The Simpsons Tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

Hayao Miyazaki has announced his retirement (once again) this past September 2013 and The Simpsons pay tribute to one of the greatest animators of our time!   He has retired before and rumors are already spinning as to the possibility of him returning for another project.  I wouldn't mind.



Absolutely love this homage!  I saw parts from My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service (gotta review that soon), and Princess Mononoke.  It seems they only included films he actually directed, but I didn't see anything from Laputa (Castle in the Sky).

Did I miss anything?  What did you see!?

Homer and his buddy accidentally step into the world of Spirited Away

 

Princess Mononoke Anime Movie Review

Princess Mononoke
Mononoke-hime
Miramax Films
Movie - 134 minutes - 1 disc
$32.99 (2000)
$22.99 (2000)
ISBN 717951007414
Japanese/English/French Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: A monstrous creature descends upon a village tucked away in the hidden wilderness.  The creature writhes with evil and wishes to destroy all in its path.  One brave, young warrior rises to meet the horror and protect his village.  Yoshitaka riding his faithful red elk, Yakul, manages to fell the beast and reveal it's true form - a massive, decaying boar god.  During his struggle, Yoshitaka's right arm is caught in its foul grasp and becomes infected with the same evil corruption.  The wise woman of the village pronounces sentence on Yoshitaka after he returns to the village - his arm is poisoned and it will eventually kill him once it reaches his heart.  An iron ball is recovered from the boar god's body and Yoshitaka vows to discover its origins to protect others from befalling a similar fate.  He leaves his village behind and begins his journey with Yakul.

Yoshitaka riding Yakul takes aim at the monster attacking his village

During his journey, Yoshitaka, encounters many interesting people and creatures.  They include Jigo, a wandering monk who may have ties to the government and a secret agenda.  Yoshitaka passes by war-torn villages and the evil in his right arm responds to the chaos being wrought by the soldiers.  The right arm gives Yoshitaka power, but makes his attempts at self-defense turn deadly.  Fleeing further west, he enters an ancient forest and experiences the incredible.  A great forest spirit watches over these lands and giant creatures roam the hills as gods.  Among them are a group of massive wolves and a ferocious girl who rides with them.  She is known as San and despises humans.

Yoshitaka's right arm is injured during the confrontation

The humans under the leadership of Lady Eboshi have established Irontown near the forest and begun a fierce conflict with the native creatures.  Irontown makes weapons of war in great furnaces that pollute the air and water.  The forest gods rail against the humans and San sides with her wolf clan.  Yoshitaka becomes embroiled in the brutal conflict between man and nature, but which side will he choose?  He is captivated by San's wild beauty, but how can he betray humanity to animals?  Lady Eboshi vows to destroy the forest spirit and Jigo lurks in the shadows.  Can Yoshitaka make a difference amidst these relentless forces before his poisoned right arm claims his life?

During his journey Yoshitaka meets the wandering monk, Jigo

Pros: Amazing animation with meticulous attention to detail, lush backgrounds, incredible creature designs, compelling characters, relevant environmental message which embraces the constant state of change in the world, perhaps the greatest film by Miyazaki, won scores of awards and was the highest grossing film in Japan when it was first released, Neil Gaiman worked on the English dub - which had excellent voice acting (included a bunch of Hollywood stars - Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Crudup, and Claire Danes)

These little guys are Kodama, harmless little tree sprites in the deep forest

Cons: English dub script is different than the original Japanese script (subtitles are based on the dub script), no Blu-Ray version has been released yet and the image quality from the DVD release is showing its age, not necessarily a con, but this movie is not family-friendly like most Studio Ghibli films (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle) due to violence and wolf-head, ending is not absolute

Lady Eboshi and her men from Irontown prepare to defend against giant wolves

Mike Tells It Straight: Princess Mononoke is quite possibly the greatest Miyazaki film ever produced.  It embodies all of his main themes from across his lengthy career - environmentalism, man's opposition with nature, strong female characters, anti-war, morally ambiguous villains, a sense of the wonder with the unseen spiritual world.  Some really amazing and dramatic scenes are in this movie starting with the intense confrontation at the beginning with the corrupted boar god, Nago.  The creature design is truly creepy and really sets the tone as far apart from previous Ghibli films as possible.

