Sick Girls Talk about Movies

Today I thought I'd talk about Studio Ghibli. Whenever I see a Ghibli film, I always feel like I've seen it before ... a really long time ago when I was a small child. I've forgotten the details of the story, but there's a feel to the film that awakens a part of my memory that is extremely old. There's a few that it wasn't true of, but I feel this way about most of them. We'll see what I can write about each film.

Howl's Moving Castle
I remember one of my friends trying to get me to read this book when I was in seventh grade, but I turned her down because I thought the premise sounded ... unromantic. I mean, Sophie is an old woman for a serious portion of the story and I thought that wouldn't be any fun. Cheers to the immature mind. So, I had nothing more to do with the story until the film came out. It was great! I'm always thinking about what kinds of movies I want my children to grow up with and this movie describes the essence of what I want them to absorb. Just as another thought - I love watching this movie with girls who haven't seen it before. It's hilarious to watch them perk up when Howl shows up and puts his arm around Sophie. They thought they were going to be bored - U-huh.

Spirited Away
Very often, when I happen to have conversations with non-animeniacs about anime - this is the only film they've seen. Consequently, they think anime is cooked. I can't deny that this film is a little out there, but in essence it's sort of like 'Alice in Wonderland' and thus I believe that it's not too difficult to identify with. This is more of a tween thing than a children's movie as I think No Face would scare little ones, but I still enjoy it hugely. I love it when they get guys who know what they're doing to do the voices and the guy who does Haku rocks my word.

Laputa: The Castle in the Sky
This has got to be my least favourite Ghibli film. Seriously, I couldn't get into it at all. The only thing I remember is being interesting was Muska's voice. I was sitting there cracking my brain open trying to figure out who could be doing it and doing such a fantastic job at it too. It turned out to be Mark Hamill. I was so pleased at his performance that I wanted to write him fanmail. He was awesome!

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
I like this film a great deal. It doesn't move very fast and it's a little more mature, but I enjoy the pace of it a great deal and cry my eyes out at the end. I really love this film.

Whisper of the Heart
I ended up reading a massive article in 'Anime Insider Magazine' that listed all the reasons why you should buy 'Whisper of the Heart' when it came on sale and I ended up biting - which is unlike me. I don't buy movies I haven't seen before. This one was based on a piece of shoujo cannon and it was pretty cute, but it's not got a super fast pace either. Actually, I'm the only person I know who's been able to sit through it. Kids could watch it, but they probably wouldn't want to.

Princess Mononoke
I have BIG theories about this movie. I don't think that anyone I know who has seen it has understood it - even a little bit. I went and saw it in theaters four times in two weeks and didn't understand it at all. It wasn't until I started studying Japanese history that I got a theory as to what it's really about. I'll have to write an entire post on it, but I'm a little afraid to do so just in case I'm WAY off base. It's just a little frustrating when I don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of before I post here. Most people I know watch it and are like, "Why do they keep calling her San when the movie is called Princess Mononoke?" Then my eyebrow twitches and I answer calmly (since I was in the same boat as them the first couple times I watched it) that mononoke means vengeful spirit in Japanese. Some day I'll step out on a limb and post my theories - they're BIG.

Okay - I think that's it Kittens. Next time I'll write some more.