What Could Have Been

In the 1980’s the Japanese animation powerhouse TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) had started work on an ambitious feature film that would definitively showcase the strengths of their animation capabilities to the western world. But an adaptation of master animator Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo" would soon become one of the most difficult productions ever amounted in animated history. The film had been plagued by numerous problems for well over a decade with many artists and writers arguing over what direction the film should take. Directors would come and go as the film went through many drastic changes before it finally made it to the screens in its watered down version.

A few of the animation reels from various points in the film's production have been leaked on to the internet over the years. Among the work prints was a test animation made by the Master Animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata during their time at TMS. They would leave the film altogether after creative disputes with the studio and producer Gary Kurtz over the direction of the film. It has been reported that Miyazaki considers his time working on the film as the worst experience of his entire professional career. It would be the film's tragic loss while Miyazaki and Takahata went on to do greater things with Studio Ghibli, many of whom worked on this project prior to the studio’s establishment. One wonders how spectacular and breathtaking the film would have been if they were allowed to work on their vision for the film. They really did capture the spirt and adventure of McCay’s drawings while also adapting the American designs brilliantly with the Japanese animation aesthetic. They must have watched Walt Disney’s Peter Pan for inspiration for the flying bed sequence as the entire sequence evokes awe and wonder with its soaring music of "Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III" by Klaus Tennstedt and Berliner Philharmoniker. Oh well...