Miyazaki's Spirited Away

[WizarDru]

Agreed, I even have the hacked up Warriors of the Wind version, it's so dear to me.

I'm definately miffed that I cannot find a copy of Nausicaa for region 1 though.

Ouch. I remember that travesty. It's why Miyazaki resisted any translation of his films to English for almost two decades.

Spirited Away is a wonderful film...child-like, not childish, as someone once said. Parents and children can both enjoy it, and take different but equally rewarding things from it. Miyazaki has never done a bad movie, and each one is different. Castle Cagliostro, the best Lupin III film, Nasuicaa, Laputa, Kiki and Totoro, Porco Rosso, Mononoke Hime, and Spirited Away. All excellent movies, and all worth doing. I think the only group who's been as good as Miyazaki in movie making has been Pixar, to me.

My kids love all of his films. The first film my daughter ever sat through without moving or talking was Kiki's Delivery Service. She was totally enchanted. My son is a huge fan of Totoro, and they both love Spirited Away. Disney should be so lucky as to learn how from the master (and I like some of Disney's recent releases (some of them).

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

My son is a huge fan of Totoro

If you love Totoro, be sure to check out 101 Things to Do with a Dead Totoro

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Ouch. I remember that travesty. It's why Miyazaki resisted any translation of his films to English for almost two decades.

Well, it was hacked, but still is brillance shone through and helped turn me into the anime/gamer/geek I am today.

And at that time, anime wasn't cool, so any company bringing it to the states was probably adamant that it be cut to 90 minutes, and follow the standard film-formula.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I watched part of it at a con last October. It was...well I left after an hour. Not bad, good animation and all that. But just not my thing.

 

[RyanL]

I don't really have anything negative to say about it, per se. The animation was beautiful, and the story was certainly imaginative. However, I can't even pretend that I really "got" the movie. Apparently, there's a whole subtext about Japanese culture that went completely over my head. For that reason, I can't get overly enthusiastic about Sprited Away. For the record, I do like anime in general.

-Ryan

 

[s/LaSH]

I just watched it last night, and I liked it. It has the real feel of an old fairy tale to it (none of this 1930s-remoralised-America effluvia we thing of as fairy tales today - Disney is good, but the studio's roots are set in a cultural era I have objections to), and the animation's great. Not my favourite film of all time, but certainly a film I have zero problems liking.

 

[clark411]

On the whole, I found it to be an excellent film. My only real problem with it is the voice acting. I swear, there are like 7 people in the anime voice talent pool. It would be nice to listen to translated anime and not instantly have flash backs to five other characters per voice actor who, above all things,are strikingly similar in a handful of ways to the character they're currently voicing. Voice Guy 5 always does grandfathers, who are invariably bald and have white or grey beard/mustache combos. Voice Girl 2 was the voice of Lilo who was, not surprisingly, a bratty 8-11 year old girl.

There, only negative comment... and one that reflects on the industry more than the film itself. (may as well be complaining about why every odd numbered romantic comedy out of Britain stars Colin Firth, while every even numbered one features Hugh Grant... and the Leap numbered comedies star both.)

 

[Kai Lord]

Voice Girl 2 was the voice of Lilo who was, not surprisingly, a bratty 8-11 year old girl.

And who was also the same girl who played Samara in The Ring. Bratty yes, but in a psychotic undead horse and people killer kind of way.

 

[Tsyr]

On the whole, I found it to be an excellent film. My only real problem with it is the voice acting. I swear, there are like 7 people in the anime voice talent pool. It would be nice to listen to translated anime and not instantly have flash backs to five other characters per voice actor who, above all things,are strikingly similar in a handful of ways to the character they're currently voicing. Voice Guy 5 always does grandfathers, who are invariably bald and have white or grey beard/mustache combos. Voice Girl 2 was the voice of Lilo who was, not surprisingly, a bratty 8-11 year old girl.

This is why some of us watch it in Japanese with subtitles.

Not that, really, that's always a good idea... There are (occasionaly) anime that the Japanese track is worse than the english... The first three seasons of Ranma had great english voice acting (Until Viz switched around some of the actors), and Record of the Lodoss War had good voice acting in english, but meh-to-bad in Japanese (Atoh sounded like a girl... even by Japanese standards, which often have fairly feminine sounding guys in Anime.).

 

[HellHound]

I *LOVED* this movie.

I loved that the enemies are not defeated, slain and left, but instead you must learn to coexist with them. It is an excellent tale, beautifully done.