Blu Man

Which one do you like the most? I'm just getting into them and they really are amazing films. So?

Arthur Dent

I've seen Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle. I didn't care for Mononoke much, but I loved Spirited Away and Howl. Probably liked Spirited Away the most.

fumanstan

Same here, although I've also seen Kiki's Delivery Service along with those others which I thought was decent.

devilshalo

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...aki-movie.html

Blu Man

Wow, I even searched "Hayao Miyazaki" and nothing came up. Damn, this happens every time.

Ash Ketchum

PRINCESS MONONOKE is a masterpiece. It's as if Kurosawa made an animated film.
But his "best," on any day of the week, would have to be MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. This is a film that kids, no matter how young or old, and adults can all sit down and watch and enjoy equally.

The other masterpieces in Miyazaki's body of work are:
NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984)
LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986) - the U.S. release omitted the "Laputa" from the title
KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989)

But you should see ALL of them. And don't forget his first theatrical feature: LUPIN III: THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (1980).

His newest, PONYO BY THE SEA, comes to the U.S. in August.

Blu Man

You forgot to mention one of his best ones!! Spirited Away. And does Ponyo come out in theaters or on DVD/Blu Ray in August?

The Bus

Theaters. And this should have a poll.

I'd rank them this way:

Spirited Away
Nausicaa
Howl's Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
My Neighbor Totoro
Panda Go Panda
The Castle of Cagliostoro

I still need to see Porco Rosso, Laputa, and Kiki's Delivery Service.

naitram

Totoro
Howl's Moving Castle
Mononoke

Don't care much for Spirited Away but I may have to revisit it someday.

Blu Man

Thanks, I added a poll.

dom56

I only owned just seven on dvd and rank them in this order.

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Howl's Moving Castle
Castle in the Sky
Nausicaa
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service

whaaat

Do this ASAP. Laputa is my favourite, just a great adventure movie.

Sondheim

I'll probably be the only one voting for it, but my favorite is "Kiki's Delivery Service". I first saw it when it was showing on the Disney Channel back in the 90s, before I had any idea of who Miyazaki was, and I absolutely loved it. I've now seen all of his movies (except for "Ponyo") - and I love almost all of them - but this one will always hold a special place in my heart. It's one of those movies I feel I can watch just about anytime and it'll cheer me up.

wendersfan

Mod note: OK, while I had one request to close or merge this thread with the previous, 'what's your favorite Miyazaki film?" thread, doing that is far too complicated because they each have polls included. I could simply change the poll results to represent the combined votes for each film, but I'd have no way of knowing how many people have voted in each poll, and so forth. If anyone can come up with a good suggestion I'm open to it, but it doesn't seem like a horrible thing to have a duplicate of a four-year-old thread anyway...

cungar

I've seen a bootleg of Ponyo By the Sea in Japanese with English subtitles and was a little underwhelmed. Compared to Howl's and Spirited it seems like a step back visually and story wise. We'll see how the English version is.

shizawn

Of what I've seen, I'd rank them:

Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Porco Rosso
Nausicaa
Howl's Moving Castle
Castle in the Sky

I enjoyed them all, though.

fujishig

While the butchered, dubbed Nausicaa release was the first one I saw, I think Totoro will always hold the top place in my heart. It's not as plot intensive as some of his later films, but it's simple and endearing.

I do think that if they ever revisit Nausicaa and actually animate the whole thing (which wasn't complete at the time they did the movie), that would be my favorite.

Blu Man

Just watched Princess Mononoke, didn't really like it.

joeydaninja

1. My Neighbor Totoro
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
3. Porco Rosso

calhoun07

Kiki. Underrated and awesome.

rexinnih

Ponyo is the only one I haven't seen yet but Spirited Away remains my favorite.

Ash Ketchum

Did you watch it with the English dub or the Japanese track? That will make a difference. The Japanese voices are very different and have a much starker emotional quality. Billy Bob's southern accent as the monk can be off-putting, esp. in contrast to Minnie Driver's British accent. (I think they both do fairly good jobs anyway, I just prefer the Japanese originals.)

Also, as with so many great Japanese animated films, you need to watch it multiple times to truly appreciate it. That was the case for me with films like GHOST IN THE SHELL and AKIRA, to name a couple. And with MONONOKE, I initially watched it on VHS in Japanese only, no subs., and then got hold of a fan-subbed copy. So I watched it 3 or 4 times on tape before it came out theatrically in the U.S., at which point I saw it three times on the big screen (all with the English dub, though). And I've seen it on DVD multiple times since then.

I've only seen SPIRITED AWAY twice, once in Japanese w. subs on DVD, and once in English on the big screen. I have yet to fully appreciate it. I've only seen HOWL'S once--on the big screen, in English. I find these last two a bit too abstract for my tastes. But I'll see them again.

I imagine SPIRITED is getting so many votes because it's one of the only ones people here have seen or because many of you are so young (or so unaccustomed to anime) that it was your first Miyazaki. One's often more attached to the ones that gave them their first exposure.

GenPion

Best? Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.

Weakest? None. All of his films are masterpieces. I'd give each and every film of his a glowing A+ review. And yes, I have seen all of them (except for Ponyo).

Blu Man

I don't get the big deal about Princess Mononoke. Not my time of movie I guess. But a member on Youtube has almost all of Tortro, which I haven't seen for years. I'm watching that, but the whole movie isn't up yet, but the poster say's that he's working on getting the rest up. I'm still debating whether I like Spirited Away or Howls Moving Castle better, but I haven't seen Spirited Away in a few years so i'll have to revisit that.

Blu Man

I'll only watch a movie if it's in English. With animated films like these, I try to enjoy the animation as much as I enjoy the story, and I can't do that if I have read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen.