Guaporense reviews Ghibli films

[Guaporense]

Before my discovery of Ghilbli I was never interested in animated films. I watched all the Disney films when I was little but when I was around 8-9 years old I stopped regularly watching animated films. After turning 10 I only watched the most famous Pixar films like Wall-E and Up and that's because Roger Ebert's reviews recommended them, I found then to be quite good but nothing of earth shattering greatness.

Then I discovered Ghibli and it really changed my life in terms of films, animated or not, since I discovered the potential power that great films could have (as many Ghibli films are great, IMO many of them are much greater indeed than any feature length animated film ever made outside of the studio). Yes, be prepared for superlatives in this tread...

Here I will review all the films associated with the studio in chronological order. Let's begin with the founding film:

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://www.impawards.com/1985/posters/nausicaa.jpg

Widely considered the greatest animated film ever made*, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is an epic post-apocalyptic science fiction animated film. It is not exactly a family film like Disney's or Pixar's, but it is not exactly an adult film like Tarkovsky's (though I doubt anything else could be considered adult by this measure ;)), in this film the main character is a young adult girl (who has a certain childlike behavior, in the vein of My Neighbor Totoro), who is shot multiple times, is burned by acid and is killed in the end by an stampede of giant mutated insects, not exactly Disney stuff. It is also longer than any Disney and Pixar films, at about 2 hours length and doesn't have talking animals and has a very complex and intricate plot (in fact, film critics criticized the "convoluted plot", which they didn't get ;)).

This film is more in the vein of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, but it is also IMO much superior to these films. It takes itself much more seriously (there are no jokes in this film) and so is able to attain heights of dramatic impact much greater than those of the Star Wars and LoR. This movie is over the top as it gets, with some of my favorite completely over-the-top dialogue, so it can be taken seriously or enjoyed in a more ironic way, which is one of the reasons I love it. The film also has a whole mythology like Star Wars and LoR as well, created by Miyazaki, who developed the ideas further in his 1,150 page long graphic novel of the same title (considered by many the greatest graphic novel ever written).

The film begins with an amazing display of a Bayeux Tapestry-like images depicting the fall of human civilization during the "Seven Days of Fire" (a WW3 like-event) with this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKaTNcmiBPg

By Hisaishi (the leading film composer in Japan, he composed scores for 100 films, from Sonatine to 9 Ghibi films) which some people criticize as melodramatic or "over emotional". I prefer his compositions over John Willians and the one who did the compositions of Ben-Hur. Also, there is a Melodic Death Metal version of the film's theme song :p: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tShZdSKDA68&feature=endscreen

I also love the highly detailed backgrounds. The artwork of this film was far beyond anything else animated at the time in terms of detail and realism.

The Disney & Co films looked like this at the time:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bKUY_4J7fnA/SprztaBinVI/AAAAAAAABM0/R8TcsjreyuI/s1600/banjo02.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bKUY_4J7fnA/Sprzs-tfv3I/AAAAAAAABMs/AV3fOP_yH_I/s1600/banjo03.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bKUY_4J7fnA/SprzQyQPxgI/AAAAAAAABMU/WOLg_MFFY_0/s1600/rescuers01.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bKUY_4J7fnA/SprzQHR2LZI/AAAAAAAABME/B5PEI2uRbug/s400/rescuers03.jpg

Nausicaä looked like this:
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/entrevista-nausicaa-2.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/2.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/15.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/3.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/4.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/9.jpg
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/nausicaa/3_0.jpg

And it was made on a small fraction of the budget of Disney & Co films.

Differently from special effects the film's artwork doesn't date with time. Compare the artwork of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind with the special effects of Dune, another science fiction film made in 1984. Now the sand worms of the film look like plastic dolls while the ohmu in nausicaa still looks good. Though, not as good as the stuff in the newest Ghibli films.

It is my favorite science fiction film (I rate above Tarkovsky's Solaris, Stalker, Kubrick's 2001 and Scott's Blade Runner, Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back). I also found some film critics who agree with me :).

This is among the ultimate movies in terms of escapism, better than Star Wars, Raiders of the Losk Ark and LoR. Mainly because of its greater dramatic depth.

*Due to various reasons, including its landmark importance for the development of animated films: we can consider it to be the first great animated film and it is the founding film of Studio Ghibli, all the anime films made after it show its mark and Pixar film's show the influence of Totoro, which was made by the studio who was founded by this film and the same director. The fact that it is an astonishingly good film are also a factor: in any pool in Japan, this film always tops the pool for animated film.

Rating: 10.0/10.0

Further reading:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/noelmoviereviews/message/506
http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2009/07/nausicaa-of-valley-of-wind-2004-review.html
http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2009/09/everyone-has-their-reasons-thoughts-on.html

[Guaporense]

Castle in the Sky - 1986
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://www.outofoursystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Castle_in_the_Sky_Movie_Poster.jpg

Castle in the Sky was the first Ghibli film made by the studio after it was officially formed from the crew that made Nausicaä, including Miyazaki, Takahata and Hisaishi. It is another animated science fiction epic but in a steam punk setting. One of my favorite science fiction films.

While hailed as a masterpiece, I found Castle in the Sky to be not as excellent as the best Ghibli films, though it is still an excellent animated film and I rate it among my top 10 animated films, but at the last place of the list. The introduction is one of my favorite film introductions ever with an awesome action sequence followed by a even more awesome credits sequence depicting flying castles with the awesome score by Joe Hisaishi*, but the rest of the film is not that good and the characters lack a bit of the emotional complexity/intensity of other Ghibli films and the film is one of the least dramatic Ghibli films. More like an improved version of Raiders of the Lost Ark (which I didn't find all that great either but "only" an excellent adventure movie but lacking somewhat in dramatic intensity).

Overall, this is the best adventure film I have ever seem even better than any Indiana Jones movies. Many people have it as their favorite film, though for me it is a top 100 film but not a top 10 film.

Rating: 9.5/10.0

*This score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-s7rX2FdE0

further reading: http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2009/07/laputa-castle-in-sky-2004-review.html
http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2008/12/screenshots-castle-in-sky.html

[Guaporense]

Grave of the Fireflies - 1988
by Isao Takahata
http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/grave-of-the-fireflies-japanese-poster.jpg
This film marked a very important turning point for the studio. It was their first film without any references to science fiction and fantasy elements and was based on a semi-autobiographical novel. It is one of my favorite war movies and Roger Ebert said in his blog that it was the most powerful animated film he ever watched, indeed, I think this is the second most powerful film that I have ever watched :eek:, though I have watched many fewer films than Ebert: Out of the about 2,500 films I think I have watched, this one was the most emotionally powerful for me in terms of a single direction - sadness and second overall.

