Cat returns is second best? 
................
WHAT?
I can tell you what are the worst ones, Ocean Waves and Only Yesterday.
Ocean Waves is like a teen drama, straight up. It's awful.
I think I've seen all Ghibli films including Ponyo on the Cliff and I own most of them on DVD other than the shorts.
gamingeek said:I can tell you what are the worst ones, Ocean Waves and Only Yesterday.
Ocean Waves is like a teen drama, straight up. It's awful.
I think I've seen all Ghibli films including Ponyo on the Cliff and I own most of them on DVD other than the shorts.
I'm surprised you didn't say My Neighbour Totoro. 
I grabbed this from wikipedia, a list of the movies:
Next up to order them in greatness. Oh and might as well chuck in the Little Norse Prince too.
- Little Norse Prince
- The Castle of Cagliostro
- Nausica of the Valley of the Wind
- The Cat Returns
- Porco Rosso
- Pom Poko
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky
- Howl's Moving Castle
- Princess Mononoke
- My Neighbour Totoro
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Whisper of the Heart
- My Neighbours the Yamadas
- Spirited Away
- Only Yesterday
- Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (though i don't so much consider this a ghibli studio film)
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bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from Earthsea
Don't seriously!
Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from EarthseaDon't seriously!
i have my expectations low from what you and gigi said about it but i have to get it for completeness at least, if nothing else
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bugsonglass said:Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from EarthseaDon't seriously!
i have my expectations low from what you and gigi said about it but i have to get it for completeness at least, if nothing else
Fuck completeness, check it out on the net and buy Tokyo Godfathers, Millenium Actress or Perfect Blue instead.
gamingeek said:Cat returns is second best?
................
WHAT?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cat_returns/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/princess_mononoke/
Suck it
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobilebugsonglass said:i have seen and own on DVD the following:I will very soon order Tales from Earthsea and Ponyo as soon as it becomes available. Hard for me to put them in order of preference as they are all on the whole among my favourite movies but there are some i love more than others
- Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (though i don't so much consider this a ghibli studio film)
Ghost in the Shell 2 isn't Ghibli?? Isn't it Mamora Oshi?
You can order Ponyo right now on Japanese region 2 dvd. Only £36 for the regular version and £150 for the 9 disc special edition.
bugsonglass said:Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from EarthseaDon't seriously!
i have my expectations low from what you and gigi said about it but i have to get it for completeness at least, if nothing else
I would say its on par with Nausicca. I was a fan of the books though, so I hated it at first for condensing, twisting and mixing. Second time through its allright.
US Ponyo trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/ponyo/trailer_medium.html
Yodariquo said:gamingeek said:Cat returns is second best?
................
WHAT?
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cat_returns/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/princess_mononoke/
Suck it
OMG, so wrong. Cat Returns isn't even from Takahata or Miyazaki. Even the art was really off kitler. It barely resembles a Ghibli film. If you watch Whisper of the Heart the cat figuirine parts are what the Cat Returns is based on and the atmosphere of those sections in Whisper are much better. Cat returns is fun, but so far below other films from those guys.
I will start with the worst downwards. I've seen them all.
Ocean Waves
Only Yesterday
Lupin 3rd
Whisper of the Heart
The Cat Returns
Little Norse Prince
Tales of Earthsea
Nausicaa
Ocean Waves, a long, boring TV drama made for angst ridden girls.
Only Yesterday, a long, boring drama made for angst ridden girls: who are now 40.
Lupin 3rd, fun, but pre-dates Ghibli. Very silly, not really Ghibli style or Miyazaki style at all, but entertaining enough. Very 70s in style.
Whisper of the Heart, Kondo the director was being groomed to be the next Miyazaki before he died at a young age. You can see why, in his first film he perfectly captures the spirit of Ghibli. It's a mundane story about teenage girl angst interspersed with sporadic fantasy about a cat figurine and a magical world. Slow, ponderous, but worth watching and enjoying at least twice.
The Cat Returns, this was done by the B-team at Ghibli or more accurately the younger animators. It was directed neither by Miyazaki or Takahata and is loosely based on trying to flesh out the fantasy scenes in Whisper of the Heart. It's solid, entertaining, often funny. But it's slight and misses the rapturous peaks the other directors can reach. The art style is clearly off too, especially with character models being far too simplistic. It also chooses some washed out garish colours compared to rich and warm tones in most Ghibli films.
