1988 | 30 Years Ago

It’s a bonanza year for influential anime: Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies and Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro from Studio Ghibli, Kazuyoshi Katayama’s Appleseed and Katsuhiro Otomo’s hugely influential manga adaptation Akira arrive. Stateside, Bob Hoskins My Neighbor Totoro uncovers a Toon Town mystery in quadruple Oscar winner Who Framed Roger Rabbit (animation directed by Richard Williams); George Scribner puts a musical twist on Dickens in Oliver & Company; and Don Bluth takes us to The Land Before Time. Other noteworthy releases: John Lasseter’s Oscar-winning Tin Toy, Cordell Baker’s The Cat Came Back, Joanna Quinn’s first short Girls Night Out, Will Vinton’s Meet the Raisins! TV special, BBC miniseries The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (animation dir. by Jimmy Murakami). Plus, toon spin-off series like Police Academy, ALF Tales, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, “new adventures” of Winnie the Pooh, Beany & Cecil, Yogi Bear, The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy, Denver the Last Dinosaur, Garfield & Friends and This Is America, Charlie Brown. Founded: Nick Jr. (U.S); A. Film Production (Denmark), Collingwood O’Hare (U.K., now Hit Ent.’s Collingwood & Co.), Disneytoon Studios (U.S.), Mac Guff Ligne (France, acquired by Illumination Ent.), Mondo Media (U.S.), Pilot Studio (Russia), Studio B Productions (Canada, now DHX Studios Vancouver), Varga Studio (Hungary)

Steven Universe are held in Cannes — The Amazing World