The film is about a brother and sister trying to survive in Japan during the final months of the war. It is extremely tragic and heart breaking. By being animated it allows the depiction of realistic children behavior to a degree unmatched in live action films, since children actors cannot be as good as Al Pacino. In fact, they used a 5 year old girl to make the voice of Setsuko and animated the character AFTER recording the voice acting, to make it perfectly synchronized. If you watch the film in Japanese (and you must watch it in Japanese!) you cannot notice that it is dubbed, even though it obviously is! The later Takahata's films used the same dubbing technique and also later Ghibli films, though I don't know exactly which ones used it or if all used it.

Some have criticized the film for being manipulative: that it manipulates the viewer into getting sad by watching the film. Well, almost every good film is manipulative in the sense of being made to make the viewer feel in a certain way. My Neighbor Totoro, for instance, not considered manipulative by critics, was also designed with the intention of making the viewer feel "good" after watching it.

Overall, while I consider it to be Takahata's most powerful film it is not my favorite.

Rating: An obligatory 10/10.

Further reading: http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2009/07/grave-of-fireflies-january-20-2003.html

[Deadite]

Much respect for director Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli.

[Guaporense]

My Neighbor Totoro - 1988
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/My_Neighbor_Totoro_-_Tonari_no_Totoro_%28Movie_Poster%29.jpg
http://images2.alphacoders.com/914/9142.jpg

Released the same year and in fact as a double bill with Grave of the Fireflies (quite a release!, one of the greatest double bill in cinema history), My Neighbor Totoro is one of the greatest family films ever made: Ghibli had quite an exceptional run during the 1980's, releasing a masterpiece after another. Later their quality began to drop, but these early days were glorious.

This is Miyazaki's most personal film, as he grew up with his mother ill from tuberculosis and he said that the main characters were girls instead of boys because it would be too painful for him. In this work of art there isn't any significant plot and instead the film flows like real life itself and the film's entertainment value comes from situation instead of tension build on a plot. A truly magical film and is among the best ever made in what it sets to achieve: to make you smile during and after watching it.

Truly a remarkable achievement to make a family film without a villain and without using any normal cinema tropes that are recycled over and over in almost all other family films. Here we have full originality in every sense of the word. There isn't anything quite like it: an art house film that can be appreciated by 5 year olds and it was one of Kurosawa's favorite films. I, however, wouldn't say it is my favorite Miyazaki film, since it lacks the visual, script and thematic complexity of Nausicaä, Mononoke and Spirited Away, but it is perfect in what it sets to achieve.

Rating: 10/10, an absolute classic.

[Upton]

Keep these coming. Unfortunately I haven't seen enough Miyazaki/Ghibli

[Tyler1]

I've seen three Miyazaki films. In order of preference:

1) Spirited Away
2) Princess Mononoke
3) My Neighbour Totoro

[Deadite]

Totoro really captures a spirit of childhood wonder. I was a bit surprised at how enthralled I was. I choked up a little, toward the end.

[Guaporense]

Kiki's Delivery Service - 1989
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://www.disneydreaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Kikis-Delivery-Service-3-525x300.jpg

In line with My Neighbor Toroto in 1988, Miyazaki made another personal film aimed at children. This time the aimed demographic wasn't 6 year olds, but 12 year old girls. The film was a huge commercial and critical success and became the highest grossing film in Japan in 1989 and was elected by the public as the best film of the year. The Japanese academy awards, established in 1978 in the mold of the American, never gave the best picture title to an animated film at the time, since you know, animation is not "serious art", but they had to make an special prize for Kiki's Delivery Service, due to popular pressure.

This is indeed one of Ghibli's best films (hence, one of the best animated films ever made). The soundtrack is among Hisaishi's best and I consider this to be the second best family film I ever watched (the best is Toroto of course :p). As differently from American family films, adults enjoyed Kiki's Delivery Service even more than children, thanks to its subtetly and complexity: Kiki's is a very complex character, perhaps the most fully realized character in Miyazaki's films, and the film is full of subtle references to her emotional complexities. Like in My Neighbor Totoro, there isn't a villain in Kiki's Delivery Service.

It was also the most expensive Ghibli film made up to that date, at the cost of 800 million yen (about 8 million dollars in 1989, or a slightly bigger budget than Tarantino's Pulp Fiction but 5 time smaller than the budget of The Little Mermaid of 40 million dollars, I don't know why Disney films cost so much, maybe is the inflated cost of voice acting and the overpaid animators), anyway Kiki's Delivery Service was the most beautiful animated film ever made up to that point in 1989:

http://i.neoseeker.com/screenshots/TW92aWVzL0FuaW1l/kikis_delivery_service_image2.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JclSzcbDFRQ/UHHBfPVI0NI/AAAAAAAABnc/NNr5bIgbiVY/s1600/Kikis-delivery-service-screenshot.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__ZC6F3SCITU/TLDsiQ7zQaI/AAAAAAAADnk/25cOUYyPQhM/s1600/Kiki+over+the+harbour.JPG
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25300000/Kiki-s-Delivery-Service-hayao-miyazaki-25304307-1280-720.jpg
http://www.absoluteanime.com/kikis_delivery_service/tombo.jpg
http://static.minitokyo.net/downloads/49/11/378099.jpg

The Little Mermaid was possibly the most beautiful Disney film up to that point and it didn't look that good:

http://i2.listal.com/image/3771839/600full-the-little-mermaid-screenshot.jpg
http://i.neoseeker.com/screenshots/TW92aWVzL0FuaW1hdGlvbg==/the_little_mermaid_image16.jpg
http://img.moviesunlimited.biz/movie/screen/191545/15.jpg

The difference was in the backgrounds. Miyazaki understood that the bulk of the screen is occupied by the backgrounds and hence made sure that they were painted to perfection. Note also the sense of perspective and space in Kiki's Delivery Service and the lack of such sense in The Little Mermaid. The attention to detail is also much greater in Ghibli films as the correct use of lighting.

The only advantage of Disney films is that they use 24 frames a second animation compared to 12 frames a second in most Japanese animation (though the most recent Ghibli films have much higher framerate than their 1980's films, such as Ponyo, which attains around 30 frames a second).

