as a slightly pessimistic observer of the human condition. No rose-tinted spectacles for him, but a clarity of vision and feeling for human foibles that deepen the impact of his characters, not turn them into one-dimensional Disneyesque cartoons.