Favourite Miyazaki film

Did Miyazaki say something like this is his last film? I forget.. I remember him not caring much for his son's work.

Tuarangalila, you may have been my neighbor on Last.fm but I can't share your annoyance. Rather the opposite.

I want to go and see this, but if there's going to be fucking subtitles scrawled all over the animation I'm outta there.

It's either that or hearing young Cyruses and Jonases speak.

B'wana Beast,

Hee! :) What's your screen name?

I'd rank "Ponyo" below everything I've seen from Miyazaki, beautiful pastel backgrounds or no. I understand the "think like a child" concept, but that's no excuse for lazy plotting and so many loose ends. It felt like there was 20 minutes missing, yet at the same time the movie felt too long (it barely held the attention of my 4 1/2 year old, who loves "Totoro" and "Kiki's"). And "Ponyo" ends as abruptly and lamely as a generic freeze-frame high-five.

Perhaps if I were better versed in Japanese mythology I'd have liked the movie better. Certainly it starts out fine, or at least fine enough. But by the 2/3rds mark the pronounced lack of plot/drama started to really irk me. Big disappointment from a director I love.

For what it's worth, I saw the "dubbed" version, but John Lasseter from Pixar typically oversees all the "dubbing" of Miyazaki's films, and the voice work was OK. And besides, as Ebert wrote in his overly enthusiastic if well-intentioned review of "Ponyo:"

“Is it only dubbed?” I was asked. You dummy! All animated films are dubbed! Little Nemo can’t really speak!

Anyway, I'd rather have more misses from this guy than hits from the usual assembly line players. But I'd still prefer hits from him all the same.

Does anyone know if there is a subtitled release in theaters in NY? I couldn't find a listing for a subbed version on moviefone...

"pronounced lack of plot" is usually a good point, with miyazaki, though

just ONE vote for cagliostro? wow ilx u siccen me yet again

lil nublets

I would say Nausicaa by a pretty heaven margin now, also,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OkT5HyumQ4

nausicaa suffers from comparison with the manga, which was some next level shit, but it has moments in it unlike anything else in miyazaki's career - it's more like a trad post-apocalyptic anime in that sense i guess

i think laputa is the weakest

porco rosso is great, especially the french dub featuring jean reno

future boy conan deserves some luv here too imo

read a think with miyazaki recently where he says he hates porco rosso, he kinda dislikes a lot of his films and didn't enjoy making any of them and is a lot crankier than I expected

Was supposed to see Nausicaa in the theater recently but it didn't happen. ;_;

i've only seen spirited away, howl's moving castle, and totoro. <3 totoro so much

i guess i should watch nausicaa next?

animators are generally miserable people

no fuck that you should watch castle of cogliostro next!!!!! nausicaa is really pretty weak

turns out cogliostro is the only one available to watch instantly on netflix so i guess that's the one for me ^_____^

kismet

ps - I know what I'm doing tonight now!

its the most fun of his movies

x-post "Pronounced lack of plot" as in setting the film up for stuff that is alluded to but which never happens. Like, the set-up is all there, but the delivery is off. It'd be a bit like "Spirited Away" if the girl finds the spirit world, wanders around for a little, then goes home. The end. It'd be nice to look at, but it'd be lacking. Even Alice needs something to do in Wonderland. In "Ponyo," there is just no obstacle to surmount, no challenge, despite hints of global environmental imbalance and impending catastrophe. At one point one character says another is to be tested, very dramatically, then we flash to that character about to enter a dark tunnel. What's in the tunnel? What will he face? Um, nothing. He walks through the tunnel. At another point, a character notes of a magical well that it would be a disaster were any living creature to come in contact with it. Then a living creature comes in contact with it, and ... nothing? I'm still not sure. Hence this weird "what's missing here?" vibe to the movie.

I absolutely adore Totoro, but Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke were really boring for me. Not sure why.

gbx, did you watch it?

Hence this weird "what's missing here?" vibe to the movie.

I certainly felt this, but honestly it didn't bother me that much. I mean, the scene where Ponyo is running on top of the giant fish is one of the best scenes in the history of animation. I felt that I got my money's worth + a weird taste in my mouth at the end (especially because of the song).

turns out cogliostro is the only one available to watch instantly on netflix so i guess that's the one for me ^_____^

Cagliostro is brilliant though. One of his best, alongside Porco, Spirited and Totoro.

