News

Ghibli, JAL to Show Rare Short, Hold Jet Design Contest

Studio Ghibli and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced "Sora o Tobu" ("Fly the Skies"), a joint project which will include the first public showings of a rare Ghibli animation short, the 15th anniversary return of Porco Rosso on JAL flights, a reintroduction of an all-color manga from Hayao Miyazaki, and a contest for the exterior artwork of JAL's new Boeing 787.

The "Sora o Tobu" Project is part of the "Sora o Tobu Koto no Yume, Yorokobi, Tanoshisa" ("The Dream of Flying the Skies, the Delight, the Enjoyment") campaign that JAL created for the arrival of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner jumbo jet. (Boeing unveiled its latest jet on July 8, 2007, or 7/8/7.) As part of the project, JAL flights will screen the rare 2002 animation short "Kūsō no Sora Tobu Kikai-tachi" ("The Machines that Fly the Skies of Dreams") by studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki not only directed the short, but also narrated it.

JAL flights will also re-screen Miyazaki's 1992 film Porco Rosso to celebrate its 15th anniversary. Porco Rosso was initially conceived as a short in-flight movie sponsored by JAL, but Miyazaki expanded it into a feature film. It became one of the first Ghibli films shown on international flights in multiple languages when JAL flights previewed it, in its entirety, before its theatrical release.

JAL will re-release Hayao Miyazaki's 1994 all-color manga short titled "Kūchū de O-Shokuji" ("Meals in Midair"). Miyazaki originally created the manga to extole the virtues of JAL's airline food for passengers.

Finally, Studio Ghibli is judging a contest for Japanese elementary school students to design the exterior art of the JAL Boeing 787. JAL's competitor All Nippon Airways (ANA) has previously decorated Boeing 747-400 jets with Pokémon and Snoopy.