Overall, Kiki's Delivery Service is a flawless animated comedy/drama film and deserves a perfect score: 10.0/10.0

Further reading: http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com.br/2009/08/kikis-delivery-service-2003-review.html

[Guaporense]

I've seen three Miyazaki films. In order of preference:

1) Spirited Away
2) Princess Mononoke
3) My Neighbour Totoro

The first time I watched these films I had the same order of preference, but the second time I watched Princess Mononoke that I understood the film better, as it is a less accessible film than Spirited Away, and thus I currently rate it higher than Spirited Away. Totoro is a bit weaker since it lacks the artistic complexity of these two films and thus doesn't have the same re-watch value.

[Guaporense]

Only Yesterday - 1991
by Isao Takahata
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JyTsW2DrwXg/TozLr0S73KI/AAAAAAAAAIw/uDdtq7AOQhI/s1600/vlcsnap-100479.jpg

Isao Takahata is a more "serious" director than Miyazaki in the sense that his films tend to be more realistic and naturalistic as he graduated in French literature and his films are heavily influenced by European cinema. He is not an animator and depends on the work of others for character design and other things that Miyazaki does by himself. IMO Takahata's best stuff is about as good as Miyazaki's best stuff, but his worst stuff can be pretty bad while Miyazaki's worst stuff is still excellent. So IMO Takahata is a less consistent director than Miyazaki.

Only Yesterday is an animated adult drama film, a type never was made in the US, I think. Think of Tokyo Story animated. And the music score is as melodramatic as it gets, here is the movie trailer with the melodramatic score:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYm7IT_K5eo

A film like Only Yesterday fully reflects Takahata as a director and this one of his most serious and adult films and IMO this is his best film. While being one of Ghibli's less accessible films, as it takes some time and patience to watch. I remember the first time I watched it that I was feeling bored and that it wasn't as enjoyable to watch as Kiki's Delivery Service, though after I finished watching it I cried and the only other animated film that made me cry was Grave of the Fireflies and the cry from watching this consisted of happy tears, which are much more difficult to induce in me, in fact this is the only film that has made me cry happy tears. Now I rate this as one of the best films I have ever watched.

So Only Yesterday yet another masterpiece, the studio was on fire from 1984 to 1991, producing one masterpiece after another.

Rating: 10.0/10.0 (yep, that's the fifth perfect rating and the studio average from 1984 to 1991 would be 9.92).

[akatemple]

Grave of the Fireflies - 1988
by Isao Takahata
http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/grave-of-the-fireflies-japanese-poster.jpg


This really sounds good, I have not seen any of the ones you have put up but out of them all this one sounds like something I would enjoy, gotta put it on the top of my list to watch. Thanks for the review.

[Guaporense]

Porco Rosso - 1992
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://cubo3.com.br/wp-content/gallery/porco-rosso/affiche-porco-rosso.jpg

Porco Rosso was the first film Miyazaki made after he turned 50, he was 51 when he made Porco Rosso, which is about a middle aged Italian former WW1 fighter pilot now turned to bounty hunter living in the Adriatic of the 1930's. This is his most mature film to date, since it deals with his own problems of maturity. Also, the main character was turned into a pig, since all Miyazaki films up to this point need to have at least one fantasy element.

Ghibli films showed a continuously improvement in terms of animation quality over the years, and this film has the best animation relative to all previous Ghibli films. It was also the highest grossing Japanese film in 1992, as all Miyazaki films became the biggest box office hits in Japan since Kiki's Delivery Service.

Overall, I found it a quite excellent film, not among Ghibli's best but not their worst (the worst Ghibli movies were made in later years). I found the next one much weaker than this.

Rating: 9.5/10.0

[Guaporense]

Ocean Waves - 1993
by Tomomi Mochizuki
http://screeninvasion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ocean-Waves-2.jpeg
http://battleshippretension.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/OceanWaves-500x251.jpg

This TV film was made to keep the studio crew busy while Miyazaki and Takahata weren't directing anything as of yet. They asked Mochizuki, who directed romantic anime series, to direct this simple, yet powerful, romance film. It is one of those slice of life films, such as Only Yesterday, but much less sophisticated and was made on a much smaller budget. Yet, it is still quite good and a worthy addition to the impressive catalogue of the studio.

It is similar to Chaplin's City Lights in that it builds gradually towards the scene in the ending and its focus is on the romance between the two main characters. I found it a very good and entertaining film (i.e. still better than most Hollywood flicks), just not on the level of their Miyazaki/Takahata masterpieces.

Rating: 8.0/10.0

[Guaporense]

Pom Poko - 1994
by Isao Takahata
http://filmbalaya.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pompoko1.jpg

I consider this the worst Ghibli film ever made and I have watched all of them, most of them several times. For me it is on about the same level of quality as a below average Michael Bay movie.

Why I found that it was so bad? The other Ghibli films had almost perfect tone and execution and were remarkably sensitive and subtle. This film is anything but that, it mixes a serious matter (the gradual process of the destruction of the natural habitat of an animal species and their gradual extinction) with poor attempts and comedy and the overall result became quite awful for me. Its like an holocaust film with jokes related to the experience of living in a death camp.

The quality of the animation is excellent but it is used to animate these ugly raccoons (and their comic design was quite cartoony and lacked the elegance of other Ghibli characters) and their balls (which they used for a variety of purposes, such as parachutes, and that doesn't fell funny nor "cool", but only silly). Their balls have mythological significance since they are tanuki, which are a species typical of Japan, but the way they were used appear to be rather silly anyway:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Llz6F3JzL0/T8qUVu1k8-I/AAAAAAAAAGI/rGXQxpYvmcI/s1600/pompokoballs2.jpg

I first watched this on the same day as Only Yesterday. And the discrepancy in quality was massive: I cried happy tears watching Only Yesterday while watching this I couldn't believe was made by the same director and studio only three years later. Takahata shouldn't deal with fantasy, he should focus more on naturalistic films, as he doesn't appear to have an elegant control of these themes as Miyazaki had.

The same themes of the film would be treated again in Princess Mononoke (i.e. man versus nature), to dramatically differing results. Miyazaki was finishing his manga at the time and his ideas about environmentalism were very mature by this time and he suggested the idea for this film to Takahata, who executed it.

Rating: 4.0/10.0

Further reading (for a more favorable perspective):
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/noelmoviereviews/message/593

[stevo3001]

Pom Poko is a remarkable film. It's a strange and lovely gem, that tackles big issues with a fresh and funny manner and yet becomes hugely moving.