San rides on the back of a giant wolf and opposes Lady Eboshi

Yoshitaka's poisoned arm makes for some exciting situations.  It gives him superhuman strength which comes in handy against regular humans and puts him somewhat in league with the lesser animal gods.  I found San to be somewhat one-dimensional - all-consuming hate and anger against the humans.  She was a fierce combatant, but Yoshitaka was truly the protagonist in the film.  His personality was extremely noble although it was supposed to be somewhat melancholy.  I didn't see that at all and maybe the English dub had something to do with altering his original portrayal.

San attempts to kill Lady Eboshi!

The other characters were interesting, but not very likable.  Jigo and Lady Eboshi were both complex, but I couldn't help disliking them since they opposed the forest gods.  They both had excellent martial skills and weren't all bad since Yoshitaka befriended them.  So many scenes were epic during the movie and my particular favorites were the opening scene with Nago, the first appearance of the little forest sprites, and the assassination attempt of Lady Eboshi by San in Irontown.  Truly epic stuff and I give my highest recommendation possible to this film.  I love Miyazaki's other films, but this one is more mature and quite possibly my favorite.

The Forest Spirit is a wondrous and mysterious creature

TO BUY and Recommendations:

Howl's Moving Castle Anime Movie Review

Howl's Moving Castle
Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 119 mins. - 2 discs
$29.99 (2006)
ISBN 786936296662
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: Sophie works in her mother's hat shop and is a responsible, level-headed young lady.  A war is brewing between her country and a neighboring state with soldiers being stationed in her town where several protests have been happening.  She is stopped on her way home by a pair of rude soldiers and deftly rescued from the situation by a dashing young man who appears to have magical powers.  He is being pursued by strange, globular phantoms, but manages to elude them and deliver Sophie to safety. 

Sophie encounters Howl and they fly above the rooftops
to evade his pursuers

He is the renowned sorcerer Howl who is wanted by the wicked Witch of the Waste.  Howl's home is an enchanted castle which walks about on two legs and is magically obscured from detection.  Back at the hat shop Sophie is visited by a rude old woman who inquires on Howl's whereabouts.  Sophie gives the old woman's attitude right back to her, but is shocked to discover the old woman is the fearsome Witch of the Waste.  The Witch curses Sophie by transforming her into an old woman! 

Sophie gets a rude visit from the nasty Witch of the Waste

Now Sophie is trapped in an aging body, unrecognizable to any of her loved ones, and unable to tell anyone of her condition.  She sets off on a journey to find a cure and manages to gain entrance to Howl's moving castle. The inhabitants of the castle are Markl, a young boy who is apprentice to Howl, and Calcifer, a fire demon under a spell to obey Howl and the power source for the moving castle.

Sophie discovers the result of the horrible curse the
Witch puts on her!

The door to Howl's castle is magic and opens upon several different physical locations - typically wizards' storefronts where Howl poses as other wizards plying their trade.  Howl is out while Sophie gains entrance to the castle and when he returns she quickly explains she is the new cleaning lady.  Howl accepts her and she starts cleaning the castle - which is a daunting mess as no one has cleaned it ever before!

Sophie sets out to find a cure for her curse and happens upon Howl's
 Moving Castle (doesn't look like any castle I've ever seen)

Each of Howl's wizard alter-egos is summoned by the king to participate in the war, but Howl is not interested.  He tries to avoid participating yet cannot when he learns other wizards are transforming into giant creatures and destroying towns.  Now he is being hunted by the Madam Suliman, the king's royal mage, along with the Witch of the Waste.  In order to protect himself and those he cares about he repeatedly transforms into a powerful, bird-like creature, but each transformation brings him closer to losing his humanity.  Can Sophie help protect Howl, break her own curse, and keep her wondrously strange new family together? 

We meet Calcifer, a fire demon who is cursed to
serve Howl as the power source for the castle

Pros: Beautiful animation - hand drawn figures in front of lush/complex backgrounds with unobtrusive computer-aided elements, typical Miyazaki themes - anti-war and discovering inner strength through external struggles, great voice-acting for young/old Sophie, ending neatly wraps up the plot threads, very nice musical score, nominated for Best Animated Feature at 2006 Academy Awards 

Sophie sets to work cleaning the filthy castle

Cons: Film plot and character portrayals are drastically different than the original novel by Diana Wynne Jones, dub actor choices were questionable for Calcifer (Billy Crystal - too silly) and Howl (Christian Bale - too gruff), plot jumps around quite a bit and the reason for the war wasn't readily apparent (maybe I'm just dense, but after like ten viewings I still don't know why the war is happening)

Howl transforms into a giant bird-like creature to try and
oppose the other wizards involved in the war

Mike Tells It Straight: Hayao Miyazaki followed up his critically-acclaimed film Spirited Away with this film based on the novel Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.  His films are usually original creations written and directed by him (with the exception of Kiki's Delivery Service which was based on a short novel), but he was a great fan of the book and wanted to create a film from it. 

