Your favorite Studio Ghibli movie, part 1

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I had fun with my “Catholic science fiction authors” poll, so I’m going to create another one. What is your favorite Studio Ghibli movie? A couple of points of explanation:
  1. The forums don’t allow more than 10 items in a poll. There were too many great films to reduce it down to 10, so I’m splitting it up into two groups. By luck, there are 10 films directed by Hayao Miyazaki (excluding The Castle of Cagliostro, which was not made for Studio Ghibli) and 10 other films (excluding Tales from Earthsea, which seems to be hated by pretty much everyone who has seen it, so I’m happy to leave that one out).
  2. I know it can be hard to pick just one title. Some of us have more than one favorite! So I’m being indulgent and allowing multiple choice on this poll. To keep the results meaningful, please limit yourself to three selections.
 
I have heard good things about some of these movies from Steven Greydanus (of decentfilms.com), but I am sorry to say that I haven’t yet seen any of them. 😦
 
I’ve only seen one movie from each poll - Spirited Away from poll #1, and Secret World of Arrietty from #2. I enjoyed both. But since I’ve only seen those two, I don’t feel qualified to vote in the polls.
 
I voted for ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ because it’s a personal favorite of mine, although I could also see myself voting for ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service,’ ‘Princess Mononoke,’ ‘Spirited Away’ or even ‘Castle in the Sky’ or ‘My Neighbor Totoro’. They’re all really wonderful in their own ways.
 
I chose

Howl’s Moving Castle
Kiki’s Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro

Studio Ghibli films are seriously my entire childhood.
 
Trying to pick my favorite Miyazaki movie is like trying to pick my favorite sunrise. 🙂
 
I picked Castle in the Sky. I admit that I haven’t seen some of the others on this list yet. But I’ve seen enough of them to know that all Ghibli films are mandatory for someone who likes anime, or even movies in general. 😃
 
Howl’s Moving Castle has come out on top in this poll, which surprises me a bit, as it’s not usually considered one of Miyazaki’s classics. I was expecting My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away to get the most votes. Well, it’s not a scientific poll as the number of respondents is small. Thanks to everyone who voted.
 
louisak said:
Howl’s Moving Castle has come out on top in this poll, which surprises me a bit, as it’s not usually considered one of Miyazaki’s classics. I was expecting My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away to get the most votes. Well, it’s not a scientific poll as the number of respondents is small. Thanks to everyone who voted.
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So far I’m the only one who voted for Nausicaa. But it was released more than 30 years ago in 1984 and I guess it’s not as well known in the US as the more recent works. It’s meatier than Kiki or Totoro, it does send an environmental message, but it wasn’t as overtly preachy about it as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or Ponyo.

I didn’t think Howl was one of Miyazaki’s masterpiecesm either; it starts out well but then it sort of devolved into anti-war preaching. And the question of how to break the curse on Sophie is essentially thrown to the wayside in the midst of it all.

The curse essentially semi-breaks all on it’s own, just enough to make Sophie an attractive enough romantic partner for Howl. Even though we know that Howl, despite his young appearance, is at least as old as the Witch of the Waste, since he mentions pursuing her when she was young and beautiful. And the Witch’s true form turns out to be a senile old lady. At that point the whole story got way too similar to Twilight. I don’t plan on watching it again.

But I think many in the US liked Howl because it was based on an English author’s work and the quasi-European setting is more relatable than the movies set in Japan such as Mononoke and Spirited Away that have traditional Japanese Shinto animist themes. As does Totoro, but I think the cuteness factor is high enough to override the culturally unfamiliar aspects.

In general, it does seem Miyazaki’s later works are much preachier when it comes to what I know are his pet causes, being pro-environment and anti-war, than his earlier ones.
 
ToeInTheWater said:
So far I’m the only one who voted for Nausicaa. But it was released more than 30 years ago in 1984 and I guess it’s not as well known in the US as the more recent works. It’s meatier than Kiki or Totoro, it does send an environmental message, but it wasn’t as overtly preachy about it as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or Ponyo.

I didn’t think Howl was one of Miyazaki’s masterpiecesm either; it starts out well but then it sort of devolved into anti-war preaching. And the question of how to break the curse on Sophie is essentially thrown to the wayside in the midst of it all.

The curse essentially semi-breaks all on it’s own, just enough to make Sophie an attractive enough romantic partner for Howl. Even though we know that Howl, despite his young appearance, is at least as old as the Witch of the Waste, since he mentions pursuing her when she was young and beautiful. And the Witch’s true form turns out to be a senile old lady. At that point the whole story got way too similar to Twilight. I don’t plan on watching it again.

But I think many in the US liked Howl because it was based on an English author’s work and the quasi-European setting is more relatable than the movies set in Japan such as Mononoke and Spirited Away that have traditional Japanese Shinto animist themes. As does Totoro, but I think the cuteness factor is high enough to override the culturally unfamiliar aspects.

