Miyazaki Achievement Complete!
Over the past year, spacevlad and I have been watching all of Hayao Miyazaki's films. He's a very famous writer/director of animated films in Japan. We kicked off the series by watching Ponyo in theaters in August 2009 and then backtracked to 1979's The Castle of Cagliostro and have been watching them all in release date order since. We came full circle last night and finished up the series with 2004's Howl's Moving Castle. Apart from Princess Mononoke (which I had seen years back on VHS), all the films were new to me. Yes, it took us nearly a year to get through ten films. Many reasons but primarily because we watch a lot of other stuff (we're still watching at least one Star Trek episode a night, Big Brother UK, etc.)
I have to say that I loved almost every Miyazaki movie we watched. We watched the English dubs for all the movies. I don't have anything against the original language track (and frequently watch subtitled films) but I wanted to experience every bit of the visual animated frame for each of the movies, so I opted for the English dubs (which were pretty good, I have to say) so I wasn't distracted my first time through. I would like to go back and give the original Japanese language tracks a go sometime.
If I had to rank the movies, from best to worst (and keep in mind "worst" as in "still really good but my least favorite") they would rank:
01. Castle in the Sky (1986)
02. Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
03. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
04. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
05. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)
06. Spirited Away (2001)
07. Porco Rosso (1992)
08. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
09. The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
10. Princess Mononoke (1997)
Let me explain my bottom three choices:
My Neighbor Totoro was very cute but, to me, was aimed at a younger audience than some of his other films. I liked it but didn't love it. The Castle of Cagliostro was a little rough around the edges for me. I was engaged throughout but didn't really care for Lupin as a main character. The animation style wasn't as polished as Miyazaki's later films either.
Finally, I put Princess Mononoke at the bottom of the list. Like with Lupin, I don't think Miyazaki excels when he has a male protagonist (Porco being a bit of an exception). I also felt Princess Mononoke was really violent in parts. It didn't have the "sense of wonder" for me that a lot of his other films had in spades. Just not what I was expecting and not what appeals to me when I look at Miyazaki's overall body of work. It was the first Miyazaki film I was exposed to (back in the late 90's I rented it on VHS to see what all the hype was about) before spacevlad and I started this viewing series. Given that it's at the bottome of my list, it's no wonder it took me a whole decade to give Miyazaki another try.
My top three choices:
I loved Castle in the Sky. The world building, the air pirates, the voice acting (I had a bit of a James VanDerBeek Dawson’s Creek crush in my youth), the spunky female protagonist, the sense of flying - this, to me, was the first time it all came together in a solid package and it works on so many levels. This would be the Miyazaki film I'd show to people like my brothers or parents (who have never heard of Hayao Miyazaki before).
My second favorite film was Howl's Moving Castle. Again, I loved the world building. Christian Bale was an interesting choice for Howl - the fact that his voice didn't quite fit the lanky almost girly Howl took me out of it a little bit but Jean Simmons did an excellent job as the female (older) lead. I thought the supporting cast was great (Markl, Turnip, and Calcifer) and I loved the TARDIS-like interior of the Castle and the variable front door. Brilliant. I might be a little biased because I just watched this for the first time last night, but it's an awesome film.
My third favorite was Nausicaä. When I first watched this, I was a little fuzzy on some of the details (the atomic-like monsters, etc. and how they fit in with everything) but, of all the Miyazaki films, this one stuck with me like a good bowl of oatmeal. I find myself continually thinking back to this film and how bizarre some of the elements are. Of all the Miyazaki films, I'd say this and Porco Rosso have the most defined worlds built up - worlds that have their own set of rules and are populated with engaging and interesting characters and nations. This one was the most ethereal for me as well - the Metroid-like spore creatures, the beauty of the underground caverns, the threat of a toxic atmosphere. I'll come across little things in my day-to-day life that send me back to thinking about this film. I also loved the English voice cast for Nausicaä. I mean, come on, Captain Picard and Admiral Adama in the same movie together! Amazing! It was really tough deciding which I liked better between Howl's and Nausicaä. Howl's barely won out because I feel it's more optimistic and cheerful.
More to come:
I have a copy of the complete Miyazaki 1978 Future Boy Conan television series and I'd like to give that a watch sometime (I had seen the first 4 episodes at MAS a few years ago). I'd also like to watch all the other Studio Ghibli films at some point too. I've only seen Grave of the FIreflies (man, that was depressing), but I really want to see Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves, Pom Poko: Racoon War, Whisper of the Heart, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Cat Returns, and Tales from Earthsea as well.