Studio Ghibli

[Jerzy Bondov]

I'd like to speak up for Ponyo in particular, though. It seemed almost a return to Totoro levels of simplicity after the epic scale of Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle. The fact that the father of the family is away at sea was apparently Miyazaki Senior's way of apologising to his family for putting in such long hours at the studio. The ramen that the mother cooks up remains my platonic ideal of comfort food. These themes of the conflicting impulses of parental love, over-protectiveness and, ultimately,  forgiveness are dealt with beautifully, and the scene with the empty wheelchairs in the old peoples home never fails to reduce me to a blubbering wreck. I lost my mum a couple of weeks ago, and just thinking of that scene now is bringing the tears to my eyes. I genuinely think that, if any single film can be said to sum Ghibli's virtues up, it is Ponyo.

Beautiful post, thank you. I love Ponyo as well, along with Totoro it's been a huge hit with my kids. Lovely backgrounds, much simpler and more childlike than the normal Ghibli style. That little puttering candle powered boat is up there with the most satisfying Ghibli vehicles.

Sosuke's mum, Lisa, is just unbelievably cool, one of my favourite movie parents. She completely buys into the magic and takes everything her son says seriously. She drives her tiny little car around like a maniac while eating a sandwich. She uses a semaphore light to call her husband stupid (BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA). She sings 'Stroll' from Totoro. She rules.

The sense of place is always so vivid in their films. Can't decide where I'd rather live - the Kusakabe house in Totoro, Sosuke's house in Ponyo, or anywhere in the city from Kiki's.

[The Mollusk]

Ok, now I've said that, what is it with Miyazaki's obsession over small flying things carrying much larger cargos?

I'm rewatching the fantastic "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" at the moment which is a love letter to all the intricacies of creativity - an anime about three girls making anime - and they go into a good amount of detail in the show about how animation (specifically traditional anime style) often goes to great lengths to convey movement/motion (with animators often having props in the studio, filming themselves moving and drawing the results). I'm sure as Ghibli fans in here we can all relate to having marveled at how wonderfully fluid and captivating their animation often is, and of course physical motion in itself is an art form. I think by switching up the proportions like you've noted, it's just a way of whimsically inverting that well-worn set of standards but still maintaining a sort of magical beauty, and of course humour.

[Jerzy Bondov]

There's an extra on the From Up on Poppy Hill Blu ray where they screen the finished film for the studio and at the end Hayao Miyazaki gets up, in front of Goro Miyazaki, the director, his own son, and goes off on one about how there was a bit where the walking didn't look right

[The Mollusk]

Fair play to the fucker

[buzby]

There's an extra on the From Up on Poppy Hill Blu ray where they screen the finished film for the studio and at the end Hayao Miyazaki gets up, in front of Goro Miyazaki, the director, his own son, and goes off on one about how there was a bit where the walking didn't look right

He's famously a curmudgeon, dismissive of his own work and has criticised Goro and his films publically many times. Making Ponyo was seen as his way of apologising to Goro for being a terrible father, and letting Goro be pressured into taking on directing Tales From Earthsea with no prior experience after he had decided to retire, and walking out of it's premiere (his reaction was famously quoted as 'It's good he's made one film. With that, he should stop').

[Small Man Big Horse]

He managed to say good things about Earwig, so perhaps he's mellowed in recent years: https://www.cbr.com/hayao-miyazaki-goro-earwig-witch-praise-2/

[Brian Freeze]

I was coming here to say less than complimentary things about the Earwig film after we watched it on Saturday night. So what the chuff do I know eh?

I agree with his comments about how she smiles and tackles adversity head on being inspirational and was the one thing that stood out for me.

[Dayraven]

I'm rewatching the fantastic "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!"

It's got a Ghibli connection beyond just the interest in the craft of animation. The show makes use of a TV show Miyazaki directed, Future Boy Conan, as something that inspires the characters, and owing to rights issues they actually had to retrace all the footage they used rather than including it directly.

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

I'm rewatching the fantastic "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" at the moment which is a love letter to all the intricacies of creativity - an anime about three girls making anime - and they go into a good amount of detail in the show about how animation (specifically traditional anime style) often goes to great lengths to convey movement/motion (with animators often having props in the studio, filming themselves moving and drawing the results). I'm sure as Ghibli fans in here we can all relate to having marveled at how wonderfully fluid and captivating their animation often is, and of course physical motion in itself is an art form. I think by switching up the proportions like you've noted, it's just a way of whimsically inverting that well-worn set of standards but still maintaining a sort of magical beauty, and of course humour.

Ah, ok, makes sense! Thank you.

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

Sosuke's mum, Lisa, is just unbelievably cool, one of my favourite movie parents. She completely buys into the magic and takes everything her son says seriously.

