DVDizzy Forum

I know there's a couple members here who love Ghibli's films, and why not? They're excellent, high-quality and enchanting movies with heart. Miyazaki, the Japanese version of Walt Disney indeed.

This thread is about to discuss any Ghibli news, movies or other things Ghibli. Keep in mind Disney owns the rights to the films in the Americas, so they too are involved as well. Mostly other than that, usually to dubbing the movies.

My favorites are Kiki's Delivery Service and The Cat Returns. I think it was castleinthesky that said that TCR was below par with Ghibli's usual. Which I kind of have to disagree. It wasn't directed by Miyazaki, but he did have a hand producing. TCR has one of the most BEAUTIUFL movie soundtracks I've ever heard and I was fortunate to get a copy of it. Disney's dub was even better and fitted all the characters well. And as for Kiki's, well, it's the first Ghibli film I ever watched, and I gotta say it's heartwarming and endearing. I love some of Joe Hisaishi's score, especially the part where Kiki visits Ursula a second time. A good movie,too.

One film I couldn't get into was Princess Mononoke. Everyone praises that thing left and right, so I bought it a few months back to see what the hype was. I found it a little too...well...I'm not sure. I might have to watch it a 2nd time one of these days to absorb it. It was an odd movie for me.

Well, we do get, in addition to Howl's; there is Whisper of the Heart and FINALLY My Neighbor Totoro, a long overdue classic in March of 2006. For Totoro, it's already confirmed that Dakota and Elle Fanning will lend their voices, and we already know Howl's vocals obviously, but what about WotH? Any news on that?

I'm not really in the mood to talk about Ghibli films, so I'll just rank 'em:

My Neighbor Totoro
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflies
Princess Mononoke
The Cat Returns
Howl's Moving Castle
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds
Kiki's Delivery Service
Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor the Yamadas/Porco Rosso (tie)
Pom Poko

Kenai wrote:Well, we do get, in addition to Howl's; there is Whisper of the Heart and FINALLY My Neighbor Totoro, a long overdue classic in March of 2006. For Totoro, it's already confirmed that Dakota and Elle Fanning will lend their voices, and we already know Howl's vocals obviously, but what about WotH? Any news on that?

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interv ... ml#whisper

Studio Ghibli Museum
http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot. ... useum.html
(via thedisneyblog.com)

I love the Ghibli films so much, they really are the pinnacle of animated films. I love them more than any Disney movie I've ever seen. My top 5 Ghibli movies must be:

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Princess Mononoke
Grave of the Fireflies
Tales from Earthsea
Whisper of the Heart

I know having Tales from Earthsea rather than Spirited Away is sacrilegious and I know that Spirited Away is actually in all intents and purposes the better movie but Tales from Earthsea is my guilty pleasure, I just love it for some reason.

Hey yamii! Haven't seen you around the forums in a while. Welcome back!

yamiiguy wrote:I love the Ghibli films so much, they really are the pinnacle of animated films. I love them more than any Disney movie I've ever seen. My top 5 Ghibli movies must be:

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Princess Mononoke
Grave of the Fireflies
Tales from Earthsea
Whisper of the Heart

I know having Tales from Earthsea rather than Spirited Away is sacrilegious and I know that Spirited Away is actually in all intents and purposes the better movie but Tales from Earthsea is my guilty pleasure, I just love it for some reason.

Good choices! I think my top five would also include Whisper and Mononoke. I would also have picked Spirited Away, Totoro and Porco Rosso.

Ghibli to release Anne of Green Gables compilation film
http://animatedviews.com/2010/ghibli-to ... tion-film/

In case anyone wants to know how these films came to American shores, here is an article I wrote. It hasn't been updated in nearly two years, as I no longer work for that website on an active basis (although my name remains on the site's staff page).

ive really only just got into ghibli and am working on a collection of them. i am finding i like them better than many disney movies. maybe its cos ive seen the disney films so much due to having the vhs as a kid, whereas ghibli is all new to me. i also find i have to sit and watch, rather than just listen to it, due to the details in the pictures.

ive only seen 4 movies... they arent very common here sadly. i managed to get 3 of them retail and then rented the 4th. my ranking:

ponyo
howls moving castle
totoro [rented]
spirited away

i really dont like spirited away that much. tried to watch it twice and given up. but i can happily stay up til the early hours of the morning to watch the others.

From what I've seen, this is how I'd rank them with Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Mononoke, Whisper of the Heart, Nausicaa, and Cagliostro at the top. Porco Rosso, The Cat Returns, and Castle in the Sky have been my least favorite (that I've seen). Too bad I've never got to see Grave of the Fireflies.

NeoSuperBlissey wrote:In case anyone wants to know how these films came to American shores, here is an article I wrote. It hasn't been updated in nearly two years, as I no longer work for that website on an active basis (although my name remains on the site's staff page).

Thanks for the article. Very in-depth. I didn't realize the Disney-Ghibli deal (or, rather, the "D-T" deal) stretched back to the 90s.