I'll just rank all the ones I've seen:

1) Princess Mononoke
2) Pom Poko
3) Grave of the Fireflies
4) My Neighbour Totoro
5) Howl's Moving Castle
6) Spirited Away
7) Ponyo
8) Castle in the Sky
9) Kiki's Delivery Service
10) Only Yesterday
11) Porco Rosso
12) My Neighbours the Yamadas
13) Whisper of the Heart
14) The Cat Returns
15) Arrietty
16) Ocean Waves
17) Tales from Earthsea

(Nausicaa would be in 5th if it counted)

The top 16 of the 17 are all well worth seeing, but the top 8 are all excellent, and the top 3 are each sublime.

[linespalsy]

I agree with stevo about Pom Poko, and don't have much to add to that ranking. It doesn't count (pre-Ghibli) but I'd go with Future Boy Conan as my favorite Miyazaki/Takahata anime and the Nausicaa manga as the best thing Miyazaki has done.

[Guaporense]

Pom Poko is a remarkable film. It's a strange and lovely gem, that tackles big issues with a fresh and funny manner and yet becomes hugely moving.

Indeed, it is a very creative film. However, I found it not suited to my tastes, the way Takahata handled the Tanuki and their overall chemistry didn't turn out to my tastes. I know that many others love it and I can understand why.

I'll just rank all the ones I've seen:

1) Princess Mononoke
2) Pom Poko
3) Grave of the Fireflies
4) My Neighbour Totoro
5) Howl's Moving Castle
6) Spirited Away
7) Ponyo
8) Castle in the Sky
9) Kiki's Delivery Service
10) Only Yesterday
11) Porco Rosso
12) My Neighbours the Yamadas
13) Whisper of the Heart
14) The Cat Returns
15) Arrietty
16) Ocean Waves
17) Tales from Earthsea

(Nausicaa would be in 5th if it counted)

The top 16 of the 17 are all well worth seeing, but the top 8 are all excellent, and the top 3 are each sublime.

Interesting ranking, my own would be:

1) Princess Mononoke
2) Spirited Away
3) Only Yesterday
4) Grave of the Fireflies
5) My Neighbor Totoro
6) Whisper of the Heart
7) Kiki's Delivery Service
8) Porco Rosso
9) Castle in the Sky
10) Howl's Moving Castle
11) Ponyo
12) From Up the Poppy Hill
13) My Neighbours the Yamadas
14) Arrietty
15) Ocean Waves
16) The Cat Returns
17) Tales from Earthsea
18) Pom Poko

Yep, didn't like Pom Poko. I give perfect ratings for the first seven and near perfect for the 8th and 9th, the others are very good except the last 3 ones.

[Guaporense]

I agree with stevo about Pom Poko, and don't have much to add to that ranking. It doesn't count (pre-Ghibli) but I'd go with Future Boy Conan as my favorite Miyazaki/Takahata anime and the Nausicaa manga as the best thing Miyazaki has done.

I agree that the manga is the best thing Miyazaki has done (though it lacks certain elements of the films, like the amazing visuals and Hisaishi's compositions). I though Future Boy Conan was excellent but not as great as their best films since it was more flawed and didn't have the resources of their later films (I like watching the top of the line stuff).

Overall everything that I have read or watched made by Miyazaki was very good stuff: his 10 movies he directed and wrote, the two movies he wrote, his manga and his TV series. He was impressively consistent. I remember when I read some Asimov that he was quite inconsistent: his first foundation books were great but soon they began to suck. Miyazaki has proven to be incredibly reliable.

[Guaporense]

Whisper of the Heart - 1995
by Yoshifumi Kondô
http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/Whisper%20of%20the%20Heart.jpg

Whisper of the Heart is pretty much the average of Kiki's Delivery Service and Only Yesterday, it is a animated drama film without any fantastical elements besides the dream sequences of the main character. It is perhaps superior in some aspects to these two other films though as it features a very realistic animation, given that it was made in 1995 and thus tends to look better than movies made before that date and has an overall better execution and pacing than Only Yesterday (which is a more complex but also more flawed film than Whisper).

Miyazaki wrote Whisper and shows that Miyazaki is also able to make great stories without fantastical elements. It is a very well executed and very sweet drama about a young girl growing up and her transformation into a more adult person. It can be though as a romance film given the English title but that is only a significant plot element of the film and not the whole film, which focus even more on the general pursuit of dreams. A theme also of Kiki's Delivery Service, Only Yesterday and Spirited Away. The psychological accuracy of this film is incredible I never watched a more fully realized teenager in film than Shizuku: the drama feels real and unlike film drama, echoing the sensibilities of Ozu's films. Differently from nearly every other teenager drama ever made, this one truly feels like real life (compare it, to let's say the mediocre Easy A).

Its also incredible how these guys were able to transform some boring song into the films theme in a way that makes my eyes wet when I listened to it. Overall, a near perfect film and I think it deserves a full 10/10 rating (don't worry, with the decline of the studio over the next years my ratings will begin to drop to less than perfect).

[Guaporense]

Princess Mononoke - 1997
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://i2.listal.com/image/3466534/936full-princess-mononoke-screenshot.jpg
http://morganrlewis.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/princess-mononoke-wolf.jpg?w=611

Princess Mononoke was the second Ghibli film that I discovered as the second Japanese animated film I ever watched. The first was Spirited Away. At first I though Spirited Away was a much superior work of art: When I first began watching Princess Mononoke it appeared to be a pretentious action movie for teenagers, beginning with a pretentious epic soundtrack, a vulgar display of animated virtuosity making it appear that Ashitaka riding in the forest was a live action take followed by a seriously over the top action sequence, featuring impossible precision in archery. My suspense of disbelief was broken instantly and I watched the rest of the movie thinking that now this became a silly environmentalist fairy-tale full of violence. I though that violence made a film artistically inferior, since Spirited Away had tremendous affecting power due to its graceful portrayal of the innocence of Chihiro and her coming of age during the film, without the use of anything over the top besides fantasy elements reminiscent of children's movies. Overall, I first found Princess Mononoke a good action film but pretentious and heavy handed in its environmentalist themes. I though it was a forgettable film at the first time I watched it.

But, after watching a bunch of "classic films", I noticed that the pretentious animated action flick Princess Mononoke still remained in my head so I decided to try it again, now that I was more used to its over-the-top heavy handed thematic nature. The second time I watched Princess Mononoke remains the single most powerful experience in my life induced by art, of any kind. I felt ranges of emotions that I didn't know I had before. A whole massive spectrum of emotions were induced by each second of this film and in a single frame I felt more drama than most whole movies I had watched before. Also, I felt dozens of goosebumps during the 133 minutes of this flick.

