I can't judge this without understanding the context. Was his company paying for this work? Was he invited for a presentation to a university? Anyone who knows

I can't judge this without understanding the context. Was his company paying for this work? Was he invited for a presentation to a university? Anyone who knows Miyazaki's films would have known he wouldn't like it. So if they made it FOR him they deserve the reprimanding they got. But if he was just dropping by for a casual demo it then his response was uncalled for. Also the work was pretty bad. I wouldn't be surprised if they just made up the zombie excuse after they saw how horrible the result was.