"Bottle George," a short anime by California-based studio Tonko House (Oni: Thunder God's Tale), dwarf studios (Rilakkuma and Kaoru), and Poupelle of Chimney Town (Entotsu-chō no Poupelle) picture book creator Akihiro Nishino, had its world premiere at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival in April.
Tonko House's Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi (Hayao Miyazaki's nephew-in-law) directed the short and also wrote the screenplay. dwarf studios' Noriko Matsumoto (Rilakkuma and Kaoru) was the producer. Nishino wrote the screenplay for the stop-motion animated short, and he was credited for the original work. His Chimney Town company is the co-producer.
The short explores the relationship between George, a man trapped inside a small bottle, and Chako, a young girl who is scared of her alcoholic father. She is poor, but resilient, and she lives with her cat. The story depicts the light and darkness of people.
Shin Godzilla: Orthochromatic, a black-and-white version of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla film, debuted in theaters in Japan in October 2023, prior to the opening of Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One film in November.
Shin Godzilla earned 8.2 billion yen (US$75.6 million) at the box office in Japan after opening in Japan in July 2016.
The film won an award at the 56th Japan Science Fiction Convention's (Nihon SF Taikai) 48th Seiun Awards in July 2017. The film also won the Grand Prize in the Entertainment Division of the 20th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in March 2017. The film also won seven awards at the 40th annual Japan Academy Prizes that March, including Picture of the Year and Director of the Year. The film also won a Fujimoto Award in April 2017.
Shin Godzilla represents the first in TOHO's film series after a 12-year absence since 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars.
Funimation screened the film in theaters in North America in October 2016.
Source: Press release