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      Studio Ghibli’s Majestic Sensibility Is Drawing Imitators

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      Hayao Miyazaki and his colleagues at Studio Ghibli craft pictures that are so delicately drawn and convincingly textured that it seems as if we should be able to step right into them. Think of the bustling bathhouse of “Spirited Away” or the bucolic Japanese countryside of “My Neighbor Totoro.”But as viewers, we are never able to actually enter these worlds of tender emotions, whimsical characters and, perhaps above all, vivid locations that set the imagination ablaze. Movies are made from flat 2-D images; they remain tantalizingly out of reach.Studio Ghibli characters like Satsuki in “My Neighbor Totoro” busy themselves with distinctly video game undertakings: looking, exploring, hiding, delivering, flying.Studio GhibliThe most committed Ghibli fans can travel to Ghibli Park in Nagoya, Japan, and Ghibli Museum in Tokyo for a tactile experience of their beloved animated films. But most of us are not making that globe-trotting journey.Enter video games, which allow players to explore immersive 3-D environments and satisfy many fantasies: the sword-wielding savior, the slayer of fantastical beasts, the fleet-footed time traveler.The influence of Studio Ghibli — which turned 40 this week — can be seen throughout the industry, notably in recent additions to the Legend of Zelda franchise. Breath of the Wild (2017) and Tears of the Kingdom (2023) each offer pastoral experiences tinged with menace, similar to many Ghibli pictures; their cel-shaded graphics also evoke the studio’s exquisite painterly style. In Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda’s devoted knight Link moves between floating land masses that evoke those in “Castle in the Sky.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tom Cruise to Receive an Honorary Oscar

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      The film industry will honor Tom Cruise this fall with an Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement, along with the choreographer Debbie Allen and the production designer Wynn Thomas.Despite his death-defying stunts as the spy Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise has yet to land an Oscar for any of the eight installments of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. His portrayal of the sports agent Jerry Maguire in 1996 earned him a nod from the film academy for best actor, and as a producer he was up for best motion picture in 2023 with “Top Gun: Maverick.”But his career has not included a golden Oscars statuette. Until now.In November, Cruise will receive an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards, alongside the production designer Wynn Thomas, and the choreographer and actress Debbie Allen, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Tuesday.Dolly Parton, the singer and actress, will be presented with the annual Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her charitable works.The honorary awards, in their 16th year, are given out by the academy’s board of governors to recognize “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement” in the film industry or “outstanding contributions” to the state of filmmaking. They will be presented months before the main Oscars ceremony in March and will not be televised.This time the awards celebrate four “individuals whose extraordinary careers and commitment to our filmmaking community continue to leave a lasting impact,” the academy president, Janet Yang, said in a statement.Cruise, 62, was first nominated for an Academy Award in 1990 for his portrayal of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam War veteran, in the biographical film “Born on the Fourth of July.” He has received three other nominations since then, for “Jerry Maguire,” “Magnolia,” and “Top Gun: Maverick.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      David Hekili Kenui Bell, an Actor in ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ Dies at 46

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      Mr. Bell’s first role in a feature film was providing comic relief in the Disney hit.In Disney’s latest live-action remake, “Lilo & Stitch,” David Hekili Kenui Bell has a short but memorable role in which he is so bewildered to see aliens that he lets his shaved ice plop to the ground. The appearance was his first in a feature film.Mr. Bell, who had played minor roles in a few productions, died on Thursday. He was 46.His sister, Jalene Bell, confirmed his death on social media on Sunday and in a family statement that did not provide a cause of death.He was credited simply as Big Hawaiian Dude on his IMDb page, but on TikTok he referred to himself as the Shave Ice Guy.“Lilo & Stitch,” which is based on the 2002 film and the animated franchise, was released on May 23 and became one of the most profitable recent films as it raked in more than $800 million in sales.His role was part of a running gag in the franchise. In those moments, a sunburned character who is relaxing somewhere drops his ice cream when the aliens arrive.In one of two movie scenes where he appeared, the aliens startle him while he sits at the beach in a sleeveless shirt, with a towel on one shoulder and sunglasses atop his head. Predictably, he drops his shaved ice.“These damn aliens owe me a shave ice,” he captioned the scene on TikTok.In the original “Lilo & Stitch,” the man dropping the ice cream is bald and is often not wearing a shirt.Mr. Bell had also appeared in two episodes of a “Magnum P.I.” remake in 2018 and 2019, as well as in one episode of a “Hawaii Five-0” remake in 2014, according to IMDb. He was involved in the upcoming film “The Wrecking Crew,” about two half brothers solving their father’s murder in Hawaii, his page on the site said.He appeared in the “One Life, Right?” commercials for the Kona Brewing Company. The ads won a 2025 Pele Award, according to his sister and the organization’s website. The Pele Awards honor excellence in advertising and design in Hawaii.Outside of acting, Mr. Bell worked at the Kona International Airport near Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, according to the social media statement from his sister.Complete information on survivors was not available.To celebrate her brother’s life and express their grief, Ms. Bell said that she and her grandson went to get shaved ice.“David loved being an actor,” doing voice-overs and traveling as part of his work, his sister said. “The film industry and entertainment was so exciting to him.” More