Rated by the power of this experience I would say that the second time I watched Princess Mononoke is adjusted to 10, then 2001: A Space Odyssey would be 1 (and this is among the most powerful experiences I ever had watching films) and The Godfather would be less than 0.5. I was unable to sleep that night and I cried happy tears during and after the movie plus for several hours in the next day just by thinking about how awesome it was. The effects of the movie were felt in my body for at least 18 hours and in my head was dominated by it for several days. Everything else in the world that I had once cherished appeared small and insignificant next to that experience for a rather long period of time. The second most powerful experience in my life induced by art was the third time I watched it and the third most powerful experience induced by art was the fourth time I watched it... The only things that compare to it in terms of raw emotional reaction were a few experiences in my real life. And what began in Spirited Away truly matured here when it changed forever my perceptions of the dramatic power of Japanese animation.

I don't understand why this film had such an impact over me. The sublime beauty and elegance of every element of it makes it appear to have been made thousands of years ago and to have been passed down from generation to generation, as I watched it I felt as if I had found again a part of myself that I had lost in another life. Maybe if I watch it in five years its effects would be less powerful or if I had watched it five years ago it also would be less powerful. But given the combination of circumstances surrounding my life at that moment, these circumstances produced the conditions required for me to find this animated fantasy film to be more powerful than heroin. It felt like it is a timeless grand operatic work of genius and the absolute pinnacle of art created by man standing taller than the Beth's 9th symphony and the Illiad.

Given the highly subjective nature of art I doubt anyone else here will have the same magnitude of experience watching it or even that I would have the same experience over it in other circumstances.

But given these experiences my rating would be 6/10 for the first time I watched it and 100/10 for the other times I watched it. I am still searching for something to measure up to it, or maybe not, since that would be like heroin and could lead me to a bad direction in my life like heroin addicts. :p

[Guaporense]

My Neighbors the Yamadas - 1999
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-noyFaIP-fqM/TgEIHqIuRaI/AAAAAAAAA1g/wNgwZIOLf_Q/s1600/yamadas.gif

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a comedy. It was a different approach by Isao Takahata compared to his previous works and also to the other Ghibli works. He tried to make an animated film in a different mold from the previous Ghibli films. With the death of Kondō, Takahata was left without a right hand to do the animating for him, since Takahata is not an animator, so he made this film which was the first Ghibli film made using digital animation (in which the characters are drawn and them scanned and the film is assembled in the computer).

It is a very different films from previous Ghibli works and focuses on episodic events instead of a grand linear plot. It is a very funny and charming film about a typical japanese family. My favorite episodes are the "family crisis" episode where the family forgot their daughter in the market and the episode where the dad has to confront a gang of bikers. Not among my favorites from the studio but not bad or mediocre either.

Rating: 8/10

[Guaporense]

Spirited Away - 2001
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/30/Spirited_Away_poster.JPG/215px-Spirited_Away_poster.JPG

Spirited Away was the first full length Japanese animated film that I have watched as an adult. When I was a kid, since I live in Latin America, and stuff like Saint Seiya is immensely popular here so I watched some movie derived from this series though I don't remember much of it, since I was around 6 at the time. Anyway, this is the first anime film that I watched after I turned 12. So how good was it? Well, after watching it felt: now THIS is the definition of a masterpiece. Indeed, it was by far the greatest animated thing (TV, film, etc) I have ever watched and that strange feeling of watching a masterpiece, a near perfect work of art, that I had when I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, when I watched There Will Be Blood and when I watched The Godfather, was also present here already in the first minutes of the film and, in fact, it was even stronger than in any film I ever watched before.

The mark of artistic excellence of this film already shows itself in the first minutes: the interaction between Chihiro and her parents in the car and at the entrance of the "abandoned theme part" is brilliant and also the opening song of the film is a masterpiece in its own way (Hisaishi began composing the songs that would form the soundtrack of Spirited Away in the 1980's!, the film's soundtrack is one of my favorite music albums and I would take this movie's soundtrack alone over 95% of all other films I ever watched).

Overall, I cannot recommend this film enough, it was one of my first Ghibli films and still is one of my favorites from the studio. The degree of visual richness and creativity in this film is stunning. If you like fantasy, this is the best Ghibli film to begin with (if you don't like fantasy begin with Grave of the Fireflies).

Rating? 10/10, of course.

This is one of my favorite reviews of the film:

Spirited Away is Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece. Not only is the movie visually stunning, but the numerous folkloric motifs included in it by the director also imbue the film with the flavor of a real legend or myth and lend it a fabulous, affecting depth purely fictional narratives rarely achieve.

By so drawing on motifs and various other details present in legend and folklore, Miyazaki has created a world that, while entirely his own, has all the potency of that of any actual myth and the same capacity for evoking a real sense of wonder. These motifs, such as Chihiro's need to consume food from the other world, her service to the witch Yubaba, to whom she must sign away her name, and the necessity of a test to acquire the object of her quest, are deftly employed and give Spirited Away a profound structure present in only a handful of other movies. The existence of these elements is, however, only one of the factors contributing to the worth of Miyazaki's film.

The director has created a slew of fascinating characters. Chihiro is a charming and very realistically portrayed girl. She is truly one of the great characters of narrative art, whether literature, film, or drama. In creating her, Miyazaki has displayed his usual insight into the minds of children and his keen eye for the ways children act and react. The inhabitants and guests of the bathhouse are all wonderful as well, from the spider-like boiler man, Kamaji, to the frog-like attendants, to all the diverse spirits they serve. Each character displays a unique personality that contributes, even if only in a small way, to the movie's intoxicating charm.

All these elements, and others as well, are so able to captivate the viewer that Spirited Away is often remarkably affecting. The film evokes a sense of awe, of another more profound world hidden behind our own ordinary reality, and Chihiro's encounters with the beings of this spirit realm consistently impress the moviegoer with the power and mystery of entities of which he is unaware, but which govern the world in which he lives. What is more, Chihiro's bravery in facing this world of awesome powers, which, though never evil, remain dangerous throughout, is effectively emphasized. Not only does the viewer feel her heroism, however, but he also sympathizes with the girl's plight. In fact, these three emotions, heroic bravery, sympathy, and awe, are effectively combined and balanced by Miyazaki so that each complements the others and all contribute to the film's overall effect.

