Favourite Miyazaki film

Ponyo might dip a little too deep into the well of Northern European folklore (HC Anderson/R Wagner) for the typical Ghibli fan. I think it's amazing.

Yes, but what did the three-year-old think, ledge?

Well we don't often sit down for whole films with her but when we do she's not often into them; she was with these but drifted towards the end of Ponyo. She asked more questions about Ponyo (especially about the wizard, I kept on having to say "shush I need to hear what he's saying to answer your questions!"), I think she was as confused as I was. I think she laughed more at Totoro (the film) & liked Totoro (the character) more than the fish but she hasn't clamoured to rewatch either so don't know if they're keepers yet.

sorry if tmi!

No, it's good! I know Ponyo was specifically aimed at very young children so was wondering if they saw more in it than us.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jan/28/studio-ghibli-ranked-netflix-princess-mononoke-spirited-away

I'm afraid I cannot agree with Porco Rosso and Only Yesterday being two of the three worst Ghiblis.

only yesterday is a top 3 ghibli film

ranking it beneath the cat returns is some bullshit

is this what I want if I want a DVD collection?

https://www.playtech-asia.com/studio-ghibli-collector-edition-dvd-english-dubbed-hd-version.html

Most of the action unfolds as the credits roll.

wha?

Takahata is way underrated on this list.

Also, does Grave of the Fireflies not qualify for some reason?

sleeve - can't say for sure but there are a ton of bootleg, low-quality ghibli box sets online. one red flag: 24 movies on eight discs does not suggest great picture quality or special features.

thanks, that's why I asked! any recommendations would be appreciated, I want to start getting hard copies.

I think the GKids DVDs and Blu-Rays are still in print, and widely available in Best Buys and the like. Those do contain the Disney dubbed versions (and I think many of the same extras?) in addition to Japanese with subs, etc.

After absconding from the RAF, Porco Rosso transforms back into a human, literally and metaphorically.

Wait what? Did they even watch the movie? This is bonkers.

that list is pretty terribly written, and also clearly doesn't have any need to be a ranked list at all apart from clickbait logic.

Also I haven’t watched Tales From Earthsea but I’ve never seen anyone describe it as better than mediocre/disappointing, let alone top-tier Studio Ghibli.

Although its child protagonists are far too young to promise to love each other, this....is one of Studio Ghibli’s best.

Okay.

My ranked list!

Spirited Away
My Neighbour Totoro
Laputa
Kiki's Delivery Service
Only Yesterday
Princess Mononoke
Grave of the Fireflies
Porco Rosso
Nausicaa
Whisper of the Heart
Howl's Moving Castle
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Pom Poko
The Wind Rises
Castle of Cagliostro (doesn't really count I know)
Ponyo
Arrietty
My Neighbours The Yamadas
When Marnie Was There
From Up On Poppy Hill
The Cat Returns
Ocean Waves
Tales From Earthsea

Everything down to Arrietty very good to amazing. Only the last two weren't especially enjoyable.

> Also, does Grave of the Fireflies not qualify for some reason?

it wasn't on the list of things available on Netflix, the one i saw anyway.

I liked Tales from Earthsea just fine! I like the novels, it did it’s job.

Tales From Earthsea is really not great. It's super slow moving and the characters spend ages just hanging out in a house doing not very much while doom is impending.

Good to see Kiki getting rated highly but Spirited Away is too low and Princess Mononoke I've always felt I can take or leave, so I'd swap those round

The documentaries on Miyazaki that I've seen are weirdly compelling, he's so relentlessly downbeat as a person, it makes me think that his achievements are somehow snatched from the jaws of failure in some act of artistic brinkmanship. I wonder if he was like that his whole life, the dynamic between him, Suzuki and Takahata (and indeed his own son) was interesting to witness.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3004569/

thanks!

Watching Laputa on Netflix with English audio & subtitles and the subs are godawful. Totally basic compared to the audio, maybe because they assume a reading rate of about one word a second; but also often a much worse fit for what's on the screen.

everyone with a low opinion of ponyo is wrong and shd have themselves checked out

(currently watching totoro for the first time)

totoro quite stressful in its later reaches :(

have you read Ebert's review of Totoro?

no i only just finished watching it

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-my-neighbor-totoro-1993

ok now i have: he doesn't really explore the stressful section!

Totoro is a perfect movie. Also, it is at least two movies - one for very little children and one for adults. I’m never sure how to read the last ten minutes.

it’s one of the great movies about childhood feels and the panic of being very young and very lost is perfectly evoked

i never got picked up by catbus when i got separated from my parents as a kid tho :(

er I meant about HOW childhood feels but i guess it’s about childhood feels too

(Novelization implies that the mother has TB, just like Miyazaki’s mother. But I’m not sure it’s wise to read Miyazaki’s films autobiographically. Plus, there’s a poignancy to the theory that Totoro is a child’s companion through sorrow and the loss of a parent).

As I've gotten older I've realized it's about parenthood as much as childhood.

(also: in the end credit stills, it's implied that the girls gain a baby brother not too long after the film ends).

can’t be a parent without being a child first iirc!

re last ten mins: possibly adding to my stress was that i'd texted my sister to say i was watching it and ask her whose imaginary friend from our shared childhood was "teethus" (soft "th"), hers or mine, and said "mine! i used to wander by the river aged 4 'looking for teethus' "

-- and i remembered the river and the riverbank in question (in reverse order steep and slippy, deep and swift) and became alarmed on her small behalf for half a century ago :0

totoro is grebt but i like ponyo more

You should watch Kiki next.

it's also on netflix so i will

(i think cagliostro is then the only one on the OP list that i haven't seen)

There's a book that I read as a child called The Ship that Flew, by Hilda Lewis. At one point, the flying ship takes the children up to the window of their mother's hospital room so they can visit her. I've always figured Totoro was referring to that, but it didn't occur to me until just now to google it. Apparently The Ship That Flew is #42 on Miyazaki's list of 50 favorite children's books.

oh wow, definitely read that in 3rd grade, hadn't thought of it since but the name "hilda lewis" totally popped in my memory.

Am working my way through the Ghibli dump on netflix, Ocean Waves is so far the only one I would consign to the dustbin - haven't watched Earthsea yet though. Cagliostro is brilliant.

Massive Joe Hisaishi drop on Spotify today, tons of music.

the earthsea i found slow and odd, with a handful of terrific unnerving moments. i know the farthest shore pretty well so i found some of the departures or changes a bit confusing -- i know this type of criticism is rarely fair, let alone convincing if you haven't Read The Book™, but the grasping of the backstory of the setting (the various islets of the archipelago and their cultural-political ways) seems to rest on your porting in yr memory of the books as shorthand explainer, so

also sparrowhawk himself is very underrealised and not actually very absorbing as a character

iirc, earthsea is the only skip it in the ghibli canon

now revise yr opinion on ponyo

i watched totoro last weekend and apart from the amazing catbus, i thought it was all a bit cutesy-poo