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      ‘Sally’ Review: Rocket Woman

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      The remarkable life of the first American woman in space is profiled in this diverting but tame documentary.“Sally,” a welcome but unadventurous documentary about the astronaut Sally Ride (who died in 2012), wraps a risk-taking personality inside a risk-averse package.What’s lacking is style, not substance, as the movie bustles with diverting details. Lengthy interviews with Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, are candid and sometimes piquant, but they’re too often delivered inside a visual dead space. Other talking heads — including Sally’s family and fellow astronauts — are handled similarly, the conventionality of Cristina Costantini’s filmmaking disappointingly at odds with the singularity of her subject.Even so, a portrait soon takes shape of an extraordinary woman whose drive and intelligence were aided by a personality that, according to one colleague, was “strictly business.” One of the first women to be accepted into NASA in 1978 — and the first American woman to fly in space — she faced rampant sexism and an organization laughably unprepared for women in its ranks. (Would 100 tampons be sufficient for a week in space?, a male engineer wondered.) Journalists focused relentlessly on her gender, with one asking whether she would weep if she encountered a problem on a flight. As the film makes clear, Sally was not the weeping type.That was a blessing, as she was also deeply private about her personal life. Perhaps noting the torment suffered by her friend Billie Jean King when her relationship with a woman was made public, Sally committed to secrecy. In the end, blasting through Earth’s atmosphere was easier than breaching public opinion.“It hurt me, but I’m not sure it hurt Sally,” a former girlfriend tells us, with refreshing frankness. In one brief exchange, Sally’s mother, Joyce Ride, describes her as “closed mouthed” about her feelings. When Costantini asks why that might be, an unamused Joyce replies “It’s none of your business.” Her daughter would have been proud.SallyNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. Watch on Hulu and Disney+. More

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      Match These Books to Their Movie Versions

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      Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more. With the summer-movie season here, this week’s challenge is focused on novels that went on to become big-screeen adventures. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their filmed versions. More

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      The ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Star Mason Thames Is Still Freaking Out

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      Mason Thames was very, very nervous. The actor, then 15 years old, had arrived in London for another round of auditions on his quest to land the lead role in Universal’s live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon,” and the pressure was mounting.He had been a toddler when the original DreamWorks Animation film was released in 2010, and he grew up obsessing over the animated trilogy about Hiccup, a teenage Viking who befriends an injured dragon named Toothless. Now, the chance to play his childhood hero was within his grasp.As Thames fretted between chemistry readings with potential co-stars, Nico Parker, the actress who would eventually land the role of Hiccup’s love interest, Astrid, caught a glimpse of his anxious energy.“He was pacing back and forth, and my chest hurt from how cute he was,” Parker, who was then 18, recalled. “He was just the sweetest little angel; I can’t even put it into words.”Thames continued to be on edge as the two actors performed a scene together for the film’s executives. But when he delivered one of his scripted comedic lines, Parker broke character and burst out laughing, causing Thames to follow suit. Her flub, Thames said, instantly put him at ease and changed the course of the session.It wasn’t until after they’d both won the roles that he learned the truth: “She said she messed up on purpose to make me feel better because she saw how nervous I was,” Thames said. “That was the sweetest thing anybody could have ever done.” (Parker noted that she was also nervous. “I was just trying to hide it a bit more than he was.”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Inside Universal’s Big Bet on ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

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      In an era of skepticism around live-action remakes, Universal believes audiences will take flight with Hiccup and Toothless again.In 2020, Dean DeBlois publicly blasted live-action remakes of animated films as “lazy” studio endeavors.The director who, along with Chris Sanders, had made the 2002 Disney animated “Lilo & Stitch” and the 2010 DreamWorks Animation release “How to Train Your Dragon,” said that he viewed such remakes as “a missed opportunity to put something original into the world.”Then, two years later, DeBlois received a call from the Universal Pictures president, Peter Cramer, asking if he’d be interested in directing a live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon.”“At the expense of seeming like a hypocrite, I thought, well, I’m either going to sit here and pout and watch somebody else do it,” DeBlois said in a video interview with The Times, “or I could jump in and shoulder the blame or help to change the narrative.”Now, as the live-action “Dragon” arrives in theaters on Friday, DeBlois is enthusiastically attached to the type of movie he formerly criticized.A lot could have gone wrong: DeBlois had never made a live-action feature before Universal put him in charge of the $150 million remake, and the genre as a whole is facing increased skepticism from audiences and studios alike. (Disney reportedly put its “Tangled” remake on hold indefinitely in the wake of underwhelming box office for “Snow White” this spring.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More