October 6, 2008

"Where do all your childhood treasures go when you grow up?"

Production I.G in collaboration with Fuji Television Network announce the production of a new full length computer graphic animation feature film entitled Hottarake no Shima - Haruka to Maho no Kagami (tentative English title: Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror)

Today, American-made 3DCG animation feature films have become a well established and recognized global reality in the entertainment industry. However, budget restrictions and lack of know-how prevented similar productions to become prevalent in Japan so far.

Tokyo-based Production I.G was one of the first animation studios in Japan to recognize the potentiality of the upcoming digital era, and has been dedicating time and resources to the establishment of a fully equipped production environment and a 200 hundred people strong creative and technical team that could support the realization of 3DCG feature-length animated films.

And now, after a 3-year preparation period, the highly anticipated first project presented by Production I.G's 3D team in collaboration with Fuji Television Network is going to be a fresh departure from 3DCG animation as we know it today. Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (tentative English title) will inherit the unique expressive style that has made Japanese animation hugely popular around the globe, and at the same time it will pursue a completely different texture from Western style 3DCG animation. While making full use of the
state-of-the-art in digital techniques, I.G aims to entertain you with heart-warming visuals and pioneer a new course of Japanese-made 3DCG animation appealing to the international audience.

The movie will be distributed in Japan by Toho Co., Ltd. and the Japanese theatrical release is slated for summer 2009.

Overview
Your favourite teddy bear. That model kit that took so long to complete. The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park. Where do all your childhood's treasures go when you grow up? In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten "treasures" into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy tale-like place called... Oblivion Island!

About the Staff
Screenplay: Hirotaka Adachi and Shinsuke Sato
Probably better known by his alias Otsuichi, Hirotaka Ando is a hugely popular novelist whose works have often been transposed into comics and live action movies, for which he personally wrote the screenplays, such as Goth (2002, 3rd Mystery Grand Prize winner), Waiting in the Darkness (2002) and Zoo (2003). Born in Fukuoka in 1978, he made his professional debut when he was only 17. He's reportedly a big fan of Studio Ghibli's movies.

Director: Shinsuke Sato
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1970, Sato is a film director, scriptwriter and video game creator. He graduated from the Musashino Art University, like Satoshi Kon and Ryu Murakami. His directorial debut Ryonai Genshuku (Dorm Austerity) was awarded with the Grand Prix at
the Pia Film Festival 1994. Notably works include, Princess Blade (2001, director and scriptwriter), Yukio Mishima's novel-based Spring Snow (2005, scriptwriter) and manga-based Sand Chronicles (2008, director and scriptwriter), all of them live-action movies. Oblivion Island is his highly anticipated debut in animation.

Naoyoshi Shiotani (director of SICAF 2008 Grand Prize winning Tokyo Marble Chocolate) is joining the production team, too.

© 2009 FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK / Production I.G / DENTSU / PONY CANYON