Kiki’s for me, just for the sheer beauty of it. The flying scene as she’s leaving home is tied with the “You Can Fly!” scene from Peter Pan for the best flying animation ever, and the world that Kiki inhabits–with neon-trimmed windmills and steam-locomotives that send out multi-colored smoke–is almost like a Maxfield Parrish painting come to life.
Storywise, it’s a little slow, but for the animation and the art, it wins hands down for me.
I’m surprised that so many people rated Howl’s so highly. It was a completely incomprehensible jumble to me. A pretty jumble mind you, but a complete mess narratively, and not even in the same universe as Spirited Away from the storytelling point of view.
IMHO, obviously. .
Did you watch a dub or subtitles? I think the first dub I watched of Spirited Away must’ve been fan-made, because it was before it got a US release IIRC, and it made no sense. I mean NO. SENSE. Maybe you ran into something similar with Howl’s. I can’t imagine any other way that someone would call it incomprehensible or jumbled.
Sorry, that should say the first subtitles I watched on Spirited. The first (and only) dub I watched was the official Disney version, and I love it.
I’ve seen Spirited Away more than a dozen times.
I could spend some more time justifying it, but all you have to do is watch it and you’ll understand why.
Really? I mean, Disney released a English version of Spirited Away pretty much right away. It’s quite good, actually. Where did you get another one?
It was either Official dub or Official subtitles. Whichever you get most easily on Netflix.
But yes, I do feel like I watched a completely different movie than everyone else on this thread! I’ve seen all the movies on the list except Ponyo and for most of the other movies my opinion lines up more or less with the general consensus. It’s strange.
I went with Totoro. The interaction between the kids and the Spirits is amazing and unique. The scene of the younger girl on Totoro’s belly, with Him showing choppers the size of mailboxes is a miracle.
The movement of the story without obvious plot machinations is very endearing (yeah the little girl gets lost, but it’s not all that important to the movie.)
I like Spirited Away, but it’s got too many WTF plot artifacts.
A twin sister to the spa owner? …And the point is?
The hero is really a river spirit? Well, okay.
Kiki’s Delivery Service is a very sweet movie. Lke it a lot, but it feels minor.
Princess Monoke leaves me feeling puzzled. Love the writhing doomed swine, and the giant wolves are cool.It does a decent job of balancing the various points of view, but I don’t care much about the characters. I’ve always thought they introduced the Princess as being an invincible superheroine who just demolishes her foes, and then morph her into a much more normal person.
I always suspected that Zeneba (Yubaba’s twin sister) was actually Yubaba. We see Yubaba fly away in the mornings, where does she go? She goes to her cottage in the woods and becomes Zeneba.
A lot of things in Spirited Away don’t make literal sense, but have a sort of dream logic. You dream about a character, and then the character in your dream is a different character, but still the same.
That’s an interesting take that made me want to slip in the DVD. Do the two ladies never appear together? I thought maybe they were both in the ending scene where the parents are recovered…?
I have an idea about Yubaba and Zeniba, but I think it’s interesting to hear what other people make of it first.
What are the other plot artifacts that are WTF to you?
Princess Mononoke by a wide distance. In fact I would rank it one of the 3-4 greatest films I have ever seen.
To me what separates Mononoke from the rest is the powerful and satisfying climax. Miyazaki’s films often end in an anti-climax, probably a deliberate narrative choice on his part but which can sometimes be a tad unsatisfying. Mononoke is a strong exception without going Hollywood with everything tied up into a happy ending(Nausicaa is a bit like that). It brings a powerful closure to the main story while still preserving some ambiguity and loose ends. That is a very difficult balancing act to pull off but Mononoke does it splendidly.
He has announced a new movie ?? Cool! Personally I liked Porco Rosso quite a lot though admittedly the boxing match climax is rather silly. The Mediterranean setting and flying sequences are utterly wonderful.
News of a sequel finally motivated me to sit down and watch Porco Rosso. I enjoyed it, though it wasn’t nearly as rich in meaning and symbolism as Spirited, Mononoke, or even Howl’s. It was more of just a fun ride, and quite slow-paced by today’s standards, really. I did enjoy the setting quite a bit, and it was really fun IMO once the duel started.
So with that being said, I’d like to make a revision to my list along with adding an item to it:
#1. Spirited
#2. Howl’s
#3. [del]Cagliostro[/del] Mononoke
#4. [del]Mononoke[/del] Cagliostro
#5. Porco Rosso
#6. Castle in the Sky
Princess Mononoke is my favorite animated movie.
2nd would be Whisper of the Heart, then Spirited Away and Totoro.
I was lucky enough to watch The Borrowers, the latest release from Studio Ghibli, in-theater recently. It was not dubbed and the subtitles were in Korean, which probably prevented me from understanding most verbal subtleties.
Miyazaki wrote the screenplay, but did not direct. It’s a good film, similar in feel to Whisper of the Heart, which was also screenplay’d by him while not directed. I would not call it a great film, especially compared to other Studio Ghibli movies, but worth watching if you enjoy sentimental and slight melancholy stories.
Giving this a bump. Miyazaki is now apparently done making movies, though I think we all heard that back when he made Spirited Away. Anyway, IGN just released their top 10 list and it has been awhile since we discussed this.
Did you all like The Wind Rises? I thought it was terrible, his worst movie…even worse than Naussica(Naussica has great animation…Wind Rises is just average).
Here is IGN’s top 10 list. Mononoke is #1 if you are curious, followed by Spirited Away. Spirited Away is still Miyazaki’s greatest movie, but Mononoke is good as well.
Four years later, but… You’re not alone - I’ve told people the only good thing (IMO) about Howl’s Moving Castle was that it introduced me to Diana Wynne Jones.
Since this thread was last active, I’ve seen Howl’s Moving Castle, and rank it behind Mononoke and ahead of Spirited Away. I think it’s partly that I like a wholly-fantasy setting better than one attached to the mundane world, and partly that I thought that Spirited Away’s message was a little too simplistic, in a way that the other two weren’t.
As an aside, would I be right to guess that the “spirits” in Spirited Away, the “gods” in Mononoke, and the “demons” in Howl’s are all translations of the same word “kami” in the original Japanese?
Timely thread. I’ve never seen any of his movies, but have them high on my list of films to explore next. Which, if any, would be appropriate for my 6 and 7-year-old children?