Hayao Miyazaki's Latest - And Final? - Film Revealed?

Is Miyazaki going with the weepie route a la Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies? I always thought that was the magic of Miyazaki, he reigns in the sadness a bit better, it's there, just a bit less obvious.

If anybody thinks Isao Takahata's films as "obvious" then they have sadly missed a good portion of the genius that is his talent. Personally, after Mononoke Hime, Miyazaki's flights of fancy quickly lost any sort of weight or gravity that made his earlier works memorable.

This is the first time in years I'm actually excited to see the first footage from a Miyazaki film. I sure the magical surrealism will still be there, but now (hopefully) it will be grounded in something a bit more real.

Hmmm, allow me to clarify, the 'obvious' wasn't a knock against the man. I think the thing about GotF is that Takahata is aiming for maximum empathic effect, in a more direct route than Miyazaki's ouevre. I can't think of a movie (off the top of my head anyway) which shook me as hard emotionally as GotF. Miyazaki has hints of melancholy woven through his major and minor movies, but he hasn't made a film as relentlessly sad as GotF.

"all the way back in 2005"???

Egad, we're only a few days into 2007! ;-)