Yes! And her driving has to be a callback to Lupin's in Castle of Cagliostro, doesn't it? But your final point is yet another of the things I love about Ghibli: their take on parenthood and, for that matter, childhood. I can't remember now who made the point, but there's an instructive contrast between Totoro (or, indeed, Ponyo¹) and E.T., whereby Satsuki and Mei have no problem at all about telling their dad about their encounters, and he takes them absolutely at their word (at least to their faces - there are hints of scepticism in his conversations with his wife). Meanwhile Elliott seems unable to trust his mother with his extraordinary discovery, and goes to great lengths to conceal it.

¹ I suppose the difference is that, in Ponyo, Lisa is confronted by the magic her son encounters, while in Totoro Prof Kusakabe's evidence for Totoro existence is highly tangential, apart from perhaps at the very end. And even then, the corn cob is hardly definitive, from the parents' perspective at least.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Colourful Ones with monsters in = Great

Slightly less colourful ones set during ww1 or something = dog shit, will never watch them

[Thursday]

Sosuke's mum, Lisa, is just unbelievably cool, one of my favourite movie parents. She completely buys into the magic and takes everything her son says seriously. She drives her tiny little car around like a maniac while eating a sandwich. She uses a semaphore light to call her husband stupid (BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA). She sings 'Stroll' from Totoro. She rules.

I remember this being the crux of something that Egbert said about Totoro. Western animation would feel the need to make there be some kind of conflict. The dad shouting at them "don't be stupid there's no such thing." Whereas the Dad in Totoro just goes along with it because it is actually what a parent would do in that situation, even though he probably doesn't actually believe them.

[Crenners]

Great observation, I like that.

[Endicott]

Totoro is fabulous for being the only film I can think of where there is practically no jeopardy at all. Just for that alone I think it's wonderful, let alone other aspects of it.

Even when

the girl goes missing, the attentive viewer has previously been given a closeup of her actual shoes and knows that the shoe granny holds up isn't the right type. Then she gets rescued by a magic bus. Even the mother gets better.

[close]

[JohnnyCouncil]

Foreigner I believe, well 'gaijin' anyway. Does The Little Norse Prince Horus Child of the Sun Count (in the way that Naussica does)? Anyway, that's one of my favourites up there with Mononoke, Laputa and Naussica. Totally agree with what is said above about Ponyo, has the heart of Totero. What I would do to be able to watch them all for the first time again.

[greenman]

I would recommend the Nausciaa Manga very strongly as well, I do think it makes Miyazaki's career easier to understand as it seemes like his darker side filtered into that by the late 80's with the films becoming lighter and then two sides merge together when the manga ended in the mid 90's. Mononoke especially I think feels like its a semi adaptation of the latter story of the Nausicaa Manga as well to me, obviously changed in setting a good deal but similar themes/characters.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Foreigner I believe, well 'gaijin' anyway. Does The Little Norse Prince Horus Child of the Sun Count (in the way that Naussica does)? Anyway, that's one of my favourites up there with Mononoke, Laputa and Naussica. Totally agree with what is said above about Ponyo, has the heart of Totero. What I would do to be able to watch them all for the first time again.

I'd not seen Horus Child of the Sun before today but I reckon it should count, and here's the short review I wrote for it on Letterboxd:

Horus Prince Of The Sun (1968) - A film by Isao Takahata made before Studio Ghibli was formed, it features many of the things that make that studio's films so great including a strong story with memorable dialogue, an impressive selection of supporting characters and some beautiful animation. Admittedly it's a little more simplistic than Ghibli's best work and it cheats on the animation front occasionally, showing a montage of still images or panning over a painting in

Spoiler alert

both the wolf and rat attacks on the village

[close]

, but it's not a big issue and the main thing is just how enjoyable this is as lonely old Horus discovers a village and hopes to make it his home,

Spoiler alert

only to be betrayed by Hilda who turns out to be the sister of the devil. There's also some cute children's songs, and it really ups its game for the finale, what with the forest of doubt, the snow mammoth and the snow wolves

[close]

, all of which make this a must see if you're a Studio Ghibli fan. 7.6/10

[Emma Raducanu]

Totoro gets a regular playing in our household. It is simply beautiful in every way and bordering on therapy at the end of a hard day.

My daughter loves Ponyo (as do I), Kiki and Whisper of the heart.

Father Christmas is bringing her From Up on Poppy Hill, so I have high hopes for that.

Biggest disappointment so far goes to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. The first 3rd was amazing but then it seemed to go boring as fuck and my girl made me turn it off. Maybe it picks up again but I'm yet to find out.

