Japan’s answer to Walt Disney has confirmed the launch of a giant new theme park based on one of its most popular films.
Studio Ghibli, the animation giant behind the 1988 hit animated fantasy movie My Neighbor Totoro, announced on Thursday that it will open an immersive-style attraction.
The amusement park – which will not feature any thrill rides – will be built on a 200-hectare (494 acre) site in the Aichi prefecture of Japan, which was previously home to the 2005 Expo.
The park is set to be more than three times the size of Disneyland Paris, which sits on a 141 acre plot.
According to The Japan Times the park, which has been tentatively named Ghibli Park, will be built to ‘restage situations and landscapes’ portrayed in the hit movie.
My Neighbor Totoro, directed by Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, tells the story of two young sisters who settle into an old house close to a hospital where their mother is recovering from a long-term illness.
During their adventures, they encounter and befriend playful forest spirits, most notably a giant cuddly creature known as Totoro. The character has remained hugely popular and even made a cameo appearance in Toy Story 3.
The site of the park currently hosts a life-size replica of the house belonging to the lead characters in the film and it attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Toshio Suzuki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, announced news of the park at a press conference on Thursday in collaboration with the local government.
Hideaki Omura, the governor of Aichi prefecture, said construction will be planned around existing clearings to avoid chopping down trees.
The proposed park would not be the only Studio Ghibli attraction in Japan. It currently has a museum in Tokyo and many fans visit the Dogo Onsen bathhouse in Kyoto, which served as inspiration for the ‘bath of the spirits’ featured in the anime Spirited Away.
Last month Miyazaki, who said in 2013 that he would stop making films, announced that he was coming out of retirement to do a new feature-length movie.
The studio said that the director, now 76, ‘found a subject worth turning into a movie’, but added: ‘This will truly be his final film considering his age.’
Miyazaki’s other most famous works internationally have been Princess Mononoke and the aforementioned Spirited Away, which helped him make the transition from an already widely acclaimed career in Japan to a far broader audience.
Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated feature in 2003, the first Japanese film to do so, and also scooped the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, among other major gongs.
He began his career in 1963 and his first feature-length film was The Castle of Cagliostro in 1979.
He gained critical acclaim and a cult following for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 and co-founded Studio Ghibli, which has become Japan’s premier animation studio.
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