The 1984 Nemo pilot film is a landmark of Japanese anime, a three-and-one-half minute short that dazzles with a mastery of character animation, action and set design. It was created at Tokyo Movie Shinsha's Telecom studio, created by Yoshifumi Kondo (director), Kazuhide Tomonaga (animation director, ekonte, key animation), Nobuo Tomizawa (key animation), Kyoto Tanaka (key animation) and Nizo Yamamoto (art direction). These very same people worked with Hayao Miyazaki on Lupin the 3rd, Future Boy Conan and Sherlock Hound, as well as the later Studio Ghibli movies.
Several "riffs," or quoted shots, appear in this Nemo pilot. Some aim back to previous films, while others are seen in later works. Here is a brief rundown of those riffs, as shown by the screenshots above:
1. Nemo hops onto his bed as it rises above the floor, passing a collection of toy airplanes on the right side of the frame. Miyazaki would later quote this shot in Porco Rosso, in the scene where Marco describes the sight of endless ghost planes floating in the clouds.
2. Nemo and an unnamed boy give chase through an Edwardian-era city street, startling a policeman below. This shot was directly taken from Sherlock Hound, which was created by the same animators in 1981.
3. After skidding underneath a bridge, Nemo's bed skips over the river several times. This sequence is taken from Animal Treasure Island, Toei Doga's 1971 feature film. It would also be used again in Porco Rosso in 1992.
4. Nemo gives chase through a series of winding curves through buildings. This shot and composition would later be riffed by My Neighbor Totoro, in the scene where Catbus races Mei and Satsuki to their mother, running through the woods.
Finally, we should also note that the completed Little Nemo animated feature recreates almost the entirety of the 1984 Nemo pilot in its opening sequence, and makes for an interesting contrast between the Japanese and American animators.
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