Sophie helps Howl to rest after a traumatizing experience

For those fans of the original novel this film is a big departure as it is not a direct representation of the book.  The Witch of the Waste was a beautiful ex-lover of Howl's and is instead an overweight aging madame.  Michael the teenage apprentice who was in love with Sophie's sister is instead Markl the young boy.  Howl was an irresponsible lothario and is instead a gruff anti-war hero. 

The castle and its inhabitants take a break from walking

Obviously Miyazaki used the book as a loose basis for the story he wanted to tell with the characters in order to reiterate recurring themes from past works - anti-war, a perpetual battle between technology and the natural (magical) world, and discovering inner strength through difficult trials.  Despite the change to the characters I think Miyazaki really made them stand for something. 

Heen, Markl and Turnip Head

Instead of a vapid womanizer we get a socially-conscious Howl willing to sacrifice his humanity in order to stop senseless violence.  Sophie discovers adventure and a chance at love after a debilitating curse alters her life.  I like the underlying theme of personal freedom portrayed in this film, particularly Howl's lifestyle and desire to stay unfettered of responsibilities.  His house is always on the move, he assumes false identities, and spreads unsavory rumors to keep himself at a comfortable distance from others.

Sophie holds a flaming heart in her hands

The spectacular visuals alone are worth viewing and the story is interesting if not a bit scattered.  Fans of Miyazaki and animation in general will really enjoy this film.  It's not the best Miyazaki has done, but in the upper strata for sure.  I would recommend seeing the film and then reading the book to minimize any potential disappointment with the film.  Absolutely see this and it actually improves a bit on repeat viewings.

TO BUY and Recommendations:
    

Spirited Away Anime Movie Review

Spirited Away
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 125 mins. - 2 discs
$29.99 (2003)
ISBN 786936213843
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: Chihiro is moving to a new town with her family because of her father's work.  She had to leave all of her friends behind and feels sad.  Her father gets lost on the way to the new house and ends up on a deserted road.  Chihiro follows both her parents into a spooky passageway leading to a deserted train station. The station appears abandoned and they continue outside across a field of grass to what appears to be a deserted shopping district.  All of the shops look empty, but food is ready at the restaurants and her parents sit down to eat.  They stuff themselves greedily with no one around and her father makes an excuse to pay the shop owners later.

Chihiro drives with her parents to find their new home.  They don't
seem to care that she has just left all of her friends behind.

It becomes dusk and lanterns begin to glow all along the streets.  Strange shadowy figures coalesce in the streets and Chihiro's apprehension advances to growing dread.  She knows something is wrong, but her parents are oblivious.  Pleading with them to leave she is horrified to find they are transforming into hogs even as they shovel more food into their lengthening snouts.  Panicking she rushes to cross the grassy field and escape, but it has filled with water to become a river with the deserted train station now lit up on the other shore.

Chihiro frantically runs through the previously deserted streets
as the disturbing shadow blobs proliferate and solidify

Chihiro is frightened and alone with the shadowy figures solidifying into bizarre creatures all around her until an authoritative boy tells her to leave before nightfall.  Unable to leave and losing cohesion as surely as the shadows come into form she wanders hopelessly toward the entrance of a grand bathhouse.  The boy, Haku, pulls her aside and bids her eat something lest she evaporate from being.  He saves her and she is led into the bathhouse in order to obtain a job, which is the only way to remain there rightfully.

Haku helps Sen by bringing her to visit her transformed parents,
giving her food, and telling her to always remember her name

Yubaba is the owner of the bathhouse and a powerful witch (with a giant head).  Chihiro signs a contract for a job, but the condition is her name is changed to Sen.  If Chihiro forgets her real name she will be a trapped as a servant forever.  Her parents remain hogs in the bathhouse's pens among the other swine.  Sen vows to rescue them and return to the real world.

Yubaba is very scary and has a really big head!