Tales from Earthsea Finally Coming to North America!
-----------------------------------
http://animatedviews.com/2010/tales-fro ... h-america/

Distributed only by Disney thus not Disney and to make the matter worse it is the Japan animation a.k.a animie. Case closed.

Heil Donald Duck wrote: Case closed.

On your face?

But, seriously, I don't think it's fair to dismiss Studio Ghibli as 'anime.' None of their films seem to have the tropes anime are prone to. It's connected to the anime genre, but it's not exactly 'anime' itself. It also has a much higher degree of animation (anime uses cheap shortcuts). The human designs aren't to my taste, but they are well-animated.

And Disney also distributed Pixar films for many years--movies that weren't their own. True, I personally don't like most Pixar films, but most people do and I wouldn't think that the Ghibli films not being Disney-made would be an issue.

Heil Donald Duck wrote:Distributed only by Disney thus not Disney and to make the matter worse it is the Japan animation a.k.a animie. Case closed.

It's not fair to dismiss Ghibli as merely 'anime' as it really doesn't follow any of the stereotypes. That's like calling Disney Feature Animation 'cartoons.'

Also, Disney's involvement with Ghibli is far most extensive then just being the distributor. Not only has Lasseter and Miyazaki been close friends for the past 20-some years but starting with My Neighbors the Yamadas, Disney has provided 10% financial support to all Ghibli films. This makes Disney an acting producer on Tales from Earthsea. Also, since 2005, Koji Hoshino (former president of Walt Disney Japan) has been the Studio Ghibli president. I suggest you read the article in the link provided below to learn more on the deal between Ghibli and Disney:

http://www.onlineghibli.com/spe/disney-tokuma.php

i scored a bunch of new movies due to a new jb hifi store opening in the next town. they had every ghibli movie except totoro [the one i wanted most. i could have cried if i wasnt so excited to see so many others in one place]
they were filed under anime, which i think made them easier to find. better yet, they were all grouped together under studio ghibli, instead of being scattered amongst the other titles.
i got nausicaa, kiki, pom poko, whisper of the heart and the cat returns. i was surprised to see the racoons in pom poko had testes. my jaw dropped when i saw how far they could be stretched. lmfao.

has anyone seen the yamadas? i didnt get it cos im not sure about the animation.

I own Spirited away and Howl's moving castle and thus far I've also seen Grave of the Fireflies and Laputa, Castle in the sky. I suppose Origin and Paprika are not from Ghibli, but nonetheless they are fine examples of Japanese animation.

In the 80's there were numerous Japanese animated series on Dutch TV based on European literature: Hector Malot's story of foundling Remy (Sans family), Treasure Island, Heidi, Family Robinson etc.
Has anyone else here seen any of those series? (Yes it probably ain't Ghibli either)

jpanimation wrote:

Heil Donald Duck wrote:Distributed only by Disney thus not Disney and to make the matter worse it is the Japan animation a.k.a animie. Case closed.

It's not fair to dismiss Ghibli as merely 'anime' as it really doesn't follow any of the stereotypes. That's like calling Disney Feature Animation 'cartoons.'

Also, Disney's involvement with Ghibli is far most extensive then just being the distributor. Not only has Lasseter and Miyazaki been close friends for the past 20-some years but starting with My Neighbors the Yamadas, Disney has provided 10% financial support to all Ghibli films. This makes Disney an acting producer on Tales from Earthsea. Also, since 2005, Koji Hoshino (former president of Walt Disney Japan) has been the Studio Ghibli president. I suggest you read the article in the link provided below to learn more on the deal between Ghibli and Disney:

http://www.onlineghibli.com/spe/disney-tokuma.php

Yes, read that article but it seems to me that Disney dont do any actuall work on those feature expect re-dubb in english and that in my books don't make these films Disney films, even if Disney gives some finical support in making this films.

As mentioned already, there was a similar situation a few years ago with Pixar and Disney. Not part of the company, yet everybody called them 'Disney' films. These days it seems like everybody has a different meaning for the name "Disney film". Does it consist out of all films produced by The Walt Disney Company, or only the films that were distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, or only the films produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Plus, what's nothing wrong with Japanese animation? I don't see the problem here. Disney doesn't seem to mind either, since they have their own Japanese division that also produces animated television shows under the Disney name.

Duckburger wrote:As mentioned already, there was a similar situation a few years ago with Pixar and Disney. Not part of the company, yet everybody called them 'Disney' films. These days it seems like everybody has a different meaning for the name "Disney film". Does it consist out of all films produced by The Walt Disney Company, or only the films that were distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, or only the films produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Plus, what's nothing wrong with Japanese animation? I don't see the problem here. Disney doesn't seem to mind either, since they have their own Japanese division that also produces animated television shows under the Disney name.

We have a close-minded pseudo-racist on the board it seems. Bigotry.