Studio Ponoc Reveal 'Ponoc Short Films Theatre: Volume 1' Trailer
Ponoc Short Films Theatre, Volume One: Modest Heroes was first revealed back in March with an announcement trailer. Now the studio has released a new trailer with actual footage and revealed more details. As the title suggests, it's the first part of a series of planned anthology films from the studio. This seems like a fantastic idea that will allow them to experiment with ideas and maybe test new talent along the way. The studio was founded by ex-Studio Ghibli staffers, but this may be a first step in stepping out the legendary studio's considerable studio.
The thee for the first volume is 'Modest Heroes'. The segments are Kanini & Kanino directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Mary And The Witch's Flower, Arriety), Life Ain’t Gonna Lose directed by Yoshiyuki Momose and Invisible directed by Akihiko Yamashita. Although you may not know the latter two names, they both worked on previous Ghibli films- Momose with Isao Takahata and Yamashita with Hayao Miyazaki.
Yonebayshi's short features "two tiny crab brothers" (who appear as humanoids) attempting to rescue their father. It looks like this will cover similar ground to Arriety (playing with scale), only this time in an underwater environment. Life Ain't Gonna Lose is a story about a mother and son. There's a less obvious selling point here (it's not clear exactly what it's about) but it has some lovely animation. Invisible is (unsurprisingly) about an invisible man. There's little else to go on here, either.
The film will be released in Japan on August 24, 2018. There's no word of international release just yet, but the UK's Altitude Films has the international rights to Ponoc's releases.
