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

[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