The emotional roller coaster that was Hayao Miyazaki’s progression from almost retirement, to retirement, and then unretirement was rough, but one passionate fan and creator has made a film that reminds us exactly why the aging animation legend remains untouchable. That film comes from Vimeo user dono, an up-and-coming animator admired by Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich.
In the video, dono recreates all our favorite worlds in 3D animation software Blender, then composites the emotionally-loaded scenes into their new environments using Gimp, Octane, and Natron. Think of the part in My Neighbor Totoro (1988), when Mei sits on the titular beast’s fluffy belly, in 3D, and you’ll want to just quit your job and relax with a family of wood spirits.
Watch dono’s Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki below: