Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Please tell me your Favorite Studio Ghibli Movie and why

Mine is Princess Mononoke the reason why is its just an epic masterpeice and i also like Spirited away

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Grave of the Fireflies, easily. It's their best work to date, IMO (though I haven't seen Ponyo yet). Next being Spirited Away, and then probably Princess Mononoke.

I can't wait for Ponyo on the Cliff to be released on DVD here. :)

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

yea same i realy want to see ponyo have u seen see Totoro?

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Yeah. It's pretty cute. I just don't like it as much as the others. :)

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I've enjoyed all the films by Studio Ghibli, but if I had to choose one if would have to be Howl's Moving Castle

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I like Howl's Moving Castle as well. It's amazing piece of animation and I love the characters... not to mention the castle, way awesome.

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Christian Bale was the perfect voice actor for Howl.

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Although I ALWAYS prefer the original voices I have to agree the English dubbing was actually quite good.

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I rarely watch dubs, unless it's something like Lain, which is really well done. I tend to stick to the original Japanese, which helps my listening comprehension of the language.

I would have to chose Grave of the Fireflies out of the Ghibli stuff I have seen...

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away a lot, but the endings are boring crap. Howl's is even worse but the rest of the movie isn't as good so it doesn't fall as far.

Firefly Gravy is a pretty good tear-jerker.
Totoro is facile but super cute.
Kiki is even more facile and a little less cute, still good though.
Nausicaa has a great opening and I like the look quite a bit, good animation on a budget but an underdeveloped story. (Miyazaki was writing the comic simultaneously and hadn't gotten to the end yet.)
Laputa is pretty good too, but kinda weightless.
Only Yesterday is a good sentimental romance.
Whispers of the Heart is a preposterous sentimental romance. But it's cute.
I didn't make it through The Cat Returns. It's not cute, it's not imaginative... if I ever feel the need to make myself feel qualified to judge I'll watch the whole thing but... probably not.
Porco Rosso my least-favorite Miyazaki film. It's just a hobby film, not much happens that's worth talking about and the whole thing is second-rate and unmemorable. I guess it might be his most consistent film but that doesn't make it good.

I think I'm forgetting some.

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I disliked the ending to Mononoke, too. I liked the animation, though...

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It's hard to put my finger on what bothered me, but I don't think it's what happens so much as how it's shown that bothers me. The whole "the forest is destroyed... and everyone turns over a new leaf and they all lived happily ever after." Huh? It's well and good to have a positive message but that doesn't make you a good storyteller. It's pretty tedious actually. Not to mention super-duper-lazy.

Also the oozy monster creature --- what is this crap, Fern Gully?

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Yeah, I just thought it had no subtlety, and dropped anvils on my head. Unusual for the genre, I thought, which is usually complex and nuanced. I guess target audience was to prominent in Miyazaki's mind when he was putting it together. I thought Iron Town was handled poorly, as well. I still like the flick, but, I am not over the moon about it. I need some good new Anime to watch...

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Hey Lines, how were you able to type hirigana/kanji here on Mofo? I have the fonts but they aren't loaded into my text editor on the site...

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

windows has a language toolbar. If you have that at home you should be able to download the Chinese/Japanese/Korean/whatever other character sets you want to use with it and then you should be good to go. Hope that helps. :)

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i hate watching dubbed versions of anything, i feel it just subtracts from the whole movie and the feel of the movie

Spirited Away, Mononoke and Totoro are my faves

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Maybe it's just because I just don't have any real respect for anime-as-art but I've actually grown fond of a lot of dubbing. I'll only watch Giant Robo in the original dub for instance. Ridiculous Frenchy accent, lame 60s hipster lingo, 6-hours of bombastically redundant exposition such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgq-CUWx1EQ

Like all anime, it's pretty silly in Japanese too, it just seems deep because there are a few "BIG ideas" that get recycled all the time in a deliberately confusing fashion. It's all pretty cheesy to begin with.

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I need some good new Anime to watch...

Then I recommend Neon Genesis Evangelion. :)

Any body who is in need of a "good" anime to watch, I always recommend Evangelion. Though even the word good doesn't come close to describing the brilliance of Evangelion.

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

Naussicca blew me away back when I was a kid in Japan. What a privilege it was to have grown up with a kickass movie? What a blessing to have such work that continues to tell a true story even now? His talent for continually referencing civilization, mythology and human compassion make my hair stand on end.

The fortunate blessing is that his works are so thematically cohesive/wholesome, choosing one Miyazaki film doesn't make any less of the others - you see they build off of each other like some wondrous jazz session. Each in their way is remake or reincarnation of The Miyazaki Story. The 80's Naussicca story was a sort of Miyazaki's young fledged manifesto. After reading through the Naussicca manga anthology, you start to notice the ghosts and gods in Spirited Away are reincarnations from Naussicca anthology. You start to notice the whole ancient world of Mononoke Hime is a reinterpretation of that futuristic epic. Every character and every world has a bit of Naussicca's spirit for me.

Re: Studio Ghibli Movies
 

I love Princess Mononoke, found it monumental, beautiful and thrilling. It's between that and the unique and unforgettable Pom Poko for my favorite Ghibli film. The almost unbearably sad Grave of the Fireflies is next. All three are masterworks.

Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Totoro and Spirited Away are really good... My Neighbours the Yamadas has some fantastic moments, especially at the start... even the less good films have something going for them, like Muta and the birds in The Cat Returns and the planes in Porco Rosso (no movie with a seaplane can be bad). Every one of the Ghibli movies I've seen is at least good, most terrific.