Legendary Animation Director Hayao Miyazaki Will Create a Park

Legendary Animation Director Hayao Miyazaki has announced the creation of a Park ...but not the kind of park you're thinking about.

In 2013, Hayao Miyazaki saddened fans by announcing he was retiring from Studio Ghibli, the animation company he co-founded saying he would no longer make animated films.
So what is doing Miyazaki currently? It turns out, he’s making a park. But unlike Disney theme parks, his won’t be a corporate branded theme park and instead Miyazaki’s park will be "a serene nature preserve, created specifically to encourage children to explore and experience the natural world".

The park will open in 2018, and will be located on the remote island of Kume, reports Japan’s Kyodo News. The local town has donated ten thousand square meters of pristine forest, within which will be built accommodations for around thirty people. As we know, much of Miyazaki’s work deals with the interplay between humans (often children) and nature–either directly, as in Princess Mononoke, or indirectly, as in Spirited Away–the idea that the famed animator would put his considerable imagination and resources toward transferring that same dynamic into the real world is understandable.

Construction on the park will begin in Spring 2016 and Miyazaki has reportedly dedicated around $2.5 million dollars of his own money, and committed to using local resources and labor to make his dream a reality.