Pixar has turned Japanese

[http://www.otakunovideo.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Tangled-Disney-550x289-300x216.jpg|300x216px|Tangled-Disney]

Pixar's stories and characters are increasingly Japanese.

(Disclaimers: I am not Japanese; I'm basing this on observation and things I've read. No cultural insensitivity intended.)

Early Pixar movies told quintessentially American stories: lost 1950's toys seeking re-connection with their owner, brightly-colored bed-time monsters who aren't as scary as they look, and an over-protective parent searching for his lost son. Even A Bug's Life, their adaptation of a Japanese film, toned down its Asian influences by turning the warriors of The Seven Samurai into circus performers.

But Pixar's famous for its love of Japanese animation, particularly the work of Hayao Miyazaki. How has that changed the studio?

Let's look at Cars, the story of a fiercely independent male who learns to sublimate his desires to that of the community. Really: it's the story of a guy who learns to respect and serve his community. When disaster strikes in the film's climax, he screeches to a halt, thinks hard, then decides to not only lose the race, but in doing so, honor his elder. What could be more Japanese than that?

For further proof, look at Tangled. Famously, this film was itself a tangled mess of ideas and directions when Pixar took over Disney Animation. Pixar's influence revolutionized the film.

The first trailer presented Rapunzel as a butt-kicking martial artist. This may have been a response to public annoyance with Disney's damsel-in-distress princesses. Unfortunately, in going the other direction, Disney seemed to be creating a boy with breasts.

In the final film, Rapunzel reminds me very much of the traditional Japanese girl. She's very close to her mother, she stays at home, she's excellent at cooking and cleaning, and she has spunk.

The film's plot follows that of the traditional fairy tale (with significant changes from the darker and more sexual original). It could be just as much at home in Japan as America: a girl wrongfully imprisoned by her family escapes to the dangerous outside world. Heck, Osamu Tezuka's Ayako focuses on a girl locked away by her family for decades.

There's nothing wrong with this, of course. It's just fascinating to see a studio absorb the influences of another culture.