Totoro though

[greenman]

I'd not seen Horus Child of the Sun before today but I reckon it should count, and here's the short review I wrote for it on Letterboxd:

Horus Prince Of The Sun (1968) - A film by Isao Takahata made before Studio Ghibli was formed, it features many of the things that make that studio's films so great including a strong story with memorable dialogue, an impressive selection of supporting characters and some beautiful animation. Admittedly it's a little more simplistic than Ghibli's best work and it cheats on the animation front occasionally, showing a montage of still images or panning over a painting in

Spoiler alert

both the wolf and rat attacks on the village

[close]

, but it's not a big issue and the main thing is just how enjoyable this is as lonely old Horus discovers a village and hopes to make it his home,

Spoiler alert

only to be betrayed by Hilda who turns out to be the sister of the devil. There's also some cute children's songs, and it really ups its game for the finale, what with the forest of doubt, the snow mammoth and the snow wolves

[close]

, all of which make this a must see if you're a Studio Ghibli fan. 7.6/10

I believe some of those still pans were due to the film running into budget problems, besides that I would say the quality of the animation is actually much higher than you might expect given the stylized character design.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ah, that's interesting, I wasn't aware of that but it makes sense.

Jarinko Chie (aka Chie The Brat, 1981) - Another anime from Isao Takahata prior to Studio Ghibli forming, Chie's father gambles and fights and is an all round shitty degenerate type, and is separated from Chie's mother Yoshie for reasons that aren't ever really explained. It's quite the odd work, a slice of life with a substantial subplot involving cats fighting and a missing testicle, and it ends

Spoiler alert

with some quite brutal feline violence and without the main couple really resolving their differences, though they are living together at least

[close]

. I quite like that last aspect though, it oddly makes it feel more real, and though it's an odd mixture it's one I found quite appealing. 7.3/10

[Crenners]

Cheers for that, never heard of it and only watched Princess Kaguya once. Will investigate!

[Small Man Big Horse]

Cheers for that, never heard of it and only watched Princess Kaguya once. Will investigate!

I hadn't until I saw Horus thanks to this thread and thought I'd check out his imdb page, he also made the hour long Gauche the Cellist in 1982, and in 2010 they edited together six episodes of the Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables tv series he directed in the 70's and released it as a film, which I plan to check out very soon.

[Dayraven]

in 2010 they edited together six episodes of the Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables tv series he directed in the 70's and released it as a film, which I plan to check out very soon.

I've seen the series and liked it. Among other things, it's notable for being close to line-by-line faithful to the book.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Without reading this thread at all, am I the only person to be repulsed by Totoro?

I actually love a lot of Ghibli but the combination of Totoro being a horrifying monster and a body horror stretchy cat bus that makes me vom is too much.

[Jerzy Bondov]

The way his whiskers move is a bit creepy but I like that he's slightly scary. He's a good lad really

[Toxteth OGrady]

We've watched Arrietty a few times, whenever one of my daughters has been off school sick. It's perfect for lying on the couch with a shot of Calpol.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've a feeling the following will be a quite unpopular view, but I watched 2016's The Red Turtle today and didn't really enjoy it that much, sometimes it looks quite beautiful and the soundtrack is appealing, but as an ode to the simple life it offers up little that is original or intriguing and

Spoiler alert

after he fucks the turtle and they have a kid

[close]

I thought it became a lot less interesting. 5.3/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

Gauche the Cellist (1982) - Pre-Studio Ghibli animation from Isao Takahata where Gauche plays in the local village orchestra but his conductor is never happy with his playing,

Spoiler alert

and in the evenings four different very chatty animals call on him and ask him to play music for various reasons, and in doing so turn him in to a great musician

[close]

. It's a fairly simple premise, but at just under 62 minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome and while not essential viewing it is very sweet and appealing. 7.3/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

I didn't get on with Tales from Earthsea, it was dull

Tales From Earthsea is a narrative disaster however good it looks (also Goro Miyazaki incidentally).

Well I can't say I wasn't warned.

Tales From Earthsea (2006) - The last traditionally animated Studio Ghibli film I'd yet to see, I put this off as the reviews had been so mixed but the completist in me made me watch it in the end. It starts well, with some dragons mucking about and for some unknown reason Arren kills his father, runs off, and teams up with wizard Sparrowhawk, but then it becomes immensely dull as they walk around a lot, and then they do a bit of farming, while the villains pop up every so often for a brief burst of uninspired action. It's poorly paced, the characters are thinly drawn, and worst of all is that long parts are boring, and I'd agree with those who say it's easily the worst of Studio Ghibli's 2D fare. 4.8./0

Annoyingly I know my brain is going to make me watch Earwig and The Angry Inch Witch at some point, even though it's apparently much much worse.

[idunnosomename]

It's amazing really they put all that work into realising and animating such an absolute puddle-shallow screenplay that takes such a half-assed approach to the source material. Such a waste