Tadanari Okamoto (岡本 å¿ æˆ , Okamoto Tadanari, January 11, 1932
â€" February 16, 1990) was a Japanese independent animator. From 1965
until his death he completed at least 37 short subject films in a wide
variety of mediums, eight of which have been awarded the ÅŒfuji
NoburÅ Award at the Mainichi Film Awards (more than any other
director in the history of the prize) and his films have altogether
earned at least 24 other awards internationally. His work is also the
subject a two-hour-long documentary The Magic Ballet, released in
1990, and in 2003 four of his films placed in a list of the best 150
animated films and series as voted for by practitioners and critics of
animation from around the world in a survey commissioned by Tokyo's
Laputa Animation Festival: most notably with The Magic Fox
(ã Šã "ã‚"㠘ょ㠆るり, Okon JÅ ruri, literally "The Ballad Drama
of Okon", 1982), which came twenty-eighth.After working at MOM
Productions, known for its stop motion work for Rankin/Bass, he
founded his own production company, Echo Incorporated, in 1964, and
soon after made a trip to visit Czech animator and director Břetislav
Pojar. One of his last films, "Metropolitan
Museum"(メトãƒãƒ リタンミュージアム,
Metoroporitanmyūjiamu, 1984), was commissioned and broadcast across
the nation by NHK, the national public broadcasting organization of
Japan, as one of their Minna no Uta interstitial programs. He died
during the production of The Restaurant of Many Orders
(æ³¨æ–‡ã ®å¤šã „æ–™ç †åº—, ChÅ«mon no ÅŒi RyÅ riten, also known as "A
Well-ordered Restaurant"), an adaptation of the Kenji Miyazawa story
of the same name for which he enlisted the talents of Reiko Okuyama, a
former TÅ ei DÅ ga animator and animation director who had for many
years abandoned animation in favour of illustration, including
copperplate engraving, to aid in realising the engraving-inspired
visual style envisioned for the film. Posthumously completed under the
supervision of KihachirŠKawamoto, it débuted in 1991 and was
awarded with, amongst others, that year's ÅŒfuji NoburÅ and Minister
of Education prizes (the latter being an NHK Japan Prize for
achievement in an audiovisual work relevant to primary education) and
prompted a special lifetime achievement Mainichi Film Award for
Okamoto.A selection of Okamoto's films was released on Laserdisc on
August 24, 1986 and re-released on September 25, 1994. A more complete
collection is to be released across three DVD-Video discs on June 24,
2009: these will be available separately or as a box set, exclusive to
which will be a fourth disc of additional materials such as university
and advertising work.
â€" February 16, 1990) was a Japanese independent animator. From 1965
until his death he completed at least 37 short subject films in a wide
variety of mediums, eight of which have been awarded the ÅŒfuji
NoburÅ Award at the Mainichi Film Awards (more than any other
director in the history of the prize) and his films have altogether
earned at least 24 other awards internationally. His work is also the
subject a two-hour-long documentary The Magic Ballet, released in
1990, and in 2003 four of his films placed in a list of the best 150
animated films and series as voted for by practitioners and critics of
animation from around the world in a survey commissioned by Tokyo's
Laputa Animation Festival: most notably with The Magic Fox
(ã Šã "ã‚"㠘ょ㠆るり, Okon JÅ ruri, literally "The Ballad Drama
of Okon", 1982), which came twenty-eighth.After working at MOM
Productions, known for its stop motion work for Rankin/Bass, he
founded his own production company, Echo Incorporated, in 1964, and
soon after made a trip to visit Czech animator and director Břetislav
Pojar. One of his last films, "Metropolitan
Museum"(メトãƒãƒ リタンミュージアム,
Metoroporitanmyūjiamu, 1984), was commissioned and broadcast across
the nation by NHK, the national public broadcasting organization of
Japan, as one of their Minna no Uta interstitial programs. He died
during the production of The Restaurant of Many Orders
(æ³¨æ–‡ã ®å¤šã „æ–™ç †åº—, ChÅ«mon no ÅŒi RyÅ riten, also known as "A
Well-ordered Restaurant"), an adaptation of the Kenji Miyazawa story
of the same name for which he enlisted the talents of Reiko Okuyama, a
former TÅ ei DÅ ga animator and animation director who had for many
years abandoned animation in favour of illustration, including
copperplate engraving, to aid in realising the engraving-inspired
visual style envisioned for the film. Posthumously completed under the
supervision of KihachirŠKawamoto, it débuted in 1991 and was
awarded with, amongst others, that year's ÅŒfuji NoburÅ and Minister
of Education prizes (the latter being an NHK Japan Prize for
achievement in an audiovisual work relevant to primary education) and
prompted a special lifetime achievement Mainichi Film Award for
Okamoto.A selection of Okamoto's films was released on Laserdisc on
August 24, 1986 and re-released on September 25, 1994. A more complete
collection is to be released across three DVD-Video discs on June 24,
2009: these will be available separately or as a box set, exclusive to
which will be a fourth disc of additional materials such as university
and advertising work.
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