Jimmy Teru Murakami

On the 1st of September I got to meet Jimmy Teru Murakami at Nom-Con in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. He was one of the special guests that were invited to the convention. Murakami is an director and animator who was nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA and Annecy International Animated Film Festival Grand Prix winning director. He directed the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "The Snowman" and "When the wind blows".

The film "Magic Boy" which he worked on at the beginning of "Toei animation" in  the 1950's was the first anime released in the US. Together with James Cameron he directed the Sci-fi movie "Battle Beyond the Stars"

Later on in his life he had his own animation studio, which he founded himself, that went on to produce "Alvin and the Chipmonks" and  "New Adventures of Speed Racer".

Here is a link where      http://www.jimmytmurakami.com/   

When I he was talking at Nom-con he was giving us a brief history of his past and how his career started and where he was at now. At the start of his career he made the animations himself, which he showed us bits of at Nom-con, but later on he had people to work on his animations. Murakami worked in America, Japan and Ireland. What's even more surprising is that he currently lives in Ireland which I didn't expect at all. His two year older brother who Murakami mentioned seems to also be a director and worked with Clint Eastwood.( I hope I heard that right anyway)

After Murakami talked about his work my boyfriend and me went up to ask him about tips he had for future animators and one thing that got stuck in my head of what he said was: " There is a wrong way. A right way. And there is my way." I think that's pretty good advice. :P

Here is a picture my boyfriend and me got with Jimmy Teru Murakami