It was good. Miyazaki’s first romance. He continues to produce excellent anime, despite the crippling handicap of choosing not to work any tentacle rape scenes into his films.
I do envy you. DWJ is my favorite author, and I’ve been looking forward to this. When is it going to be released in the US again? I’ve forgotten…
Envy you? I’ve already seen it twice…
Tentacle porn may have improved things. I didn’t like what he added to DWJ’s plot, it was nonsensical. Saying that, however, I was glad he deleted everything that had to do with Wales. I’m going to see it again.
It opens Friday, though I’m not sure how wide that release is.
So how was the dub? I expect a respectable job from Disney but not an incredible one…
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Miyazaki’s first romance?!?!?!?!
Even if one ignores the romantic attachments between Porco and Gina and Fio, and the tentative romancing of Kiki by Tombo, Whisper of the Heart aka Mimi O Sumeseba is definitely a romance.
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And, yes, I am turning green. I hope you’re happy. 
I knew someone would say that.
I think the movie could have been a lot cleaner in terms of plotting and about half an hour shorter. That said, it’s still a great watch.
I thought the level of voice acting was quite high, but then, I watch a lot of hentai so my standards are … quite low. I especially liked the fire spirit character and the female lead’s. Christian Bale did a fine job as a male lead as well.
Yeah, but Porco Rosso wasn’t a romance, it just had a romantic subplot, and a very downplayed romantic subplot or two at that. It was basically about flying around on seaplanes. And the romance in Kiki’s Delivery Service was pretty durned tentative, too. Never heard of Whisper of the Heart.
I read it’ll come out with a wider release on the 19th.
I may or may not be able to go see it, but I’ll tell Mom about it. She really likes Miyazaki.
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Which is why I said that they could be discounted. 
As for Whisper of the Heart, it was released in 1995, in Japan, and did well. It, and another unreleased in the US, Miyazaki film: Only Yesterday, are way down on the list of priorities for release here in the US. Disney’s owned the world rights to it, along with most of Miyazaki’s other films since they did their deal with Sony before Princess Mononoke came out.
Of course, both are stories that deal a lot with modern Japanese culture and expectations - without an understanding of that background, a lot of the plot won’t make all that much sense to most Americans, so, I can understand why neither are on the short list of Miyazaki films to be released. After the dismal debut that Princess Mononoke had here in the US, my understanding is that it took John Lassiter to get Disney/Miramax off dead-center with the rest of Miyazaki’s prior works.
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Though - what bozon made the decision to make Princess Mononoke the first theatrically released Miyazaki film? Come on - something further from a ‘Disney-image’ film would be hard to imagine (That could still be PG or PG-13, that is.). 90% of the women shown on screen are (or were) prostitutes. The main female characters are a blood thirsty wolf, her adopted human daughter, and a satanically ambitious (if personally admirable) woman warrior. It should have been expected to sink in the eyes of the movie-going public, since it’s not what is expected of an animated film. I don’t care that in Japan it was almost as big a hit as Titanic - the Japanese public is more willing to see ‘serious’ animation than the US public is.
Princess Mononoke is an excellent film, however it’s not one that I think is particularly kid-friendly. For a theatrical release Porco Rosso, or Kiki’s Delivery Service, both would have been a much better choice, even if neither were quite as recent. Both have subtleties that make them great viewing for adults, but are accessible to toddlers as a fun story - once that point about subtlety had been made, it might have been possible to release Mononoke and expect it to break even. Without some advance understanding of what to expect from Miyazaki’s work, I don’t think that it could make money in the US for a theatrical release.
Now, with a more ‘traditional’ story for animation audiences in the US: Spirited Away, Disney is beginning to finally recoup the investment of owning Miyazaki’s back library. But it’s about 7 years later than it needed to have been.
Bozons.
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While I enjoy Pixars films greatly, and am grateful to John Lassiter for his own creative efforts, I have to say I’m even more grateful that, because of him, I can finally own legal copies of Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Porco Rosso.
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Legal, translated copies, that is. :smack:
(Yes, I have several of Miyazaki’s films on imported LD to cover the legalities and moralities of owning fansubs.)
i’m juar waiting for them to release pon poko tanuki…
My wife hates anime, but she liked Spirited Away; we even own a copy. I doubt I can convince her to see Howl’s Moving Castle, but I can always hope, can’t I?
My fingers are crossed that there’ll be a copy of Nausicaa in my Father’s Day stocking. I think I’ve just about worn out my ancient VHS copy of Warriors of the Wind.
When the plot departed from Ms. Jones’s novel, it became very confused. I think he should have either gone completely with the plot from the novel or only lightly touched the novel, keeping a few minor elements. As it is, it’s very disjointed and strange. Have you read Jones’s novel? Very fun read, and I’d advise it.
Gah, that’s makes the other two films I mentioned seem to be in the ‘any day, now’ category.
(And, honestly, I didn’t care all that much for it.)
No, haven’t read the novel.
I’m completely with you on the Princess Mononoke. When it came out, I wasn’t a fan of Miyazaki’s work. Then I saw it and … I still wasn’t a fan of Miyazaki’s work. So when we got a shot to see a preview of Spirited Away I passed on it. My wife and kid went. Big mistake. Spirited Away convinced me that Miyazaki was worthwhile. So when we got a shot at Howl, I was all for it this time.
I really couldn’t get too interested in desperate-looking characters running around in the woods fighting it out with demons and armies and whatnot. Boh-ring. The visuals were nice, but the story didn’t carry them.
Porco Rosso would have been a MUCH better intro for Miyazaki. Great visuals, good story, what’s not to like?
Well, go out and get it from the library today, and then read all her other books too.