Sen begins her menial work at the bathhouse by scrubbing floors and cleaning tubs.  She is befriended by another worker named Lin who is gruff, but kindhearted.  The two are given an incredibly odious job to clean out an especially dirty tub and help a disgustingly smelly stink spirit.  The bathhouse patrons are largely from the spirit world and not always what they seem.

Lin and Sen work to clean a particularly dirty bath before
getting assigned an especially smelly customer

Remaining true to herself and drawing on her own inner strength in order to deal with the impossible situation, Sen manages to hang in there and keep a level head.  She is very kind and her good intentions cause a terrible situation which endangers the bathhouse (involving a creature named No Face).  Haku is a powerful spirit himself and trapped in a contract with Yubaba.  Can Sen possibly return to the real world and save her parents from being eaten?

No Face offers Sen some bath tokens.  Initially gentle and
unassuming, the creature later becomes a serious problem

Pros: Wonderful story - just like a fairy tale, beautiful animation with hand drawn scenes meshed flawlessly to computer-aided effects, imaginative character designs - particularly the spirits, highest grossing film in Japanese history (at the time), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, immerses viewers into a bizarrely magical world, good dub especially Suzanne Pleshette as Yubaba/Zeniba, nice soundtrack, decent subtitles

Chihiro works alongside the soot sprites in the
boiler room to feed the boiler for the bathhouse

Cons: Might be a little scary for some younger kids (particularly sensitive viewers) at some points (especially No Face), I didn't like the one cartoony part where Sen crashes into a wall and goes flat like a pancake (this isn't Looney Tunes), not a Western cartoon and some folks just may not get it (or they'll consider it really weird), plot can jump around too quickly with all of the strange happenings at the bathhouse, things wrap up too neatly and characters can be too nice

Chihiro rides the elevator with a big yet kind radish spirit

Mike Tells It Straight: Spirited Away is easily one of my all-time favorite films and especially among those from Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (together with Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke).  It's a wonderfully imaginative coming-of-age story which continues to delight me to this day.  This film is another masterpiece by Miyazaki and garnered international acclaim while breaking serious new ground in America after winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002.

Some Yokai patrons of the bathhouse

The film is not perfect and although I'm highly biased toward giving it an unabashedly favorable review it may not be equally received by other viewers.  My two-year-old loves it, but she hasn't developed a strong sense of fear yet.  Slightly older children may get scared in a few parts (like when No Face eats one of the bathhouse workers).  The plot can be called too whimsical (mostly near the end with the visit to Zeniba's house) and lacking in structure.  Things happen without explanations - some people will dislike when this happens.

Chihiro/Sen on the train with No Face to see Zeniba

On the whole Spirited Away is a creative triumph in animated storytelling.  Chihiro's tale is a great metaphor for being an outsider in a new place and drawing on inner strength/conviction/belief to overcome those feelings of isolation.  She makes mistakes and learns from them.  The characters are not all black and white, good and bad.  Each one has their positive and negative sides, much like real people.

The soot sprites at feeding time - party! party! party!

Spirited Away is long overdue for a Blu-Ray release (or just another release period).  This one I would say is safe to buy before watching - it's that good.  How does Chihiro find her parents among all the other swine?

TO BUY and Recommendations:

Laputa: Castle in the Sky Anime Review

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 126 minutes
$29.99 (2003) $29.99 (2010)
ISBN 786936791617
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: A girl floats down from the sky wearing a pendant necklace of glowing blue stone and Pazu rescues her.  She is named Sheeta and is being pursued by the military.  Sheeta is linked to the ancient floating city called Laputa where wondrous technology and wealth are stored.  The two teenagers find unlikely allies in a group of sky pirates who are interested in Laputa to loot treasure, but have good hearts.


Pazu discovers Sheeta floating down from the sky

The military is led by the callous Colonel Muska who wants to harness Laputa as a tool to conquer the world.  He possesses artifacts from the fabled lost sky city in the form of an ancient non-functioning robot and a book.  Now Pazu and Sheeta along with Dola's pirates must race to uncover the secrets of Laputa before Muska and his flying warships catch up to them. 

Sheeta and Pazu flee from Muska's airship Goliath

Sheeta's pendant is the key to finding Laputa and her history is inexorably linked with the legendary city.  Can she and Pazu stop the evil Muska from destroying the world?

Pros: High-flying adventure, exciting chase scenes, wonderful hand-drawn animation, lush backgrounds, sense of wonder and amazement, incredibly simple yet appealing design work, excellent story with truly legendary feel, and the ancient robots rock!