I loved Ponyo running with joy across the giant fish! Sort of wish the movie ended right after that, when she reunited with Sosuke. Everything following that was totally pointless, if not completely nonsensical (and not in the fun way). The extended sequence of her feeding that baby? The whole notion of her getting sleepy and reverting to fish form? The entire "Cocoon"-esque ending in the jellyfish/bubble by the old folks home? The fact that no one noticed/cared the moon was hovering a few feet away? No follow-up on the hundreds (?) of ships trapped in that wall of ocean, let alone the massive near-destruction of the world? It was as if the whole village was just enjoying a day spent punting along the rising water, which is fine, but which totally lacked portent, given the wizard's build-up of the dangerous imbalance with nature.

I can go with it up to a point, but don't really understand the hyperbolic praise being lavished on it, especially compared to Miyazaki's more obvious peaks. If he wanted to craft a crazy dream-like world, he should have done so. This one lacked resonance.

no fuck that you should watch castle of cogliostro next!!!!! nausicaa is really pretty weak

― a narwhal done gored my sister nell (cankles), Tuesday, August 18, 2009 12:09 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

you're really pretty weak

Is Ponyo custom-made for ichthyologists or what?

Her dad's reaction to her turning into a human (or at least the weird chicken-fish-girl) for the first time reminded me of a dad encountering his first daughter hit puberty. "Revert! REVERT!" And the mom's just bemused.

lol at Capt Lorax. wtf?

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd120/hipsterrunoff/photographs/hro/1aeda2dc.jpg

nuh uh

Do kids like Totoro? A friend was asking me if I could lend him any films to entertain his kids (to stop the usual 3 on repeat melting his brain). But it seems a bit...unfocussed...for children.

i LOVED totoro as a kid but what i did was make up a big stupid action thriller plot going on "behind" the actual plot, because i was an american. so if your friend's kids are philistines like me, don't worry, it can still work.

saw totoro when i was ~10 years old and loved it

i loved spirited away when it came out, but at this point i can't think of a movie i'd be less interested in revisiting. totoro is much more pimp

spirited away is worth revisiting. so's totoro.

yes, kids love Totoro. (based on kids I have shown it to between 3 and 12)

Didn't really get into Totoro, but then I did see it after Spirited and Howl's. The film I'm most likely to revisit is Howl's these days - it gets a bad rap because the ending's one of the worst examples of deus ex machina I can think of, but there's a lot of great stuff in there.

i honestly don't think any child should get to the age of twelve WITHOUT seeing totoro

The film I'm most likely to revisit is Howl's these days - it gets a bad rap because the ending's one of the worst examples of deus ex machina I can think of, but there's a lot of great stuff in there.

Visually, yes. The plot's all over the place though.

One of my kids pulled Totoro off the shelf at the library -- he liked the image on the cover of the DVD -- so I rented it even though I wasn't sure it would hold their attention. They're 3 and 6 and used to faster-paced entertainment. But they actually both really liked it, the 3-year-old in particular kept watching it over and over. So, yes, recommended.

was babysitting little cousins ages upon ages ago (this might have even been back in the 90s) and little kids will apparently watch any ghibli movie totally rapt.

(keep in mind spirited away hadnt even come out yet at that point and i've got no idea if this still applies to newfangled kids with their newfangled cgi.)

(and i didnt show them grave of the fireflies or anything.)

i thought howl's was rad but im a big fan of the source book & i kinda liked how unfocused and goofy it was idk

how was the first one where i went "oh god what if he isn't infallible" but dude has been substitute jesus and granpa for me ever since i saw "warriors of the wind" (ugh) on hbo at like age 8 so i'm probably not to be trusted

christ that new dub of cagliostro pisses me off. not like the '80s streamline dub was perfect by any means but ugh. also fuck u netflix for giving me this and no sub option for streaming.

this reads/watches like it was translated by babelfish, but it's still pretty great. we're talking like three hours of interviews/behind the scenes footage, though. it still kind of amazes me how much actual DRAWING he does on these movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi3LRn7EKx8

ghibli/miyazaki for me from canon to spectacular to good:

totoro/kiki/porco rosso/laputa/yamadas/grave of fireflies > mononoke/spirited away/nausicaa/only yesterday/pom poko/panda go >howl/ponyo/cagliostro/whisper of the heart

and then there's earthsea.

kiki is sooooo underrated

"fly"

Kiki's probably my third favourite ghibli, so charming and some great life lessons too