The movie's enjoyableness is further enhanced by the stunningly gorgeous animation that is used throughout its duration. The backgrounds of the film are so vibrant and lush and the characters so strange and enthralling that even were every other element of Spirited Away a failure its visual beauty would still make it well worth seeing. The movie is equal to any other great work of visual art, whether film, print, or painting.

I should, at this point, note that while the performances of the voice actors in the English dubbed version are accomplished, the translation itself weakens the film in a number of ways. Not only does it add unnecessary explanations and bowdlerize the vibrant polytheism of the original so as to accommodate any particularly bigoted monotheistic viewers, but it also renders several parts of the film nonsensical. The final test Chihiro is given provides an instance of the dub's incoherence. In the Japanese original, Yubaba states that she must give Chihiro the test because of the rules of her world, that she cannot otherwise break the spell the girl's parents are under, but, in the English version, Yubaba insists upon giving the test because she has made a deal with Chihiro to that effect. A folkloric motif, namely, a test required to break a spell, is sacrificed for a contractual obligation, and one that does not even make sense, given that Yubaba does not want to compel Chihiro to undergo the test in either the English or the Japanese version. Her choosing in the English dub to force Chihiro to take the test is absolutely incomprehensible. Despite such flaws, the English version is worth watching.

Consistently gorgeous, marvelously evocative, and genuinely awe inspiring, Spirited Away is a brilliant film. Miyazaki has created a real work of art.

This film is one of the greatest audio-visual shows ever:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lmEo6XzFNKY/S52a2vQF9HI/AAAAAAAANQI/hSGelpbaKb8/s1600/ScreenShot018.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lmEo6XzFNKY/S52a3OXujpI/AAAAAAAANQQ/GnbbtRER1z4/s1600/ScreenShot017.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lmEo6XzFNKY/S52a1Q18gCI/AAAAAAAANP4/qWUglE7ZyRc/s1600/ScreenShot020.jpg

[Guaporense]

The Cat Returns the Favor - 2002
by Morita
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Cat_Returns.jpg

I would regard this among the weakest Ghibli movies. In fact, it was the weakest film the studio had ever done up to this point in terms of artistic accomplishment. Pom Poko is among the Ghibli films that I liked the least, but I can understand its attempt at accomplishing something great (for me it tried to be a great movie and failed, for others, it succeeded).

This film is similar to Spirited Away in that it is about a girl who goes to another world, (roughly like Alice the Wonderland), here in the cat world. But in this film the execution is nowhere as brilliant as it is in Spirited Away. Quite a conventional film, full of cheesy moments and recycled tropes/cliches, nowhere the level of creativity of Spirited Away. It also has a much lighter tone as well. I found it entertaining but too cheesy in many parts. But some of the jokes are also very good. It is worth watching but not essential.

My rating: 7/10

[Guaporense]

Howls Moving Castle - 2004
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K7lQOuYMBgk/TvadfMN41GI/AAAAAAAABYI/m9QVOt6LlCQ/s1600/howls+moving+castle.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EXgDI8DeN_E/SmDY7ZwDqbI/AAAAAAAAEYM/dr_g1Jn3i9w/s1600/12.jpeg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EXgDI8DeN_E/SmDY7jPH-CI/AAAAAAAAEYU/pmSj6G8FVzU/s1600/07.jpeg

After the stunning commercial and critical success of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, which followed the success of many earlier films, Miyazaki became "the king of the world" of the Japanese film industry and this film represents the first film he made in which he was fully conscious of the fact that he was the greatest living Japanese director. Well, that's the impression from the rankings/lists that I have seem :p, Miyazaki appears to be the third greatest japanese director after Ozu and Kurosawa, though I might say that he was perhaps the second, given that he had a greater range than Ozu in making very different films (compare Totoro to Princess Mononoke to Porco Rosso) and comparable to Kurosawa's range and this factor weighted down a bit, apparently, on the quality of this film: he tried to do something different and it didn't work out as well. Still I consider Howls Moving Castle, a grand operatic animated fantasy work, a greater animated film than any animated film ever made outside of Japan that I have watched (:p).

Also, this film was the first that Miyazaki made after he turned 60 and the fact that the main character is turned from an 18 year old girl to a ca. 80 year old woman reflects Miyazaki's own preoccupation to aging. It was based on a book from an english writer but Miayzaki, as usual, changed the whole story for the film, using the characters and setting of the book as his own playground to work out his own ideas (all the same: environmentalism, pacifism, feminism, love of flying, bla, bla, bla ...). It is also Miyazaki's most avant garde/experimental film to date, since he didn't exactly had a plot in this film (much less a linear one), it is almost like an art film, but not quite: Miyazaki is still a too rational storyteller to produce truly experimental stuff.

Also, the audio-visual experience provided by this film is top of the line, as the two other great operatic works Miyazaki had made: Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, being the three most visually impressive animated films I have ever watched (specially since I wasn't impressed by these computer animations, they look like plastic and lack the organic quality of the impressionist paintings used in Ghibli films). Also, one little problem of this film is that it appears to incorporate a "issue" in modern Japanese animation in making an adult male characters to look rather androgynous and "cute":

http://static.zerochan.net/Howl%27s.Moving.Castle.full.151394.jpg

My rating? 9.5/10

[s1n1st3r]

First of all great reviews, I have not seen all of the Ghibli films but I always enjoy watching them and own Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle. I also own Tales of Earthsea but I am awaiting your review on this one. I have to say one thing though, why did you not enjoy The Cat Returns, I really liked its quirkiness and the only thing that I didnt like was it was too short. I still am yet to see My Neighbour Totoro but it is on the list to watch.

[Deadite]

Princess Mononoke is the most beautiful anime I've ever seen.

[Guaporense]

I have to say one thing though, why did you not enjoy The Cat Returns, I really liked its quirkiness and the only thing that I didnt like was it was too short.

I enjoyed The Cat Returns. I gave a 7/10 rating: for the films I don't enjoy I give a rating lower than 5/10.

However, I didn't enjoy the Cat Returns as much as Miyazaki and Takahata's films. Still, it was a solid, well made film.

I still am yet to see My Neighbour Totoro but it is on the list to watch.

Certainly. My Neighbor Totoro is a masterpiece, one of the greatest of Ghibli films.

[The Rodent]

I've never been a fan of the Japanimation films... but I tell you what Guaporense, your thread is making me want to watch them.