Can Pazu and Sheeta reach Laputa before Muska?

Cons: Some issues with English dub including the translation differing from original Japanese script on some key lines and voice actor choices for Sheeta (Anna Paquinn) and Pazu (James Van Der Beek) sound older than originally portrayed (teens instead of pre-teens), the 2010 version's English subtitles are actually 'dub-titles' following the English dub rather than the original Japanese audio, background music is amped up, pirates are goofy (guys wear pink outfits)

Mike Tells It Straight: Laputa is one of my favorite films and another classic by Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (the first official film by the studio in 1986).  It's filled with fantastic adventure and suspense while keeping a lighthearted air of simplicity.  A true classic and highly recommended for young and old alike.  I would easily rate this among the top five Ghibli films of all-time.  Animation and mechanical designs are top-notch organics (i.e. hand drawn).  The robots are awesome and my two-year-old loves this movie (behind Totoro of course).

Pazu and Sheeta meet a robot from Laputa

2010 version

The biggest question for me was how to choose the best version of the film on DVD.  Disney has released two versions in 2003 and 2010.  I watched the 2003 version and found it to be very good.  The soundtrack was epic (revised score by Joe Hisaishi didn't seem overpowering), subtitles were great, and the dub was all right.  The dub script makes some major changes to the story with choice of voice actors and line changes (lessening the environmental message which is a Ghibli signature). 

I would suggest getting the 2003 version if you're planning to watch in Japanese with English subtitles (avoid the dubtitles in the 2010 version).  Either version is fine if you're going to watch the English dub primarily.  Go out and get this movie as it's a wonderful film for all ages.

TO BUY and Recommendations:
   

My Neighbor Totoro Anime Movie Review

My Neighbor Totoro

Tonari no Totoro
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney)
Movie - 88 mins. - 2 discs
$39.99 (2013) Blu-Ray/DVD
$29.99 (2010)
$29.99 (2004)
$9.98 (2002)
ISBN 786936791716
English/Japanese Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Hayao Miyazaki
Studio - Studio Ghibli

Synopsis: Satsuki and Mei move with their father, a university professor, into an old house in the country to be closer to their mother who is in the hospital.  The sisters (ages ten and four) explore their new home and discover all sorts of interesting phenomena.  Upon their arrival and first inspection they disturb the 'soot sprites' living in the empty house.  Their father knows the only way to keep away house spirits is to laugh very loudly - and that's just what they do!

Mei spies this little guy while she's playing. Hey, where's he going?

After several weeks the girls adjust to their new home and enjoy exploring the surrounding woods together.  One day Mei happens upon a pint-sized magical creature and follows it to a huge ancient tree.  She falls into the tree and right on top of a massive, sleeping Totoro!  Mei is fascinated by the huge furry creature and Totoro is indifferent to the tiny creature sitting on him.  They both take a nap.

Mei drops in on Totoro while he's taking a nap

Later Satsuki and Mei encounter Totoro while waiting at the bus stop in a heavily wooded lane.  He gives them a bundle of magic seeds before boarding a Catbus.  The girls enjoy several more encounters with the 'King of the Forest'.

Satsuki offers Totoro her extra umbrella

Pros: Hand-rendered animation, simple and believable human characters, unmistakable sense of wonder/delight at the benign supernatural, the two little girls are adorable and well-portrayed, widespread international appeal, Totoro is great/hilarious (so is the theme song), it has a catbus!

Satsuki gets Totoro's help when Mei goes missing.  He calls the Catbus!

Cons: Slow-paced, Disney English dub is different than original (long out-of-print) Fox/Streamline English dub (those familiar with previous dub may be disappointed by new dub), instance where one of the girls gets lost could be tough for some young viewers (my young viewers didn't have a problem)

The magic seeds grow with a little help from Totoro!

Mike Tells It Straight: This movie is one of my all-time favorites and has such universal appeal that anyone will enjoy it.  It put Studio Ghibli on the international map and they don't use Totoro as their mascot by coincidence.  The curiosity and wonder of the girls meeting Totoro is absolutely precious.

My two-year old can't get enough of Totoro and goes crazy every time I wear a Totoro-face shirt.  It's slow-paced, but builds to some pretty amazing moments and will captivate younger viewers.  Watch this movie and be transported back to childhood when magic still happened every day. 

"Kaaawwwwaaaaaiiiii!!!!"

TO BUY and Recommendations: