My First Trip to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Well, I had quite the satisfying week, I must say. I got to see my favorite film, Spirited Away, on the big screen again. Always wonderful. Seinfeld, arguably the best sitcom of all time, is now on Netflix so I’ve been watching the heck out of that. And to cap it all off, I visited the newly-opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

After several delays, the Academy Museum finally opened on September 30th, and I just couldn’t wait to make my way there. Especially since the museum’s first temporary exhibit is dedicated to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, my favorite filmmaker.

The Miyazaki exhibit was truly something else. I can’t share any photos, because they didn’t allow pictures to be taken in the Miyazaki exhibit (perfectly fair). Everything in the exhibit was so lovely and beautiful, I really had to keep reminding myself that pictures weren’t allowed. I was, however, allowed to take pictures of the wall outside of the exhibit. See?

Pardon my questionable camerawork. There was a line of people in the area so I went for the pictures I could take without getting anyone in the shot. And also I’m just not good at taking pictures.

The entire museum was great, featuring all kinds of costumes and props, and lots of history to delve into (they even had pages of the handwritten script for The Wizard of Oz). They had this cool room filled with walls of movie clips, with the clips changing genre or style every couple of minutes. They even have two movie theaters for special screenings (although I didn’t get to see anything this time). But it was the Miyazaki exhibit that truly stood out as magical.

It is such a shame the Miyazaki exhibit is only temporary (it will be there until June), as the museum will really lose something without it. But I think that’s probably due to Studio Ghibli wanting their contributions back in their native Japan. I guess I can’t argue with that. But if it turns out the exhibit’s temporary nature was a decision by the Academy Museum, they’d be out of their minds.

Seeing all of these original concept sketches and storyboards – drawn by Miyazaki himself of course – just took my breath away. They had various clips of his films being projected against the walls (both Japanese and English clips, which I appreciated. None of that “subtitle supremacy” nonsense). There were models and sculpted recreations of places from Miyazaki’s films. Different sections were dedicated to the themes and devices of the director’s filmography. They even had a desk once used by Miyazaki to draw those beautiful illustrations that serve as the starting points of each of his films.

A particular object in the exhibit that caught my eye was one of Miyazaki’s early sketches from My Neighbor Totoro. It was of the house featured in the film, done entirely in pencil, not colored in or anything. You could see wrinkles in the paper, and one of the corners had been torn off (not affecting the sketch itself, thankfully). Seeing that just really hit me. The fact that these wonderful movies, these masterpieces of animation, began with drawings like this, is just amazing. That this little, imperfect piece of paper featured this (very detailed) pencil sketch which, in turn, helped create something I have loved and cherished my whole life… It blew my mind. I mean, I know how animated films work, and specifically of Miyazaki’s unique process. But to see that original sketch (and all the others) drawn by Miyazaki himself, right there in front of my face, it just made it all so real for me. I can’t explain it.

The whole thing, the whole exhibit, really moved me. Again, the whole museum was great. It was interesting and informative. But that Miyazaki exhibit made everything else seem mundane by comparison (which I suppose is true of the movies themselves). From the moment I stepped inside, being greeted with the heavenly sound of “The Path of the Wind” from My Neighbor Totoro, to the moment I exited through the tunnel from Spirited Away, with the sounds of the Ogino family’s footsteps echoing against the walls (both of which brought me to tears, by the way), the entire Hayao Miyazaki exhibit had me feeling like I was in another world. I can’t wait to make my way back.

Truly magical.