Awesome idea for a thread matey and good reviews too... I'm +repping as you go as much as I can.

[Guaporense]

Tales from Earthsea - 2006
by Goro Miyazaki

http://static.minitokyo.net/downloads/25/37/269375.jpg

Tales from the Earthsea is perhaps Ghibli weakest film, from a more objective viewpoint: it was the least interesting and creative of all Ghibli's films, plagued by bad dialogue, poor pacing and poor tonal variations. A quite mediocre film staining the exceptional Ghibli catalogue. It was directed by Miyazaki's son, who didn't have experience in making films (a sign of nepotism), resulted into an overall mediocre experience it was quite forgettable, lacking in originality (I noticed the use of traditional film tropes in many scenes while Miyazaki's films tend to be more original) and overall it failed to deliver a well told story.

The only high-point of the film is the visual experience it provides. First rate as other recent Ghibli films:

http://www.workingauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/TALES-FROM-EARTHSEA_10_JPG.jpg

http://www.workingauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/TALES-FROM-EARTHSEA_8_JPG.jpg

My overall rating is 2_5. Mediocre but not awful.

[Guaporense]

I've never been a fan of the Japanimation films... but I tell you what Guaporense, your thread is making me want to watch them.

I too wasn't interested in Japanese animation until quite recently, I though it is not first rate stuff before I discovered the glowing reviews of Spirited Away and I decided to watch it and soon after watching it I was already trying to find every other film made by Miyazaki and Takahata.

The Ghibli films are always among the top grossing films in Japan. They are the best blockbuster films ever made in my opinion: they are like Star Wars and ET without the cheese.

Here are the 7 top grossing films in Japanese history:

1 - Spirited Away, Miyazaki (ca. 230 million dollars)
2 - Titanic, Cameron (ca. 200 million dollars)
3 - Howls Moving Castle, Miyazaki (ca. 190 million dollars)
4 - Avatar, Cameron (ca. 185 million dollars)
5 - Ponyo, Miyazaki (ca. 165 million dollars)
6 - Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki (ca. 160 million dollars)
7 - ET the extraterrestrial, Spielberg

Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are the only two animated films ever made that won a national academy award for best film, winning the Japanese academy award for best film in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Spirited Away also won the golden bear in the Berlin film festival and was voted one of the top 7 greatest films of the 21st century in the last poll made by the BFI.

Princess Mononoke enjoyed less international critical success (it was less well known) but domestically the film won the following awards:


Best Picture; The 21st Japan Academy Prize
Best Japanese Movie, Best Animation, and Japanese Movie Fans' Choice; The 52nd Mainichi Film Award
Best Japanese Movie and Readers' Choice; Asahi Best Ten Film Festival
Excellent Movie Award; The Agency for Cultural Affairs
Grand Prize in Animation Division; 1st Japan Media Arts Festival (by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Education)
Best Director; Takasaki Film Festival
Best Japanese Movie; The Association of Movie Viewing Groups
Movie Award; The 39th Mainichi Art Award
Best Director; Tokyo Sports Movie Award
Nihon Keizai Shinbun Award for Excellency; Nikkei Awards for Excellent Products/Service (details)
Theater Division Award; Asahi Digital Entertainment Award
MMCA Special Award; Multimedia Grand Prix 1997
Best Director and Yujiro Ishihara Award; Nikkan Sports Film Award
Special Achievement Award; The Movie's Day
Special Award; Hochi Film Award
Special Award; Blue Ribbon Awards
Special Award; Osaka Film Festival
Special Award; Elandore Award
Cultural Award; Fumiko Yamaji Award
Grand Prize and Special Achievement Award; Golden Gross Award
First Place, best films of the year; The 26th "Pia Ten"
First Place; Japan Movie Pen Club, 1997 Best 5 Japanese Movies
First Place; 1997 Kinema Junpo Japanese Movies Best 10 (Readers' Choice)
Second Place; 1997 Kinema Junpo Japanese Movies Best 10 (Critics' Choice)
Best Director; 1997 Kinema Junpo Japanese Movies (Readers' Choice)
First Place; Best Comicker's Award
First Place; CineFront Readers' Choice
Nagaharu Yodogawa Award; RoadShow
Best Composer and Best Album Production; 39th Japan Record Award
Excellent Award; Yomiuri Award for Film/Theater Advertisement


Miyazaki is the most commercially successful international director whose non-English speaking movies grossed nearly 1 billion dollars in Japan alone. In Japan Ghibli is a trademark more famous than Disney in the US, considering that most of the top selling DVDs and Blu-Rays are Ghibli films as well.

Ghibli films are accessible and yet artistically sophisticated simultaneously pleasing both the general public and critics with sophisticated tastes: Spirited Away enjoyed a combination of tremendous commercial and critical success of the likes we don't see in Hollywood since the days of The Godfather in 1972.

Overall, Ghibli films are a must see for film buffs, in the same way that Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa and Stanley Kubrick films are. Too bad they are standard household names in Japan but underground films outside of Japan. Every film buff should see these films, even those that don't like animated films made in the US: Ghibli films are more adult and complex than the typical US animation. I personally wasn't too much into animation before I watched these films (South Park was my idea of animation) now I even watch Pixar films with enthusiasm.

[Guaporense]

Ponyo - 2008
by Hayao Miyazaki
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RJfOp3OXgCk/TxuB6_R3s3I/AAAAAAAABYo/Z_giPVmDMw4/s1600/ponyo_01.jpg

Ponyo is one of the least ambitious films made by Miyazaki, and represents one of the few films made by Ghibli that target the same demographics as US animations.

It is also one of the cutest Ghibli films and instead of depending on plot contrivances and jokes to drawn the attention of the audience the film simply draws the attention by the magical feeling it exudes through its glorious 100 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXI7x6ExPuc

The film, however, lost a bit of steam in the third act and in the end it felt slightly weaker than the rest of Miyazaki's impressive catalogue, still among the best animated films I have ever watched.

