Day #6 of the 30 Day Film Challenge

[shadowkat]

Day #6 of The 30 Day Film Challenge.

Okay, now it is getting into "favorites" and honestly? I can't pick one favorite - it's like saying what's your favorite fruit or book. Not happening for me.

So, I'm changing it from "your favorite animated film" to "A favorite animated film". You can pick one or the other - up to you. I'm going with "a favorite".

Watch on YouTube

The film director did many others, but this is my favorite of his films.

Comments

[cjlasky7]

This was my pick. Disney (and Pixar) have given us so many great animated movies, but Miyazaki is in a class by himself. Nobody touches him.

If America has an animation auteur right now, it's Brad Bird. Ratatouille and The Incredibles are two of the reasons why Pixar is Pixar, and even his Mission Impossible live action movie (Ghost Protocol) had the kick of a top animated action flick.

Bird's first movie, The Iron Giant, was a dismal box office failure in 1999--but now, everybody claims they saw it in the theaters. Based on the children's book by Ted Hughes, the project started as a musical by Pete Townshend of the Who before Warners bought the rights and brought in Bird. (If you're curious, Townshend's solo album is like an alternate universe soundtrack of the movie.)

Bird brings his usual sharp characterization and deep empathy to the material and Hughes' anti-war message comes through loud and clear. A great start to a brilliant career.

https://youtu.be/09pMRJnaMXM

[shadowkat]

Oh I adored The Iron Giant. (I honestly can't remember when or where I saw it, just that I did and loved it. Animation fanatic that I am.)

I didn't know he did Ratatouille and The Incredibles? What he managed to do and very well is pull animation out of the "romantic" and "fairy tale genre" which it had been stuck in over at Disney. The Iron Giant is brilliant - it also goes back to soft cell animation and away from the harsh lines that plagued the animation in the 70s-80s at Disney, and the musical fairy tales of the 1990s (which I loved but felt repetitive after a bit).

One of the reasons Miyazaki is so good - is he finds innovative stories and characters, and myths to play with. Jumping outside of the box. I'm a long-time Miyazaki fan - the first television series/cartoon that I fell in love with was Kimba - the White Lion, which Disney later adapted into the Lion King. (It's the same story, but Miyazaki's version was a bit more interesting storywise.)

[cjlasky7]

Spirited Away is his peak, but I could have picked two or three other Studio Ghibli movies before even starting with anyone else.

(Kiki's Delivery Service, Totoro and Whisper of the Heart would be 2/3/4. Princess Mononoke would be in the top 15. I would fit Porco Rosso and Castle of Cagliostro... somewhere.

[shadowkat]

I like Howl's Moving Castle better than Kiki, Totoru and Princess Mononoke. I did see Princess at the NY Film Festival, with Neil Gaiman and Clare Danes presenting it, way back when it premiered. So it and Spirited Away are the two that I saw on the big screen. I think I also may have seen Howl's Moving Castle on the big screen.

The others...I can't remember. I don't know if I saw some of them. Probably. No memory of them though. Howl's and Spirited - I own on DVD - not that I can watch them, no workable DVD player.

[cjlasky7]

Out of all the ones I mentioned, I'd recommend you find Whisper of the Heart (1995). Miyazaki wrote the screenplay, but did not direct; Yoshifumi Hondo brought a different sensibility to the material, more in tune with the rhythms of an urban metropolis. (Sadly, this was Hondo's only film; he was going to be Miyazaki's heir apparent, but he died only three years later.)

https://youtu.be/0pVkiod6V0U

[petzipellepingo]

OK, maybe this isn't totally animated but I'm including it.

[shadowkat]

I think you can include it. It's a hybrid, like Mary Poppins, Bednobs and Broomsticks, and the Winnie the Pooh film. Which is live action plus animated. It doesn't say favorite fully animated film.

[cjlasky7]

Better than the first one! (And it totally fits the category. Hugh Grant is basically playing a cartoon character, anyway....)

[shadowkat]

I've never seen the first one. Only the second. And yes, I agree, Hugh Grant is basically playing a cartoon villain - he seems to be animated half the time as well.

[atpo_onm]

Well, there was a reason that when I attended the NY Big Damn Board Meet years back that along with all the Buffy & Angel DVDs I brought along was this animated film called Spirited Away. I recall sitting next to Littlebit when the scene with the train moving through where the tracks were submerged in the water, and Bit turned to me and said simply, "Wow".

No question-- I've seen quite a few animated films and television in my years, but there's no question this is my #1 pick for all-time best.

However, since several others here have already wisely agreed with me ;-) I offer as an alternative a very interesting, very non-mainstream effort for your consideration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJ7GeM1_nE

[shadowkat]

I guess I should have realized when I posted "Spirited Away" - it would be other's favorite as well. It is mine - or as close to a favorite as I can get. I saw it on the big screen.

However, Persepolis is a very good pick, and another favorite of mine. I have the graphic novels - which I also gave my niece for Xmas one year, and she actually studied in class.

I love that film - it's so different and innovative. I like obscure animation. I've seen most of it - used to haunt video stores for them. Hunting the stuff down, and made friends with the video store geeks who'd give me various obscure VHS tapes. (Ah, I miss those days.)

I'm still waiting for someone to post a far more obscure classic that I love.

[shadowkat]

Since no one appears to be coming up with...

My second choice is here

[atpo_onm]

Is this in the same universe as The Triplets of Belleville? I have that one, but not the one you linked to.

[shadowkat]

It is the Triplets of Belleville - that's the French Title. Same movie.

[mtbc]

Oh, I liked the novels but I don't think I'd known there's a movie of Persepolis too. Spirited Away's certainly a favorite of mine, I do also rather like Kiki's Delivery Service which is an exception for me in my choice of the English audio given Phil Hartman's contribution.

[shadowkat]

The movie is literally an animated version of the novels, complete with music - written, directed and animated by the author of the graphic novels. If you can find it? Worth it.

English audio is hit or miss with some of these. But the ones by the guy who did Spirited Away, and Kiki's Delivery Service - work. Also Princess Monoke worked for the most part - Neil Gaiman did the English translation.

But some anime? It's better to go with the original.

[wendelah1]

Fantasia. I love the music and the animation. I saw it in a theater with my family-of-origin in the sixties and again with son and husband in the nineties--it was probably the 50th anniversary in 1990, which had the original musical recordings and a restored print. I loved it.

[shadowkat]

I think they changed it slightly though for the 50th? There's a section that was edited out - due to possible racist implications?

I loved the 50th Anniversary edition as well. It's animation to classical music. My favorite numbers are the dance of spring, Ave Maria, and Night on Skull's Mountain.

[wendelah1]

I think the section you're referring to was edited out even earlier than that, in the late sixties according to Wikipedia. I've heard of it but I don't recall it. Though, maybe there was another controversial section removed for the 50th?

[shadowkat]

I think you might be right. The release in the 70s had it. The one in the 1990s did not. It's in the spring segment with the black lambs. (I think that's it.) I didn't pick up on it at all at the time. Any more than I picked up on the racist elements in Song of the South. I mean I can see why a lot of people had issues with it - but it can be interpreted more than one way. It's not the same as Gone with the Wind.