The Little Norse Prince, Isao Takahata pre-Ghibli this was actually made in the 60s and remarkably holds up amazingly well. It has horribly dated music that sounds like it was ripped from a western at the time. It also tells its age in scenes where the animators cannot animate the hundreds of characters they want to. Otherwise, this is Miyazaki before Miyazaki thematically. Takahata shows he was doing Mononoke like films way before his more successful partner.
Tales of Earthsea
Nausicaa
Descriptions to come. 
gamingeek said:bugsonglass said:Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from EarthseaDon't seriously!
i have my expectations low from what you and gigi said about it but i have to get it for completeness at least, if nothing else
I would say its on par with Nausicca.
Hell no! You can follow and understand the story of Nausicca, the same is not true for Earthsea.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobileYodariquo said:Hmm, my list seems to correlate with the prominence of the female character(s) in each movie. The more prominent, the higher rated 0_o.
Does that mean you've not seen My Neighbour Totoro? It's about sisters, so you'll surely love it!
Iga_Bobovic said:gamingeek said:bugsonglass said:Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:I will very soon order Tales from EarthseaDon't seriously!
i have my expectations low from what you and gigi said about it but i have to get it for completeness at least, if nothing else
I would say its on par with Nausicca.
Hell no! You can follow and understand the story of Nausicca, the same is not true for Earthsea.
I read the books though, all of them, so I have inside knowledge.
Yodariquo said:Hmm, my list seems to correlate with the prominence of the female character(s) in each movie. The more prominent, the higher rated 0_o.
Such a perv.
I dont know where to place Porco Rosso, I saw it in Japanese and didn't take to it, but recentely I was watching the Disney english dub and liked it much more. I only got an hour in though so I have to watch it again before I can rank it.
Okay next up is:
Tales of Earthsea, strangely harks back to a simpler character design of earlier Ghibli films like Nausicaa or Castle in the Sky. The story unfortunately is somewhat difficult to understand. I have read the superb books and this film takes elements from a massive collection of short stories. It has a pretty bad flaw at the end where they dont explain something huge that happens and you just have to take it at face value. I can tell you why but if I do then it spoils the suprise in the movie. Also in the film they portray the wizard Cob as this bizaare, woman/man.
As with most Ghibli films its slow and ponderous in parts. It has memerising landscapes and beautiful music/animation. It's a difficult film to judge as I have inside knowledge from the books. Overall it's about on the same enjoyment level as Nausicaa.
Nausicaa lands above Earthsea because of pacing. I will get back to this later.
darthhomer said:I've seen Porco Rosso, Nausicaa, Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Favourite is probably Mononoke or Spirited. Nausicaa and Porco are fantastic, and I didn't dig Howl's.I'm not too familiar with Lupin III, but is it worth watching Caligstoro regardless?
for me it was. i found it thoroughly enjoyable even though i knew nothing of Lupin III. as gg said though it's very lighthearted, doesn't carry the same gravity as other ghibli films
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darthhomer said:I've seen Porco Rosso, Nausicaa, Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Favourite is probably Mononoke or Spirited. Nausicaa and Porco are fantastic, and I didn't dig Howl's.I'm not too familiar with Lupin III, but is it worth watching Caligstoro regardless?
It doesn't really feel like a Ghibli film, apart from the car chase sequence which is actually updated in Ponyo.
Why didn't you dig Howl again? I know they use metaphors a lot and try and wrap things up in like a 30 second period at the end. Again I've read the book, but the book is shite compared to the film and Miyazaki completely re-worked it for the better.
Is anyone watching this BTW???
US Ponyo trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/ponyo/trailer_medium.html
In part prompting to this is that I just recently saw The Cat Returns, which I have to say is the forgotten child of the Ghibli fan, and very unfairly so. Though short at 75 minutes, it fits squarely in, and I'm tempted to place it right behind Spirited Away as second-best.
Here's the full list of which ones I've seen, quickly ordered best to worst:
-Spirited Away
-The Cat Returns
-Princess Mononoke
-My Neighbors the Yamadas
-Porco Rosso
-Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
-Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Ghost in the Shell 2 is the only one I'd rate below 9/10. I have written about Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke before.
I must also ask a question I have asked before on the podcast: what does Studio Ghibli know that nobody else does? Why and how does everything they touch turn to gold?
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