My rating is 4_5

[Guaporense]

Ghibli films and other animations

My ratings of feature length animated films that I remembered watching in the last 5-6 years, Ghibli and non-Ghibli (I will keep updating this list including any additional animated films I watch):

Ghibli

Miyazaki
-- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - 5
-- Laputa: Castle in the Sky - 5
-- My Neighbor Totoro - 5
-- Kiki's Delivery Service- 5
-- Porco Rosso - 5
-- Princess Mononoke - 5
-- Spirited Away - 5
-- Howl's Moving Castle - 5
-- Ponyo - 4_5

Takahata
-- Grave of the Fireflies - 5
-- Only Yesterday - 5
-- Pom Poko - 2_5
-- My Neighbors the Yamadas - 4

Other Ghibli
-- Ocean Waves - 4
-- Whisper of the Heart - 5
-- The Cat Returns - 3_5
-- Tales from Earthsea - 2_5
-- Arriety - 4
-- From up on poppy hill - 4_5

Non-Ghibli

US

Dreamworks

Shrek - 3_5
Shrek 2 - 3
Shrek 3 - 2
Bee Movie - 2_5
Monsters vs Aliens - 3_5
Puss in Boots - 3
Madagascar - 2_5
How to Train Your Dragon - 4

Pixar

Toy Story 3 - 3
Finding Nemo - 3_5
The Incredibles - 4
Wall-E - 4_5
Ratatoille - 4_5
Up - 4_5
Brave - 2_5

Disney

Bambi - 4

Other

The Secret of NIMH - 3_5
Avatar - 3_5 (It is more animated than not! :))
South Park: the Movie - 3
Waking Life - 3_5

Europe

The Triplets of Belleville - 4
The Illusionist - 4_5
Persepolis - 4
Waltz Bashir - 3_5
Plague Dogs - 4
Watership Down - 4

Japan

Miyazaki (pre-Ghibli)
Lupin 3: Castle of Cagliostro - 4_5*

Takahata (pre-Ghibi)
Horus: Prince of the Sun - 4_5
Gauche the Cellist - 4_5

Satoshi Kon
Perfect Blue - 4
Millennium Actress - 4_5
Tokyo Godfathers - 4
Paprika - 4_5

Hosoda
The Girl Who Leap Through Time - 4_5
Summer Wars - 5 (currently my favorite non-Ghibli animated film)

Shinkai
5 Centimeters per Second - 4_5
Children Who Chase Lost Voices - 4_5

Other anime
Barefoot Gen - 3_5
Ghost in the Shell - 4_5
Ghost in the Shell 2 - 3_5
Akira - 4_5
Wings of Honneamise - 4_5
Memories - 4_5
Ninja Scroll - 4
Sword of the Stranger - 4
Jin Roh: Wolf Brigade - 3_5

[Guaporense]

Let's finish this:

Arrietty - 2010
by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Karigurashi_no_Arrietty_poster.png

Arrietty is a another Ghibli fantasy film, based on The Borrowers fantasy novel*, featuring the relationship between a little "dwarf" girl and a human boy and the problems faced by the girl's family in living in a house where their presence was discovered by the humans.

I found this film quite excellent in some respects (specially the atmosphere of the first half of the film) but also quite underwhelming and overall it was a very good film but still much weaker film than the Ghibli's astonishing average. It was visually quite beautiful (as all Ghibli films) and featured a very cute celtic folk score by french folk musician Cecile Corbel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXnFAcMyAHA

This song transmits very well the general feeling of most Ghibli films.

Overall, extremely good but not great, my rating would be 4.

*This book:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/TheBorrowers_BookCover.png

[Guaporense]

From Up on Poppy Hill - 2011
by Goro Miyazaki
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/La_Colline_aux_Coquelicots_film_poster.jpg

Miyazaki's son directed perhaps Ghibli's weakest film ever in 2006, but now, 5 years later, he proved that he could also produce good stuff. Partly thanks to a good script written by Miyazaki himself and partly thanks to his increasing experience, resulted into Ghibli's best film since 2008 (that's it, it was marginally better than Arriety, though also far different in theme and genre).

From Up on Poppy Hill is a slice of life animated drama film, like Only Yesterday, but also slightly weaker than that masterpiece. I found the tears hard to resist in several moments but overall the film was felt bit weaker than Only Yesterday and Whisper of the Heart (IMO, the two best slice of life animated dramas I ever watched). But overall, this still holds well a third position on my list (fourth if you disconsider the fantasy elements of Kiki's Delivery Service, since it is also pretty much a slice of life drama).

Interestingly is that Ghibli films tend to draw a larger female audience than most other films: 57% of all viewers of From Up on Poppy Hill were females. I also have interesting data on the demographics of the audience: 53% of the viewers were between 16 years old and 30 years old, 33% were over 30 years old and 14% were under 16 years old. Very different from US animations, which tend to drawn on people under 12 (kids) and over 30 (their parents).

My rating 4_5

[Guaporense]

This year Ghibli will release another two films, by Miyazaki and Takahata, I will post reviews there when I get my hands on them.

[Guaporense]

Crying with Nausicaa

Motivated by Mark F observation that no movie can be extremely moving at every scene I decided to rewatch Nausicaa again today, since I remember it as the movie that moved me the greatest number of times in it's 117 minutes run. This was the 8th or 9th time I watched it (it is among the movies that I have watched the most times) and the best time I ever had watching it and I might say perhaps the best f*cking movie ever made: while watching Ozu's Tokyo Story I cried 4 or 5 times but on Nausicaa now, I managed to cry 10 times!

Besides crying another strong reaction was that I had shivers down on my spine about three or four times over these glorious 117 minutes.

This movie truly redefined the possibilities of animation back in 1984. No wonder why it is nearly always tops the polls for greatest animated film of all time taken in Japan. As has been said: Citizen Kane for movies, Michael Jackson's thriller for music clips, Sgt. Peppers for rock albums and Nausicaa for animation.

I remember each scene/sequence where my lacrimal glands were used:

14 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa14_zpse05495e4.png

25 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa25_zps5d5d37f2.png

41 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa42_zps263bb4ae.png

45 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa45_zps4259da77.png

63 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa63_zps9960c2a6.png

81 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa81_zps7940658f.png

88 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa88_zpsd63edafd.png

102 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa104_zps28bbaa6e.png

111 minutes on
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa111_zps18c41b3a.png

116 minutes on (cried when it ended)
http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq235/guaporense/Nausicaa116_zpsa7e32181.png

Total: 10 times.

Characters in the movie cry well over 10 times during it's duration. Miyazaki said that making emotionally charged movies was his intention: he has cried, overwhelmed with emotion, when he was drawing the storyboards for his movies.

Indeed, just by the screenshots above one can easily notice that this cartoon is dramatic as cartoons ever tried to be.

Now I am not sure if now I would rank Totoro or Nausicaa higher. Anyway, in my top 10 I have tied 7 miyazaki at the top spot so I am well covered. :)