In general, it does seem Miyazaki’s later works are much preachier when it comes to what I know are his pet causes, being pro-environment and anti-war, than his earlier ones.
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Yeah, I agree that ‘Howl’ becomes almost incoherent in its plot about two thirds of the way through. Not as badly as ‘Ponyo’ though. It’s not as coherent story-wise as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke but there are just so many cool things about it, such as the castle that has multiple storefronts in different cities, or the Witch of the Waste going from an antagonist to a kind of mascot, or the roving scarecrow ‘Turniphead’, that I have a special place in my heart for this movie. I do wish the ending made more sense though. It certainly is a blemish, or more accurately a flaw that detracts from the strengths of the film.
 
The ending of Howl’s was nigh on incomprehensible on my finest couple watches, but I feel I have a better grasp on it now.

SPOILERS!

*The curse on Sophie was not in itself a curse to make her old, but a curse that made her external self reflect her interior self. Even though she is physically very young, she’s the mindset and attitude of an old woman. She was not young on the inside. As we see her grow in love for Howl, we also see her grow in enthusiasm and interest in life and others and this is why she looks progressively younger over the course of the movie. The curse never exactly breaks, but it ends with her having beaten the curse by becoming young at heart, though her hair remains white/silver to reflect her growth in wisdom.

Howl himself had made a pact with a “fire demon” in his youth in order to gain greater power and mastery of magic, and he gave the demon his heart in order seal the pact. The demon, like-wise, gained a life connected to Howl’s, so he did not simply die off after a few moments of existence. But this power also had its dangers to Howl. While Sophie started the movie old-at-heart, Howl started without a heart at all. Sophie is the one who, in her love for him, was able to give him his heart back without killing Calcifur. Cal felt she could do it because of her love. So Sophie not only beats the curse placed on her, but manages to break the curse on Howl through her love for him.*
 
ToeInTheWater said:
So far I’m the only one who voted for Nausicaa. But it was released more than 30 years ago in 1984 and I guess it’s not as well known in the US as the more recent works. It’s meatier than Kiki or Totoro, it does send an environmental message, but it wasn’t as overtly preachy about it as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, or Ponyo.

I didn’t think Howl was one of Miyazaki’s masterpiecesm either; it starts out well but then it sort of devolved into anti-war preaching. And the question of how to break the curse on Sophie is essentially thrown to the wayside in the midst of it all.
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I would have said that the environmental message is more overt in Nausicaa than in any other Miyazaki film (think of the toxic jungle, the discovery of the poisoning of the soil etc.). However, I also think the environmental theme is integral to the plot, therefore it doesn’t bother me as something tacked-on - the way the anti-war theme in Howl seems tacked on.
 
tomarin said:
Yeah, I agree that ‘Howl’ becomes almost incoherent in its plot about two thirds of the way through. Not as badly as ‘Ponyo’ though. It’s not as coherent story-wise as Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke but there are just so many cool things about it, such as the castle that has multiple storefronts in different cities, or the Witch of the Waste going from an antagonist to a kind of mascot, or the roving scarecrow ‘Turniphead’, that I have a special place in my heart for this movie. I do wish the ending made more sense though. It certainly is a blemish, or more accurately a flaw that detracts from the strengths of the film.
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After watching Howl, I went to my local library and borrowed the book which the film was (loosely) based on. I had mixed feelings about the book, but it did make a lot more sense than the film. It seemed that Miyazaki took an ‘instinctive’ approach to adaptation whereby he just picked out the aspects of the story that he liked, and ignored the rest.

I agree that Ponyo also had problems with too many unmotivated plot twists. I liked it a great deal otherwise, though. The plot wasn’t as convoluted as in Howl, and I loved the relationships between the boy (whose name I forget), his mother, and the elderly ladies at the nursing home. That’s not to mention the film’s powerful use of images of the ocean and so forth.
 
I like Naussicaa, but I thought Miyazaki felt like it might be his only shot and attempted to put all of his ideas into too short a movie.
 
louisak said:
After watching Howl, I went to my local library and borrowed the book which the film was (loosely) based on. I had mixed feelings about the book, but it did make a lot more sense than the film. It seemed that Miyazaki took an ‘instinctive’ approach to adaptation whereby he just picked out the aspects of the story that he liked, and ignored the rest.

I agree that Ponyo also had problems with too many unmotivated plot twists. I liked it a great deal otherwise, though. The plot wasn’t as convoluted as in Howl, and I loved the relationships between the boy (whose name I forget), his mother, and the elderly ladies at the nursing home. That’s not to mention the film’s powerful use of images of the ocean and so forth.
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His name was Soosuke. I had to look it up.

My problem with Ponyo was I simply didn’t understand what was happening towards the end. A friend of mine asked my wife and myself around the time the movie came out ‘Can you explain to me what that was about?’ and we had to admit we couldn’t. I think he thought because she was Japanese she had some special insight into the plot of the film. But no.
 
You know what I find interesting about Studio Ghibli movies is that to me they are so magical and entertaining yet my children don’t find them especially captivating. Maybe they just haven’t seen the right ones yet, like ‘Castle in the Sky’ which has a ‘boy’s adventure’ quality - and a lot of action compared to most. (Or more pessimistically, perhaps I find them enchanting because they are largely hand-drawn, and my children don’t appreciate that because they era in which they are growing up is dominated by computer animation.)

Speaking of action movies, I also liked the Lupin movie ‘The Castle of Cagliostro’ which apparently Miyazake directed, although I think it predated Studio Ghibli.
 
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