Jake and Finn into tororo flim

cut scene from spirited away

Haku (boy) : If she steals your name, you’ll never find your way home. I no longer remember mine.
Chihiro (girl) : Your real name?
Haku (boy) : But it’s strange. I remember yours.

anime gif from Kiki’s Delivery Service

anime gif from spirited away

REVIEW : Princess Mononoke

Known for meticulous animation and a minimal use of computers and graphic technology, Miyazaki and his animation studio, Studio Ghibli, have produced inventive stories and characters reminiscent of such authors as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. One of my favorite among them is Princess Mononoke, which proved to be a great feat in animation, as it grossed more than 160 million dollars at the japanese box office. The film is both beautiful and violent as Miyazaki’s creatures and worlds collide with the broader themes of human nature, survival and morality. I must also note that aside from Akira, this was one of the first full length anime movies I saw and it made my interest in anime grow even more.

The plot of Princess Mononoke started with a young guy Prince Ashitaka who eventually becomes the curse for his peoples in an attempt to kill the demon who attacked his village. This is the classic display of the battle between mankind and nature. Its this particular fight which gives him an unwanted gift of the curse that has now generated within him. This curse was so dangerous that he has to leave his village to find the source of this curse and possibly the cure.

The animation is smooth, colorful, and detailed beyond belief. Simple things, like water, are depicted beautifully enough to catch your breath. Movement is fluid and lifelike, and the use of light and shadows are spot-on.

The musical score is brilliant. It’s grand, magical, and always well timed. Rare for an anime soundtrack, silence is effectively used, often enhancing a scene’s atmosphere. It’s worth noting, however, that the Japanese track is significantly louder and fuller. While on the subject, the English dub track is very well done, with excellent performances by all but Billy Bob Thorton (Jigo the monk), but the Japanese version is still this reviewer’s choice. It has none of the embarrassing or awkward moments of the dub and none of the translation errors, making it the preferred track. This is the total package for what an anime movie should be.  I assure you that this is just the beginning in a long line of reviews that spotlight on Studio Ghibli.

REVIEW : Nausicaa

Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind takes place a thousand years after a global war, a seaside kingdom known as the Valley Of The Wind remains one of only a few areas still populated. Led by the Princess Nausicaa, the people of the Valley are engaged in a constant struggle with powerful insects, who guard a toxic jungle that is spreading across the Earth. Nausicaa, together with the people of the Valley, strive to restore the bond between humanity and the Earth. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is written and directed by the great Hayao Miyazaki.

While some of the animation is dated, Nausicaa was the first to present the director’s sense of visual beauty in all its vast splendor. To me, this is the holy grail of Miyazaki films. Looking back over the twenty-plus-years history of Ghibli, one can now see that Nausicaa is the prototype for many other Miyazaki efforts.

As I mentioned earlier in this review, Nausicaa is an ambitious movie. The artistry of the animation is often breathtaking and extremely detailed, and you have to pay close attention to the story to figure out which characters are allies and for what reasons. The story itself has plenty to sell itself with as its laid out slowly and with just the right bit of teases along the way to expand on it, but it’s also the visuals and the characters that do an amazing job here. The film really stands the test of time for its animation in that while it can’t do some of the tricks that can be done today with digital animation, the simple fact that this is all hand drawn animation and they do pull off what they do makes it all the more spectacular.

A few years back they released a two disc set on DVD that offered an uncut English Language version that features the voices of Patrick Stewart, Shia LaBeouf, and Uma Thurman. Disney’s two-disc DVD set brilliantly re-packages Miyazaki’s works for US audiences. It comes with both the English-language version and the original Japanese, as well as working storyboards, trailers, a featurette about recording the English voices and a featurette about the birth of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli. Just a fantastic offering and a great DVD that hits on all cylinders.

REVIEW : Grave of the Fireflies

American animation mostly relies upon formulaic pastry ala Disney, Dreamworks, and television. But Grave of the Fireflies is far different; a transcendent masterpiece in its own right. In the latter part of World War II, a boy and his sister, orphaned when their mother is killed in the firebombing of Tokyo, are left to survive on their own in what remains of civilian life in Japan. Not exactly the way to reach someone who just dumped Shrek in front of their kids. Grave of the Fireflies does not once flinch from the direst possibilities of human existence, but portrays misery in such a way that we never stop believing this story is worth telling.

It’s the relationship between the two central characters that makes Grave of the Fireflies such a strong film. Here you have two innocent people thrust into a horrific situation.  The movie focuses almost exclusively on two children who become casualties in the Kobe bombing. Seita and Setsuko lose their home, then lose their mother. They travel to the home of a distant aunt, who turns out to be distant in more ways than one. Increasingly frustrated, the aunt coldly discards the children; they lose their surrogate home and turn to a hillside bomb shelter. Perhaps the film’s only drawback is that, being such an emotional journey, you rarely feel like revisiting it. I first watched Grave of the Fireflies many years ago, but since then, this review has been the only excuse I’ve had to rewatch it. Even now, several years and several vewings later, its suffering and peacefullness remain a deeply touching experience.

The quality of animation is fantastic, and that it still looks so good even after all these years is to Ghibli’s credit.  Grave of the Fireflies doesn’t attempt the realism of Princess Mononoke, but paradoxically it is the most realistic animated film I’ve ever seen – in feeling. Grave of the Fireflies puts a human face on the civilian population of Japan during the war, something not many movies have done, and none have done as well. Moreover, it manages to do so in a painful and realistic manner.