Okay, Miyazaki-san didn’t use those exact words, but his sentiment to reporters after a screening of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea was in a similar vein. I’ll always defend anime, if only on the grounds that it is the last (and perhaps greatest) bastion of traditional animation left in the world.

As much as I enjoy Pixar films, and the generation of computer-animated imitators which have followed, there is a sterile quality to computer animation that no one has yet to overcome. Call it the ‘uncanny valley‘ if you will, but there simply is no comparison between Wall-E and Spirited Away. None.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale “The Little Mermaid,” the film tells the story of a little goldfish who longs to become a human to be with her love, five-year-old boy Sosuke. It uses hand-drawn art throughout.

“I think animation is something that needs the pencil, needs man’s drawing hand, and that is why I decided to do this work in this way,” the silver haired, notoriously shy director told reporters after a press screening.

“Currently computer graphics are of course used a great deal and, as I’ve said before, this use can at times be excessive,” he added, speaking through an interpreter. “I will continue to use my pencil as long as I can.”